A brilliant light rained down in a column as the four researchers drove through the desert. Dr. Eric Selvig, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Hermione Walkers, for that was the name she had been given, were attempting to track down a strange anomaly. Of course, only Hermione knew what it was. Dr. Selvig and Jane had to guess and hypothesize. The Bifrost had never really been studied. Wondered about, yes, but not studied. So of course Hermione was taking part, it being tied to Asgard, which her adoptive family was from.
A thud split the night as they unexpectedly drove into a man.
Hermione gasped as she saw who it was. "Uncle Thor!"
Jane looked at her. "You know this man?"
"Yeah, he's my Uncle Thor!" Hermione told them. "Well, we should get him inside the van."
He woke up as they did so. "Hermione?"
"Uncle Thor!" Hermione yelled and hugged him. She furrowed her brow. "Uncle Thor, what are you doing here?"
"Your grandfather sent me here!" Uncle Thor said, a pout in his voice.
–
Heimdall chuckled as he watched the display. Odin had often called mortals 'goats', which made this funny. Grandfather to a goat!
Odin looked at him. "Has Thor arrived yet?"
"Yes, my liege," Heimdall confirmed.
"What's so funny?"
Heimdall shook his head. "You do not want to know, my liege." The way he said it made Loki smile, and Heimdall knew that he had figured it out.
–
The four researchers had taken her Uncle Thor back to Jane's home. Hermione still lived in the house she had lived in after Loki had rescued her, but Darcy, Jane, and Dr. Selvig lived together a few blocks away. They had decided upon Jane's house because it was closer to where they had found Uncle Thor, and they needed a place to take him.
Hermione immediately claimed the right of conversation. "How's Father?"
Uncle Thor grinned. "He's doing well. Rather distressed, but Loki's fine."
Hermione frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Something happened while we were on Jotenheim. He would not tell us what," Uncle Thor informed her.
"Oh." She didn't like that. Father being distressed was something she didn't like. She remembered the day she had begun working with Jane. After the first day, she had gone home to find the house empty. A few days later, Uncle Thor had told her that Father had been returned to Asgard, and he hadn't liked it. Hermione had not seen her father since, but Uncle Thor always told her how he was doing. Apparently Father had been forbidden passage back to Midgard, and as a result, could not see Hermione. She hated it.
Hermione gripped her flute. It was more than ten years old and somehow was just as good as the day she got it. Stay. Calm. Be careful. It was something Father had drummed into her. Stay calm and be careful. After all, there was always a way to get what you wanted.
"Still have your flute?" Uncle Thor asked.
Jane, Dr. Selvig, and Darcy were confused. They had never taken note of Hermione's flute; it wasn't all that important. But Hermione nodded and put the flute to her lips as she began to play. It was a soft song, not all that forceful, but still strong, and yet gentle. All of a sudden, Hermione removed the flute from her lips with a puzzled expression. Then she put the flute back on her lips before shaking her head and removing it, without playing a note.
"Oh well. Where are my manners? This is Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster, and Dr. Eric Selvig," she informed Uncle Thor, gesturing to each person as she said their name. "When I turned eighteen, I began working with them on an atmospheric anomaly." She winked with a knowing look on her face. Her look said and I know what it is.
"Greetings, Eric, Son of Selvig, Jane, Daughter of Foster, and Darcy, Daughter of Lewis," Uncle Thor greeted. He gently took Jane's hand and kissed it softly. "I apologize for bothering you."
Jane shook her head. "We got what we needed, and I couldn't just leave you, could I?"
Uncle Thor chuckled. "Thank you."
"It's getting late. We should all go home. Uncle Thor, do you want to come to my house for the night?" Hermione asked.
"I would, if that's okay with you," Uncle Thor told her.
Hermione deadpanned her answer. "Uncle Thor. You're my uncle. Adoptive, but still my uncle. Yes, you may stay with me."
–
The next morning, Hermione played her flute quietly in the cafe as Darcy, Jane, and Dr. Selvig talked to her Uncle Thor. Or, more accurately, Darcy semi-quietly talking while Jane and Dr. Selvig stared at him.
"Also, how can you eat an entire box of pop tarts and still be this hungry?" Darcy asked. Jane and Dr. Selvig continued to stare. Uncle Thor took a drink from the mug he had, then looked at it.
"This drink, I like it," he said.
