Title: Laughing As I Pray
Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: Third in the series The Great Subconscious Club, sequel to A Villain State of Mind and directly follows Cover Up the Sun.

Thor continues in his quest to get some straight answers out of somebody.

The roar of the Bifrost died away, and Thor rocked on his feet and steadied his stance as he looked around him. He was not entirely sure where he was, aside from Midgard. Heimdall had given him the coordinates of the place where Loki had last been seen, but Thor thought it was wiser to consult with his allies first. In pursuit of such, he had asked Heimdall to set him down as near as possible to the last known sighting of Nicholas Fury, Shield-Commander. And here he was, definitely back on Earth, but with no stern-faced commander in sight.

He appeared to be in a desert or scrubland, gravel and light dust under his feet and a wide blue sky with bare wisps of clouds overhead. Thor had noticed on his past visits to Midgard that most of the land outside of the big cities was like this, barren and rocky and inhospitable. It really was impressive that starting from such poor soil, the Midgardians were able to rise as far as they had. Ahead of him rose a bank of dry stone cliffs, crumbled and broken along the front face with oddly regular striations of color in the rock. At the foot of the cliffs, nestled against the majestic stone formations, sat a small building the same color as the sand around it: blocky, gray and dull in the manner of Midgardian buildings.

It was clearly a fortress, designed to repel unfriendly assault: and, Thor reasoned, since Heimdall had seen fit to set him here, Commander Fury and his forces must be in residence. After another glance around for any sign of life - and seeing none - Thor shrugged and strode towards the shadowed entrance.

A short way into shadows under the overhang, Thor found the passage blocked by a set of heavy iron doors. He gripped the edge of one and hauled it aside; it was heavy, but after a moment of resistance it gave way with a protesting screech of metal. Only after he had pushed the door aside did Thor notice the torn, hanging edges of several chains and padlocks that had been holding the door shut.

The room beyond was lit by a faint blue glow, emanating from small light displays set into the walls. As Thor stepped forward, the blue glow from one of them intensified and there came the humming noise of increased power flow.

"How was the drive from Istanbul?" asked a disembodied voice.

"I did not come from there," Thor replied, somewhat confused by the question. He waited a few more moments to see if the voice would respond - to see if it was, as in Stark's tower, a clever self-thinking computer - but when no answer followed, he shrugged and stepped forward again.

A loud buzz filled the air, and a feeling as though the air in front of him had thickened, but Thor ignored it as he pushed forward. He had come to see Commander Fury, who must be in this building, and he did not intend to let any mindless automaton stand in his way. The door at the end of the room was much sturdier than the one on the outside had been, and guarded by a blank glass panel; Thor raised one hand towards it and electricity sparked and spat between his hand and the panel. Half of the blue lights in the room went dead, and Thor grasped the handle of the door and pulled. There was a grinding noise and the door wrenched open, half of a metal bolt sheared off from the lock, and Thor stepped past it into the next room.

This chamber was empty of people, but not completely dark; a few cool artificial lights illuminated the scene. He was in a large lobby that extended deep into the hillside, like a wide hall with doors and corridors branching off on either side. The walls were painted a cold, sterile white, with lettering and symbols stenciled onto the doors. Thor glanced at the nearest one to his left; it had the letters 'T.A.H.I.T.I.' written across the portal, though the word it spelled meant nothing to him.

"Freeze!" barked an unfamiliar voice, and Thor turned around to see a squad of uniformed Midgardians hurrying up the hall from the other direction. Leading them was a woman in a deep navy uniform with metal decorations, brown skin wrinkled and lightened from age but with no hint of give in her dark brown eyes. She glared at him from atop the sights on her small, hand-held projectile weapon; behind her several men arranged themselves in cross-fire positions with considerably larger-barrelled weapons.

None of them particularly bothered Thor; he knew there were very few weapons on Earth that could prove more than temporarily annoying to him. But here were his allies, men and women of SHIELD, who could surely provide him with the direction he sought. He turned towards them and tried a winning smile. "Greetings, my friends," he said. "I am in search of Shield-Commander Fury. Can you take me to him?"

The woman ignored his question, circling cautiously around him as more SHIELD agents came pouring out of doors and elevators. "How did you get in here?" she demanded harshly. "Who let you in?"

