Thor sprinted from his room to the observatory where he found Loki speaking with Heimdall. "Brother, how has this happened?" asked Thor.
"It would appear that Ulik has gotten his hands on some powerful teleporting magic" said Loki shaking his head.
"They appeared from nowhere they did not use Bifrost travel which makes Loki's answer most likely the correct one" said Heimdall keeping his gaze focused on Midgard. "They are currently assaulting a small town in a place the Midgardians call Australia".
"I must go help them as I swore I would" said Thor calling for Mjolnir.
"I recommend speaking with Sif and the others first the King of Asgard cannot just run off to Midgard without speaking with his closest advisors" stated Loki keeping Thor focused on his duties.
"Very well gather them in the great hall and quickly, time is not something we can waste right now" stated Thor stomping off to wait for the others. Loki smiled and walked off to gather Sif and the warriors three. Heimdall stared bullets into Loki's back as he walked away.
Sif knew that something like this would happen eventually, that Thor would put the affairs of Midgard ahead of the needs of Asgard. She told herself that she could not let Thor do this, not to let him abandon Asgard during a time of great need. She entered the great hall to find the others waiting for her. She could tell that Thor had already been working on the others convincing them that this was what needed to be done.
"Ahh Sif is here I assume you are aware as to the reason for this meeting" said Thor taking a seat but not at the throne itself.
"Yes, you want to march into Midgard and protect them from Ulik and his trolls" said Sif trying to remain calm.
"Yes, now how should we proceed to" Thor began.
"We should do nothing" said Sif cutting Thor off. Volstagg choked on his food that he was chewing. Fandral's mouth simply dropped and Hogun kept his normal straight face. Loki inwardly chuckled at the thought that Sif was going against Thor on something for once. He figured she must be more jealous of that Midgardian that Thor fell for during his exile. "The king of Asgard cannot meddle with affairs that do not affect Asgard."
Thor looked at Sif "I have made a promise to the Midgardians to help protect them when they need me, they have been insulated from the influence from other realms but I have brought them onto the map of the nine realms when I regained my powers I must make sure that all people of the nine realms know that Midgard is not open to just be attacked by anyone who wants to" explained Thor stepping towards Sif.
"We are nearly at war with Jotunheim and you want to run off to a planet full of beings who cannot wield even Bifrost travel" said Sif. "Or is it so you can see your precious Midgardian women you have become so taken with" Loki could barely keep his smirk from showing as he saw the closest person to Thor question his motives, he figured Sif would resist Thor wanting to go to Midgard but he did not expect Sif to openly question Thor's motive.
"Protecting a race that needs it is what I need to do the fact that Jane is there means nothing at this point. Midgard is a realm that has remained separated from the rest of the nine realms I refuse to be the reason they become the number one target for anyone wanting to flex their muscles at them" stated Thor towering over her.
"Odin would not do this, he would look for other ways to help the Midgardians he would only step in if absolutely necessary" said Sif storming out of the room. Thor sent the warriors three away.
Hogun stopped at the doorway and turned to look at Thor. "She is right and you know that the king of Asgard cannot run off to a foreign land leaving Asgard without a leader" said Hogun leaving and closing the door behind him.
Thor paced the great hall for several minutes as Loki watched him from his seat at the right of the throne. Thor stopped midway down the table and sighed heavily before latching onto the table and flipping it over in a rage. Loki simply stared at Thor ready to put his vocal skills to good use. Thor looked over to him and raised his arms in confusion. "What must I do brother?" he asked.
"They are right Thor, Asgard cannot be without a king" said Loki standing up slowly.
"I cannot abandon Asgard but I cannot leave Midgard to its fate either please Loki there must be some way to allow me to leave and help them" pleaded Thor.
Loki smirked to himself and spoke "There is one way." Thor's eyes widened and Loki knew he had him. "You can make me king while you deal with the Ulik on Midgard." Thor processed the proposition while Loki continued "If you name me king in your stead you can help the Midgardians as you swore you would and Asgard will still have a king. When you return you retake the mantle of king. It is quite simple that I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier" finished Loki.
"It will work" said Thor to himself as Loki smiled widely.
