If only there was a spell to telepathically talk with someone. Loki sighed in frustration as he tried to call Ase to no avail. The worst outcomes of her confrontation with Hela popped up in his mind, which he tried to ignore as he served the vexing, overly-curious people around him. They laughed at his jokes, which he unconsciously crafted as he thought of Ase's fate. She was indeed capable, but what if Hela was too powerful for her? Would she be killed or taken prisoner instead?
Loki heard someone's shouts from the other end of the room. His voice was familiar, but in the small bubble of his audience, whose laughter stung his ears, he could not discern where he had heard the voice before. The Grandmaster's music filled the air, swirling into his mind like a toxic smoke. The Grandmaster was certainly the worst musician he had ever encountered.
"There was a wormhole in space and time beneath me," Loki continued calmly. "At that moment, I let go." Another series of laughter boomed. Loki chuckled with them, masking his gurgling anxiety for Ase.
"Loki! Loki!"
Loki turned around and saw the last man he wanted to meet. Thor called upon him excitedly, wriggling in his restraining chair, smiling jubilantly like a lost child. Loki chuckled nervously and stood up from his seat. When Thor wanted to call his name again, he quickly shushed him to silence.
"What?"
"You're alive?"
"Yes, of course I'm alive," Thor answered loudly.
"What are you doing here?" Loki asked again, eyeing the shackles around Thor's hands.
"What do you mean, what am I doing? I'm stuck in this stupid chair. Where's your chair?"
"I didn't get a chair," Loki replied.
"Get me out of this one! Get me out!" Thor demanded brusquely.
"I can't," Loki explained with a low voice. "I've made friends with this man. The Grandmaster. I've gained his favour. The Bifrost brought me out here weeks ago."
Thor widened his eyes at this new development. It seemed that outside Sakaar, merely a few moments had passed. Perhaps, merely a few hours for Ase. "Have you met Ase?" Loki inquired sharply.
"I didn't even reach Asgard! Now get me out of this—"
"What are they whispering about?"
Loki stepped back and clicked his tongue. Thor furrowed his brows, finally understanding that Loki truly wanted to avoid dealing with the clinically-insane man. The Grandmaster explained the mechanisms of time in Sakaar, which merely brought confusion to Thor.
"In any case! You know of this… You call yourself Lord of Thunder?" the Grandmaster asked with his unrelenting smirk. Loki shivered, for he knew that behind this cheerful façade lay a sadistic man who would not allow any betrayals or deception in his realm. He had heard rumours and words from Ase, which he had discovered over the past few weeks to be true.
But Loki lied anyway. "I've never met this man in my life."
Thos scowled. "He's my brother!"
"Adopted," Loki corrected gleefully.
The Grandmaster's smile grew wider. "Is he any kind of a fighter."
Loki quickly nodded his head. "Oh, yes. The best in the Nine Realms. He defeated Malekith by himself, I heard. Quite the warrior."
Thor wriggled again in his seat. "You free me from this chair and I'll gladly show you."
The Grandmaster lifted his hand, which somehow stopped Thor from speaking too much. "Listen, I got a deal for you. If you wanna get back to Ass-place… Assberg… Any contender who defeats my champion, their freedom they shall win."
Loki's blood froze. He looked at Thor pleadingly to no avail. Thor, swallowed in his rage and desperation, failed to notice Loki's subtle signs again. "Fine. Then point me in the direction of whoever's ass I have to kick!" Thor challenged. The grandmaster yelped in exhilaration and grabbed his remote controller.
"That's what I call a contender! Direction would be this way, Lord," the Grandmaster serenaded. Automatically Thor's chair moved on its own forward, sliding past Loki and the Grandmaster smoothly. Loki watched as his brother was taken away by the Grandmaster's henchmen, his plan utterly foiled with Thor being added to the equation.
"So, space magician," the Grandmaster spoke, diverting Loki's attention from Thor. "You were telling me about this story the other day—"
The door suddenly opened and several scavengers announced their arrival. Loki remembered them as the ones who had spied him when he had just arrived in Sakaar. The garbage dump dwellers.
"What do you want?" the Grandmaster demanded, his authority deadly even when he was revelling in good mood. These scavengers were not in good terms with him, especially since he only gave them the trash mountains of the planet to live in.
"We found another fighter!" their leader declared. "Another trespasser like the guy who just disappeared. Stronger than he is, we bet!"
The Grandmaster's curiosity was piqued once more. Somehow, Loki had a bad feeling about this. "Then where is this so-called fighter?" he asked.
