Carmen was surprisingly chill around Thor, after her first reaction of 'stunned into silence'. When we all woke up the next morning, someone, I think it was Justin, remembered the festival that was going on in town at the local high school. We decided to go and hang there for the day, show Thor around a bit. He no longer seemed impatient or eager to get home in the least. He seemed... not really content but resigned. I figured something had happened when he went to get 'Mjolnir', but I never asked.
Anyway, we walked around the Old Homes Days festival for a few hours. Thor was amusingly fascinated by all the booths and such.
"Maria, what is this contraption?"
I turned away from the lemonade stand to see what he was looking at, "Huh? Oh, that's a dunk tank. Someone sits on that little platform thing and other people throw baseballs, or what have you, at that circle. If someone hits it, the platform drops and the person falls into the water."
"Huh." he grunted, still staring at it, "Oh look, someone's getting in."
We watched for a minute as some kid's friends tried to dunk him, and failed pretty epically. Finally, one decided to run up and push the button. The kid in the tank got drenched and climbed back out to tackle the friend that dunked him and get him wet too. I glanced over at Thor and saw that he was unimpressed, "It would be far more amusing if the tank was full of ale." he commented. I snickered.
"I don't think parents would like that too much." Thor gave me an odd look and shrugged. We stayed for a few more minutes before deciding to go get pizza at the shop down the street. It was when we were in there, that we apparently didn't notice the same tornado-like thing that had dropped Thor into my yard. We sat and chatted, introducing the mighty Thor to the wonders of pizza and soda(As his drink of choice, ale, was not easily gotten).
"Sooo, you are the God of Thunder...?" Carmen asked.
"I was. Now... I'm not sure what I am." Thor answered sullenly.
"Um, hey, so, Carmen, did you see that thing Lori posted on facebook? I laughed so hard I cried!" I said, quickly changing the subject.
"Oh, the 'Trolling Saruman' thing? Yeah, that was so great!"
All of a sudden there was a bang on the window. As I turned to look, mouth half-stuffed with pizza, my jaw hit the floor.
"Found you!" a very large Viking man, with a huge beard called, jovially. Beside him stood a man that looked like a ninja, a blond with a very French moustache, and a beautiful black haired woman. All were dressed in armor and carried weapons. They hurriedly went around to the door to the shop and came in.
"My friends!" Thor exclaimed, standing. He laughed and gave the Viking a bear hug and moved on to the others.
"This is good, this is good!" the Viking laughed.
"Uh... what, exactly, just happened?" I asked, utterly lost.
"Excuse me. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. I am Volstagg, this is Fandral and this is Hogun" he introduced, pointing to the French moustache and the ninja. I shared a look with Brienne, who was sitting beside me.
"My friends," Thor repeated, "I've never been happier to see anyone. But you should not have come."
The group looked confused and Fandral spoke up, "We're here to take you home."
"You know I can't go home." Thor said. He looked at them, not sure what was going on, "My father, is dead because of me. And I must remain in exile."
"What?" I whispered in shock. Of all the things I thought might have happened, that was not one of them. It seemed like Sif shared my confusion.
"Thor," She shook her head slightly, "Your father still lives."
The man's eyes widened, then narrowed slightly in understanding. Suddenly, the building began to shake. We all rushed out the door to see what was going on and saw yet another tornado strike the ground, in the football field of the school.
"Was... someone else coming?" Carmen asked quietly. Thor turned to me.
"Maria, you have to leave."
"What? What're you gonna do?"
"I'm staying here."
Volstagg chimed in eagerly, "Thor's going to fight with us!"
"My friends, I'm just a man. I'll only be in the way, or worse, get one of you killed." He shook his head sadly, "But, I can help get these people to safety."
"I'm not going anywhere, Thor." I interjected, planting my feet. He looked me in the eye and smiled lopsidedly.
"You are hopeless," he murmured, then turned back to the Viking, "We'll need some time."
"You'll have it." Volstagg promised.
We ran back towards the fair began evacuating people. Whatever it was that had landed, was taking its sweet time getting its bearings, which was good for us. Most people had already started running from it but some idiots were edging closer. Thor and I intercepted them as fast as we could while Brienne, Justin and Carmen spread out to the rest of the school grounds. The Warriors Three and Sif immediately engaged the thing. I couldn't see what was happening with them, paying more attention to what I myself was doing. I did, however, hear explosions all over the place. We ran past them after getting everyone out and Thor ground to a halt. Volstagg was on his back, trapped by the thing, when Sif came flying out of nowhere and drove her spear through its neck. They looked relieved for a moment until it began to morph and somehow turn itself around. Sif rolled off it and Hogun and Fandral jumped in to help Volstagg out of the way. It's face opened up and it fired... well, fire. At the warrior, sending them careening through the air and crashing into things.
