Disclaimer: Turning Red and it's characters are the property of (c) Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios.

Elements are borrowed from God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, owned by (c) Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment.

C/W: Flatulence, referenced homophobia, implied child abuse.

It's only gotten much worse now. No doubt about it.

All of their ceaseless fighting and bickering had led to the 4*Townies and the QRQs being forced to share the same cabin together and the atmosphere inside the cabin was nothing short of painstaking. For boundaries, they had split the place into two opposites so they wouldn't have to be too close in each other's spaces. The QRQs took the right side and the 4*Townies claimed ownership of the left. Since this has been going on, only silence filled the room and although no sound was made, it was really loud because everyone's expressions spoke louder than words. Everyone refused to say a word to each other, nobody would even look at each other for both parties were just sitting there on either sides with their backs turned, arms crossed and tempers still present. They even heard from the counselors that they were going to have the girls' parents informed of this in due time.

Heather, on her part, was trying so desperately to fix her makeup and her hair after it had been ruined from the fight earlier. After all, nothing was more important to her than her looks. But she was having a difficult time trying to comb her hair strands to that perfectly smooth straightness she strives for, infuriating her more.

"Great fucking job, Lee! You ruined my beautiful hair! Do you realize how fucking hard it is to get my hair this way?!" She growled at her nemesis through her reflection in the hand-held mirror of hers, but Mei only gave her the finger and made the 'blah, blah, blah' gesture. "Errrr! You better have good lawyers because I swear to god if you have red panda rabies, I'm suing the hell outta you!"

"Pfft! Whatever, princess." Mei rolled her eyes, then started to mock her in a high-pitched voice. "'Oh, no, everybody! The queen of the school has broken a nail! The end of times is upon us all! Whatever shall we do?'"

"You're on thin ice, Lee. Thin. Ice." Dana glared daggers at her. "It's already thanks to you and your hoes that I look like a caveman."

"Hmph, if only Booker could see you now." Mei smirked.

"Shut your mouth! I will leap right over there and rip your hair out of your scalp!" Heather bit back with the jaw strength of a shark. "You got no freakin' right talking shit about my Bookie like that. That boy's everything a girl could ever want. Better looking hair, ripped muscles, a hot bod and did I mention his package? Well, now I did and it's fucking huge! What makes your Sparky so special, anyway? What does he have that Bookie doesn't?"

"Bookie…" Abby chortled behind her hand, trying to cover up her giggles by how absurd and cheesy that pet name sounded to her.

"Well, don't mean to brag, but since you asked, my Kris is descended from a god." Mei shrugged, deciding to take her arch-nemesis's challenge. "A god of thunder from Norse myth. He's stronger than anyone else. I've seen him lift a car once with only his bare hands all on his own."

Now she only accepted this challenge just to see their reactions, not that she's even expecting them to actually believe her, which realistically, they most likely won't. And their reaction?

They were laughing like hyenas.

"Oh, that's rich!" Jill snorted in an unattractive fashion, wiping away imaginary tears. "That's gotta be the shittiest thing I've ever heard!"

"Related to a god? Him!? THAT loser?!" ribbed the rich blonde brat, spitting in the process. "H.F.S., as if! I mean, if anything, I would be related to one. Think about it. I'm rich as hell, I'm prettier, everyone wants what I have and I got a studmuffin boyfriend. I got everything. Or better yet, Booker should be related to a god or even be one for that matter. Have you seen those rock-hard abs of his as opposed to Bengtsson's noticeable jelly belly? Like he thinks nobody's noticed."

"Fuck you!" The red panda girl roared.

"Uh, Mei, let's maybe not push this any further. I mean, no offense, but it is kinda your fault we're in this situation." Miriam stepped into the incoming argument in an attempt to play peacemaker.

"Mir!" balked Mei.

"Yeah, Mei!" Heather jumped at the chance to pin all the blame on her enemy.