"Yeah, it's good, right?" Darcy asked.
Uncle Thor threw the mug on the floor. "Another!"
Jane stood up, shocked. She sat down again when Hermione frowned around her flute and changed tunes. The pieces on the floor all swirled up and reassembled perfectly, then joined together. The whole process took about ten seconds. Everyone was shocked even more at that. Uncle Thor shrugged. Hermione put her flute down and sighed. He had known her levelheaded self for close to fourteen years, and Uncle Thor was as arrogant as could be sometimes.
But really, what just happened? Hermione sucked in a breath and then forced it out, inadvertently making a sour note on her flute. She winced. Hermione hated sour notes.
Oh boy, she thought. This could not get any worse.
She was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
–
It started when SHIELD tried to take their equipment. They might well have succeeded, but Hermione and her flute evidently were not being overruled.
After the odd occasion what with the mug, Uncle Thor went with them. They planned on separating for the day, but there was an interference. The five of them were going back to the residences when they saw a truck with some of the equipment in the back. Jane began to run back, yelling.
"Hey, that's my stuff! They can't take my stuff!"
Back at the house, Jane confronted a SHIELD agent, who was trying to be calm, but there was a message in his tone and words. Basically, Hermione knew, he was saying: "We don't like you doing this research. So we're taking your stuff and trying to be nice about it. You don't have a say." Hermione clenched her fist. She did not like this. Her eyes strayed to her trusty flute as Jane and the agent continued to talk while Dr. Selvig tried to get Jane to back down.
Then they attacked Jane.
That was it.
Jane was innocent, and more, she was right. SHIELD had absolutely no right to take their stuff, whatever they said. It was stealing. And they attacked Jane.
Hermione put her flute to her lips. An agent reached for it, perhaps in case it was more than a flute. It was, but she wasn't letting them take her stuff. Hermione began to play, but the song was not sweet by any stretch of the imagination. It was angry and full of her hate for these SHIELD people. Hermione vented all of her frustration through her music, and surprisingly, there was a reaction.
The vans' wheels suddenly fell right off, and the vans themselves promptly broke down. All of them. No way SHIELD was getting their stuff away without several hours of repairs. And by then, Jane would set them straight. But perhaps more amazing was the fact that all of the SHIELD agents just...vanished. With a quiet pop for each one. Jane looked at her with thanks and curiosity. Darcy just looked happy that she could now retrieve her IPod. Uncle Thor was amused, chuckling with laughter. But Dr. Selvig was...angry.
–
Next was when her father finally managed to visit.
After what had been dubbed 'The SHIELD Annoyance', the group had retrieved their equipment. It had taken the SHIELD agents hours to return, and by then they had tracked down all of it. Uncle Thor had decided to stay with them for awhile, as he wished to properly meet his niece's colleagues and reunite properly with said niece.
"So, Hermione tells me you research. What knowledge do you seek?" Uncle Thor asked.
"An anomaly that apparently brought you here," Jane said. She gestured for him to sit with her. "Come look. It's extraordinary." Thor furrowed his eyebrows at the screen. "See these markings around the edges? These particular markings are characteristic of an Einstein-Rosen bridge. It's a theoretical connection-" She stopped. Hermione whirled around, having sensed the magical presence.
"Father!" She cried. Hermione knew she was twenty-one. She just didn't care at the moment if she sounded like a child. She ran up and hugged her father. It was perhaps ten seconds before she heard the mug crash to the floor, even though it had crashed around the same time Jane had stopped.
Loki smiled at her. "Sorry I'm late." He looked up, and his face fell when he saw Uncle Thor. "What have you done this time, brother?"
Hermione, having withdrawn form the hug, looked between Father and Uncle Thor. Oh no. "Alright. What did you do?" The two brothers soon got into a slight argument. From what Hermione could tell, they had gone to Jotenheim and something had happened. It had distressed her father, and she didn't like that. And now they were arguing about whether to tell the full story or not. Hermione sighed. Great. She was in the middle.
"Alright," she said, interrupting the argument. "How about the full story?" That seemed to settle it. No-one was interested in denying her a proper answer, considering the two odd occurrences that morning. Definitely they were curious.
Father looked at Hermione's colleagues. "Should we go home, Hermione?"
"Yeah, I think so," she agreed.
Back at the house, Hermione was surprised into the third odd event.
