Joe's Note: Am I the only one who thinks Loki is kind of a tsundere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Like literally everything he does that's even remotely positive is to prove himself worthy to Thor, but at the same time he's all like 'it's not like I did it for your approval or anything, baka!' It's actually even worse in the Thor: Son of Asgard series that ran from 2004 to 2005, chronicling the adventures of Thor - and Loki, Sif, and Amora - as a teenager. Then again, given that it's written by Yoshida Akira, I guess I can't say that I'm terribly surprised? Moving right along... it's time to find out more about Izuku's two new intrepid companions, along with more of the background of this world. Where is Thor? What was that about Galactus? Why is Stormbreaker in Musutafu? Why are two Asgardian goddesses disguised as teenagers and flirting with everyone's favorite woobie? Read on to find out!
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on P-treon, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
Blinking his eyes blearily, Izuku slowly came back to awareness to find himself laying on the grass at Endurfæðing Park for the second time that afternoon. Or at least most of him was resting on the sun warmed grass. His head and shoulders were resting on something softer and a bit cooler than the ground. Specifically, Amora's lap.
Izuku shot upright so fast that he would have slammed face first into his makeshift pillow if not for her own heightened reflexes, Amora leaning back to clear a path for him. Hands gripping at his pants nervously, Izuku looked back and forth between her and Loki... and then over at Sigyn to see if she might have any answers to the questions forming in his head. She just looked amused so he turned his attention back to Amora. "Why was I on your lap? And what do you mean, new girlfriend?"
The corner of Amora's mouth quirked upward as she stared at Izuku. "In order: why were you on my lap? Because I'm kind and the ground around here is harder than it looks? As for the new girlfriend thing, I figured it'd be self-explanatory. I dated Thor for a bit. Brought Amora back as a public persona for a bit just so that I could date Jane after she became Thor. I want to see if the third time's the charm with Green Thor."
Izuku hesitantly looked over at where Stormbreaker was sitting on the grass next to him, unable to keep his mind from fixating on the entirely wrong part of that pronouncement. "That's not actually going to be my hero name, is it?"
Scoffing, Amora scooted across the rooftop toward him, pressing up against him from behind and looping her arms around his shoulders. Ah! Cute girl! Cute girl was touching him again! He thought he'd be used to it by now, but this was so much more touching than Amora normally did. "Don't be ridiculous. You'll be Thor, just like Thor and Thor were. The only people who called Jane 'Lady Thor' were misogynists. Most of whom she hit with Stormbreaker. Well, misogynists and Loki called her that. And got hit for it. Isn't that right?"
"We are still in public, Sylvie. Koli, please. And she didn't hit me because I called her Lady Thor." Sniffing, Loki looked down her nose haughtily at Izuku and Amora. "She hit me because she hated me. We already had a fairly well established hate-hate relationship when she took up Stormbreaker and became the Lady Thor." She sniffed again, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not like I wanted her to like me at that point or anything. Who cares what some jumped up hammer wielding mortal thinks of me?"
Wow. She really was a tsundere.
"If you're thinking that Koli is a tsundere, you're not wrong. But in the interest of not spending all afternoon sitting on the ground, maybe we should move on?" Amora unwound her arms from around Izuku's shoulders, grabbing him under his arms and pulling him upright with her. Holy crap, she was strong. Wait. He had the power of Thor now. Didn't that mean he was just as strong now? Or even stronger? Once they were vertical, Amora immediately insinuated herself at Izuku's right hand, snuggling up against his side as she stared down at him. "Now at this point, if I was you, I'm sure that I would be wondering... why me? What makes me worthy? Why now, when I wasn't the first time? I'm seldom honest but I'm going to be this time in the interest of expediency and getting you acclimated to your new reality as fast as possible. And the truth is... we don't entirely know. The original Mjölnir was enchanted by Odin as a punishment against Thor, and then the enchantment layered onto Stormbreaker was done so by an older and wiser Thor during an... interesting... period in his life. And he always held his own counsel as to the necessity of doing so. So the honest truth is... we're not sure why it picked you either."
Loki cleared her throat softly, eyes darting down to where Stormbreaker sat innocently on the grassy ground of the park. "Technically the truth there, although we have our suspicions. It couldn't just fly off to find someone who was worthy. Or at least we don't think it could. Which is why we suspect it stated here unclaimed for as long as it did. It needed someone to come along and want to wield it while also being worthy."
Reaching down, Izuku curled his fingers around the haft of Stormbreaker, easily lifting it up into the air for a few seconds before setting it back down. "Are we sure that's the reason why it hasn't found another hero in all that time? Or - more depressingly - what if it's just that nobody was worthy during that time?"
"That's... an entirely discomfiting thought, even for someone who dislikes mortals for the most part." Loki pondered that for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Moving right along, if you're as much of a hero otaku as you seem to be..." She trailed off, mouthing the words 'hero otaku' before glaring at Amora. "I called him an otaku instead of a fanboy. All these trips to visit you here in Japan have infected me. I hope you're happy."
Amora giggled softly before shooting Loki an amused look. "Considering the last thing that you infected me with took Eir's intervention and six weeks of medication to clear up, I feel like you don't really have a right to complain." Turning her attention back to Izuku, she sobered. "In all seriousness, you could be right. Thor met a lot of heroes in his heyday and out of all of them, only two of them were worthy to lift Mjölnir or summon Stormbreaker. Well, not counting Jane, of course."
Humming thoughtfully, Izuku did his best to put Amora's position out of his mind as he let his gaze drift back down to rest on Stormbreaker. "Where... exactly is Thor these days? Is he going to show up some day and demand his hammer back? Do I have to worry about not being worthy enough and that I'll end up going back to being quirkless and useless at some point?"