"You shut up!" Miriam snapped at the grumpy cheer captain. "Look, it's fairly obvious that we're already ruining camp for all of us and if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

"Uh, yeah." gripped Kayley, wearily filing her nails. "Ya think? I mean, we didn't ask to be here. We all wanted to-"

"Sun tan on the beach. Yeah, we've heard this shit the first time." Priya snarked at them in annoyance from hearing about their ruined vacation plans."

"What? No! I wanted to visit Malibu!" The English girl corrected, sharpening her glare.

"But you said it was going to be Atlantic City!" Abby shouted at her. "Where you'd meet Josh Groban or some crap like that!"

"Point is….!" Miriam interrupted everyone, getting close to reaching her breaking point with all this bickering and tit-for-tat nonsense. "...either we all get our acts together and learn to put our differences aside or we can push our luck and see how far our punishment can get. Because the way I see it, if one side gets punished, then so does the other. So why don't we do society a favor and act like big girls for once. Huh?"

Make no mistake, the tension in the room was still as thick and as impeccable as can be since all we're still irate and cross with each other to even think of putting their rivalry at a halt, but slowly, Miriam's words took a second to finally sink in when they realized that maybe she wasn't wrong since they're all digging their own graves the more they fight and argue. So, for now at least, a brief truce had to be brought into effect effective immediately.

"Fine." Heather growled, reluctantly agreeing.

But then suddenly, Abby's stomach was starting to act up and she winced in pain and gasped in horror. The realization that the side effects of the laxatives she had taken coming back with a vengeance seized her. She groaned, clutching her poor belly while trying her best to keep it in.

"And what's your problem?" The blonde rich girl snapped, seeing the plump Korean girl's sudden discomfort.

It was reaching a point where poor Abby couldn't take it anymore. The struggle was too big of a fight for her since it kept worsening and worsening like a balloon being inflated with too much air before it could finally pop. In the end, Abby lost the battle…

PPPPpppppffpfpfpfppppppppppppppppppppppp!

It sputtered with a nauseously bubbly soprano that roared out of the girl's enormous backside like gurgling water, releasing a toxic air pollution that would be tantamount to an ecological disaster like a radioactive chemical spill or a landfire fire and it came with the most expected of reactions from all residents of the now fogged-up cabin. All had backed away from the embarrassed Korean girl at a mere instant, trying to get a distance away from the nose-tingling cloud she created, but it was terribly in vain. The best they could do was cover their noses, hold their breaths, fanning the air and try not to smell the gas or else they'd pass out.

"Eeeeewwwww!" chorused the disgusted QRQs.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jill screamed, looking ready to be sick.

"You disgusting pig!" Heather cursed at the sheepish girl on the bed, holding her nose.

Abby was certainly abashed, but not too surprised since this was the QRQs' price to pay for their laxative prank on them days ago. Not could stop her face from turning a shade of red, unfortunately.

"...Uh, excuse me." She peeped, demeaned.

All sat comfortably and warmly around the campfire they had helped set up by gathering some firewood out of the molting branches from the trees in their surrounding area and Kris used his lightning powers to get a fire going, which amazed all of his friends. They enjoyed the warmth of the fire and by now, the others were egging Stig on to explore his shapeshifting abilities with them. Try to see what else he can change into. And there the reluctant goth was in the form of a raccoon.

"That's cute, but creepy." Willow snickered.

"Ooh, ooh! Turn into something else! Uh, an otter!" Stacy eagerly requested, wanting some more cute and cuddly.

With an eye roll, Stig delivered and transformed into a cute river otter, which made the blonde girl squeal with delight.

"Oh, what about a bunny rabbit?"

Then he turned into just that. A lop-eared bunny, to be exact. The squeal was even louder this time and her eyes even bigger with stars and hearts, bursting with kawaii happiness.

"Alright, cutsie-pie, I wanna turn." Willow stepped up, already done with the girl indulging herself into fluffy cuteness. "I want something deadly like….like a bat."

Now Stig was more than happy to oblige to the pink-haired one's request as they both shared a fondness for the deadly and terrifying. So as per her request, he turned into a vampire bat and flew around the campsite, over everyone's heads while Stacy squeaked with fright and tried swatting him away.

Then he sat back down and turned into a goliath birdeater, which made Stacy scream.

