Book 4: Arcane [Thor]

Chapter 11

The darkness never seemed to end. Thor fell without restraints. Without a sense from up or down. The remnants of the Bifrost had long since gone. He'd failed. Hela had gone on to Asgard and left them to an uncertain fate. She'd tossed the three of them about like ragdolls. Simple children who'd never faced an enemy before. Mjolnir had been his only hope for a defense. Now it lay in pieces back on Midgard.

Light broke through in a rush that blinded him for a moment. The twisting motion of his body also made it difficult to see. Without control the surroundings swirled. He felt the impact. Back first he crashed into a pile that easily broke and caved in around him. Thor lay there to collect himself. Determine if anything was broken? See if anything else would break under the weight of him? Finally, the prince began to task of dragging himself out. The closer to the surface he grew... nothing looked the same as the other. Just a mix of random bits and odd ends.

The Asgardian's arm broke through first. It took a few tries to find something stable to drag the rest of him out. Thor stumbled over the uneven ground. Now the reason everything looked so random made sense. He'd fallen into a scrapyard. Asgard didn't have anything like this. Nor Midgard from the odd ships and devices that laid in pieces everywhere. Stretched out before him stood a massive patch of water. Like an ocean. Only the sky above it looked unnatural. Multiple holes in the clouds took on various colors and spat out other bits of junk. And in the far distance sat the largest one of all. Like a hurricane or typhoon. Red leaked through the clouds that faced the water below it, lightning sparking off a few times. Just where–

A noise above had Thor running. A large pillar spat out of a wormhole above his position and threatened to crush him. He managed to get to the top of the pile and out of the way seconds before it landed. Another close call.

From the top of the junk pile, he could see a city in the distance. One with mismatched colors, odd structures, and flying ships. That didn't look familiar either and he knew of no place like this in the Nine Realms. He thought for his search of the Infinity Stones and to prevent Ragnarok he'd gone just about everywhere. Obviously, that wasn't the case.

An alarm went off to the right of him and a large ship lowered on his position. Two sections broke off to land in the small stretch of barren ground, not hindered by the junk piles. Thor watched warily how the doors opened and multiple aliens of different races disembarked. Their clothes were ratty and barely holding together. Some of their equipment patched together had seen better days. And some of their markings told Thor what realm they came from. To see so many aliens interacting with one another in the same place, this left him with more questions than answers as to where he'd landed.

"Are you a fighter? Or are you food?" an alien asked.

"I'm just passing through," Thor answered.

He looked over their heads a bit distracted. Had Anya landed here too? If so, the landing couldn't have been good for her. What if she lay injured somewhere?

The group chuckled amongst themselves, a few exchanging looks. "It is food. On your knees."

A handful broke off to subdue the target. Nothing he couldn't handle and extended out a hand–

He forgot for a brief moment. That Mjolnir would never come to his aid again. The lack of a weapon made him feel like a part of him was missing. A gun cocked. It forced the prince to raise his hands at the moment to not get accidentally shot. When the alien drew closer, a mistake on his part, Thor gripped the front of their robes to toss them through the air out of sight. Its screams were lost in the distance.

Another rushed forward and, in his haste, to catch their meal the red cape attached on the shoulders ripped in the process. Thor punched him square in the jaw. The alien dropped to the ground unconscious. His fists hit another assailant and went to march towards the others that smartly stayed away. He didn't get far from the net that shot out of a gun to capture him. The Asgardian scoffed when he hit the ground. A mere net made of rope was no match for his strength–