Odin
Vs
The Seventh
FIGHT!
Infinity Chapter XVI
Family Matters
The Lady attacked first, launching tendrils of energy at Odin that burnt the air as the shot towards him.
He smacked the first aside with his spear, sliced the second out of the air, and ducked the third as it punched clean through his throne.
He returned fire with his spear, lances of rainbow-colored light screaming towards her.
She deflected two with a wave of energy, while the third caught her in the chest. She was blasted back several feet, but managed to dig in her heels, stopping her from leaving the confinement of the pillars.
The light dissipated as her form shimmered, her eyes catching fire.
She raised her right hand, clenching it into a fist as tendrils of dark magic emerging from her wings. The floor shattered in several places, pieces of masonry floating into the air like earthen bubbles before sucking toward the tendrils forming six great bird-like talons.
Odin grimaced as she sent them grasping towards him, parting the first down the middle using his spear, piercing another into the steps of his throne and rolling under the next as they scrambled to grasp him.
Chanting in the language of the Vanir, a runic pattern of gold and green emerged before his outstretched palm, the rune detached from his arm growing in size until finally a pair of immense wolves followed by a pair of ravens.
Spectral and resplendent the four animals stalked around their master as he summoned his spear back into his hand.
The wild talons struck once more, Freki and Greki lunging to meet some with tooth and claw, with Hugin and Munin lancing directly towards the Lady.
Their bodies grew until they looked more comparable to feathered wyverns as they struck for her.
She deflected the Hugin with a black barrier, while Munin went low and caught her in the stomach with his beak.
Odin deflected another of the claws, only for another to strike him from behind flinging him high into the air. Using his spear he arrested his momentum by plunging it into the claw, keeping him within the pillars.
The Lady snarled as Hugin and Munin continued to batter against her barrier, beaks, and talons a flurry of razor-sharp motion. A ball of energy gathered in her other hand which she released with a scream.
Odin severed the talon with a roar, hitting the ground and casting his spear forward to intercept the orb.
There was a colossal explosion as the power of the World Tree met the chaos of Destruction.
Odin was blasted off his feet, his spectral hounds grinding across the ground beside him as the eruption of magic nearly shattered the ancient power of the Pillars.
Odin looked up, drawing his spear to his hand as the feebly twitching and singed bodies of Hugin and Munin lay sprawled across the ground.
As the smoke continued to roil in the epicenter of the explosion he swore he saw movement, drawing all his power into himself and then sending it cascading into the tip of his spear he lunged forward, Freki and Greki following behind with a snarling howl.
The blade of Gungnir, extended as he ran forming into a lance of rainbow energy as the smoke cleared, revealing the furious expression of Lady.
She screamed at him, twin blades of orange-red energy emerging from her palms, her jaw pulling the mask open into a maw of porcelain fangs as orangish-red energy burned in the back of her throat.
She lunged for him, ducking his first swing and slashing one of her blades across his stomach.
Freki lunged, his fangs sinking deeply into her other arm, wrenching it to the side. She snarled and turned just as Greki did the same on the other side, catching her wrist and pulling it backward.
She screamed as Odin reared back, punching his spear directly into her torso, a flair of rainbow light piercing the darkness that made up her body. Her scream hit a fever pitch and crescendoed into an entirely different voice as she raised her head to the sky, as the burning orange light disappeared replaced by a pale pink.
She dropped her head, a deep tired fear in her eyes as her body went limp on the end of his spear.
"Help me," the young woman choked out, tears made from pink light pouring free of her eyes and across the mask
Odin pulled the spear free, and reached out to cast a spell of healing on her, "It's alright child, you're safe.."
She reached up for his hand, a look of utter hope on her face, only for the gem set into the mask to pulse.
A corona of reddish-orange energy erupted from her, followed by an echoing scream as the wings unfurled and extended even further, igniting into a blaze of obsidian black and sunset orange flames.
Her head ignited like a matchstick, the white of the porcelain mask taking on a silver sheen as the black and orange flames engulfed it.
Greki let out a pitiful cry as the hand snared in his mouth caught fire, as the wolf released her she grabbed him by the neck and tossed him angrily at Odin.