"Sick!" Moose cheered with a shit-eating grin plastered on his fat lips.

Done with that form, Stig decided to have a little bit of fun changing into the deadliest animals he could think of. He became an aye-aye, then a coati, then a giant hippopotamus, then a white rhinoceros, then a saltwater crocodile, then a western diamondback rattlesnake, then a black mamba, then a poison dart frog, then a scorpion, then a cape buffalo, then a cassowary, then an Asian giant hornet, then a camel spider, then a huntsman spider….

"Make him stop! Make him stop!" Stacy was wigging out now after seeing too many scary animals that could pose a dangerous and fatal threat to humankind.

"Okay, Stig, take a break from that, alright?" Kris laughed softly before ordering his brother to knock it off before the poor girl had a panic attack.

And he did as he was told, he changed back to human form.

"Fine, fine. But I was really starting to enjoy scaring the crap outta her."

But as he spoke, something wasn't right.

His voice suddenly sounded….feminine.

Every eye gazed upon the person before them and peeled open wider than humanly possible and this….girl who only looked like Stig in every way. She had his long curtains of midnight black hair, his alabaster pale skin, his clothes right down to his piercings. Her voice was of a dark octave like she had a soft growl in her tone as she spoke like the undead.

"Stig?" asked Roar, trying to make sure this person was him.

Or rather, her now.

"Yeah, what?" She responded, which immediately confirmed everyone's suspicions. But now she started to notice something about this by the sound of her voice. "Why do I sound like that?"

"Holy crap, that's so weird. How's that even possible? You look like you, except…you aren't." Rudolf spoke up.

"What do y-" Stig was still confused until she felt her chest and her breath fell short when she felt a pliable pair of bumps on it. This brought a tremendous margin of shock and genuine surprise and just to be sure of it, she felt a hand between her legs and didn't feel anything there anymore, bringing a gasp up out of her mouth that got caught in her throat.

"Oh my god, I'm a girl! What the fuck?!" She cried in an undetermined tone of voice, the feeling of which couldn't be decided. Was it surprise, confusion or despair? Who knows?

"Better believe it." smirked Willow, quite fond of the idea of Stig as a female.

"Developmentally, this isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to me in my opinion." Stig shook her head.

"So ya got boobies now!" Moose's mouth ran as his mind went wild. This comment, however, earned annoyed glances from the only other two women in their group - Stacy and Willow. "And a vagina, too! What does that even feel like?!"

"I'm not comfortable answering that question." The gender-swapped goth answered modestly.

"What's all this about?" asked Lars from afar where other band members sat next to their campfire near the teens.

"Stig just turned into a girl!" Rudolf shouted excitedly.

"Huh."

That was all he could say before turning around.

But then suddenly, Stig focused on her abilities again to try and correct her gender to the correct identity as she felt her new breasts deflate and vanish, her genitalia swap to a package and her hips and thighs thinned until she has at last transitioned back into a boy.

"That feels better now." He said with relief, his voice regaining that deep, masculine tenor.

"Aw." Stacy whined, shoulders sagging in disappointment. "Now it's just me and Willow."

"Talk to animals, turn into animals, magic tricks and now you can change genders? Far out." said the goth girl with profound astonishment. "I wonder what else you got."

"I hope to find out." Stig shrugged.

"I won't lie, it wasn't too peculiar seeing you as a woman." Kris joked. "Seeing as how, well, you kinda look like one already."

"Hey, fuck you, man!" His brother hissed at him, but with amusement clinging to his words. "But I did, though, think I could be either one. Man or woman. And there was a time when I even went for a bit of both. Long time ago."

"W-What do you mean by that?" Toshio stuttered perplexingly.

"Long time ago before I met Priya…." The dark-haired boy sighed deeply in and out very slowly as he casted a mile-long sense of nostalgic eeriness on his face. "...there was this…boy that I hung out with a couple times. His name was Cody Wilson from seventh grade. During our outings together, I started developing feelings for him. Romantic feelings, which he never seemed to notice. But eventually, I think I realized why that was. When he took me out to get ice cream, I jumped at the chance to express my true feelings to him, that I wanted to be…well, more than friends with him. He did not take this well."

