Chapter 102: Chapter 102 - Worthy by Technicality
Heimdall stood at the centre of the observatory, watching the Nine Realms through eyes that measured more than distance. The unrest and rebellions were ending. Across Asgard, warriors had already begun celebrating a peace bought with enough blood to make the songs respectable.
Thor left the feast before the first barrel was empty.
His boots crossed the golden floor behind Heimdall. Mjolnir hung at his side, and the remains of battle still marked his armour.
"You are troubled."
Heimdall did not turn from Midgard. "Jane Foster entered a place where the boundaries between realms have weakened. She vanished from my sight."
Thor’s grip closed around Mjolnir. Heimdall had seen armies gathering beyond worlds and enemies moving behind walls. He had watched Thor on Midgard when Thor had possessed neither title nor power. If Jane had disappeared from that gaze, whatever concealed her needed immediate attention.
"Send me to her last location."
Heimdall drew Gjallarhorn from its rest and guided the sword into the observatory’s mechanism. "I cannot see what awaits you there."
Lightning moved across Thor’s armour. "Then I shall tell you when I return."
The Bifrost opened beneath him.
-
Thor reached Midgard in the middle of another explosion.
The Bifrost released him above the floor of an abandoned London warehouse. Dark crimson force was already fading from the walls, leaving broken boards and scattered cartons behind. Two police officers were pulling themselves upright. Jane lay near a wooden post, motionless but breathing.
Darcy stood between her and Lucius Noctis with a yellow contraption aimed at the larger man’s chest.
Thor remembered the thing. His first meeting with Darcy was followed by a hospital and several people refusing to believe that he was the son of Odin. The memory remained shameful as that contraption had defeated him. His lack of power and judgment had managed that without assistance.
"Darcy, wait!"
Her finger tightened before the warning reached her.
Thor knew little about Lucius beyond what battle had shown him. They had fought the Chitauri army that Loki brought to Midgard, though not beside one another for long. Lucius had been difficult to overlook. He stood taller and broader than Thor, flew without a hammer, commanded lightning, and moved steel with nothing but his will.
He had also been cruel.
Chitauri soldiers had broken against an invisible force while Lucius moved through them with the calm of a butcher who disliked his customers. He healed wounded Midgardians between attacks, then returned to the killing with no change in expression. When the Midgardians launched their own weapon at their people, Lucius and Tony Stark, wearing armour with a deeply unfortunate colour scheme, carried it through the portal and destroyed the Chitauri mothership.
That history made Lucius useful in a war. It did not make attacking him sensible.
The stun gun fired.
-
Darcy watched the two prongs cross the gap toward Lucius.
They stopped a few inches from his chest.
The wires snapped straight behind them, but the prongs remained suspended in empty air. Lucius raised his gaze from the weapon to her face. His turquoise eyes were gone beneath an electric-blue glow.
Darcy kept the trigger pressed. The charge crackled along the wires and died at the trapped metal.
Lucius lifted one finger. "Let me teach you the meaning of taser."
Lightning left his hand.
It struck Darcy high in the chest and threw her backwards. The warehouse crossed her vision too quickly for fear to catch up. Her shoulder hit the wall first, followed by the rest of her, and the floor arrived after both.
Breathing became a problem that required planning.
By the time the room stopped folding over itself, Thor was kneeling beside Jane. He held her face between his hands and searched her for wounds while Darcy’s intern scrambled out from behind the discarded workbench.
Thor looked over one shoulder. "You should not strike a woman, Lucius Noctis."
The electric blue faded, revealing turquoise again. Lucius lowered his hand. "I do not discriminate between men and women when dealing with enemies, Thor Odinson."
Thor helped Jane upright. Her eyes remained closed, and dark crimson lines moved beneath the skin of her neck before vanishing under her clothes.
He pointed Mjolnir toward Darcy, who was trying to convince her arms to support her weight. "She is neither warrior nor shield-maiden. You should not have used lightning against her."
Lucius glanced at the stun gun. "I suggest you keep your counsel to yourself, Prince of Asgard. Your harmless friend attacked someone she knew could kill her. That is either malice or stupidity, and I am not required to reward either."
Jane’s eyes opened.
Her gaze found Thor first, then Lucius, and finally Darcy against the wall. Thor smiled because she was awake and because relief had made him foolish.
That aloof smile was erased as Jane slapped him.
The blow turned his face half an inch. Thor blinked at her. "Why did you strike me?"
