Supermaxx

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

_{UOU Presents: THOR, GOD OF THUNDER}

ISSUE #6: Heart of Ice

---

_{Winchester Point ♦ Alaska}

"This is crazy. Look, I know I called everything before this crazy too. But this?" Keith Kincaid held up his chunk of obsidian in one hand and a bottle of superglue in the other. "This is truly, bonafide nutsoville shit."

That was the eighth and last of the black stones they needed for Ratatoskr's ritual to work. Jane triple-checked her work with a level and measuring tape: every stone had to be precisely eighteen inches from another stone, and they needed to be utterly and completely flat against the door frame. Thresholds played an important function in the World Tree's magic. If anything was even half a centimeter off, the threshold would be broken and their spell could fail- leaving Jane and Keith in deep shit with no one left to bail them out.

"Get it up there. We don't have much time." Jane glanced over her shoulder down the hallway. Still no sign of the creature.

She could hear the distant popping of tiny explosions, and a high-pitched voice squealing battle cries. Jane never would've guessed that she was going to put her life in the hand's of a talking squirrel, but here they were. Only an hour before Jane's world was a little simpler. Yes, monsters were real and they were trying to consume her for biomass. And yes, a guy who could probably brenchpress a tank was fist-fighting said monsters dressed like an extra from Hamlet.

Weird, sure, but not world shaking. Just two nights ago on the Daily Planet, she watched an impossibly fast woman lose a fight to a dork in condiment-themed spandex. A human fireball's bare ass was front page news according to the New York Post. This was just the world they lived in now.

Thor? Thor was different. He wasn't just a mutant with delusions of grandeur as Keith insisted. If he was, he couldn't have summoned the talking squirrel that knew all the secrets of the universe. Ratatoskr had a better grasp on quantum physics than her professor at MU did. The little guy could turn a medicine cabinet into a portal to another universe.

Realm. They were realms, which weren't quite the same concept. Some of the realms were just higher dimensional realities that were technically still part of their universe. Apparently.

"Got it," Keith nodded, slapping his stone to ensure it was securely adhered to the frame. The moment his stone was in place the rune carved into its surface lit up. It burned the color of sunrise.

Jane stepped away from the door, flinching at the heat radiating off of it. "Well, he did say it'd be obvious if it worked."

"Time for the fun part." Stepping to the other side of the hall, Keith retrieved the pair of rifles leaning up against the wall. He tossed one to Jane and checked the magazine on its own.

Fun was a relative concept at the best of times. Some people thought watching baseball for ten hours in a freezing cold stadium was fun. Other people were normal. Jane wasn't sure anyone thought fleeing from the many-toothed maw of a corpse demon was fun.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Every muscle in her calves was burning, but stopping for even a moment meant that thing catching up to her. Not happening. Jane stumbled around the corner, catching herself on the rifle.

Keith stopped beside her and turned, firing off wild pot shots at the mound of gibbering flesh filling the hallway. Every bullet struck home. Blood squirted from the impact wound, mixed with a heaping of puss and something less easily identified. It didn't so much as flinch. "Fuck you!" Keith screamed, letting the empty magazine drop to the floor as he slammed in a replacement.

"Go!" Jane jumped up, grabbing Keith by the sleeve to physically drag him away. He got the message and started running again. Even at her fastest, she couldn't keep up with him: Keith never really dropped the workout regime when he left the army. Jane hadn't ran consistently since track and field; the pain in her side wouldn't let her forget it.

'JOINMEINHOLYUNIONMAYYOURBODIESBESACRIFICEDONTHEALTEROFMYPERFECTION! BENOTAFRAIDFORIAMMORETHANFLESHANDFANGIAMANCIENTIAMTHELAND'

Foul utterances just beyond her perception battered against Jane's mind like waves against a ship. She closed her eyes and focused on the task at hand. She must make her mind a fortress. Bar its gates and let none pass, for there was work to be done- that was Thor's advice. It seemed like a form of active meditation: Be a castle. Let the enemy break upon her walls. She hoped it worked.

Keith's tactic to avoid his sanity slipping away involved shouting every curse word in the English lexicon.