"I let myself in," Thor replied.

This elicited a scowl from the dark woman. "This facility requires level nine clearance or higher," she snapped. "You shouldn't even know this place is here, let alone have been able to get past the security!"

Thor scowled. As crown prince of Asgard, guardian of the Nine Realms, he felt he had more than sufficient 'clearance' to enter any facility he pleased. "Your mortal secrets do not interest me," he said shortly, struggling to keep his temper. "I wish to speak with Nick Fury. I have news for him that he will wish to hear."

"You're not going to be speaking with anyone!" the woman replied. "You're going to be taking a march into a secure cell until we find out how you learned about this place, and then -"

"Careful how you speak, mortal," Thor growled, his hand moving to Mjolnir's haft. "I have been polite so far, but I will not stand for threats or insults to my person. Watch your tongue, or else you will face the Mighty Thor uncloaked!"

She started, eyes going wide, although the aim of her handgun did not waver. "Thor?" she said in surprise. One hand reached for a small black device on her belt; Thor's eyes narrowed on it. "But that's -"

She broke off as another door opened at the end of the corridor, bright cold light flooding the hallway from beyond it. Briefly silhouetted against the entrance was a tall man with a sweeping length of coat; Thor caught a brief glimpse over his shoulder of a large round room with many curving glass panels set along the top half. Then the door hissed shut and the figure was striding off down the corridor towards them. "That won't be necessary, Sergeant," he called to the woman, who scowled but dropped her hand. "I'll take things from here."

"Commander Fury," Thor said, the smile returning to his face as he turned to greet his comrade in arms. "It is good to see you again. Your followers could use a method in manners."

Fury stopped walking and stood with his head thrown back, hands linked behind his back. He heaved a deep exasperated sigh. "Well, what did you really expect?" he demanded. "When you turn up on Earth again without warning, and break into a highly secured facility without permission? You're just lucky they didn't shoot first and ask questions later."

Actually, it was they who were lucky they did not try such a foolish course of action, but Thor diplomatically did not point that out. "I wished to speak with you," he said instead.

"This is really not the right place, and really not a good time," Fury said, "but I see I'm not going to get rid of you otherwise, so let's step aside for a moment."

He turned and strode off, making a few sharp gestures to the agents filling the hallway; slowly and unwillingly they melted away, except for one young woman who attached herself to Fury's side and silently accompanied him. Feeling somewhat put out, and baffled by the cold reception, Thor followed along behind.

Fury led him through a hallway and a door to a small, cramped room mostly taken up with a desk and some filing cabinets. There was one chair on either side of the desk; Fury gestured to one while sliding into the other. "Sit down," he ordered. "I'm in the middle of a very delicate matter right now, Prince Odinson, but I think I can give you ten minutes."

Somewhat annoyed at being ordered around, Thor unwillingly slid into the chair. It was not that Thor was unaccustomed to getting a brusque reception, but only among enemy or neutral territories, not from allies. He was here for important matters, he told himself; this was no time to let little insults get under his skin. Offering a conciliatory note, he said, "Do you need my aid to defeat this great foe?"

Fury snorted. "Thanks but no thanks," he said drily. "This isn't exactly a situation that calls for a lot of hammer-smashing."

Thor furrowed his brow - in his experience, there were very few foes that could not benefit from the judicious application of Mjolnir, sooner or later in the process. But this was Fury's home planet and his facility, and Thor had guest-obligation to consider.

"So," Fury said, shuffling a few papers around on his desk. "What brings you back to Earth, Your Highness?"

That got Thor back on track. "I have grave news," Thor told the Commander. "My brother has been sighted again on Midgard, alive."

He had expected many possible reactions to this news - anger, maybe fear. Loki had, after all, brought a whole hurricane of trouble down on this planet the last time he'd been here - and even after he was brought low, Fury had been given charge of keeping him prisoner, a task which had brought him no joy. He could not possibly look forward to such duties again.

The reaction Thor did not expect was the one he got; a resigned shrug of the shoulders and an unconcerned "Yeah, we know."

"You - you knew?" Thor's hands clenched on the arms of the rickety chair he was seated in, threatening its structural integrity. "How did you know? How long have you known? Why didn't you tell us?"