Jane touched his cheek as though confirming the answer with her fingers. "I wanted to make sure you were real."
She slapped him again.
"And that was for leaving and not coming back."
Thor accepted the second blow. He deserved some portion of her anger, though Midgardian courtship appeared to rely upon rules no one had thought to write down.
Jane pulled free of his arms and crossed the warehouse toward Darcy. The intern had reached her first and was checking the scorched fabric over her chest.
"What happened?"
Darcy forced air through a throat that still felt too narrow. "I tried to tase him. He took it personally."
The intern pointed toward Lucius. "He shot her with lightning."
Jane turned.
The crimson beneath her skin brightened with her anger. She marched toward Lucius while the two police officers wisely chose not to place themselves in her path.
"How dare you attack my assistant!"
Lucius looked past her to Darcy. "Assistant. That explains the standard of judgement."
Jane raised her hand.
The crimson force inside her erupted before the slap could land.
Darcy covered her face. The blast crossed the warehouse with enough force to tear boards from the floor. Both police officers flew backwards. Thor caught the edge of it and struck a stack of cartons hard enough to carry them with him.
Lucius did not move an inch.
The force divided around his body and hammered the wall behind him. His coat shifted. Nothing else did.
Jane staggered but kept her hand raised. Thor pushed free of the wreckage and saw what would happen next. Lucius had tolerated an insult from Darcy by throwing lightning through her chest. He would not allow Jane to try her luck because Thor cared for her.
Mjolnir left Thor’s hand.
He knew Lucius possessed a healer’s gift. During the invasion, Thor had watched torn flesh close beneath the man’s hands while dying Midgardians stood again. If Mjolnir wounded him, he would recover.
Jane, on the other hand, might not recover from Lucius.
-
Lucius raised one eyebrow at Jane Foster.
The woman had crossed a warehouse to defend the idiot who had fired first, announced her outrage, and raised a hand against someone over seven feet tall. Apparently, astrophysics did not require survival instincts.
He caught her with telekinesis before her palm moved another inch.
Mjolnir cut through the air behind her.
Lucius turned with speed no human eye could follow and caught the hammer in one hand. Its weight pulled against his arm for less than a heartbeat. The runic clauses he had carved into Odin’s enchantment recognised him, accepted the authority he had written for himself, and settled.
He flipped Mjolnir once, caught the handle in his palm, and turned back to Jane.
"It seems you and that bitch over there have grown accustomed to attacking people without consequences."
Jane hung a foot above the floor, frozen from the shoulders down. Her eyes followed Mjolnir. Anger gave way to disbelief, which was at least a marginal improvement in reasoning.
Lucius considered what lesson would survive the healing process.
Thor landed in front of him before he chose one. Awe had replaced the prince’s anger. He looked from Mjolnir to Lucius, then smiled as though the hammer had revealed a long-lost relative.
"I declare you worthy, Lucius Noctis."
Thor clasped his shoulder. "I misjudged your heart, but Mjolnir has corrected me. You are worthy, and we have fought an enemy side by side. From this day, I name you my shield-brother."
Odin’s magical security had not judged anything. Lucius had rewritten its rules until the hammer agreed with him, which was how most respectable authorities worked once enough pressure was applied.
He decided Thor’s version was better for his reputation.
Jane made an angry sound from inside the telekinetic hold. Thor remembered her.
"Now, brother, release her. She is precious to me."
Lucius lowered Jane to the floor and let Mjolnir turn in his hand once more before offering it back. "Of course I am worthy, Thor Odinson. I wonder how your brain functions well enough to think otherwise."
Thor accepted the hammer without offence. That was either maturity or a failure to notice the insult.
Lucius released Jane’s arms. "You have misjudged this woman as badly as you misjudged me. She will bring sorrow to you and your house."
Jane’s eyes widened. Crimson light spread beneath her skin and burst outward.
Lucius raised a shield.
The false Aether struck the curved field and folded around it. The concrete beneath his feet cracked, but the barrier held. Thor moved to Jane’s side as the light withdrew into her body.
"Please, brother." Thor caught her before she fell. "You are a healer. Help her."
Lucius looked down at the decoy he had built.
It was doing exactly what he designed it to do. It had bonded to Jane, copied the appearance and energy wave of the Aether, consumed enough life force to remain convincing, and attacked restraint. He will leave it as it is until Malekith has the opportunity to notice the bait and bite.
That would be irresponsible research practice.