Coulson had been sprinting for what felt like hours through the Helicarrier to gather agents to deal with the attack in Australia. They had picked up similar readings that they had gotten when Thor arrived with his hammer. He wanted to get Barton and Romanoff but Fury had them on a special assignment so he had to make do with what he had which wasn't very much unfortunately. He had a handful of agents with the best weapons in the world but Barton and Romanoff were worth more than all of them on the battlefield. They boarded helicopters and descended to help the besieged town. Shield had managed keep the story quiet but Coulson knew the story would go global any second he needed to end this quickly. He leapt to the ground first followed by the agents and charged into the town to find it in ruins. The injured crawled to them, others stayed near their dead loved ones as Ulik stood in the center of the small town. "Get him!" cried Coulson.
Jane stared out her window looking into the sky; she had done it just about every day since Thor had left for home. Erik was starting to worry about her personal health as her eating had begun to wane. He looked over to find Darcy sitting in front of the TV as usual watching her Mexican day time soap operas only to have a news flash appear on the screen. "No, Eduardo was going to kiss Maria" she cried as the Spanish newscaster spoke too quickly for even Darcy to understand. She changed the channel to find the news on every single one of them. "Something big must be going down" she remarked sitting back in her chair.
The reporter was some kind of affiliate of the channel in Australia as he had a thick Australian accent. "The attack on the small town has been happening for the last few hours and now it appears that a section of the army is fighting back against the invaders. We managed to get some footage of the attackers and they appear to be some kind of large monsters. I personally saw them murder several civilians and destroy property as well. They are now engaged in a battle with forces that arrived a few minutes ago, they arrived in helicopters and have been opening fire on the beasts since arriving."
"Monsters? That sounds very Asgardianish" said Darcy sipping her coffee.
Jane had now moved to look at the TV as well and they all encircled the box and looked on in anticipation of the outcome of the battle.
Thor and Loki entered the observatory and found Heimdall studying the battle between the trolls and the humans closely. "The human weapons are doing little to no damage they will be overwhelmed soon" said Heimdall calmly.
Thor sighed heavily and turned to his brother "This must be done then I will not allow the Midgardians to fall to Ulik" he said looking his brother in the eyes. Loki simply shook his head, he had made Thor memorize what needed to be said in order to give the kingship to him. Once Loki was king there would be nothing between him and his destiny. "I, Thor Odinson, acting King of Asgard hereby relinquish the position to Loki Odinson" Loki cringed when Thor said his name which Loki knew was not his true name. Thor took the cringe of Loki to be a nervous twitch and smile reassuredly as him hoping to sooth his nerves. "Will you accept this mantle until the time in which I have returned to reclaim it?" Thor finished having said all that needed said.
Loki nodded his head "I do."
Thor pulled his little brother into a hug and walked towards Heimdall. "Send me to Midgard immediately I will deal with Ulik and then return here to continue my rule unless my father has awoken while I am away" he explained. Heimdall nodded and aimed the portal for Midgard. "Good Luck brother, I know you will make us all very proud" said Thor as he was transported to Midgard.
Loki smiled as Thor vanished and he stepped forward to stand next to Heimdall. Heimdall sensed the change immediately after Thor left he could sense the darkness inside the new king of Asgard. So much darkness that Heimdall began to stare at Loki "No one is to come or leave Asgard without my say" Loki said coolly. Heimdall simply stared asking himself how he had missed this, this change in the youngest Odinson. "Am I understood?" asked Loki anger hinting on his voice.
Despite the fact that Heimdall needed to stop him he was honor bound to follow all orders from the king of Asgard and as of a few moments ago that was now Loki. "Of course" he said through gritted teeth. Loki smiled and strode quickly out of the observatory. He needed to act quickly if this was going to work Ulik could only stall Thor for so long.
Jane and the others were still huddled in front of the TV; they were so enamored that the distant rumbling of thunder did not catch their attention. The rumbling continued to get louder until Jane found herself almost magnetically drawn outside to stare at the sky. Darcy and Erik soon joined her, the wind around them began to whip and whistle as the sky contorted and shifted. There was a beam of light and suddenly Thor was in front of them with full battle armor. "He's back!" Jane cried as she sprinted to the returning god.