Loki bit his lip as he began. "We were going to Jotenheim on a revenge mission. While we were there, a fight occurred with some of the Jotens. Something rather strange happened during the fight. The Jotens' skin was so cold it would burn the skin of almost anyone touched. Volstagg got burned in this manner. But when the Jotens touched my skin, it turned blue. I dismissed it as being a resistance to the cold of some sort, and thus not getting burned, but..."
"It's never happened before," Hermione guessed.
Loki nodded. He had truly been hoping he would not have to tell her. But oh well. Hermione was his daughter, and he loved her so. Plus, if he thought about it, there was never a ghost of a chance it would stay hidden for long anyways.
That was when it happened.
A pulse of magic slammed into the earth, the unmistakable signature of the Bifrost. It jarred Loki, but Hermione had a slightly more violent reaction. Her flute flew to her lips, like it always did when she was startled, and the music she made was...violent to say the least.
A maelstrom began to whirl as the music escalated. After a few moments, Hermione managed to cut off the music, but the storm had been summoned. It would take powerful magic directly from Hermione to make it go away. The three looked at each other and hurried outside without a second thought. Loki stopped dead at the sight of the storm Hermione's magic had summoned.
It was tearing into the town, destroying everything. Chunks of buildings were being ripped off. People were being hit by debris, and some were lifted by the storm. Hermione's face paled even more at the sight of the destruction. Her magic had never done anything this bad before. Why was it acting up now? Hermione sucked in a breath, then immediately coughed it out. The air was full of dust, but Hermione knew why the storm had started. Her magic had been kick-started by the Bifrost.
"Thor! Loki!"
A female voice called out as four figures approached the three. They turned to see four warriors, clearly Asgardian, approach them, fighting the storm every step of the way. Hermione fought the instinct to suck in a breath. One of them, the female warrior who had called out, was Lady Sif. Hermione had never met her in person, but she still had the cornhusk doll Uncle Thor had given her for Christmas all those years ago. Uncle Thor was happy to see the group, and Father was smiling. Not much, but still smiling.
"Who's this?" one of the warriors asked, looking at Hermione.
"Not the time!" she shouted. Hermione gripped her flute. She knew what she had to do. The core of the storm. Her flute. Her magic. Father had taught her that all magic had a core, and this storm, so awful, was magic.
Hermione did not hear the protests as she fought the storm at a run.
–
It was like the storm wanted her to get through it.
The storm gave way before her, encasing her in a bubble of calm, or at the very least, slowing the winds around her. As terrible as it was, it was mesmerizing. Hermione could feel the power of the storm's core, and she felt it call out. Not powerfully, she could turn her back and walk away if she really tried, but gently guiding her. Even as Hermione fought the storm's power, it gave way without a fight. And yet, she still had to fight it.
The power of the core was strong, and as Hermione reached it, she was nearly overloaded with its power. But she had made this storm. Hermione had felt it. As she had created the storm, she had unleashed all of her magic. Hermione felt empty inside without her energy.
She steeled herself, then put the flute to her lips and began to play. It was a calming song, a song of rebirth and hope. She smiled around her flute as the power of the storm seeped into it, little by little. She escalated the tempo, and a much larger amount of energy infused itself into her core. Hermione felt some of the energy seep into the flute. Finally, a wrench in her gut signaled the bond forming between Hermione and her flute. The immense pain in her hands and the searing fire in her soul nearly made her drop her flute, but she kept her hold on her trusted instrument as she watched the transformation, wide-eyed.
The flute had been made out of a strong but fallen branch from a desert tree. There were never that many trees in the desert, but a group had made a grove of trees in a slightly less desert area years ago. That area was a dry forest now, and the trees were strong and adapted to the desert. Her father had fashioned the flute out of a strong branch that had fallen from its tree due to a desert storm. The bond had been weak, but the branch strong. It was the perfect branch to make a flute for her.
But it had always been orange-brown in color all over, with the normal wood patterns running through it. Now the flute wood was turning blacks and dark browns, and there was now a ring of crystal pulsing with rainbow light at each end and around the mouthpiece. The crystal reminded her of the Bifrost bridge in Asgard, the one time she had seen it, many years ago, when she was a child.
The Bifrost power that had exploded out had infused itself partly in her flute.
"Hermione!"
