The Allfather only needed to stroke his staff, Gungnir on the ground once and the Frost Giants had been defeated before they could do more harm with the help of the Destroyer. The king entered the vault with his sons, where they found an icy sight. The guards were lying frozen and dead on the floor, while the Frost Giants were destroyed. Loki heard his conscience alerting him, but he quickly ignored his own thoughts.
"The Jotuns must pay for what they have done." Thor stated angrily, just as the God of Mischief had anticipated.
"They have payed with their lives." Odin replied calmly, with his eyes focusing the Casket of Ancient Winters. "The Destroyer did its job, and the Casket is safe. All is well."
Thor looked at him in disbelief. "All is well?! They broke into the Weapons Vault! If the Frost Giants had stolen even one of these relics-"
"But they didn't."
"Well, I want to know why!" Thor's rage was well visible.
"I have a truce with Laufey, the king of the Jotun." Odin shook his head almost invisibly.
"They just broke your truce! They know you are vulnerable."
Odin sighed and turned to his son. "And what action would you take?"
"March into Jotunheim as you once did, teach them a lesson, break their spirits so they'll never dare try to cross our borders again!"
"You're thinking only as a warrior!"
"This was an act of war!"
"It was the act of but a few, doomed to fail."
"Look at how far they've got!"
"We will find the breach in our defenses. It will be found, and it will be sealed."
"As king of Asgard -"
"BUT YOU'RE NOT KING!" Odin's patience had snapped, it was enough. "Not yet." He whispered.
Loki saw it in his eyes, his father knew that Thor wasn't ready yet, there was disappointment, yet still hope. He had to push the God of Thunder over the edge, so that even the Allfather would see that his son was nothing but a boy.
He walked up to his brother, when Thor was sitting defeated in the hall, after upending one of the banquet-tables in rage. "It's unwise to be in my company right now, brother." He said. Loki just wanted to talk to him when the Warriors Three and Sif entered the room, bewildered of the mess Thor had created. The Demigod didn't let them distract him, he knew how to talk to his brother so he would get the idea of defying Odin, without noticing that it had been Loki behind the wheel. It didn't take long and they were on their way to Jotunheim. Oh Thor you're so predictable. The black-haired Demigod thought chuckling. All went according to plan until they were in the middle of a fight with hundreds of Frost Giants and a huge monster. Loki had not seen this coming. He particularly hadn't foreseen Odin having to save them and that Laufey would declare a war. Well, they did go a little bit too much over the edge, maybe.
"Why did you bring us back?" In Thor's voice was the adrenaline still hearable.
"Have you realized what you've done? What you've started?" Odin asked full of fury.
Yes they had started a war, this was very bad indeed, Loki knew this was on his account, nevertheless he decided to say nothing, rather listening to their fight quietly.
"... You'd stand giving speeches, while Asgard falls." He heard his brother say.
"YOU ARE A VAIN, GREEDY, CRUEL BOY!"
Whoops, Thor better shut up now, father is extremely angry.
"AND YOU ARE AN OLD MAN AND A FOOL!"
Of course, that would have been too smart for you. You have to test father's boundaries, don't you? He saw the disappointment in Odin's eyes, who was lowering his head in sorrow. "Yes, I was a fool..." He inhaled slowly and his hands were shaking softly, "to think you were ready."
Maybe he should help his brother, this was ending more badly than he had walked up to the God ready to tell him that it was his fault as well. "Father-"
"HEEAAARGH!" He got interrupted by an angry growl from Odin, while he pointed a finger at Loki, signing that he should be quiet and go back to his place.
Maybe not. He backed away again quietly, making himself as small as possible.
"Thor Odinson, you have betrayed the express command of your king. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you've opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of WAR!" The last word came out more furious as the rest, while he plugged Gungnir into the Bifrost's control panel. Lightning bolts illuminated the room, a portal behind Thor was created. The Allfather walked up to the blond, "You are unworthy of these realms..." he ripped a disc off his shoulder, "you're unworthy of your title..." he shouted, ripping his son's cape off, "YOU'RE UNWORTHY!..." the scream echoed through the room, while Odin inhaled sadly, "of the loved ones you have betrayed!"
Loki felt the chills diffusing his body, he had never seen his father like that.
Thor looked at him speechlessly with sorrow and fear in his eyes.
Well, this certainly didn't go as Loki had expected. He felt a lump building up in his throat, he felt sorry for his brother, this was not how he had wanted it to end, he just had wanted to show his father of Thor's incapability of ruling, without getting him banned from the throne completely.