They fell backward, as the returned Lady let out another scream, sounding much more like a bird of prey as her mane of tendrils lanced downwards, punching through Freki with vengeance.
The great wolf howled in pain that was immediately silenced as he vanished in a flare of golden mist that dissipated like fog under a noon-day sun.
Odin fought to rise, only to feel his own weapon pierce through his stomach, pinning him to the ground as the distorted, monstrous Mother of Infinity bared down on him. Her head seemed to shift before his eyes, the fanged porcelain visage gaining a wide set of horns or a thinner crown of antlers as if she was drawing the beings that haunted his sleep into herself.
The pillars vanished, as he felt himself being drawn into the Odinsleep, the ancient magic that bound him working to empower him as his own weapon dug deeper into the slurry it had already made of his organs.
"Don't slip away from me just yet," she stated, her face taking on a more humanoid visage once more, "I need you awake to witness this."
She released the spear and raised her hand, even as she fired a blast of energy to silence Odin's remaining wolf. Odin felt himself being lifted off the ground and onto his throne which suddenly rent and bent around him, pinning him in place, while a spectral hand forced his remaining eye open.
She smiled at him as she returned to the visage she had arrived in, the display of just a little of her inner rage flickering away as the Pillars failed. The Dark Elves darted to her side, to whom she turned with a smile.
"Watch him, young ones." she stated, "Once I have my daughter, you can do as you please."
The Dark Elves nodded, raising their rifles to face him as she sauntered away. Odin watched her go, not moving, not saying a word but hoping silently to himself that his sons were prepared.
Loki paced about his room, head tilted towards the ceiling as he concentrated, hear the sounds of destruction echoing above him, followed by a much closer battle punctuated by feral screaming much, much nearer to him.
"Loki," the Trickster looked-down surprised as he spotted his brother staring at him with a combination of fear, loathing, and hope. He was heavily wounded, holding a seeping gut wound.
"Thor, what is happening up there?" he asked with a mischievous lilt, "Looks like a bit of fun."
"We don't have time for this." his brother muttered, as the force-field keeping Loki in, disappeared, "We need to go."
Loki stared at him slightly stunned, "You're letting me out?"
"Normally I would leave you to rot here for some time for what you did," Thor stated, electricity crackling across his hammer, "But something ancient has come for Asgard, and despite everything you have done our Father is putting his trust in you."
Loki's biting retort died in his throat at the mention of their father
"Come with me," Thor ordered, "Now."
Loki followed mutely, more than a little frightened about what must have pushed his father to seek his aid.
They ran towards the Vault and Loki felt his steps slowing as they entered the room and Thor stopped before a specific pinnacle.
The Tesseract. A perfect cube filled with roiling blue stars, nebulas, galaxies, and pure energy. It was pulsing oddly, like a heartbeat in a way Loki had never seen before, regardless of the time he'd spent with it.
"Take it," Thor stated, his face a mixture of dread and forced acceptance.
"This is what Father is trusting me with?" Loki asked, baffled, "Is this your attempt at a trick?"
"He's trusting you Loki," Thor stated earnestly, "You are cleverer than most folk I have met in my entire life, excluding perhaps Ser Stark. He stated that you are the only one that can hide the Tesseract from the being seeking it."
"Who-" Loki began, only for the door to the Vault to melt into a pool of slag as a winged woman that seemed to be made of the night sky set aflame floated through, hate radiating off her even as she stared at them impassively from behind a porcelain mask.
"Loki now!" Thor commanded as he charged towards her, as the rebuilt Destroyer emerged from the wall to join in the confrontation.
Loki snatched up the Tesseract and darted to the back of the Vault, a blood-curdling scream following him as Thor tossed his hammer and the Destroyer unfurled its face and let fire.
There was a blinding flash, the sound of thunder, shearing metal and shattering stone, and Loki suddenly found himself airborne.
He blinked several times, clutching the Tesseract to his chest and looked back to see the Vault was gone, a perfectly spheroid hole cutting clean through the palace's dungeon levels and revealing the burning city of Asgard beyond. Loki surged to his feet, as he watched the shattered remains of the Destroyer tumble into the city below.
