A GODS WEAKNESS [l.laufeyson]

THIRTY TWO

     Astrid and Heimdall have just finished boarding people onto the ship. Meanwhile, Loki has flown off to get the crown of Surtur, and Valkyrie and Thor are battling head-to-head with Hela.

"Go! Go now!" Thor shouts to the ship as their engines power up. Hela harpoons Thor. He goes down, grimacing in pain.

Hela begins to conjure an enormous manifestation of her power, a giant black spike from the bedrock of Asgard that stabs the ship and prevents it from leaving.

Astrid slightly loses her balance as she stumbles to the edge of the ship, and just when she thinks she's saved herself, a berserker grabs her and she is pulled out and goes tumbling down to the ground. Just before she hits the ground, a shield is formed around her that slowly places her on the bridge. She gets up unharmed and places a hand on her stomach.

"You are one incredible little baby." She smiles to herself. She can't wait to meet hers and Loki's little one. When she looks up, she notices that she is once again surrounded.

"Bring it on." She was tiring, but it wouldn't stop her. While fighting, she noticed more of them were still climbing up to the cruiser. No matter how much she fought them off, she just couldn't get to it. More kept coming. Suddenly, she could hear shots being fired from the ship. She looked up to see Skurge jump whilst still firing shots. Finally, the ship is freed from the spike and Astrid let's out a sigh of relief before continuing her fight.

"Hela!" Astrid looks to Skurge again as she hears him call out the Goddess of Deaths name. She notices him running towards Hela. However, she knows his strength and knows he can't take her on.

"Skurge, wait!"

Disappointed, Hela fires a blade through Skurge's heart. Skurge falls to the floor, dead... Astrid finally reaches Skurge but of course, it was too late. She kneels down next to him and closes his eyes.

"Thank you." She whispers to him. She had known him a few years now, not to mention he had just saved everyone on board. It's just a shame things had to happen the way they did. Astrid looks to Hela with a fire in her eyes. She gets up to join Thor and Valkyrie.

"Astrid? What are you still doing here?" Thor questions her.

"Well I didn't really have much of a choice." She didn't look away from Hela. "I got pulled out of the ship."

"You fell from that height!" Valkyrie looks up at the ship wondering how she got away unscathed. "How are you still standing?"

"Oh baby magic and all. You get the gist."

"Ah, the Princess of Vanaheim stands before me. And how do you think you can stop me?" Astrid stay's quiet as Hela walks towards her. Her hands on her daggers ready for any sort of attack. Hela then reaches for her stomach.

"It's a shame you'll never meet your heir." Hela pulls out her dagger. But before she can strike her, Astrid pushes her arm away to try strike her back. Valkyrie then jumps at Hela, trying to land a hit. Followed by Thor. The one on three battle goes on for some time.

~

With Thor and Astrid on the floor. Hela holds Valkyrie in her clutches as she watches the ship escape. She's furious and about to unleash hell, when all of a sudden, Astrid comes up behind her striking her in the back with her daggers. Hela cringes at the pain while letting out a cry of agony and let's go of Valkyrie to turn round and grab Astrid's neck to stab her in the side.

"Astrid!" Valkyrie screams for her friend as she sees Hela has hold of her. Astrid is suddenly in a moment of panic as Hela removes her dagger to try stab her again. But before she can, Astrid feels her powers rush to her like she did when she paralysed Frey. Her eyes glow along with her whole body and Hela is pushed away across the bridge. Astrid feels drained and collapses on the ground unconscious.

Hela gets up extremely angry, as she runs over to finish Astrid once and for all.

"Hela! Enough!" Thor stands in front of Astrid's unconscious body to protect her from further harm. Hela stops in her tracks. "You want Asgard? It's yours."

"Whatever game you're playing, it won't work. You can't defeat me."

"No, but he can." Exploding through the roof of the palace is Surtur. His arrival shakes the bedrock of Asgard and dislodges some of the foundation on the bridge and around the palace. Hela's eyes widen, she wasn't expecting this.

"No... NO!" Hela's attention is on Surtur as the palace collapses around him. She is unprepared for it. Mustering up all her remaining strength, Valkyrie drives Dragonfang through Hela's chest, effectively pinning her to the bridge. Refocused on Valkyrie, Hela goes to deliver a death blow when Thor bolts forward. He pulls Valkyrie from Hela's clutches and turns and fires lightning into Dragonfang which dislodges the section of the bridge that Hela is pinned to. The ground beneath Hela breaks free and she goes falling down into the expanding fissure in Asgard's bedrock. Badly injured, Thor and Valkyrie look up to see Surtur increasing in size and now towering over the palace. Thor heads over to Astrid who is still unconscious. He looks to her wound when suddenly a glow appears from it. It starts closing up, stopping the bleeding.

"Woah, that is one cool baby she has in there." Valkyrie couldn't believe it's powers.

"Tremble before me Asgard, for I am your reckoning!" Surtur swings his sword, destroying an entire city block. Thor and Valkyrie look up.

"The people are safe. That's all that matters."

"We're fulfilling the prophecy." Thor stands up, carrying Astrid in his arms.

"I hate this prophecy."

"So do I, but we have no choice."

All the time they were watching Surtur, they didn't notice Hulk run up from behind them and jump up to attack the creature.

"Hulk no! Stop it you moron."  It's not doing much damage, but the shock of Hulk's impact makes Surtur take a destructive step back. Hulk is trying to rip out one of Surtur's horns when Surtur reaches up and grabs him with a giant fiery hand. Surtur hurls Hulk away from him. Sends him crashing down. Hulk stumbles to his feet, dazed. After gathering his bearings, Hulk gets really angry and heads back towards Surtur for round two. But...

"Hulk, just for once in your life, don't smash!" Thor starts to panic as he needs to get them off Asgard.

"But...big Monster."

"Hulk! Let's go!" Hulk stops. Looking between Surtur and Valkyrie, Thor and Astrid in his arms. This is a real Sophie's Choice for Hulk. On one hand, he really wants to kill that thing. On the other hand...

"Friends." Hulk picks up his friends. He then squats down and leaps with all his might. The four of them shoot up into the night sky like a rocket blasting off. Their trajectory is heading right at the ship as it reaches the lower orbit of Asgard.

Hulk lands gently, as though he were stepping out of bed. He casually drops the three, all exhausted. Eir suddenly comes rushing out of the crowd as Thor gently places Astrid on the ground.

"What happened?!" Eir was shocked at the state of Astrid.

"She- uh she..." Thor felt terrible. He felt as he had risked not only Astrid's life, but also his brothers baby. Some uncle... Loki was right. Astrid should've stayed on Sakaar, and he could've stopped her.

"She got stabbed by Hela." Valkyrie finished speaking for her.

"Why was she fighting? She shouldn't have, especially in her condition! Let's get her to a private room."

Valkyrie lifts her up again helping Eir take her to another room. Thor could only watch as he then turns back round to see Asgard explode.