Their father stood in front of Thor, looking at him one more time wary, as if he was making a decision about something particular, then he turned around resolutely and walked up to the panel again, raising his hand in his Son's direction. "I now take from you your power!" he yelled, opening his hand so that Mjolnir could come flying into it. Thor still was incapable of acting, his facial expression showed mere shock.
"In the name of my father..." the armor on Thor's right arm disappeared, "and his father before..." the left arm got freed from the iron as well, "I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!" He pointed Mjolnir at the portal and thunderbolts appeared, while Thor got sucked into the opening.
Cast out? What? Loki now had tears in his eyes, looking at his father in disbelief and fear before he ran to the portal. What had he done? Thor was not only banned from the throne, but banned from Asgard as well! Oh no, this was so wrong!
"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." He heard his father whisper to Mjolnir, before he hurled it into the Bifrost.
Oh sure, give it to a random stranger instead of me, your own son. Was what Loki heard his mind think, stopping himself again, since he had bigger problems. The Hammer was gone, Thor was gone and the portal closed.
"What have you done?" Loki breathed heavily, looking at his father shocked.
"Trust me, it is best for him." Odin said, still showing the sadness upon his face and turned around to walk back to the palace.
"Yes, of course, you always know what is best for everyone!" Loki exclaimed furiously, before making himself disappear, so that he would be left alone. He ran back to the palace, trying to calm himself down. Why had his father banned Thor? Exile was surely an overreacted punishment. He had to make it up to his brother, he wondered to what Realm Odin had sent Thor, maybe he could go after him and help him come back.
"I don't understand, it's never taken this long before." Jane sighed impatiently, standing in the SUV's roof-panel in New Mexico. Erik was standing next to her, glancing at the sky, while Darcy was sitting on the drivers seat, all of them were waiting for something to happen.
When John had left her without any explanation, she had tried to call him for over three months, without luck. Darcy had told her that he'd probably changed his number, which wasn't what Jane wanted to hear, but it was surely the truth. She had searched him everywhere, until she didn't know where to look anymore. The day she had accepted that he was gone, was the day she crumbled inside. It was nothing like any pain she had ever experienced in her life and so it took her some months to get over it and not hate or question herself for it, thinking she wasn't lovable or likeable. It wasn't easy missing somebody all day long, but hating him the same amount of time, so she was happy when she didn't think about the man she had loved so much.
Darcy had forced her to come with her to the university again after six months of Jane, locking herself up in her parent's house, because Darcy was anxious about her best friend's state. Since that day Jane had started her investigation on the markings she had found in Jersey City again. She had not seen any of these signs again, since she hat met John, yet she had found out that the whirlwind always came before an anomaly. She had chased the nature spectacles throughout the whole country and was now even capable of predicting them.
Nine months had passed since she last saw John and to distract herself from sorrow, she had gotten obsessed with her work.
She looked at Erik, who was looking at her impatiently. "Wait for it." She only said insecurely, not knowing herself if she was right this time.
"Can I turn on the radio?" Darcy asked from the front seat.
"No." The astrophysicist replied reproving.
"Jane, you can't keep doing this." The man sighed worried, knowing the daughter of his friend had been through some rough months.
"The last seventeen occurrences had been predictable to this second!" She exclaimed, getting back into the truck, taking her notebook and searched the pages for an answer.
"Jane, you're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser." He said calmly, yet with a disapproval undertone.
"I'm telling you..." she breathed excited, while scanning the program on her laptop as well, "there's a connection between these atmosphere disturbances and my research. Eric, I..." she sighed understanding towards his unease, she wouldn't trust herself either if she were in his shoes, "I wouldn't ask you to fly out here if I wasn't absolutely sure." she explained harshly.
"So what's this anomaly of yours supposed to look like?" Erik asked, trying to calm her down, since she was almost breaking the keyboard of the laptop.
"It's a little different each time. Once it looked like, I don't know, melted stars, pooling in a corner of the sky. But last week it was a rolling rainbow ribbon."
"Jane!" Darcy shouted from the front. "I think you wanna see this."
The woman turned to the window and saw clouds opening up in the sky. It looked like sun-rays were shining through the clouds, only with green and blue light, formed in a circle.
"What is that?" She said, not believing this was happening. She jumped towards the opening in the roof and gazed at the scenery with widened eyes.