"She escaped. Disappeared in the thin air. But we're sure she's coming for the upcoming contest," the scavenger explained. Suddenly Loki's muscles tensed and palpitations formed at the tip of his hands. What was this new luck of his, being given two possible contenders at once? Something was definitely wrong, he could feel it in his bones.
"We'll find her then!" the Grandmaster said loudly, his words an absolute order to the guards nearby. "Description!"
The leader stepped forward and procured a circular device from his pocket. From it, a hologram was projected, picturing a lean woman with long, braided hair, and a staff in hand. Loki swallowed a gasp. The Grandmaster clapped his hands and ordered the guards to monitor any visitors with the same physical description as shown, reminding Loki that the technologies in Sakaar were enough to distinguish anyone even if they have a disguise on. Even magical ones. And the woman, he knew, would never resort to illusion.
The Grandmaster left him, too divulged in his new excitements. Loki looked out of the window and bit his lip, cursing everything which had led to this. He needed a new plan, a plan with so many advantageous outcomes it would be impossible to fail. Because the woman shown in the hologram had changed his game, just as she had changed his games in the past.
The woman was Ase.
oOo
Torn in the sea of crowds forcing themselves into the central city of Sakaar, Ase tried her best to maintain her calm and frustrations to herself. Even without using magic tricks, she could easily slip into the stadium like a cat. Faces flashed on the gigantic screen above the stadium, displaying the names of contestants of the day. All of them appeared fierce but pathetic, their faces reminding her of the thugs in the slums. She wondered who the Grandmaster's contender was.
"He can break your bones without flinching!" one of the spectators said as they streamed in.
"As big as a giant!" the other added.
"Did you hear how he roared? No lion or wolf can beat this lad!"
"I hope we can see the bloody bloodbath like in the previous round!"
Now why is this description so familiar?
Before she lost sight of the screen, her eyes caught the face of the Grandmaster's champion. Only a sliver of it, but enough to trigger suspicions in her, and a gruesome worry.
The noises inside the stadium were deafening. Thousands of spectators squeezed themselves on tribune, many of them bringing banners with a green face imprinted on it. She could not make out the face due to the taller figures obscuring her line of sight. The crowd grew louder when the Grandmaster's figure was projected in the middle of the stadium.
"Look at all of you! What a show! What a night! Who's having fun?" his voice boomed.
Not me, Ase remarked to herself. "Please. I'm your host. Big round of applause for all our undercard competitors who today died so gruesomely. What a show! What a night! This is what you've come for and so have I!"
The stadium roared. Ase closed off her ears and searched for the Grandmaster's location. She spotted a small glass deck across the stadium, filled with people dressed luxuriously. She sincerely hoped Loki had reached the Grandmaster's close circle of friends and squinted her eyes to search for him. He was the only one who could help her now.
"And now, without further ado, it's main event time!" Fireworks burst above her and one of the gates to the fighting ground opened. Ase pushed herself through the crowd to get a better look. "Making his first appearance, though he looks quite promising, got a couple of tricks up his sleeve. I'll say no more, see what you think. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… Lord of Thunder!"
Ase cackled upon hearing his mispronounced name, breaking her focus on what was important. Thor walked into the stadium stern-faced, his luscious locks completely shaved off, leaving only messy patches of hair. A war paint marked his face like a scar, and his mighty hammer had been replaced by a puny bat. The audience instantly booed at him.
Ase, meanwhile, was infinitely grateful that he was alive.
The other door opened. The cheers roared. Ase leaned forward along the aisle, peering into the darkness past the door. Green eyes stared back, then a huge figure roughly three metres tall burst out of the darkness and declared its presence on the field. Ase felt her jaw drop when she recognised the Grandmaster's champion.
"HULK!" the crowd shouted.
"Bloody hell," Ase whispered.
"YES!" Thor screamed. The crowd died down. Ase's mouth fell farther. She could not hear Thor's conversation with Hulk from thereon, but he appeared to be joyous of this new turn of events. On the other hand, it changed the course of her actions again. She had heard that Bruce had been missing since Ultron's revolution, but she had not expected him to wind up in this isolated world.
Now, it seemed, that she needed to get a total of three people out of Sakaar.
At this rate, she would need to barge into the Grandmaster's house herself to retrieve all of them.
Ase retreated from the aisled and submerged herself in the crowd. There must be a way to get inside, Ase thought. She choked as she got out of the tribune, breathing heavily from after pushing through a sea of sweat and fumes. Silently she skittered down the stairs, hoping to reach the bottom floor before Thor's apparent brutal fight with Hulk ended.