Everyone, even Moose, was gobsmacked.

"You can imagine my surprise when he absolutely freaked out. I mean, he really freaked out. He just flew the handle at me, disgusted at the idea of ever being in that kind of relationship with another boy." They all could swear Stig's face and his voice devolve in a state of depression. "He yelled at me, called me names, said he'd never want to be with a 'fairy' like me. I was just devastated. It came as a great horrifying shock to me seeing a kid my age rant at me like that just for saying that I was in love with him. He even threw his ice cream in my face. After that, he never spoke another word to me again. Never came over to see me, he wouldn't even look at me whenever I saw him. But it's fine, you know. I don't need that fucknut anyways. Priya's all I need."

"Damn." Carter muttered, wincing.

"Never imagined a boy and boy getting together. Everything's all upside-down." Ratatoskr hummed.

"Well, you know what? Fuck that guy." Stacy cursed with a toughened exterior. "That's right. To hell with him. If he can't accept a gay boy, then I don't feel sorry for him. Not that I'm gay, but I do feel for them. I still hope to find a boy to share my life with one day."

She looked toward Toshio as she said this aloud with unhinted honesty and hopeful precedence. She smiled warmly and welcomingly as if to convey a message that she hoped said boy would be a certain someone she already knows. Toshio blushed when he looked back at her and he tightened his lips, his heart fluttered and his face felt warm.

"If ya think you got it rough, ya should live wit' me at mah house." Moose maintained, clenching his fists. "Mah parents hated each ottah. They'd ahgue, they'd ignore each ottah, but they tried to make it work. And mah dad, he is a hard-ass sonuvabitch. His only best friends are a bottle and a cigar. He'd come home late at night drunk off his ass or tired from playin' poker wit' his bar buddies and he even brought home another woman with him. They were both drunk that time. He thinks ah still don't remember that since me and my siblin's were young at the time."

"Are you serious? Like, actually serious?" Rudolf gasped with shock as unbelievably flummoxed as every other listening teen in the circle.

As much of an asshole Moose was long ago back in middle school, Kris never once thought the oversized boy had problems of his own back at home. And from what he can tell in respect of the behemoth's depressing story, it would seem that he's had it far much worse. He, Bruce and Debbie have to put up with a drunk jackass of a father who wastes his spare time drinking, smoking, staying out late at bars, gambling, cheating on his wife, this was certainly not the kind of homelife for a kid to grow up in. But then Kris was struck by a thought.

"Those, uh,...porno mags you'd bring to school with you." Kris addressed with a low voice, hesitantly. "Those weren't yours, right?"

"Porno mags?" Stacy whispered to Willow and Stig with both disgust and revelation.

"Nah." The burly kid shook his head, sighing. "They're mah dad's. Ah just take them to school wit' me and show them off just to look cool. He keeps them undah his bed, along with the….y'know, the u-undahgarments of his girlfriend."

Now all of them were cringing with disgust and horror since this yarn was getting ten more layers of disturbing.

"That's when mah mom walked in on me and their bedroom and wouldn't ya know it…..she was pissed." Moose deflated a bit, looking quite defeated and remorseful. "They fought like they never fought before and it scared me and mah brother and sister. It was the craziest that evah happened. And mom, she just completely lost it. She screamed, she swore, she punched him, kicked him, she broke stuff with his favorite baseball bat and finally, she packed up her things n' just took off, leaving us alone with him. And the worst part? He really needed someone to blame."

In saying this, Moose pensively stood up and held his breath as he gently lifted up his shirt to reveal his large, bare stomach and chest to the group and with the horrified expressions they all beheld on their faces, the sight was frighteningly dark and unnerving.

There decorated on the soft flesh of his lower abdomen were…

….cigarette burns.

Lots of them.

And turning around,...scars. That appeared to be, judging by their shape, the work of the sharp whip of a belt or a similar weapon with a snap powerful enough to inflict such gruesome injuries on the body.

Kris, for the most part, felt like he was going to be sick.