"Here we are!" Jane shouted, pointing ahead: the doorway they'd marked with rune stones was just ahead. It was time to dig in and find the last of her strength. All she had to do was get there. Afterward, it'd be up to the others.

"Last stop on the train to hell!" Keith grabbed the door handle and flung it open, a vanishing into a shimmering haze of blue. Jane leapt in a moment later.

And the monster followed.

---

_{Brimstone Mountains ♦ Muspelheim}

Every breath taken in the realm of Muspelheim burned Thor's lungs. The taste of ash was permanently upon his tongue, he feared. Not minutes after arriving did he strip off his coat, and less than forty-five minutes later his armor as well- he was quite literally roasting inside of it. It did him little good against a foe such as this. All Thor wore now was his crimson cape, fashioned with a rune of protection for a brooch.

And a pair of braise to protect his dignity. He wasn't a barbarian.

Above him, the sky blazed. Roaring fire stretched across a sunset colored sky in place of clouds. Indeed, the whole of this realm was cast in similar shades: looking out from the Brimstone Mountains he saw endless plains of cracked red rock, crossed with rivers of magma and lakes of boiling misery. In the far distance, he could see a great throne looming. Upon it sat the oldest living being in the universe, older even than the concepts of time or space.

Surtur. A primordial king, born aflame, asleep upon his throne.

Thor hoped it stayed that way for another million-odd years.

A shimmering doorway appeared on the mountainside beneath him, drawing his attention back to the task at hand. The ethereal door led to a small stone enclosure surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs. Ratatoskr had chosen their arena carefully, leaving no room for escape.

It slammed open, and his mortal friends came running into the arena at a breakneck pace. They complained of the heat loudly and immediately, but thankfully they had the good sense to keep moving. They crossed the dozen and a half paces to the other side, where a second doorway in the rock glowed to life. Keith ran straight through. Jane stopped at the threshold long enough to look up at Thor and give him a small, wordless nod before retreating through.

If all went according to plan, Ratatoskr would remove one of the rune stones from each door and trap Thor and his prey here.

Not the monster. Not a blasphemy of divinity and flesh.

Prey.

The thing fell onto its rotund belly moments after arriving in Muspelheim. Its horrific, pained wails were pathetic. It choked on sulfur and ash, and writhed in the immense heat of this awful place. If fire was its anathema then Surtur's domain would put its sinful fortitude to the test.

Thor stood from his hiding place among the rocks, looking down his nose at the wretched monster. "T'was foolish of me to ever fear you!" He laughed, drawing its many eyes up to him. "Here, in this awful place, is your truth laid bare: you are no different from any other monster I have hunted. Though you play at godhood, you tremble before your own mortality. You inhabit many bodies yet- the rest are gone, are they not? You are trapped here. Eternally bound to Muspelheim 'til Ragnarök wipes us all away."

'NO'! Its thoughts resounded in Thor's head like the banging of a gong. 'You lie! You remain! Even as hopeless as you are we know you would not abandon yourself to this fate, son of Odin. Your arrogance will be your-'

"Ratatoskr has already seen the threshold rendered inert," Thor interrupted. "And he is oathbound to never open it again."

'No...no....Why? Why would you damn us both?'

"You are a plague upon the realms. Your very existence defiles all you touch. I know not how you learned the tongue of the divine, nor what foul magic rendered your flesh so mutable. But it matters little. Fate placed me in the path of your destruction. It is my responsibility to see your tyranny ended. To avenge those mortal lives you snuffed out in pursuit of...what? Godhood?"

'Evolution. Perfection. It is our purpose. The master has written so into our very essence.'

Thor set his jaw. "You will tell me of your master before I snuff out your life."

Every mouth on the creature chittered with mocking laughter: 'Make us.'

Steel leapt into Thor's hand as he stepped off the cliff-face. He brought his new axe down upon Man-Beast's rotten form, sundering a head off with a single blow.

The woman's head, engorged on wolf-meat, rolled away when it hit the ground. It tried to repurpose its flesh to sprout legs and skitter away, but the heat of the rocks set fire to its blasted form near instantly. The thing melted from the inside, screeching in alien pain.