Lucius placed one hand over Jane’s throat and followed the false Aether’s spread through her body. Pale healing light entered her skin. The crimson answered at once, but his shield tightened around her before another blast formed.
Thor watched his face. "Can you cure her?"
"I can prevent another discharge for now." Lucius moved his hand above Jane’s chest. "Something has attached itself to her life force. Removing it in a warehouse would be nearly impossible and needlessly dangerous."
Every word was technically true, which made the lie almost ethical.
Thor gathered Jane into his arms. "Asgard’s healers may know this affliction. Come with us."
Lucius allowed a pause long enough to make the decision look inconvenient. Asgard held healers, artefacts, royal archives, and an incoming attack he had gone to considerable effort to preserve. Refusing the invite would have been rude.
"For you, shield-brother, I will."
Thor walked out of the warehouse while carrying Jane and Lucius, walking next to him. He raised his gaze towards the sky and called for Uber daddy, "Heimdall!"
The Bifrost seized Thor, Jane, and Lucius. Lucius kept the shield locked around the false Aether until Earth vanished beneath them.
--
Darcy remained against the wall after the light disappeared.
Her hands rested over her chest, but the pain had climbed into her throat. Each breath came with a tremor she could not control. The intern crouched beside her and kept asking whether she could feel her fingers.
She could. She could also feel everything else, which seemed unfair.
Darcy had not lied when she told Lucius that she knew who he was. Everyone knew Lucius Noctis. He had fought aliens over Manhattan, healed people in the street, insulted the government on live television, and looked pleased about all three.
Knowing his name had not prepared her for him.
Thor had smiled when she reminded him that she had once beaten the mighty prince of Asgard with a taser. He had never explained that he had been unusually polite about it.
The first black car entered the industrial yard while she was still discovering the amazing world of consequences.
Three more followed. Men and women in dark clothes stepped out before the engines stopped, carrying cases and identification. The sight pulled Darcy back to New Mexico, where an organisation called SHIELD had arrived, taken years of research, and treated theft as a filing procedure.
She let her head rest against the wall.
"Of course it is them."
-
Nick Fury ended the call and placed the secure phone on his desk.
The agent in London was new. So were two of the other three people assigned to the gravitational anomaly. Noctis had seen to that during his retaliation against SHIELD. Hundreds of operatives had been exposed to intelligence services worldwide. Some were imprisoned. Others had been executed within days, before Fury could arrange an extraction or convince an angry government that friendship with SHIELD remained worth the embarrassment.
Replacing an international network did not happen because the recruitment department worked overtime. Languages could be taught. Covers could be built. Judgement took years, and survival took longer.
London was one of the few stations that had recovered enough to field a complete team. Fury had sent all four agents the moment the anomaly report reached him. Now they had found a scorched warehouse, injured civilians, an Asgardian Teleportation mark, and witnesses placing Thor and Noctis at the centre of it.
Peace had lasted long enough for lunch.
Fury leaned back and closed his eye.
The invasion of New York had taken every suspicion he possessed and promoted it to policy. Humanity had survived because some of the enhanced people had chosen to help at the right moment. That was not a defence strategy. It was gambling with better costumes.
He needed weapons, warning systems, and options that did not depend on asking unstable gods and vindictive mutants to feel charitable.
Noctis had denied them the best opportunity they had ever received. He had thrown nearly every usable piece of Chitauri technology and biological sample back through the portal before helping Stark deliver the nuclear payload to the mothership. What little inert wreckage remained had been divided among SHIELD, the World Security Council, and enough government laboratories to ensure that nobody received a useful amount.
SHIELD’s share had produced reports, arguments, and several expensive ways to confirm that alien machinery was, indeed, alien. It had not produced an energy weapon.
The political climate exacerbated the failure. One senator had demanded that enhanced people should pay for the damage caused while saving a city. Noctis responded by suspending public potion sales and allowing the sick to explain the consequences to their elected officials. Public support had shifted. Fury could no longer assume that pressure against an enhanced individual would be seen as protection rather than provocation.
He could not assume Noctis would help with the next disaster either.
That forced SHIELD to investigate every anomaly aggressively. Most would be equipment failures, frightened witnesses, or scientists mistaking bad data for the end of the world. Fury only needed to ignore one real threat for the planet to pay the difference.
His hand entered his coat pocket and closed around the communicator Carol Danvers had given him years ago.
The device represented an answer. It also represented a potential situation severe enough that every other answer had failed.
Fury released it and opened his eye.
He hoped he would never have to use it.
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