"And Bruce and Debbie?" Moose continued, putting his shirt down. "They needed a role model in their lives. With parents like mine, they would never have lasted long. As an older brother, it's kinda your job to look aftah ya younger siblings even if yer parents can't."

"Well, I will say honestly, I'm truly sorry to hear that." Willow was legitimately sympathetic. "I mean, as much of a giant douche you were, I can't imagine anyone wanting to live with that growing up."

"And you still live with him?" Stig cried, dumbfounded.

"Well, yeah." The big guy admitted. "It's not like we have anywhere else t' go. And he would get supah pissed if we even thought about leavin'. The only reason he wants us around is to have someone to take his drunken rages out on. He already blames me for mom walkin' out on us. He thinks I ruined his life, that I'm the reason he's such a total losah."

"You should try kicking his ass." Stig suggested darkly.

"What?" sputtered Stacy, eyes turning round.

"But ah'd make things worse." Moose denied, gulping.

"You'll at least be asserting yourself instead of taking it like a pussy."

"Hey! I ain't no pussy!" Moose barked back.

"Then maybe use that. Use that rage for something useful. Show them you aren't one." explained the cold-faced goth.

"What he means to say is…" Kris jumped into the conversation. "...you're not alone. In fact, after my dad was murdered in front of me, it was like my life was unfolding. I was too young to realize it, but as I got older, it became much clearer. My mom would drown her sorrows in booze and neglect me, but she came around to be the parent I needed. Since then, though, I couldn't stand myself. I had convinced myself that maybe it was my fault he died, like maybe I should've done something if I wasn't so puny and helpless. And it felt better when I would hurt myself."

He lifted his tunic shirt up to reveal his own self-inflicted scars on his stomach, much to their horror.

"But it was through Stig and my friends and Mei and her friends that I found meaning in my life." A smile placed itself on his lips after the somber feeling had settled. "It's thanks to all of them that I'm able to live my life to the fullest. But of course, it's still crazy to see my dad alive again after watching him get murdered. It almost makes me wish I'd get to do stuff with him that I never could've."

"And now he's a bear god." Willow remarked.

"Demigod, but yeah."

"And what about them?" Moose gestured to the band members sitting near them. "Ah still can't believe that they're actually Nörthfölk in the flesh. Ah've been listening to their songs to escape the shit-based reality of mah home for a long tahme."

"You're a Nörtherner, too!?" shrieked Rudolf like a firecracker going off.

"Hell yeah. Ah've got all their albums in mah room. Ah listen to them wit' this old-timey recorder machine in the attic."

"You kidding. I've got their records, too." smirked Stig. "Those guys are the shit, let me tell you."

Meanwhile, Roar wasn't paying much attention to the conversation going on around the fire as he was staring blankly off into space far away from them as if he was in a trace or a daze. Almost as if he was waiting for something to occur. What it was exactly was that his sense of foresight was going off in flares. Something was telling his senses that something was about to happen.

Something was about to appear out of nowhere with sharp teeth and penchant for brutal violence.

And it will be happening soon.

Sooner than soon.

"Roar? Hey, man. You okay there?" Toshio asked the distracted boy, pulling him out of his hypnotic reverie.

"Get outta the way!" He suddenly screamed and ran away with the ax as if running away from a giant beast. Because, in due time,...that would definitely be the case.

"What's gotten into hi-?"

.

.

.

.

ZIPP!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh-hhhhhhh-hhhhh!"

And just like that, Roar's suspicions came true with the strength and speed of a fired bullet.

From completely out of nowhere inches away from where their campsite rested, a huge tear materialized out of thin air and as it did, it sent a powerful blast that knocked everyone back onto the ground painfully before they could ask themselves what the matter was. All members of Nörthfölk instinctively sprung into action, unsheathing and brandishing their weapons as soon as…..it appeared.

It ripped and tore its way through the tear scratched into the very fabric of reality with a meaty growl and a drooling mouth full of sharp teeth.