Thor did not pause his assault for a moment. Jarnbjorn sung with the eagerness of steel freshly forged. Enchanted by the brother-smiths Eitri and Brokkr, Ratatoskr claimed it could cut through anything. This would prove a fine test of that theory as Thor hacked, slashed and cut at the immensity of his assailant.

Man-Beast stretched, thinning itself. The meat of its torso elongated and separated into numerous limbs, clawed hands grasping for Thor's throat. Few succeeded, slicing open thin cuts upon his neck and bare chest. The rest were carved apart. Their remains fell away to the rocks beneath their feet and caught aflame before they could rejoin the whole.

'You fight with such hatred! What have we done to you, God of Thunder, to offend you so?'

"Butcher. Murderer." Thor grunted, slamming his fist into what remained of Russell's face. Now it resembled more of a bloodied chunk of hamburger slapped onto a human skull and cooking in the sun. "They deserved better deaths than this."

'Ha! Hypocrisy turns your condemnation to ash in your mouth. I can feel the blackness of your heart, Thor. The guilt, heavy as an iron blanket on your shoulders. You think slaying me can absolve you of your crimes?

Jarnbjorn tasted Man-Beast's guts and found them wanting, so the axe spit them out upon the ground with a single cut. "It is a start!"

The monster's many hands flowed as one now, rushing for Thor's tree-trunk thick arms. Many of them were lost to the hunger of the axe, but not all. Enough made it past to take hold of his wrists and hold them apart. Render Thor unable to swing his devastating weapon, if only for a moment.

'I have slain six men. You have taken countless lives in your eons. My death will be a single grain of sand on your misbegotten path to redemption.'

Thor raged against the hands that restrained him. The smoke-choked air of Muspelheim seemed to ignite inside his lungs, burning him with every breath. "Mine hands are stained, aye. Perhaps forever so. But my soul is not for you to judge, monster. My sentence is already passed and I intend to see it through."

"Blood e-enough...to extinguish...sun." It mocked with Russell's stolen voice. Its ribs broke through its chest cavity, sharpened to spear points. They plunged into Thor's body at every angle, entering his thigh, his side, his chest. One narrowly passed by his cheek, slicing it open as he bobbed to the side.

"Silence!"

Man-Beast's grasp shattered, and Thor lunged forward, axe held high. Lightning sparked along its Uru-forged edge. It had been too long since the storm raged in Thor's chest, but he could not let its return distract him: the battle was not yet over.

Another strike landed clean into its bulbous shoulder, and this time Thor did not slice it off: instead, he held Jarnbjorn fast, letting the lightning flow into Man-Beast's open wound. The creature spasmed. It stumbled on its too-thin feet. Seeing its struggle, Thor thought to relieve it of pain, and drove his other fist through its kneecap. The thing fell hard onto the stones.

It loosed a howl that could shake the world as it trembled upon the brimstone. "S-s-sssstop! STOP!"

"Your master. Who is it?" Thor asked, placing his boot upon the thing's last remaining head. Russell's.

"Nnnever t-t-tell. F-fates worse t-than...dddeathh f-f-for traitors." It hissed. "Y-you should k-know, kin-kinslayerrr."

Thor turned away from the broken thing to look toward the sky once more. To witness its blazing horizon, knowing he would never see the night sky again. "I was unsure I could best ye. That was why I refused when Ratatoskr offered to witness our battle. If you had consumed mine form, I fear you may have seized Yggdrasil's guardian as well. I can only imagine what a thing like you could do with access to the World Tree."

"Y-youuu could havee...lefttt m-me here. W-when t-those m-mortals b-baited me t-through. D-doomed yours-yourself for n-nothing."

He looked back down at Man-Beast, smiling. "And deprive myself of the satisfaction of your demise?"

It laughed. "A-arrogant even t-to th-the end!"

Thor pressed his boot harder down upon its skull. Its laughter turned to pained cries and desperate pleading for mercy. Then came the crack of bone, and the wet crunch of brain matter to follow. And finally, silence.

"I've had quite enough of your bleating."

HEART OF ICE: THE END.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Lots of posts to read over breakfast.

Thankyou all.

@Sep

Where are my posts Sep, huh? What about my needs?