She bumped into someone. Leaning against the wall, she blinked and looked at the person before her. The same group of scavengers stared back, guns in their hands. "Oh shit."
Ase kicked the frontmost man hard on his abdomen, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Her ears were buzzing now from the noise of the crowd and men's shouts. She leapt back to the tribune, where no escape route was possible for her. She closed her eyes and tried to blink, but one of the men lunged at her and dragged her down the floor. Grunting, she kicked the man as hard as she could, but he wouldn't budge. Thus, she resorted to her force kick, which was too extreme that she found her body hovering in the air. Ase yelped and the crowd gasped.
Below, Thor was being crushed by Hulk to his very bones. Thor saw her flying over and he opened his mouth. "I'll take care of myself!" she screeched, expounding herself in the air as much as she could. She landed on several bodies in the other viewing deck. Ase scrambling back to her feet and reached for the stairs. But the same men were waiting for her, as if she was purposefully being hunted.
I should have left those men paralysed before I leave!
Ase lifted her arms and a barrier of ice rose from the floor. She glanced around and saw that she had been surrounded from both sides. She could not escape using the normal exit route.
And so, without further thought, she leapt high into the air. Thor was almost defeated by the Hulk. Ase winced when blasts of bullets scratched her skin.
"Ase!" she seemingly heard him said. She peered through the glass protecting the Grandmaster. Loki looked back with pleading eyes.
Ase tumbled down the ground hard from her failed manoeuvre mid-air. "Get up, Thor! Asgard is in danger!" she screamed, pulling herself to her feet before scrambling madly towards the Hulk. She was neither running for her sake nor for Thor's safety. Heck, she couldn't even understand her actions. Everything was going down the hole right now. There was no reason for anything, only the instinct for survival. Behind her, dozens of men armed with weapons capable of paralysing her were closing in.
"SHIT THOR! GET UP!"
And he did, in the most unexpected way. A thunderous lightning struck the middle of the stadium, blinding the spectators and igniting an ephemeral shockwave across the field. Ase's body was sent tumbling backwards, hitting her pursuers as well.
The entire stadium reverted back to silence. They could not believe what they were seeing. Lightning spewed out from Thor's body as if his blood was made by it. Brimming with power, Thor punched Hulk right on the chest with a lightning-infused fist and sent him across the stadium.
Ase felt hands on her arms and looked over her shoulder. The scavengers were grabbing at her and intending to neutralise her. With a strong heave she curved forward, bringing the men with her, and crashed them to the earth. She ran, hearing everyone cheering for Thor now. She smirked, and eyed the Grandmaster, who was no longer focussed on the fight at hand.
Somehow, she understood his intentions in hunting her.
A loud groan came from the centre of the stadium. Ase flinched. Thor was having a series of seizures for no apparent reason. The Hulk was regaining the upper hand. Ase stopped on her tracks and changed directions. The Hulk jumped high into the air, ready to destroy Thor once and for all. She panted, pushing her muscles to their best, sensing all eyes on her.
I am so crazy. But that's what I get for befriending crazy people.
Yelling a battle cry, she slid towards Thor and halted just next to him. A loud boom resounded across the air, followed by a billowing smoke. The dust cleared off after a long moment, revealing shadowy figures at its centre. Ase grinned painfully as she held off Hulk's hand. He seemed to recognise her for a moment, but then decided to push her further down.
"Do that further," Ase spelled out. "And you're going to be worse than dead meat."
The Hulk, or Bruce's part of the Hulk, seemed to understand the message she brought across. It bought her enough time for the Grandmaster to step into the matters himself.
"Whoa, whoa. Timeout. Who are you, little lady?" the Grandmaster asked. Ase, without releasing her grasp on the Hulk's hand, smirked slightly.
"I am Inertia, your new contender," Ase explained. "I heard your men are finding another champion. Why the brute force? I'll happily help you make your fights more exciting."
The Grandmaster raised his brows and questioned her intentions for a moment. She was not good at lying, she admitted to herself, but she had learnt from the God of Mischief himself and she would be damned if this stupid man could see through her trickery. After a long, eye-narrowing moment, the Grandmaster finally nodded and grinned as well.
"Farewell then!" he declared. He ordered Hulk to pull his hands away, and after showing signs of reluctance, the Grandmaster glared at him, which caused him to retract his hands away. Ase staggered back to her feet and patted the edges of her coat calmly.