"Well, it depends. If you survive all the way until the end of this cycle and come out the other side of Ragnarök with Stormbreaker still in your grip... it's possible that the next Thor might take exception to you existing. For now, though? No." Amora's answer made Loki scowl and look away, causing Izuku to look back and forth between the two in confusion. "Thor ran afoul of a cosmic entity named Galactus who devours entire planets to sustain himself. After losing Asgard to Angela and Surtur, he was unwilling to lose his home a second time. With the help of the day's roster of Avengers, he drew Galactus into a confrontation on the moon and fought him to a standstill. Unfortunately, he lost his own life in the process."
Oh. Oh wow. People had theorized that Thor was dead after over a century with no public appearances, but to know as much for a fact was... wow. Izuku curled his hand around Stormbreaker's haft once more, lifting it into the air again so that he could study it more closely. This was the weapon of a god. Of a king. Of a man who had fought a creature that could devour entire worlds. And now it was his. The thought was... intimidating to say the least.
Gently pulling his hand out of Amora's grip, Izuku waited for her to settle back into place with her arms wrapped around his waist before tracing his fingers over the runes carved into Stormbreaker's handle. "So we covered where Thor is. And also why I have the hammer, which is to say that nobody really knows but the fact remains that I do. We've never really discussed why you came to Japan and settled in here to watch Stormbreaker, but I'm going to assume it's because you have a thing for Thors and wanted to know the instant a new one was found. Koli is like, his... sister? Brother? Sibling? So obviously she has a vested interest in who holds the hammer. Sigyn, you honestly don't seem to care about any of this and so I feel like you're just here because your... spouse... is here." Sigyn thought about that for a few seconds before nodding agreeably. "Oh! Here's a question. Why's the hammer here? If Thor died on the moon, shouldn't the hammer be sitting in a lunar crater somewhere instead of downtown Musutafu?"
"That's actually a really intelligent question, and I just so happen to know the answer." Amora craned her neck, staring up at where the moon was faintly visible between two clouds in the afternoon daylight. "By the time Thor fought Galactus, Jane had already come and gone as Thor and Captain America had wielded Mjölnir in the fight against Thanos. Thor knew for a fact that his power could be passed on, that others could take his place and take up his powers and legacy. And so with his dying breath, he hurled Stormbreaker back toward Earth with all of his might so that it might find someone worthy of passing his power on to."
Loki nodded in agreement, jerking her thumb in the rough direction of the crater where Stormbreaker had previously rested in the park. "It's completely coincidental that it landed here in Japan, in your hometown. Various governments tried to move it somewhere safer, or at least somewhere more accessible to more people so we could find the next Thor faster. Chief among them the Americans, possibly because over half of their citizens can't legally visit Japan to try their hand at picking up Stormbreaker. They even tried to involve the Vision, who steadfastly refused to see if he was still worthy to pick up the hammer despite his transformation. I'm sure you can guess how their more mundane attempts ended up, seeing as how we're all here."
Considering that it was impossible to lift Stormbreaker unless one was worthy? Yeah, Izuku could hazard a guess as to how those attempts had gone. Although it did make him wonder what would happen if he put Stormbreaker in the bed of a truck, or perhaps on the floor of an elevator headed upward. Would the elevator fail to ascend because it wasn't worthy of lifting Stormbreaker? Wait, no, that was stupid. The hammer wasn't digging a hole into the ground. So logically putting Stormbreaker on an inanimate surface and then moving the surface would still work. Ooh. Even more intriguing question. If an elevator could raise Stormbreaker, what about a robot? Other than Vision, who Loki had implied was worthy in his own right. Could he find a more mundane robot to help him perform that experiment? Maybe UA had robots? Izuku shook his head, trying to focus back on the matter at hand. "So now what? I have Stormbreaker and the three of you. Where do I go from here? Apart from maybe home? My mom is going to kill me."
"At this point? I should probably walk you home. I've seen enough Midgardian entertainment to know that's expected of the stronger partner. And, well..." Amora reached up to squeeze Izuku's bicep the same way that Loki had earlier before coughing softly. "Yeah. Besides, I think it might be fun to meet my future mother-in-law. It's not like I have any parents to contribute to our extended family, so here's hoping that your mother and I get along well." Izuku's heart thudded ominously; he wasn't sure he was ready for any sort of girlfriend, much less someone as carefree and forward as Amora. "After that? We start training you. This isn't without precedent; I missed much of the early phases of Jane's training to be Thor but I was able to help her master several nuances of Stormbreaker that escaped even Thor. If I can help a middle-aged scientist turn herself into a better hero than Thor alone could teach her to be, the three of us can do the same for a teenage otaku who actually wants to be a hero."
Loki nodded agreeably before raising her arm and flexing it. She wasn't particularly muscular by either human or Asgardian standards, but she was still brawnier than his completely untrained physique. "Besides, your foolish mortal society has practically turned heroism into an art form these days. There's got to be somewhere you can go to learn how to fight and get stronger. Or failing that, there's got to be someone willing to train a budding Asgardian in the same. Because you will. Get stronger, that is. Jane got an immediate strength boost when she took up Stormbreaker, but as she got herself into even better shape, her power only increased."
Izuku looked down at his hands in wonder. Today, he'd stopped a villain without even really knowing what he was doing. If he could grow into this power... grow stronger and more capable through training and honing his abilities... what could he do tomorrow?
Or the day after?
Not to mention that there was the whole magical hammer that he now possessed and needed to learn how to use properly. Forget being able to someday punch his problems away, what was he going to be able to do once he mastered Stormbreaker?