"We've known for about a week, so not long at all" Fury answered, "and as for telling you - how would we have done that, exactly? We still don't exactly have a reliable way of getting hold of you, what with you living on another planet and all. Apart from Jane Foster's micro-wormhole signal generators - which only work forty percent of the time, by the way - you're completely inaccessible to us. Last time there was a crisis - same as this time - you just showed up."

These were truths, if not especially palatable ones, so Thor exhaled slowly and forced himself to let go of the chair. "Understood," he said, a little more gruffly than he would have liked. He cleared his throat and said in a more normal tone of voice, "So... shall we join our forces together once again?"

Fury was watching him across the table, in a flat, unnerving way that reminded him of Heimdall. "To do what?" he asked.

The question astounded Thor; he made a frustrated gesture with both hands. "To thwart my brother's evil schemes and return him to Asgard, of course!" he exclaimed.

Fury sighed. "Much as I like the prospect of Loki fucking off back to Asgard," he said in an almost wistful tone, "that's not looking likely this time around. I doubt he'll go anywhere without a fight. And SHIELD doesn't need another war on its hands right now."

"War?" Thor sat bolt upright in alarm. "What do you mean, war? Has my brother gathered together another army?"

"Eh..." Fury waved vaguely in the air in front of him. "Sort of. He's allied himself with the mutants, pretty firmly it looks like. And that places him strictly outside of SHIELD jurisdiction - our hands are tied."

"Mutants?" Thor repeated, baffled. The All-speak translated the word readily enough, "the changed ones," but that somehow seemed insufficient. From the way Fury spoke of them it sounded like he was referring to a very specific group of people, and also like invoking their name should explain everything. But for Thor, it explained nothing. "What..."

"Look," Fury interrupted him. "As nice as it is to have you back on Earth, I've got to get back to work. Coming to earth may be a holiday for you, but it's still a Monday for the rest of us. I haven't got time to play tour guide right now."

Thor was by now thoroughly confused. What could possibly be more urgent to the Shield-Commander than the possibility of Loki turning another army of monsters loose on his defenseless population? Could it be that he somehow hadn't understood Thor's warning, or that they were talking about two different things? But what about the situation could there possibly be to misunderstand?

Perhaps Fury was not the man Thor needed to be speaking to after all. Perhaps there was no need, or no point, in waiting for Fury to muster his troops; perhaps Thor ought to speak to Midgard's mighty warriors directly.

"Very well," Thor said. "I must return to Asgard eventually, but not yet. While I am here, I would see my shield-brothers again, the Avengers."

"Clint and Natasha are out on a mission; can't help you there," Fury replied, giving a brushing-gesture of his hand across his desk. "Stark is in his tower, fucking around as usual. Bruce's location is classified, where by classified I mean he's also camping out in Stark tower. And before you ask -" his brows drew down into a glare as he growled, "there is to be NO sparring with the Hulk in New York City. Or state, for that matter."

Thor grinned sheepishly, settling back into his chair as though he hadn't been about to suggest that very thing. Fury continued down the roster. "Rogers is in his apartment, in Queens. You have a standing invitation from here to go there, by the way, if you ever came back to Earth," he added offhandedly.

That was good news. Thor had been looking forward to seeing his comrades again, and Steve Rogers more than most. They had little time to get to know each other during the events of the Battle of New York, but battle forged deeper bonds between men than idle past-times could. Steve had struck him as a fine upstanding man, a proud warrior and a charismatic leader of men. It pleased him to hear that Steve had invited him to his dwelling.

"Then I will speak with the Captain first," Thor said aloud, "and go on to see Jane as I may."

"Good," Fury said. "Great. That's a plan. Now get off my base."

Still fuming somewhat over being dismissed abruptly as a servant, Thor did.

At Maria Hill's sharp plea, Thor did not fly himself from the desert stronghold to the great city of New York, where Tony Stark and Steve Rogers both lived. Instead of letting Mjolnir carry him, he suffered to be put into one of their small metal craft; it stank, rattled noisily and flew interminably slow, but it got him to his destination just as well in the end.

One of the ubiquitous SHIELD agents must have called ahead, because a familiar man was waiting at the edge of the small asphalt field where they set down. It took Thor a moment to recognize the Captain out of his armor; he was startled by how young the mortal appeared, especially when his face lit up with a boyish smile upon seeing Thor.