Hermione turned around at the yell. Father, Uncle Thor, and the four Asgardian warriors were approaching her. It was Father who had called out, and they all wore different expressions, save the three warriors she had not identified. Father looked intrigued, Uncle Thor looked happy, Lady Sif seemed curious, and the three warriors just seemed happy the storm was gone.
But three people were missing.
Jane. Darcy. Dr. Selvig.
"Where are they?"
–
The shouts were a good guide.
"What's going on here?"
"Leave us alone or I'll TASER you!"
"Jane, Darcy, be quiet or you'll be heard!"
Apparently, in the chaos, a humanoid alignment of metal strips, some spiked, had attacked them. The Asgardians were not happy.
"Who the hell sent the Destroyer?" one of the Warriors Three, Fandral he had said, asked.
Lady Sif responded. "The Allfather, obviously. He's the only one who can."
Hermione sighed. "Jane, Darcy, Dr. Selvig, and I were researching an anomaly, and I guess it was supposed to remain secret. That 'anomaly' was the Bifrost."
Uncle Thor winced. "That would do it. Father never liked mortals, and he would not take kindly to even a few with knowledge of the Bifrost and how it works."
"We need to stop it," Hermione declared. "We can't just let them die!" There was a problem: lack of a plan. They would have to make the Destroyer incapable of functioning before sending it back to Asgard, because if they didn't, it would come right back.
This lack of a plan quickly became a huge problem. Hermione's flute had no effect because the Destroyer was essentially a droid. Apparently stabbing it didn't work either, as Sif tried that and it seemed to work, but then the Destroyer just turned the other way and tried to kill her. It failed.
"Fall back!"
Hermione jerked her head up. Uncle Thor had told them all to fall back? Huh.
"Go! Get to safety! It's slow on its feet!"
Oh. Of course it was slow on its feet. She had a feeling that if the situation called for it, the Destroyer could go much faster. But its walk had one speed and one speed only: slow as a snail. Its only weakness, probably.
Hermione nodded. She trusted Uncle Thor to come up with a working plan.
"Wait!" Jane yelled and pointed. Uncle Thor was walking towards the Destroyer, completely unarmed. The groups stopped in shock. "What's he doing?" Jane asked.
Father's eyes widened. "Of course."
Hermione looked at him. "What is it?"
Her father sighed. "When Thor was exiled, the Allfather put an enchantment on Mjolnir. Only one who is 'worthy' can lift the hammer, and whoever does will 'possess the power of Thor'. Thor is too arrogant and selfish to be considered worthy. I'm guessing he's trying to reclaim the hammer."
Jane gasped. The Destroyer had just slapped Uncle Thor in the face and turned to leave. Jane ran forward and began to whisper with Uncle Thor. Hermione couldn't catch what they said. Then she saw it. A bright light, like a comet but...different, was zooming through the sky towards them.
"JANE!" Dr. Selvig shouted. He pulled Jane away from Uncle Thor moments before he caught the hammer Mjolnir.
Hermione smiled as Uncle Thor stood up in the brilliant lightning. She knew that lightning regenerated both his armor and his power. Sure enough, the lightning did its job, and Uncle Thor hurled the hammer, deflecting a blow from the Destroyer.
Thor brought the fight to the sky, whirling his hammer around. It felt right in his hand. The Destroyer tried to blast him with fire, but he deflected it. Finally, he fought the fire straight on, warping the metal making up the Destroyer. With a bang, it was rendered inanimate and fell to earth. Thor followed it and dispelled the storm he had summoned to lift the Destroyer from the ground. Cars fell as he exited the cloud of dust.
Hermione smiled at her Uncle Thor. He was no longer inconspicuous, but she didn't particularly care. He had just saved them.
–
SHIELD agents were officially annoying.
After all of that, several black cars pulled up, and the agent who had annoyed them not very long ago (god, had it really been so little time since then?) had confronted them about everything that had transpired in the last forty-five minutes, insisting that he somehow had a right to know everything.
"I don't think you've been completely honest with me," he said.
"No-one here has an obligation to tell you everything," Hermione cut in. "You're the one who is attempting to tear our lives apart. Besides, your organization, SHIELD, whoever told you to try to take our stuff, we can get you or them or whoever sent to jail for that. You get how that works?"
"You can't, actually," he insisted. "And my name's Agent Coulson."