"Give her to me!" the being demanded, as he whirled towards her. Her eyes were almost desperate, as she stared at him, her hand outstretched for the Tesseract, even as the other held a snarling blade of orange and black fire.
Thor wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Her?" Loki asked, holding up the Tesseract, watching the being's eyes follow it with the deepest longing, "The Tesseract?"
"You are far too young to know her true name," the being muttered, "too naive to understand what you truly hold in your hand, but I feel your touch upon her from a prior meeting. You used her, forced her to serve the Titan.
She spat the title out like the foulest of curses, as she stepped closer and closer to Loki, ignorant of the incantations he was whispering under his breath.
"I used it yes," Loki stated, blanching slightly as the entity's face snapped fully towards him, the hatred in her faze feeling almost like a physical blow, "Why do you want it, hmm, because let me tell you, it can work in a pinch when it comes to invading worlds. Not very good at keeping them invaded though."
He heard an ever-familiar whirring sound and gave the being a smirk even as it lashed out at him with the blade. The blade slashed cleanly through the illusion, which gave her a playful wink as it tossed the Tesseract backward, into his waiting hands as he flashed back into existence. She darted towards him, a second too late as Thor burst out of the ruined dungeon, catching Loki around the torso and firing away from the palace.
Her scream followed them, and as he looked back he could see her launch into the air like a comet, chasing after them.
Thor weaved through the city-scape with expert care, barely pausing as he shattered clean through a strange almost ray-shaped ship, racing towards the edge of the world-disk, opposite the Bifrost.
Loki whirled his head around to find their pursuer and blanched, as the burning comet unfurled into a black and sandstone color firebird nearly the size of a Chitauri Leviathan.
"Thor!" Loki roared, as the Phoenix opened it's porcelain beak and fired a ball of fire at them.
The blast sent them both spiraling through the air, Mjolnir falling free of Thor's grasp as they tumbled. Thinking quickly, Loki concentrated on the Tesseract, as he was cast free of Thor's arm.
He found himself suspended in a tunnel of blue light for a moment, and then found himself deposited on the ground on the very edge of Asgard. Thor was in the center of a crater, struggling to his feet, and the being had landed several yards away, turning back into her normal form as she did so. He could feel her eyes burning into him from where she stood, and she began to dart towards him unnaturally quickly.
"Go!" Thor roared, summoning Mjolnir to his hands and sending his hammer rocketing towards her, catching her in the torso, sending her careening to the side, but outside of being knocked aside she seemed unperturbed as she sent a tendril of energy whipping towards Loki.
Thor intercepted it, a scream leaving his lips as it struck him in his open wound. He summoned Mjolnir back to his hand as the being seemed to go intangible and phase through the ground, rising before them with an orb of black fire burning in her hands.
"Run!" Thor roared, as the fireball roared toward the two of them. Thor pushed him off the edge of Asgard with one hand while bracing with the other and Loki urged the Tesseract to take him anywhere but here.
Thor saw a flash of blue light out of the corner of his eyes as he swung Mjolnir batting the fireball aside and tossing it towards the figure. She shifted to the side, not as if she dodged but as if she had never been standing in the path of his throw, to begin with.
She then surged forward, catching Thor by the neck and with a shocking amount of strength pushed him back so that he was hanging from her grip off the side of Asgard.
"You, don't know what you just cost me!" she screamed, furious tears leaking from her blazing eyes, burning ashen lines down the porcelain mask.
"A weapon you would have used in some misguided conquest?" Thor muttered as she choked him.
She chuckled madly, her eyes going wide as the grip on his neck tightened considerably, "You would lecture me on misguided conquest Asgardian!?"
"We are the guardians of the Nine Realms, saviors, heroes." Thor choked, "Asgard will survive you."
She stared at him for a moment, "You have no clue how much of what you just spoke to me was a lie do you?"
Gritting his teeth he opened his hand, summoning Mjolnir towards him. The hammer rose into the air and shot towards his assailant's head.
To his surprise she whirled and caught it, holding the head as it strained against her fighting to return to his grip.
Thor stared aghast as she flipped it around, holding it by the hilt and looking it over curiously.