"Thor!" Steve advanced towards him, one hand held out in front of him; Thor strode towards him with a grin and clasped his wrist in the warrior's grip. "Welcome back to Earth. Or should I say Your Highness?" he added, a small worried wrinkle forming between his brows.

Thor laughed. "Nay, to those who have spilled blood beside me in battle, I am only Thor."

"Well, it's good to see you again. We didn't really get much of a chance to talk last time, what with the invading armies and all. I was sorry that I didn't get a chance to know you better."

As far as Thor was concerned, bonds formed much more quickly and deeply in the shared song of battle than sitting around in idle chatter, so he felt like he already knew the other man quite well. "I am honored by your invitation, Captain Rogers."

"No, no," the boy said with a quick smile. He deepened his voice as if in imitation of Thor's, a playful smile on his lips. "Those who fight beside me in battle can call me just 'Steve.'

"Steve, then," Thor said with an answering smile.

"Right, but I shouldn't just keep you talking on the tarmac." Steve said, and gestured to the street behind him. "Let's go back to my place. It's not far."

Steve's place turned out to be a small set of rooms in a crumbling, to Thor's eye shoddy building of brown stone and yellowed plaster; despite the weathered outsides, the interior was snug and sound, and kept scrubbed to a military cleanliness. Thor could tell immediately that the style of furniture and decorations in these rooms was very different from that of the world around them, and remembered what he had been told about Steve Rogers' dislocation through time. There was a weapons-rack on the door, and Thor hung Mjolnir on it as he went, as a proper guest should to show peaceful intentions to his host.

"Welcome to my place," Steve said, turning on wall sconces as he went. "Sorry if it's not, you know, what you're used to."

Thor turned away from his interested inspection of the view. From here, the damage to New York City done by Loki's invasion was not visible. "I am very glad not to have to spend another night on your flying fortress - it is a doughty place, but grim," he said. "Your chambers are much better."

"Well, thanks," Steve said. "Want something to drink? Anything to eat? You can have the bed, of course - I'll bunk on the couch. If you're going to stay long, let me know and I'll get hold of a cot instead..."

Thor shook his head. "My thanks, but there is no need. I will only be here for a few days; I must away to see my lady Jane."

"Oh, yeah!" Steve came back through the apartment, holding a pitcher of water in one hand. "Jane Foster, huh? Your girl...friend from New Mexico? I've seen some pictures."

Despite himself, Thor felt a silly grin soften his face at the thought of her. "Aye, an exceptional woman, as brilliant as she is beautiful."

"She must be some kind of genius then," Steve said with a chuckle, but his smile quickly sobered. "You're lucky to have her."

"I am, and I long to see her again," Thor admitted quietly. "We have been apart for too long."

"Yeah, I.. I know that feeling." Steve's features worked, as his desire to keep up pleasant cheer for his guest battled with a deep well of sadness underneath. In the end his smile lost out, and he shrugged and shook his head as if the banish the shade of sadness. "A lot of doors got closed to me, when I went under the ice."

Seventy years had passed on this realm, while Steve Rogers had slept; from the time his plane had gone under to the time he had awoken was no more than a handful of seasons in Asgard, as little remarked as the passing of one hour to the next. Yet on Midgard, such a handful of seasons had been enough to transform the entire face of the realm. It was strange enough to Thor, who had no ties here; how much more painful for one to whom it had been home?

Thor reached out and placed a hand on Steve's shoulder, a firm and comforting grip. "It is always hard to leave your whole world behind you, no matter how welcoming the new one tries to be," he said quietly.

Steve gave him a startled look, softening quickly into understanding. "Yeah. I guess you'd... yeah."

For a moment they just stood there, exchanging a silent communion; Thor squeezed Steve's shoulder carefully, then moved off. Steve set down the pitcher of water and poured two glasses, one for guest and one for host. "Although, it hasn't always been exactly welcoming, either," he said. "No matter how hard they try to fit me in, I still just don't click. There's so many things about this world I don't understand, that no one bothers to explain because they understand it so well it's subliminal. They don't think about it, like a fish doesn't think about water. Meanwhile, I'm drowning."