"I do have a question though," Ase added hesitantly. "I may have some demands before being your contender."
"Of course. Money, fame? Anything! We support a right working environment here," the Grandmaster replied. Ase rolled her eyes, knowing that if she would fall into the Grandmaster's hands, it would be as good as being taken into slavery. She glanced at Thor and hesitated.
"Well…"
oOo
A sudden turn of events indeed.
"You truly believe that the Grandmaster is going to give me a ship to return to Asgard?"
"No, I don't, but at least I am inside and it's easier to steal one."
Ase tapped Thor's fully-healed shoulder and, seeing that he did not wince slightly, she smiled in satisfaction and cleaned her bloody hand with a cloth. "How did you get here again?" Thor asked.
"Right," Ase sighed, rubbing her temples. Something weird was inside those bullets and it was tingling her nerves now. "Hela is in Asgard. She is trying to take it and the other realms over. Heimdall have evacuated the citizens to a nearby ancient stronghold which is hidden enough to protect the citizens. The Warriors Three are dead except Hogun, who is hopefully still holding back Hela's henchmen until we can return there and defeat her."
Thor's face paled once he heard of the fate of his friends. "Sif is still alive as well," Ase assured him. She knew the pain of losing her comrades. She was just remorseful for being late—perhaps she could save them if she had arrived earlier.
The Hulks waddled in the jacuzzi at the edge of the room. "Hey big guy," Ase greeted him, properly this time. "Natasha was looking for you, you know."
"Guy no longer here. Hulk always Hulk," Hulk answered. Ase raised half a brow, resting her hands on her hips.
"I guess Banner is having a down time then," Ase guessed in disdain. She approached a cupboard in the room and took one of the jugs on it. Taking a sip, Ase watched as Thor asked Hulk the whereabouts of the quinjet, which he presumed had transported Hulk to Sakaar. Ase spat right on the spot, tasting alcohol at the tip of her tongue. As if perceiving her gesture as a signal, Hulk stepped out of his jacuzzi. Ase covered her eyes just in time to avoid seeing a disastrous nightmare, but Thor did not share her fortune.
"It's in my brain now," Thor protested.
"We can still steal the Grandmaster's jet, you know," Ase remarked, still covering her eyes.
Ase braved herself to open her eyes and, much to her relief, Hulk had covered himself with a piece of towel. Thor doubted their chances in successfully stealing the quinjet, particularly because all of the Grandmaster's men had the paralyser currently nesting on his neck. Hulk refused blatantly, insisting that he stay in Sakaar. Ase for once wanted to see up close the effects of the paralyser. She let Thor walk towards the hallway, only to be tasered once he reached an invisible barrier. The Hulk laughed satisfyingly.
"Come, let me see that for you," Ase chuckled.
"You really sound like Loki now. How long have you known that he was disguising as Odin?" Thor said as Ase fiddled with his paralyser. His skin prickled when Ase touched the device.
"Long enough for me to pick his manner of speech," Ase answered gleefully. She frowned then. "I don't think I can take this off you without blowing your skin off."
"Then don't," Thor pleaded. "Can't you get us out of here? I don't think the Grandmaster puts anything like these on you, correct?"
Ase huffed in exasperation and tapped Thor's paralyser once more, jolting him slightly. "Look, with that on, I cannot bring you out. Probably the Grandmaster has an entire barrier built around this building just to restrain prisoners like you. And I won't be getting out alone. Do you know anyone who has control over this shit?"
Thor was about to answer, but then he peered past her shoulder and narrowed his eyes. Ase turned around and saw a dark-skinned, built woman strolling past the guards. "New love interest?" she guessed.
"Angry girl," Hulk greeted with a sense of familiarity. The woman chuckled when she saw Hulk and sprinted towards him. Playfully, she took his leg and kicked him on the stomach, sending him rolling down the stairs. Ase widened her eyes at how comfortable they were with each other. Never had she seen Hulk this joyful before.
The woman finally acknowledged Ase's and Thor's presence. Ase sensed a disturbing awkwardness between the Asgardian and this woman. "Was she the one who catch you?"
"She was," the woman answered. "Who are you again? Oh, the girl who barged into the tournament and boasted herself as a contender? What, you a sorceress or something?"
Ase pursed her lips and studied the woman from the tips of her brown hair to the edges of her sword. She appeared like an Aesir, but her manners and attire spoke of an entirely different world. "I am indeed a sorceress. I am surprised you know that just by a mere glance."