"You were made from a solar storm," the figure muttered, seemingly speaking to the hammer itself, "No, the solar storm."
The hammer crackled with black electricity as if in response.
"So much power, trapped inside something so comparably small," she muttered, the gem on her forehead seeming to pulse, "Your freedom traded for loyalty."
She squeezed the hilt so hard it cracked and the hammer seemed to spark in defiance.
"A fool's choice." the figure muttered, and with that, she tossed Mjolnir off the edge of Asgard.
Thor reached out for it, summoning it to his hand but it did not return.
"Now for you little Asgardian, let me free you of your lies." the figure stated, her burning eyes searing into his own as he found himself unable to blink.
He fought to struggle, to break free of her grasp, to cry out for aid, but instead, his voice had been stolen from him as a burning blade emerged in her free hand.
She lifted it agonizingly slowly, pointing the tip at the center of his forehead and pushed.
The pain was excruciating, his head aching with a sudden all-encompassing pulse. He believed she meant to end him, but as quickly as the pain began it ceased as she drew the blade back.
His eyes fell to it, seeking burnt blood but instead, it was slick with a strange silverish white liquid that dripped upwards before dissipating into smoke.
She then threw him off the side of Asgard, and as he fell he saw more of that liquid dripping upwards towards his home as he fell further and further.
He was falling, but why?
Who had done this to him?
Why had they done it to him?
Had he deserved it?
"Who am I?" he muttered, as he left the gravity of the strange floating island above him, the void surrounding him.
He felt his ice begin to crackle across his skin as he lapsed into unconsciousness only for the friendly voice of an older man reached his fading, broken self.
"That won't do."
Back atop Asgard, the Seventh marched back within the palace, her fury burning across her entire form.
Standing in the center of the great hall was Malekith, the charred side of his face turned towards her with a deep grin as he stared at the feebly struggling Odin.
"Masterful work my Lady." the Dark Elf King stated, clapping his hand together emphatically, "May I finish the job."
"No." she stated, and for a second his eyes took on the same obsidian sheen of the gem on her forehead. His smile fell, but he stepped back with a bow.
"He will live, to know the pain of being bereft of a child." she stated, staring at Odin her entire body softly crackling with flame, "To see one used, and stolen away."
He reached her hand skyward and shattered the mural that rested on the ceiling, revealing a more violent depiction with Odin standing side by side with a young dark-haired woman.
"I think she might thank me though." the Lady stated, staring up at the girl, "After all in a way she is mine too."
She turned back to Odin, and his remaining eye widened as her form shifted into that of a red-haired woman dressed in furs, resplendent as she stood amongst deep orangish-red colored flames.
"It is you," he muttered as the Odinsleep was finally allowed to take her.
"No," the woman stated as she turned away, "But it will be. Two halves, unto one whole."
He blinked and she was gone, the Dark Elves gone with her, his brain muddled and confused as thoughts of his first love carried him into sleep.
New York City, 23:59 EDT
Onlookers spotted a falling star crash into the water just outside New York Harbor, nearly striking a lone fishing boat.
Unbeknownst to them, the falling star and the boat were anything but.
Mjolnir cracked through the helm of Raft, seawater pouring through after it, a bulkhead slamming shut behind it. The ancient weapon, or more accurately the storm within, raged at the loss of its master, and at the reminder of what it had once been. Lightning crackled along the walls, shaking the structure even more, as the words inscribed along its face by Odin appeared once more.
"Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."
The hammer shook, lightning snarling across its surface and two words were changed.
"Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of the Storm."
As the hammer raged in a separate part of the abandoned complex, another entity stirred, and as his quiet slumber was breached on came the voices, and with the voices came a sense of weightlessness, as every so briefly Glenn Talbot opened his eyes, and gravity inverted in the presence of its master.
And scene!
So Thor's lost his memories, Loki's missing, Mjolnir struck the Raft, and the true gravity of the situation is even graver than that.
So nice to see Gwen wasn't it? And well, Lady Infinity is much more and less than what she seemed at the beginning.
Next time the Avengers deal with the aftermath of her attack on Asgard, none the wiser of those events of course.
Any comments, questions and critiques are always appreciated.
This has been VerBeeker, signing off!