"It sounds hard," Thor sympathized, sitting down at the offered chair.

Steve took the other seat with a sigh. "Plus an alien leading an invading army to smash up New York is kind of..." He glanced at Thor and broke off whatever he'd been about to say. "Sorry."

Thor grimaced at the reminder, but the events of last season could not be ignored: not when they were the entire reason he had ever met the other Avengers at all. "Nay, do not apologize for speaking truth," he said.

Steve leaned forward across the table, his blue eyes deeply earnest. "Look Thor, I just want you to know, that I understand one thing: no matter what he's done, he's still your brother and he means a lot to you," Steve said. "He's done some awful things, but I believe that nobody is beyond redemption, if they really want to be."

"I wish to believe this as well," Thor admitted quietly, staring out the window at the undisturbed city. "But I have responsibilities, and I cannot overlook the danger my brother poses to this world. You may speak of redemption, but the truth is that I do not know in my heart if my brother wants to abandon his evil ways and return to the light. "

"Yeah... that makes it kinda hard," Steve agreed. "I wish I could tell you that he did Thor, I just don't know."

Thor switched his attention back to his shield-comrade, coming now to the heart of the reason for his visit. "But you can tell me of my brother's last appearance, can you not?" he said eagerly. "Were the Avengers not called to fight against him? Were you unable to capture him then?"

"Uh... Sort of?" Steve scratched at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "But I wasn't there. I kind of missed the memo on that, so I only found out after it was all over and the Avengers had stood down. All I can tell you is what I know."

"Then I will still know more than I do now," Thor said.

Steve nodded, and drew in a long breath to speak. "Okay," he said. "The first we - that is, SHIELD, the Avengers, heard about it was when people started reporting a disturbance over upstate new york. Lights in the sky, explosions - someone even swore that they saw a giant black dragon breathing flame at a military helicopter, which everybody thought must be impossible."

Thor could imagine it quite clearly; he'd seen that dragon more than once before, after all. "Oh, no. Not impossible at all."

"Anyway, Nat took the Avengers jet out there with Iron Man and Doctor Banner," Steve continued. "By the time they arrived on the scene, the helicopter was already down. When they got there they found out that a fight had broken out between the mutants and the U.S. Army, and Loki had apparently come in on the side of the mutants.

"The Avengers managed to convince both sides to back off and stand down, and the army went back to their base, and Loki went off with the rest of the mutants back to their base. Whatever he told them, it was apparently good enough that Nat and the others were willing to let him walk away. Or at least, that they didn't think it was worth starting another fight over him right then."

Even intent as he was on the thread of the story, Thor did not fail to notice that he spoke of the others by formal titles - "Iron Man" and "Doctor Banner," but spoke of the Widow with the more familiar "Nat." It seemed that Steve Rogers had managed to cement one strong warrior bond, then, which was a pleasing thought. Couples forged in the heat of battle had the strongest bond afterwards, Thor thought with satisfaction.

But there were more pressing matters at hand. "You keep talking about these... mutants," Thor said. "Fury used that word, as well. Who are they?"

That question seemed to be at the heart of this tangle; if only Thor knew what kind of people they were, perhaps he could guess at Loki's thoughts and plans from their company. Certainly he'd had no luck lately trying to understand what was going on in his brother's mind by himself.

Steve's expression was troubled, doubtful. "I'm not sure I'm really the best person to ask," he said. "Are you sure you don't want to call up Tony instead? He's definitely the person to ask about current affairs. He's so caught up on current affairs I think he's actually living six months in the future."

"I am sure," Thor said firmly. "The iron man is a brave warrior, and a clever artificer, and a loyal shield-brother, but..."

He paused, groping for words. "But?" Steve prompted him.

Thor grimaced. "But he is not... he does not make of himself a bridge for knowledge. He very much enjoys his cleverness and how it sets him above others. I do not particularly enjoy the thought of going to him in humbleness, revealing my ignorance of such a basic facet of Midgardian life." What he did not want to say - partly because he did not want to admit it to himself - was that living under the long shadow of the wisdom of Odin and the cleverness of Loki had made Thor loath to admit ignorance before people who were, undoubtedly, smarter than himself.

