Chapter 122: Four Warriors from Asgard
The repeating energy pattern Tony Stark had been tracking finally stabilized just before dawn.
"Four signatures," Tony announced, his fingers flying across the holographic interface inside the mobile lab. "Human-sized. They're coming down fast."
Maria Hill didn't ask for a second confirmation. She keyed her radio, ordering the S.H.I.E.L.D. perimeter to fall back and clearing the expected landing zone in the desert. She already had the warning; now she was executing the plan.
At the New York Sanctum, Ethan received the alert. He raised a hand, carving a portal directly into the S.H.I.E.L.D. encampment.
Natasha stepped through beside him in tactical gear, her new sidearm secured against her thigh. Gwen followed just as the sky above the desert began to split open.
A blinding column of prismatic light slammed into the desert floor, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and sand. The sheer force of the Bifrost shook the ground beneath their feet.
When the light faded, four figures stood in the scorched earth, heavily armed and clad in Asgardian armor.
Hill's agents held their positions behind the cleared perimeter. Thor recognized the arrivals before the dust had even settled and pushed past the barricade.
Thor broke into a massive grin, pushing past the barricades.
"My friends!" Thor shouted.
Volstagg let out a booming laugh, rushing forward to pull Thor into a crushing embrace. Fandral and Hogun followed, clasping his arms with fierce relief.
"We feared you were dead," Volstagg said.
Sif stepped forward last. Her restrained smile faded as she looked over Thor's borrowed clothes and empty hands.
"Where is Mjolnir?" she asked.
Thor glanced toward the crater. "It no longer answers me."
Jane Foster stood a few feet away, watching the reunion. She looked from the armored warriors to Ethan, realizing the sorcerer's impossible prediction had just unfolded exactly as he said it would.
Thor stepped back from his friends, the joy of the reunion giving way to the grinding anxiety he had carried since Loki's visit. He was stunned that they had disobeyed the throne to find him.
"What is happening in Asgard?" Thor asked. "My father... is he truly gone?"
Sif shook her head. "Odin is alive, Thor. He is in the Odinsleep."
Thor exhaled, a ragged breath of absolute relief.
"But Loki has taken the throne," Sif continued, her expression hardening. "He told us your exile was permanent. He forbade us from travelling to Midgard to find you."
Thor turned slowly. He looked past Jane and Sif, locking eyes with Ethan.
Everything the sorcerer had claimed was true. Loki had lied. He had manipulated Thor's grief to secure his own power.
Ethan didn't offer a smug smile. He didn't demand an apology.
"I told you your friends would bring the answer," Ethan said simply.
Thor gave him a slow nod. "You were right."
Thor's gaze moved toward the crater, where Mjolnir remained buried beneath the floodlights.
Sif followed his eyes. "Then take up your hammer and return with us."
Thor remained still.
"I cannot," he said.
The answer wiped the relief from his friends' faces.
Volstagg looked between Thor and the crater. "But Loki deceived you."
"Loki lied about my father," Thor said. "He did not place the judgment upon Mjolnir."
Ethan said nothing. Thor no longer needed the lesson explained to him.
Sif stepped closer. "Then we will find another way home."
Thor looked back at his friends. "Heimdall did not send you back?"
Hogun shook his head. "He opened the path for our arrival. He has not answered since."
Light-years away, in the gleaming halls of Asgard, Loki sat upon the golden throne.
A palace guard knelt at the base of the dais.
"The Bifrost has been used, my king. Sif and the Warriors Three have gone to Midgard."
Loki's grip tightened on Gungnir until his knuckles turned white.
They had reached Thor. Sif would tell him about Odin, and Thor would know exactly who had deceived him.
Loki rose from the throne and carried Gungnir toward Odin's vault.
He stopped in front of a towering, faceless suit of spiked armor.
Loki raised Gungnir. Golden energy travelled from the spear into the waiting armor.
"Go to Midgard," he ordered. "Destroy my brother."
Inside the mobile lab, the Plumber analyzer sounded another alarm.
Tony looked at the new reading. The Bifrost was opening again, but the destination had shifted several miles away from the crater.
"Another transit," he called out. "Outside the town."
Hill was already reaching for her radio when a column of prismatic light tore down from the sky beyond Puente Antiguo. The ground shook beneath the encampment, rattling equipment across the lab tables.
Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three rushed outside. Ethan followed them through a portal that opened above the road leading into town.
The Bifrost faded, leaving a scorched circle in the desert.
A towering suit of dark metal stood at its center.
It had no face, only layers of armored plates folded across an empty opening. As the machine took its first heavy step toward Puente Antiguo, those plates slowly began to separate.
Sif drew her sword.
"The Destroyer."
The opening in its face filled with fire.
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