The Legend of The Rushing Riptide

Chapter Four: The Meeting

The first thing Kelda felt when she came to was pain. All over. She tried to open her eyes, but they were too heavy. She was lying flat on her back, and her heart was racing. It was chilly, but not cold. She heard voices, a female and a male.

"What is she?" asked the female voice. She sounded young; a teenager probably.

"I don't know. I haven't gotten the chance to ask her yet," the male voice exclaimed, sounding about the same age as the female voice.

"I know that, dipshit, I was thinking out loud." She sounded angry.

"Hey, I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid."

Kelda fought to open her eyes. After a bit of a struggle, she opened her eyes and saw that she was in the middle of a dark road in between two buildings. She saw the two people speaking. And they were staring right at her, eight inches from her face.

Kelda screamed. A fire hydrant burst. The street rapidly started to flood.

"Holy shit, we gotta call Tony," said the girl.

"On it," said the boy. He started speaking quickly into a glowing black box. "Uh, Mr. Stark. There's a girl here that fell from the sky and we startled her and she exploded a fire hydrant and now the street is flooding."

Kelda heard a muffled yelling, and the boy talked over it. "I didn't mean to startle her! I didn't know who she was so I went to look closer and I guess she has power or something because now the street's underwater."

The girl grabbed the device. "Yeah, he's not lying Mr. Stark. I'm just as confused. We have no idea what's going on. Can you come down here and help us?"

As they talked, Kelda looked at them with wonder. More people. I'm not alone anymore, she thought.

She studied them. The girl's hair was pink, and she had a grey mask over her face. She was wearing a navy blue suit with white detailing. The boy was in a red and blue full-body suit with a spider on the front.

After they hung up, the girl walked over to Kelda. She held out a hand. Kelda stared at it.

"Here, take my hand." Kelda grabbed the girl's hand and she helped her up. She immediately noticed how high the girl had to look to make eye contact with her, but the girl either didn't notice or didn't care. "Hey, I'm Calliope Green, but most people call me Cal."

"H-hello. My name is Kelda. Where am I?"

"We're in Queens," said the boy as he walked over to them. "New York."

"What is Queens?" Kelda asked. "Have I made it past the gate? Did the dragon bring me here? Where is he now?"

"Uhh... I don't know the answer to most of those questions, but yes, we are on Earth. We're in Queens, which is in New York, which is in America," said the boy. "Oh, and my name's Peter. Parker."

"What's America?" Kelda asked.

"You know what? Doesn't matter. Just-" Cal was interrupted by a flying metal object. "There he is."

The suit descended and put the fire hydrant back together. He floated over to everyone and landed.

"Alright, what's going on?" His voice was loud and irritated-sounding.

Kelda's eyes went wide and she started trembling. "What is that and how is it speaking?"

"I have a name, you know." The suit opened up and a man walked out. "I'm Tony. I'm here to make sure everyone stays safe. I want to make sure nothing followed you here. Where did you come from?"

"I'm Kelda from Niflheim," she said, immediately more comfortable now that she could see that the man meant no harm.

"Niflheim... s'that one of the Nine Realms?" he asked.

"Yes. I ran away after I got into a fight with my mother. She did not like that I had powers. She locked me away. My father told me a prophecy that someone would be able to cross the river Élivágar. Ice hit my head while I held the water back, and when I woke up, your children were staring at me."

Tony laughs, then notices a car pulling up. "And there's Happy," he said.

A shorter man got out of the car. "So what's this?" he asked.

"She's from another realm, like Thor. I wanna take her back and make sure she's not gonna kill us all," Tony said matter-of-factly.

"I feel like we go through stuff like this every other week." He turned to Kelda. "My name is Happy. Get in the car. Peter, Calliope, you too."

"What did we do?" Peter asked with mock offense.

"Knowing you, something stupid. But, I actually just want you to keep the new kid company," Happy stated.

"Wait, you know Thor?" Kelda's eyes widened.

"Wait, YOU know Thor?" Tony asked.

"No! I've just read his legends. He's amazing." Kelda felt her face go hot.

Tony stepped back into the suit, exchanged a look with Happy, and flew off. Kelda just stared at him as he went, mesmerized by everything that had just happened.

"Come on, Kelda. We gotta go," Calliope called.

Kelda snapped out of it. "I am coming," she said. "Where are we going?"

"Avengers Compound," Peter said.