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

_{UOU Presents: THOR, GOD OF THUNDER}

ISSUE #5: Heart of Ice

---

_{Winchester Point ♦ Alaska}

The last survivors of Winchester Point barricaded themselves in the infirmary. Thor stacked stainless steel furniture against the door, unsure if it would even slow their foe but unwilling to leave their safety to a single lock. While he busied himself fortifying their position, Jane looked after Keith.

His injuries weren't significant. Some bruising around his ribs and on his left forearm. A minor concussion seemed likely, given he lost consciousness. But he had no broken bones or major lacerations that she could find. Jane gave him a small dosage of pain killers and anti-nausea medication; provided they weren't eaten by a flesh amalgamation tonight, he'd be right as rain soon.

"I'm glad you're okay." She took Keith's hand in her own. Bags hung heavy under her eyes. Since this nightmare began she'd earned a few cuts and bruises of her own. It was a miracle she'd made it this long.

Keith sat up. He cupped her face in his hand and the two shared a tender kiss. "Me too," he muttered as they parted. "I almost wasn't a couple'a times. If I hadn't run into, uh, this guy in the woods-" Keith shot a look over toward Thor, who was doing his best to look busy but was clearly ease-dropping.

Turning, she faced Thor, giving the stranger a once over. His armored boots decorated with little wings, the crimson cloak hanging from his shoulders, the breastplate peeking out of his coat- he was no woodsman.

"Thank you. You saved my husband's life."

Thor grinned. "T'was no great feat of mine. In truth, stripped of my power, these monsters nearly overcame me twice. Without your aid I fear I would have perished as well."

"Sounds like we make a good team." Jane nodded. "...Thor, was it? God of Thunder?" She raised an incredulous eyebrow.

"Aye," he returned the nod. "I am bound to Midgard for the foreseeable future. Full glad am I to find such worthy companions so soon after my arrival."

"Sorry, did you say you were stripped of your power?" Keith asked, flinging his legs off the side of the examination table. "You sure don't look like some helpless kitten to me."

A shadow passed over Thor's face before he looked away. "Indeed. Though my strength might seem impressive to mortals, 'tis merely a fraction of the might I once commanded. It would seem I am no stronger than the average Asgardian now.

Keith threw his hands into the air. "Woe is me, I only have the power of a freakin' god!"

Thor looked perplexed. "Have I offended? I mean no-"

"No." Jane interrupted, putting up a palm. "You're fine, Keith is just...being Keith. What he means is that you're still much stronger than we are. We don't stand a chance against these things without you." She said, giving Keith a knowing look. His expression turned sheepish.

"How many more of those monsters remain?" Thor asked.

"Russ and I killed Joel. Lit him up when he started growing spider legs from his ribs." Jane said, wrapping her arms around herself. "Moffat and Waites are dead, too. They were in the garage when it blew up."

"We got Wilford earlier. And Thor turned Maloney into pulled pork." Keith added.

"I think that just leaves the meatball in the cafeteria." Jane said.

"That 'meat ball' may prove our end, I fear," Thor said. "It has changed its form in such a way that I can no longer harm it with my bare hands. Your flames slowed it but did not destroy it, as they did previous foes. Do you have any greater armaments we might wield?"

The two humans looked at one another. They exchanged a few questions about the state of their equipment: what was and wasn't destroyed during the attack, how much ammunition they had used up, if there was anything they could be missing. Neither came up with an answer they found adequate. Jane's suggestion they call the state troopers was shot down when Keith mentioned the monster's psychic influence over the radio. The flamethrower was their best weapon against the Man-Beast, and it was gone. They had no backup.

"Maybe we should just run." Keith muttered, turning his clammy hands over. "My truck has enough fuel to get to Kenai."

"And what happens when we leave?" Jane asked, crossing her arms. "It'll take hours for us to get there, send word to the authorities and for them to finally get back here. That thing would have free reign to infect whatever it wants. Maybe every living thing in this forest. Or, hell, it could run, and then it'd have half a million square miles of wilderness to hide in."

Thor was still as stone. "It would not." He whispered. "It plans to follow us. It wants me to join it. To render up my godly body to become one with its so-called 'perfection.' Nay, I will not permit it to leave."

"What are you talking about?" Jane asked, worry besmirching her features.