Steve's eyes filled with sympathy, and he nodded. "I feel you there," he said. "All right, I'll do the best I can. Keep in mind this is all stuff I learned second-hand, from after I woke up. They didn't even have mutants back in the '40s. Well... they probably did, but they didn't make the news. Kept to themselves, mostly, I guess."

"But what are mutants?" Thor prompted him.

"I guess they're a kind of super-human, people who have powers and abilities that normal humans don't have," Steve replied.

"Like yourself?"

Steve shook his head. "No, science gave me this body," he said. "The mutants are born that way, instead. Their DNA is completely different. They say they're a whole different species; homo superior, instead of us, that's homo sapiens. There's something about a next 'great leap' of evolution, and an X-Gene, and how you can be a carrier for it if you aren't one yourself. But I admit it's all kind of over my head."

"I see," Thor said, although he didn't really.

"They're being born all the time now, in lots of different places," Steve said. "Sometimes the mutation is visible, really obvious, and you can tell at a glance who's a mutant and who's not. But then other times you can't tell at all, they look just like normal humans. And sometimes the mutation is really beneficial, really useful, like bones that don't break or very fast healing... But then sometimes it's not at all, just something like scales instead of skin or spines instead of hair, it's completely random."

He broke off upon seeing Thor's expression, shaking his head in apology. "I'm sorry, I'm really not explaining this well," he said.

"No, no, I understand your meaning," Thor quickly reassured him. "But what I do not understand is what business my brother would have with these 'mutants.' From what you say, they are scattered among the population, and yet Fury seemed to be saying that there is a whole village of them and that is where my brother is."

"That's where I really can't help you, I'm afraid," Steve apologized. "It's all gotten very political, and I'm not good at political. You'd really need to find someone else to explain it."

"I see," Thor said, sinking back into gloom. Fury had made it clear he did not have time to play tutor; it looked like he would have to find Tony Stark, after all.

"Say!" Steve's expression brightened with a new thought. "Here's an idea. There's this radio show I like to listen to in order to catch up on the news. I find it really helpful, they manage to explain things in a way that always makes sense. I remember hearing them say the other day that they're doing a special segment on mutants this afternoon. They're bringing a special guest on the topic, he's published a bunch of books and is really well known. Maybe if you listen to his show, he can explain it to you better than I can."

"That is an excellent suggestion, Steven Rogers," Thor said, pleased. "I will take it to heart, then, and listen to this man of learning that you have recommended. I am sure that everything will be made clear."

Steve had to leave the apartment for a time - he had an appointment at something called "the VA office," the significance of which was lost to Thor - but he generously offered Thor use of both his chambers and his radio while he was gone. Thor spent some time changing the device from one frequency to another - listening to all of the different musical programs - before switching it to the one Steve had recommended.

Unlike the other programs, which played various styles of music, this one was filled with the rapid chatter of male voices. There were several speakers, and they spoke so quickly and firmly - often on top of each other - that Thor found it hard to keep track of what they were saying. The outpouring of words without accompanying visual image, or being able to watch the faces and voices of the speakers, was hard to process. Much of the subject matter, too, was unfamiliar to Thor and thus meant nothing to him; but whatever the subject, the radio voices spoke on them with a firm and loud authority.

A short musical sequence played, and then one of the voices - who seemed to be the main speaker for this program - came back on. "And now at the top of the hour, what you've all been waiting for: our celebrity corner! For this week's special guest we have nationally published author Milhouse Mannstrom, author of the controversial book 'The Twisted Helix.' "

This could only be Steve's learned scholar, and Thor sat up and paid the radio box close attention. The announcer went on, "He is currently touring to promote his new book, 'The Curving Bullet,' which talks about an alleged mutant connection in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Thanks for being here today."

A second male voice responded, in a deep and scratchy voice: "It's good to be here, Bob."

The announcer continued, saying, "So Milhouse - Can I call you Milhouse? -"

"Actually, I would prefer if you call me Doctor Mannstrom," the second speaker interrupted.

"So, Doctor - You've gotten a lot of attention in the media recently for your well-known and outspoken opinions about mutants. You've written two books on the subject -"

"Four books, actually," Mannstrom interrupted again.

Once again the announcer accepted the correction. "Four books on the subject - so tell me, Doctor Mannstrom, what is your position on the mutant question?"