A glimpse of shiver across the woman's skin. This woman was no mere henchman of the Grandmaster.
"We need to talk," Thor said to her. Rolling her eyes, she ignored his wishes and walked back to the doorway. Without hesitation, Thor returned to Hulk and smiled. "I need her to stay."
Immediately Hulk threw a table towards the doorway, blocking the woman's path and snatching her attention. She whirled around with a flattered face. "She knows you're a sorceress because she's from Asgard," Thor explained. "She was a former Valkyrie."
Ase hummed in reply. From Rhea's books she derived the term 'Valkyrie', but Rhea never explained it in detail other than them being slaughtered by Hela during her attempted prison outbreak. Thor tried, to no avail, to persuade Valkyrie to join their cause. She kept her mouth sealed regarding the matter. Her mind wandered to where Loki was, and hoped he could find his way here to help them.
"I'm not getting dragged into another one of Odin's family squabbles," the Valkyrie reasoned.
"What was that supposed to mean?" Thor asked, confused. The Valkyrie clicked her tongue.
"Her power comes from Asgard, same as yours," she replied. "When it grew beyond Odin's control she massacred everyone in the palace and tried to seize the throne. When she tried to escape her banishment he sent the Valkyrie in to fight her back."
"Never wanting to let his hands dirty," Ase added quietly.
"There you go," the Valkyrie agreed. "And I only survived because…." She took her words back and swallowed painfully. "Look, I already faced her once back when I believed in the throne, and it cost me everything."
"There is no more throne, is it?" Ase argued firmly. "Odin's dead, Valkyrie. The throne is empty. You are not bound to the throne anymore. But did you really swear an oath to protect the throne? I believe you didn't." Ase stepped closer to Valkyrie. She could see it in her eyes—this was a woman who had lost all her loved ones, engulfed in the eternal prison of uncertainty and bitterness. But she still see a wavering flame inside of her. The Valkyrie had not yet died.
"You swear your life for Asgard, for its people. Hela is threatening the people, not the throne," Ase said. "If it were the throne, I wouldn't be coming either."
The Valkyrie eyed her curiously for a moment. From what she could discern, this woman was an Aesir and clearly an ally of Asgard, but her words were not made for people who believed fully in the kingdom.
"I am sorry but I am not going back to that wretched kingdom," she declared ultimately. Ase shrugged her shoulders in disappointment, but not before she flicked her fingers in the air. The Valkyrie felt her pockets fumbling and looked down. The paralyser's remote whizzed past her arms and into Ase's palm. Sorceress, she cursed.
"There you go," Ase said, freeing Thor from his miserable brooch. "You know, I wonder why the God of Thunder is so vulnerable to short term electricity."
Thor snorted. "You know what, go ahead, Valkyrie. "Stay here and enslave people for that lunatic. Keep drinking, keep hiding. But me, I choose to run towards my problems and not away from them." Thor caught a metal ball thrown by the Hulk and then smashed it to the window. At least, that was what he had hoped, for the ball savagely bounced back to his head, knocking him dead to the floor. Ase shook his head in disappointment before picking up the ball and throwing it full force this time. The glass window overlooking the city disintegrated into pieces.
"Please," Ase gestured to Thor.
"Right," Thor said. "Are you coming?"
Ase shook her head. "You try the quinjet, but I'm afraid it won't help us get out of here. I'll find Loki and steal some ship."
"Loki won't follow you and you know that," Thor argued.
"No, it's you who don't know that," Ase answered. Thor was conquered by confusion, but spoke no further and leapt off the building. The Hulk grunted in annoyance upon seeing Thor escaping, and for no reason she could comprehend, chased after the God of Thunder. Ase watched them sprint past the bustling city roads, crashing people here and there, before completely disappearing.
"Right," Ase sighed, returning her gaze to the Valkyrie. "I didn't quite know your name, by the way."
After a moment of hesitation, the woman opened her lips, "Brunnhilde. Now go before I change my mind and report this to the Grandmaster."
"Right. Thank you," Ase said lastly before she began prancing out of the room.
"He's in the first chamber, fifty-fifth floor," suddenly Brunnhilde added. Ase peeked over her shoulder and nodded with a small smile. It appears Brunnhilde still upheld her loyalty to Asgard after all.
A/N: Hello everyone! I'm still writing, which is surprising, and my holiday approaches its end (life is hard, eh?) I've been feeling better recently, so less to worry about, but I am still sceptical of what the future holds. That aside, I hope you've enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading, favouriting, and reviewing. See you on next chapter!