Darcy wakes to the sound of screams.

Her eyes fly open and her head snaps up just in time to see a strangely warped yellow barrier erupt into a million pieces of shimmering gold in the air. The resulting shock-wave is enough to bounce her head back against the stone wall and whip her tangled hair into her face.

By the time she gets her hair pulled from her mouth and eyes, a monstrous figure is standing in the hallway in front of the cell that had been blown open moments before. Darcy stares up at him with impossibly wide eyes. He seems to not even notice the pathetic mortal girl cowering in the floor. The brute moves to the cell across from his, lifts his fist, and with one motion destroys its barrier as well. A band of savage-looking men rush out of the cell, shouting battle cries as they run for the stairs next to Darcy. The mortal's breathe catches in her throat, and her heart skips a few beats as the horde surges past her.

The shouting of the guards upstairs joins with that of the escaping prisoners. Then there is the sounds of clashing metal, ominous thuds, and pained cries, Darcy whimpers in fear as she looks up the stairs, somewhat thankful she can't actually see what's happening up there.

A strange sound in front of her causes her to snap her head back around. The big guy who escaped first had broken another barrier, releasing a wave of prisoners even meaner looking than the first. Darcy watches in horror as he goes around freeing all of Asgard's prisoners. A tide of murderous-looking brutes runs for the stairs, to their freedom and revenge. Most take no notice of the trembling girl as they rush past. But some do.

A handful of escapees break from the pack at the sight of the woman they had seen run through the prison earlier that day. One of them roughly grabs the girl's arm and drags her to her feet before she even realizes what's happening.

Fight or flight reflexes kicking in, Darcy jerks her arm out of the brute's grip. Back on Earth, she always chose fight. But here, in an Asgardian dungeon in the middle of a prison break... Darcy Lewis is gonna run like hell.

She gets past the first guy, but the second shoves her as she tries to slip past him. Darcy tumbles towards a third, who slaps her hard across the face. The human lets out a pained cry as she falls to the rough stone floor. The taste of blood fills her mouth as the world seems to spin around her.

Darcy spits her blood on the ground and glares up at the man who hit her. They laugh and say stuff in a language Darcy doesn't understand. And even having no idea what the strange words meant, she did not like the sound of it.

Attacker Number 2 reaches for her. He grabs a fistful of her hair and starts to pull her up again. Gritting her teeth against the pain she knows is coming, Darcy throws all her weight backwards. Her startled attacker stumbles forward a step, not having expected her to put up much of a fight. So he is totally unprepared when the mortal girl kicks up at him, her foot connecting solidly between his legs.

The man shouts in pain and anger, and he releases Darcy's hair as he falls to his knees on the ground. The mortal scrambles backward, putting as much distance as she can between her and her attackers.

Attacker Number 1 just laughs at his comrade's pain, but Attacker Number 3 seems angry that the pathetic little girl dared to fight back. The man who had slapped her steps up and kicks her harshly in the side. Darcy's world spins as she rolls across the floor. When she stops, she is lying face down on the floor. She lifts her head weakly to see her attackers coming towards her once more. The man she kicked has a murderous gleam in his eyes as he picks himself up off the floor.

Darcy looks around desperately,m searching for a way out. She turns her head to her other side and looks up. She lies right outside of the magic yellow barrier of an unbroken cell.

A smile stretches across her face, and without thinking of anything beyond getting away from the three men coming after her, Darcy Lewis throws herself through the cell's magical barrier.

The men stop at the edge of the cell, glaring down at the girl on the floor just beyond their reach within the "safety" of a prison cell. They are still standing there when the sounds of fighting grows much louder. Moments later, a mob of Asgardian guards rush downstairs, pushing back the escaping prisoners. Darcy watches as the three warriors she saw earlier come swooping in, leading the pack. The men who had been after Darcy quickly turn to join in the fight, and the mortal woman can't help but smirk as the man who hit her is promptly cut down by the blonde man she saw before.

A loud thud resounds from the staircase, and Darcy's attention is drawn back over there. Thor thunders down the stairs, swinging his hammer in a devastating arc before him.

Darcy watches the massive brawl in a state of shock. The fight passes in a blur of motion. Thor and his friends are driving prisoners back into cells or killing them where they stand.

And then he's gone...

Thor disappears up the stairs, hurrying off to fight elsewhere. And then reality hit Darcy like a slap to the face. She had just missed her chance to get Thor's attention and have him get her out of here. "Wait! Thor! Thor! Get me the hell out's here!" Darcy's heart sinks even further as even the God of Thunder's shadow disappears up the stairs. "Okay, keep running. That's cool too! I'll just hang out here... in a dungeon... surrounded by a bunch of people killing each other... locked up with this guy... Thanks for nothing, big guy!"

Darcy freezes, finally realizing what she had done. She had escaped the chaos going on out there, but... what about the dangerous Asgardian criminal she had just jumped in a cell with? "Oh, shit..." She turns her head as slowly as possible and looks through the corner of her eyes, afraid to obviously turn around and look at the guy. He is standing in front of the magic yellow wall several feet to her left, staring out at the fight going on outside. so far, it seems he either hasn't noticed the mortal girl who's found her way into his cell or he's ignoring her.

Darcy goes back to watching the madness going on on the other side of the barrier. She'll deal with her new cellmate later. She tries to get the attention of a guard or friend of Thor when they pass near her, but no one pays her any mind, either not noticing her at all or dismissing her as just another prisoner. And before long, all of the prisoners are in their cells or dead on the floor, and the Asgardian warriors are all racing off to fight elsewhere.

And Darcy Lewis is left alone with a guy who she knows nothing about except that he must have done something pretty bad to get himself locked up alone down here. Even the other bad guys hadn't wanted to let this dude out of his cell... And now, Darcy's stuck in a confined space with him for who knows how long. This whole exploring Asgard thing just went from bad to absolutely fucking terrible!

With all of the excitement over outside the cell, Darcy finally forces herself to turn and face her new cellmate. He is still standing where he had been when she peaked over at him before. Only now, he is staring right at her.