A massive, reptilian, draconic-like beast that was very much like a large snake with two legs as they were the only legs it had. Dark electric blue scaled body with flame-shaped frills lining up either side of its serpentine body from its head to its neck, dangerously pointed fangs, red lizard eyes with murderous intent, a forked tongue like a snake and saurian claws that could slice through anything. This thing was a dragon, except it had no wings and only two front legs to support itself as it loomed in on its new prey, forcing the teens to launch into survival mode to escape the beast's hungry wrath.

It hissed at them, snarled at them, swiped its claws, in need for a swallow of flesh.

"NIDHOGG!" screamed Georg as he fired arrows at the scaly monster attacking their campsite.

"What is that thing?!" shouted Toshio, running for cover along with Stacy. At the same time, Ratatoskr screamed and also ran for cover, seeing the all-too-familiar creature.

"He guards Yggdrasil's roots, wherever they are!" Diana explained, spear in hand, while assisting her bandmates in trying their best in warding off the fearsome and ferocious Nidhogg (Nordic: ᚾᛁᛏᚼᚬᚴᚴ), also spelled as Níðhǫggr or Níðhögg, the Root Gnawer; a giant draconic lyndwyrm and the Guardian and Protector of the Roots of the World Tree of Yggdrasil as he appeared out of nowhere on Hel's orders to try and deal with the teens the gods are trying hard to train to fight against her. For the teens, the beast proved to be a far deadlier threat than they've ever dealt with. No other creature they've encountered had this much fight in them. He was much considerably more intelligent in nature when facing off against his enemies as proven when he smacked against a few of the teens with his claws, effectively causing some harm and roared like the territorial apex predator he was.

"Skjálfa!" Willow fired a mystic arrow into his face to stun in, to confuse it. But it only worked for a second as Nidhogg roared at her face and wiped her with his tail. She cried in pain when it felt like she was hit with a bullwhip excruciatingly more harshly than intended, but was mostly fine for the most part.

"Go for his legs!" instructed Marvin.

Stacy screamed with fierce determination as she struck Nidhogg with her winter powers, hitting him with the chilliest wind and atmosphere of the northern hemisphere during the coldest months of winter, attempting to frost his arms until they grew numb and useless and Moose jumped onto his head and proceeded to punch his head with his fists, but the malice-striker just got even more pissed off as he roared and violently shook his head to get the fat boy off of him while emitting a sort-of cosmic blue energy from his mouth as he let out his battle cry. Eventually it worked, but he was unable to move now that his legs were asleep due to the cold.

"Fálki lið!" Stig fired spectral falcons to rain down onto the lyndwyrm's head once it was down, appearing to effectively damage him before suddenly his hands felt increasingly warm.

In the palms of his hands were balls of fire that barely hurt at all. This brought a sudden surprise to him. It appeared that now he could manipulate flames.

"Stig!" Kris screamed.

With the goth distracted, Nidhogg roared into his face, breathing Bifröst energy at him in the process before he overcame the numbness in his legs before he opened his stomach, creating a portal that sucked everything in it such as rocks and the teens as well had he not closed it back up and shot that rocks at everyone like projectiles, making them duck for cover until he happened upon the squirrel within his sight, who squeaked in fright.

Nidhogg snarled when he saw him, inching closer to him.

"Oh, hey, uh, Nidhogg. H-H-How's it going, my good friend." He whimpered, backing away and sweating. "Uh, see, funny thing here. Some would say it was a different squirrel giving you these strange tips now and then and let me tell you, it's really embarrassing, even more. Especially since it kinda looked like me, only it wasn't. But I understand the confu-AAAAAHHHHH!"

THWIP!

Nidhogg had not the patience to deal with his excessive gibbering at the moment for he swiped at him with his tail, flinging the talking squirrel into the air, as far away from the area as possible.

"I tire of your prattle, rodent!" snarled Nidhogg in a fierce death growl of a voice.

"Ratatoskr!" screamed Kris in fear. "Alright."