Thor shouted at the four of us when it started heading towards our group, "Go. Now, RUN!" It blew out the windows of the wall ahead of us and we were showered in bits of glass. Thor ran the other way to where Sif was lying. After a moment she came over to us and made sure we were all right. I was about to join Thor but she stopped me and the other three joined us saying; "We need to fall back, come on. Come on!"
"Wait! Thor!" I said, glancing at where the man was standing. He held Sif's shield and was standing completely out in the open. Throwing the shield down, he walked calmly toward the monster, "What is he...? Thor!" I called, fighting against Sif's restraint. He stood just before the thing and stopped. We were close enough to just barely hear what he said.
"Brother, whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am truly sorry. But these people are innocent. Taking their lives will gain you nothing." The monster's face opened and the fire began to curl deep in its throat, "So take mine and end this." My eyes widened and I screamed in protest, but they ignored me. The thing's face closed and it turned to walk away. I took the beginnings of a deep breath that was unleashed in another scream as the thing backhanded Thor across the face. I broke away from Sif and ran to where he landed roughly. He had two large gashes across his chest and one across his eyebrow.
"Thor, oh god..."
"It's... over." he gasped.
"No, no it's not. I'm won't let that...!" I started.
"I mean, you're safe." he chuckled weakly, "It's over." My hands were shaking as I reached up to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes. He smiled at me and breathed out quietly, closing his eyes.
"No," I whispered frantically, tears beginning to drip off my cheeks, "No, no, no, no! Don't you DARE!" I shook his shoulder lightly, then, not getting any response, I grabbed his face, "You are NOT dying on me, I swear to god, Thor!" I glanced around, panicked and saw something flying towards us. I vaguely heard Brienne scream something behind me and I was pulled away from Thor's body by one of the Warriors, "No!" I fought unsuccessfully.
I looked up again and was just able to discern a hammer before I had to cover my head. All I saw was a flash of light. Thunder crashed overhead and when I looked back Thor was standing there, a red cape billowing behind him.
"I've lost it." I muttered.
He strode out of the huge cloud of dust that had enveloped the two of them as they fought and came right up to me.
I said, still a bit stunned, "So these are your 'normal' clothes?"
"More or less." he grinned.
"Nice cape."
He smiled at me again and turned to his friends, "We must return to the Bifrost site, I would have words with my brother." They nodded.
"Excuse me!" a new, or rather old, voice called out. It was the agent that I had talked to when Thor had been captured, "'Matt'? Seems like you've... remembered...?"
"Know this, Son of Coul." Thor announced, "You and I, we fight for the same cause, the protecting of this world. From this day forward, you can count me as your ally so long as you remove yourselves from the area you seized from Justin Hall."
"Destroyed!" I interjected.
"Renovated." the agent finished, "Of course, Mr. Hall, can have his house back. Seeing as the reason we were even there is now in your hands."
Thor glanced at me, "Would you like to see the bridge I told you about?"
"The Bifrost? The one that connects Midgard and Asgard?" I asked, remembering what he had told me when we were driving back from Justin's house. He nodded, "Yes, sure!"
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in, smiling deviously. Raising his arm he spun his hammer and we flew into the air. I just barely heard the agent shout after us; "Wait! I need to debrief you!"
We arrived minutes later at my house where, thankfully, my mother was not home. The others joined us momentarily with Brienne driving my car. Thor strode immediately to the middle of the crater in my backyard and called out.
"Heimdall, open the Bifrost." He waited for a moment and glanced back at me in confusion, "Heimdall? Heimdall! He doesn't answer." He went over to the warriors.
"Then we are stranded." Hogun cursed.
"Heimdall! If you can hear me we need you now!" Thor shouted at what seemed like nothing. He had told me that Heimdall was the Gatekeeper of Asgard, and the only one who could open the Bifrost aside from whomever held Gungnir, the King's staff. The group of us looked around nervously, wondering what was happening at the gate. All of a sudden the tornado began to form above them and stretch down to touch the ground. The warriors smiled and rushed forward to stand in the crater. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Fandral bow and kiss Carmen's fingers lightly. I smirked and my attention was forced back to Thor when he hugged me closer to him, "I must go back to Asgard, but I give you my word. I will return for you." He raised my hand and kissed it, "Deal?"
PAUSE- Before this adventure, I had never been in a relationship. Never even kissed anyone. I was probably the purest teenager you would ever have known. So no experience what. so. ever. None of that stopped me from what happened next. -RESUME
I leaned forward and kissed him. Having nothing to compare it to, I really can't describe it. And so we move on.
"Deal." I said.
The warriors and Thor stood in the middle of the crater and let the tornado consume them. A storm ensued and ended after a short while and the sky cleared. That was the last I saw of Thor for a very long time.
THE END
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