"I thought you said it was a subtle aurora!" Erik had followed her and was now standing next to her with the same baffled expression on his face. The rays became brighter and the clouds opened up more with every second.
"GOOO!" Jane yelled excited at Darcy, who started the engine and raced in the direction of the happening, which made Erik and the astrophysicist tumble over, letting out a cry. When the woman was able to again, she grabbed her camera and filmed the unbelieving sight.
"Get closer!"
"Right, good one." Darcy chuckled, before noticing that her best friend was serious.
"Go!" The infrared camera showed that something descended on earth, which ended in an explosion just before a huge whirlwind shot from the sky. The three scientist were sitting in the car shocked, while Darcy jerked the wheel, starting to head the other way.
"What are you doing?" Jane screamed at her.
"Saving our lives! Thank me later!"
Jane grabbed the wheel and pulled it back to the direction of the storm. She would not let this opportunity slip through her fingers. Darcy started screaming, while Erik was feeling plain sick.
Lightning bolts now descended the sky and hit the earth in the storm-eye. Darcy tried to turn the wheel again, but the car slipped, racing towards a silhouette in the middle of the storm.
"No, no! AAAAAH." the girls were panicking now. The car hit the person and spun around, coming to a stand.
Darcy and Jane exchanged dumbfounded and shocked glances, before they got their wits together again and got out of the car.
"I think that was legally your fault!" Darcy shouted from behind her.
"Get the first aid kit!" the woman yelled impatiently, while running towards the body on the floor, followed by Erik in her footsteps. "Do me a favor and don't be dead!" she exclaimed, looking at the person lying on the ground motionless. "Please."
The man inhaled sharply and turned his head in her direction he was looking at her bewildered before he let his head fall to the ground again groaning. His long blond hair was waving in the wind and his bright, blue eyes showed nothing but confusion.
"Wow! Does he needs CPR, 'cause I totally know CPR." Darcy breathed, when seeing his super muscled body and handsome face.
Jane had to admit that he was good-looking, yet he did not have the certain mysterious touch, which had made John so attractive for her. "Where did he come from?" She asked confused, spinning around the place. Was he there before? And why had he been running through the storm? Was he crazy? Or suicidal?
The man suddenly jumped up with a growl, which frightened the girls, letting out a screech. "Hammer!" He shouted with a low voice, fitting his appearance. "HAMMER!" he was pacing up and down at the place and the three scientist followed him with their spotlights, until Jane found something on the ground. Were that lines?
"Yeah we can tell you're pretty hammered. It's totally obvious." Darcy couldn't hide the ironic tone.
"OH MY GOD, ERIK!" Jane shouted, shining on the patterns on the floor. "Look at this! It is exactly like the circle we saw in Jersey City!" She knelt on the floor excitedly, searching for her equipment. This couldn't be a coincidence. Three years ago she had seen a whirlwind with symbols like this on the ground and now it was the same! Only this time this guy was new. "We have to move quickly before this all changes!" the adrenaline was being pumped through her veins.
"Jane we have to take him to the hospital." Erik was shining on the stranger, who was still running up and down in between the circle.
"FATHER!" The blond shouted towards the sky.
"He's fine, look at him!" she said shrugging it off.
"HEIMDALL! I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!"
"Hospital, you go, I'll stay." Jane had to admit that he seemed completely insane. Probably the blow of the hit with the car had been too much for him.
"You." The man pointed at the man. "What realm is this?" He asked.
Realm? Jane looked at him confused. Why was he talking like that?
"Alfheim? Nornheim?" He asked loudly.
"New Mexico?" Darcy asked rhetorically, raising the taser at him. The red spot of the laser-light shined on the man's chest.
"You dare threaten me? Thor? With so puny a weapon?" He couldn't say more, because he fell to the floor like a plank. He was jerking, due to the taser-shocks. Jane and Erik looked at the young woman speechless.
"What?! He was freaking me out!" She justified herself.
Alfheim, Nornheim... Wait a second, Jane had heard names like that before! Weren't that the worlds she had written down in her notebook from the stories of Thor? The last time she had seen such a spectacle, John had told her about a bridge-like way of traveling between worlds, which were located in the universe like branches of a tree. She had found the stories of Thor and Odin afterwards. It was Strange that this one guy, who emerged out of a similar tornado, that had created similar markings on the ground was the one shouting those names at them now. Was this a coincidence or fate?
A/n: Well... it's neither that was the doing of Odin! xD