As payback for what happened, Kris used his ring to bring forth the Draupnir spear. When he did, the root-gnawer turned to face them and hissed when he landed blow with his claws at the boy, which he jumped out of the way off, avoiding more blows from those reptilian claws before Kris yelled and stabbed at his face with the spear, earning a shriek of pain. Nidhogg jumped back and then Kris felt the spear vibrate and glow like it was radiating divine power. Then he lunged the spear forward, which, to his surprise, caused a copy of the spear to fly and embed itself into Nidhogg's head. While pleasantly taken back, he repeated this action, creating and launching more copies of the spear into Nidhogg's face while all watched by the sidelines.

Now angered by the Norwegian boy's defiance, Nidhogg growled aggressively and with burning irritation when his whole face and his face got stuck with more spears.

"Enough!" He thundered and leaped at him with his mouth to bite at him, hopefully his head, which made Kris jump back and smack the butt end of the spear against the ground. When it did, all of the copies exploded on the lizard beast's head, knocking him out supposedly.

Kris couldn't be more spellbound.

"Wow. So that's what it does." He marveled, eyeing his weapon with pure wonder.

"That was made with Draupnir, wasn't it?" asked Stefan.

Before Kris could answer, Nidhogg suddenly snapped away from his brief state of unconsciousness to perform a sneak attack on his attacker, but Kris hopped into the air and onto his snout before those teeth could latch onto his comparatively-small body and began punching at it and stabbed at it with his spear some more. Stefan joined in, following the boy's example and they were both holding onto Nidhogg's head for dear life as the lyndwyrm guardian waved his head all around.

"Really wish I stayed…" Nidhogg slammed them against the ground, but they still didn't let go. "...back in Asgard!"

The teens did their best to try and attack the beast where it hurt the most when the other bandmates grabbed at Nidhogg's lizard body and helped lift it up and toss him far away, slamming him right against a giant, thick tree, temporarily incapacitating it. Kris and Stefan were knocked off as the monster's body fell to the ground and rejoined the others as it seemed like Nidhogg was finally dead to the teens.

"Oh mah god, that spear is nuts!" Moose exploded with exhilaration.

"Are you okay?" Stacy worriedly asked.

"Yeah. Shit, it was lik-"

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

They were wrong about him being dead, because Nidhogg once again sprang back to life and now a thousand times more angry than before as he roared into the night air with fury burning hotter than the sun itself. Right when the teens were about to cut their losses and take off running for their lives, Nidhogg opened up his stomach again to try and ensnare them this time. But Moose wasn't going to let that happen this time, so he grabbed a rock as it flew by him and mustering up all of his strength, he hurled it right at Nidhogg's face like hitting a bullseye. It smashed against his face, disorienting it. However, in his confusion, the lyndwyrm accidentally opened up another rift in reality from behind him. As Nidhogg fell backwards, he unknowingly dragged all the teens into the portal with him by the powerful suction of the open slot of his abdomen and although Nörthfölk fought with all their might to grab onto them and keep them from getting caught, it was in vain, because the teens all slipped from their grasp and fell straight through the rift just before it closed up finally, leaving the metal band all alone in the Vanaheim forest.

"Oh, fuck, no. This is not good." Stefan began to panic. Here they were keeping a close eye on the teens after sneaking out under the gods' noses and now they've been sucked into a portal with Nidhogg to lord knows where. They could be anywhere with that monster and it was their fault.

"We need to inform the gods now!" Lars demanded.

"Who knows what'll happen to them?!" Diana was panicking most of all.

Meanwhile, far away from where Ratatoskr had been flung far away into the trees, he groaned and regained consciousness as he tried to recall what had happened prior to his blackout and then gasped. Nidhogg left his station at the base of Yggdrasil's root under orders of Hel to dispose of the teens. Now he was panicking as well, scared for the lives of the teens and with Nidhogg on the loose, this could mean something awful and something terrible might happen to his new friends.

"Nidhogg!" He squeaked in horror. "Kris! The kids! Oh, Audhumbla's udders, this is a nightmare! I gotta warn the gods of this! They'll know what to do! Yeah, that's it!"