"Well Bob, I think that the mutant menace is the greatest unspoken danger facing our country today," Mannstrom replied. "Oh sure, you see in the newspapers, or on the internet, stories with pictures of cute little mutant girls clutching stuffed bunnies - bullshit! It's all publicity. Publicity. It's how they keep us quiet while they carry out their agenda. Don't think they aren't organized, don't think they aren't smart. They're wolves in sheep's clothing, monsters among us. The mutants are out to destroy America and you can see that they've already made a good start.

"In my book I publish evidence that a mutant conspiracy was behind the assassination of JFK. Earlier you said that my book was about 'allegations,' and that's simply not true, because 'allegation' means there's some doubt. There's no 'theories' here, no 'allegations' - the FBI themselves did an investigation and arrested the mutant assassin. Well, there are mutant terrorist enclaves out there right now, some of them in your very neighborhood. Your government knows they're there and they haven't told you. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Some of them are suborned, traitors to humankind. Others are just cowards. While they sit back and do nothing, the mutants are going to destroy America."

The announcing voice chuckled, but it sounded forced. When he spoke it sounded strained, uneasy. "Uh, well, those are some pretty strong sentiments here..." he started to say, but Mannstrom overrode him.

"Well, I think our country needs some strong sentiments. Some plain spoken talk. What I'm saying is just what everybody thinks, but is too afraid to say. They're too afraid of being not 'politically correct' to stand up and speak the truth. They say," and his voice shifted briefly into a high, nasal, whining tone; "You can't say mean things about mutants, they might get their feelings hurt! I say, I'm not just going to sit back and let them poison our children's minds, poison our way of life. I'm going to fight! You know, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, and I think that's true for a mutant-free future, too."

The broadcast went on for some time; and Thor sat transfixed in slowly growing horror, as the true extent of the mutant menace was revealed to him.

Thor hurled himself through the air behind Mjolnir, urging them both to great speeds fueled by his seething tension. A dark thundercloud gathered in the atmosphere around him as he traveled, reflecting the turmoil of his heart and mind. The dark grumbling clouds, punctuated infrequently by fractal sparks of electricity leaping from cloud to cloud, were a perfect counterpoint to his mood: anger and grief, punctuated by a bitter disappointment.

It seemed that his worst fears were to be realized after all: Loki had, once again, allied himself with monsters. That he had caused no worse trouble since his reappearance on Earth than one battle with the local militia - at least, that the mortals were aware of - had briefly stirred his hopes, but they were dashed again; Thor well knew that his brother could be patient, and bide his time in plots long and deeply laid. But if he had given his loyalty to these mutants, he must too be allied to their dark purpose: to destroy from the heart the human world in which they lived, and rampage among its innocence. Grief there was, that his hopes which had raised so briefly had been dashed, and disappointment that his darkest suspicions were confirmed; but mostly Thor was just angry, angry, angry.

The trip was a brief one; it was less than a hundred miles between Steve's apartment in New York City and the remote, concealed village where Heimdall had last seen Loki disappear. Truly, the mutants had chosen their base well, strategically placed to strike at the heart of the humans' capital city. From the air it had a calm and pastoral look: green meadows and wooded fields surrounded a complex of tall buildings half-coated with winding ivy. A long and shaded lane wound around a lake up to the front gates, which Thor ignored and flew over before landing on a long strip of empty lawn near the edge.

There was no sign of Loki. Nor was there any sign of the mutant warriors, although Thor was certain they would show themselves soon enough; his arrival could hardly be ignored. Just to make clear what they were dealing with, Thor raised Mjolnir and called the following storm to him, thunder rumbling and growling as the clouds swirled together and cast an eerie twilight over the hidden mutant base.

All looked peaceful, but Thor was not deceived. The monsters sat in this base and schemed to conquer, to poison, to destroy the kingdom of innocent humans about them. He would find Loki in this maze, he would drag him out and confront him, and force news of whatever vile plans he had for Midgard from his lying mouth. No longer would he sit idly by, and let others plot and spin mayhem as they pleased. Today, they would have to face the judgment of Thor.

"LOKI!" Thor roared, and swung Mjolnir to the sky, buzzing with the force of his rage and calling an answering crack of lightning from the clouds overhead. "COME FORTH!"

~tbc...