Hermione snorted, but Uncle Thor spoke before she could. "Know this, Son of Coul. You and I, we fight for the same cause, the protection of this world. From this day forward, you can count me as your ally if" he paused, standing beside Jane, "you leave the research of my niece and her colleagues alone."
Agent Coulson sighed. "Very well." Then he looked around. "Do you know what caused the storm?"
"No, and why would we?" Father asked quickly. Silver-tongue and all, Hermione thought.
"That storm had massive energy readings that trashed our equipment, and we got on footage her" he gestured to Hermione, "seemingly stopping it with a flute. Oh, and we'll need to see that flute of yours. It could be dangerous," he said, and an agent tried to take it.
Hermione shook her head and hissed, "No-one touches my flute!"
Rainbow light seared the air around her, and Hermione's mind went straight to a desert image as the light encased the agent, and the image jerked, suddenly leaving with the agent.
Guns were instantly in the air, pointed straight at Hermione. Agent Coulson shook his head. "Stand down, we don't want more people vanishing do we? Hand over the flute."
"That would be a bad thing," Father said. "Someone else trying to use the flute could potentially kill Hermione, and I'm not fond of the idea of someone killing my daughter."
The Warriors Three stepped in. "It's time to go," Hogun said grimly.
Uncle Thor looked at Jane. "Would you like to see the bridge, Jane?"
Jane nodded. "Um, sure."
Uncle Thor grabbed her and flew off as Agent Coulson said, "I need to debrief you!"
Hermione smiled, then turned to the four Asgardian warriors. "We should probably get to the Bifrost site. I expect you four will want to return home." She turned to her father. "And you?"
"I'll stay," he said. "I do not want to get stuck again."
"Alright, let's go," Hermione said.
–
Apparently the SHIELD agents wanted to go too, so the agents offered to give them a lift. Thor and Jane were waiting for them. Loki sighed. He knew exactly what Thor would say.
"What took you so long?" Thor asked.
Knew it.
Hermione opened her mouth to reply when the light of the Bifrost slammed down. It did not make an explosion of energy out this time, but when it faded, a guard stood there. His gaze fell upon Hermione. It shifted to the SHIELD agents.
"Leave," he told the agents. Agent Coulson sighed and was clearly annoyed, but the SHIELD agents left. Once they were gone for sure, the guard turned back to the group, and Hermione. "The Allfather demands the presence of Miss Hermione Walkers in regard to the Bifrost energy now inside her."
"Excuse me!" Hermione said. She hated people ignoring her. "I'm right here. So rude."
The guard stared at her for a moment before turning to Father. "Loki, you are to return to Asgard as well."
Father rolled his eyes. "I don't take kindly to demands. I'll go, but only because the Allfather insists Hermione be there."
The guard frowned, but gestured for them to join him on the Bifrost insignia. Hermione frowned as the Bifrost energy inside her began to protest the lack of destination control. After a few moments, the group was in a half-familiar dome. The crystal under their feet was the same as on her flute. The crystal around her began to hum with energy, both below her feet and on her flute. A voice interrupted her silent observation.
"Do you have any idea of the catastrophe you have caused?"
–
A/N: Cliffhangers. Love them. I know, not everyone does. Still, cliffhanger. So, we have finished the first Thor movie. As you have read, things are setting up to be very different. As for the Bifrost acting up, that will be in the next chapter. I normally would not bother to have chapters between movies, but this is a special circumstance. So far, both chapters have been 4-5 K words long. The next chapter cannot really be predicted in length.
As for the lack of Asgard scenes, this story is told mostly from Hermione's POV with the occasional POV of Loki or Thor, and even then only when the POV is with Hermione. It's slightly different on Asgard because Loki is so levelheaded from years on Earth with Hermione. But I do want everyone to know, so I'll tell you what happened.
It started the same, but when Odin found Loki in the vault, Loki was calmer and thus didn't yell, and by extension, Odin didn't faint, Loki was never on the throne, Laufey never entered Asgard, Loki didn't try to destroy Jotenheim, the Bifrost was never destroyed. Other than that, pretty much everything stays the same. The Warriors Three and Lady Sif still go to Earth to find Thor and return him to Asgard, the Destroyer is still sent, and so on.
Thanks to Sara the Lady Dalian for the Heimdall and Odin conversation at the start of the chapter.
'Til next time,
HedwigFan101