With no time to waste, he was off, scuttering through the trees, jumping from branch to branch to try and reach the gods of Asgard before it was too late. He couldn't let his new allies down after all they've been through together. And if Nidhogg, the gnawer of Yggdrasil's roots, was with them, chances of their survival could be at a heart-stopping minimum. However, something stopped him in his tracks. At first, it was at the corner of his eyes, but when he refocused them, his blood chilled.

Hel's shadow cut across the forest floor, looking to be on the prowl for something.

"Hel. Oh my." His mouth ran dry.

Deep inside of him, Ratatoskr had the instinct to find out what it was Hel was looking for. He quietly scurried through the forest, trailing the haunting shadow as it unknowingly led him down an unmarked trail through the dense undergrowth until a moment later, it slunk into a cave opening overlooking an enormous view of the Vanaheim landscape far down below most beautifully. Only the scene was about to take a tragic turn for as Ratatoskr watched,...a giant wolf jumped out of the cave opening and howled as the enlarged canine predator flew upwards into the sky, running fast and high until it disappeared making a beeline for the moon in the sky. Ratatoskr seemed like he would have a heart attack when the wolf got close enough to the moon, it then plummeted downward into the horizon, vanishing from view and as a result of this unexplainable phenomenon that not even science could decipher, night turned back into day in an instant. The sunlight shone brightly over the land once again.

This was definitely not good at all. It was only getting much worse.

"Rise, my nephews. Rise and fulfill your destiny."

Ratatoskr overheard the echo of the Goddess of Death's eerie voice from inside the cave and his tiny squirrel mind cracked the code in a heartbeat. Hel's using her dark magic to call upon the services of Sköll (Old Norse: Skǫll) and Hati Hróðvitnisson, the sons of Fenrir and her nephews to send them after the sun and the moon, respectively, getting them to chase both celestial bodies, causing the days and nights to come and go faster until they swallow them both whole to plunge the world into eternal darkness, bringing it closer to Ragnarök.

"Oh, buttons." The squirrel gasped in a whisper.

The gods needed to hear of this at once. Ratatoskr scurried away and found a nice looking tree for him to use, disappearing into a unseen wormhole back to Asgard to warn all of what he has witnessed and to obtain their help in getting the teens back.

Wherever they went.

Now that they have a moment together at their own little camp, the teens start to open themselves up to each other more. To let the record show, Stig is bisexual. There was a time when he fell in love with another boy, but it didn't go so well and it culminated into a string of homophobic slurs. While Stig is a bi, he's leaning more towards women, mainly Priya. I bet it was a tough time back in the early 2000's for the LGBTQ+ community to put themselves out there and be themselves. And they're right. Those who don't appreciate or accept gays are real douchebags. And now Stig has the power to transition his gender back and forth from male to female as well as pyrokinesis.

And we are given a much deeper look in Moose's personal life at home and without oversimplification, it's a real hectic nightmare for sure. Living in a smelly neighborhood with arguing, spiteful parents who argue all the time and a drunk father who hates his family and his wife, only interested in getting drunk and gambling. And worse, he's been cheating on his wife, an act that Moose had inadvertently exposed to his mother, leading to their scary confrontation and eventually her departure. Typically, the father chooses to blame his son for this and use him as a punching bag to take all his frustrations out on. In fairness, it may have been Moose's fault for his mom finding out about the infidelity, but was it really, though? Should the child really be at fault in this particular scenario?

Meanwhile at camp, the girls are forced to bunk with the QRQs as punishment for their childish antics.

During their time together in Vanaheim, the teens have the misfortune of running into Nidhogg, the malice-striker and the dragon or lindwyrm who gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil to prevent overgrowth and protects them from harm. However, he neglects his duties when Hel sics him on the teens to prevent them from fighting with the gods. To make matters worse, the teens have been pulled into a portal by Nidhogg along with him while Hel frees Sköll and Hati to get them chasing after the sun and the moon.

How will this affect the gods' plans against her and the coming of Ragnarök? Find out soon in future chapters.

Next Chapter: The teens and Nidhogg wind up back in the real world where Stig becomes something larger to try and ward off the beast. When the gods catch up to them, Odin finally explains what Hel's reasons are for ending the world.

Next Update: Sept 15, 2023