"It speaks to me in a higher language than the mortal mind can perceive: the tongue of the divine. This is how I am able to converse with you, despite never learning your mother tongue." Thor explained. "Most of us speak it for the sake of convenience, but there are some who master its strange arts in pursuit of greater power. It is said the elder gods used this power to speak reality into existence. If this creature consumes enough matter..." Thor closed his eyes. "I fear for Midgard's future. For all the realms, perhaps."

Jane went silent. Keith shook his head in disbelief, though he couldn't speak either.

"So you claim you're some kinda god, right? N' there's a lot like you?" Keith asked, finding his courage along with his voice. "How in the hell can they permit somethin' like this happenin'? Why ain't they doin' anything?"

There was righteousness to his anger, Thor knew. Long ago had Odin stepped away from meddling in the affairs of mortals. 'They do not worship as they once did,' he bemoaned. 'Why should I waste my power on a people that do not believe?'

The memory made his choler rise. He remembered, too, his mother's anger at having heard it the firs time. All of Asgard had shaken when they quarreled that day. If Freya were still head of her own pantheon, as she had once been before the Aesir and Vanir were joined, she would never have allowed it. Unfortunately for her and Midgard both, Odin reigned. The Allfather took his hand from the earth. He left them to their own devices for more than a thousand years. Few Asgardians dared to defy his order. Thor and his brothers had, on occasion, though he was shamed to remember each visitation was only for their own entertainment. Not once had he answered a prayer.

"Forgive me. I require a moment alone." Thor said.

He retreated from the main room of the infirmary to the backroom, which was used primarily for storage. Shuffling through piles of boxes, he eventually found a chair to fall upon. Weariness dragged him down. It propagated through his every pore like a virus. Even his Asgardian stamina faltered. Was this how mortals lived? Every battle ended with exhaustion, barely able to stand? It was a hard thing to imagine, and harder still to endure for the first time in his immortal life. They were made of sturdier stuff than the gods gave them credit for.

"Heimdall, I know you can hear me. And I know Odin has forbade your intervention in mine affairs. This is my punishment, and I intend to carry out my sentence with the dignity befitting my royal lineage." Thor began, clenching and unclenching his fists. "But I do not call upon ye for mine own sake. Rather, you have seen that beast I face: it spits in the face of the divine. In its blasphemy it threatens all of Midgard. The fates have put me in its path, I think. I must destroy it, but I cannot- not alone. Mjölnir heeds not my call. I know you cannot help me, Heimdall, but...Send me someone who can. I beg ye.

Please."

A rift tore open reality before him. A brilliant portal of every color of the rainbow danced on the wall, rippling with potential. A voice boomed through it: "I hear all and see all, Odinson. You will not stand alone."

Thor knocked over the chair with the speed he rose. "Heimdall!" He smiled from ear to ear, his fear melting away at the voice of his friend.

A form emerged from the portal, shimmering. It was tiny, barely rising to Thor's knee. As the light died away it became corporeal: a red, fuzzy creature in a rather dashing green tabard, a leather pouch strung along its back and a pan held in its hand. A squirrel, and one of great import, at that.

"Oh dear. This isn't the pantry." It chittered confusedly. Then it looked up. "Oh my, Thor! My good fellow! It has been so long!"

Thor's face lit up like the sun. "Ratatoskr, how I missed thee!"

Without a second thought he scooped up his tiny friend, who climbed atop his shoulder excitedly. "I seem to have taken a wrong turn on Yggdrasil." He thought, looking around the sterile room filled with boxes of paper and medical supplies.

"Nay, friend, it t'was Heimdall that called you here at my request. I am in dire need of your aid."

"What ever could I do for the God of Thunder?"

"It has been a long story, friend. Let us rejoin my mortal allies and I will tell the tale."

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Pacifista>
Wow, I like this banner implementation with the POV character of the post.

@Pirouette

Yeah, this was fuckin dope

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

_{UOU Presents: THOR, GOD OF THUNDER}

ISSUE #4: Heart of Ice

---

_{Winchester Point ♦ Alaska}

Starving steel met meat and flesh with ravenous hunger. Every stroke of the axe carved bloodied chunks off the monstrosity. Even with its chest split open, bursting with blood, the stag-thing advanced. In counterstroke, a tendril of warped bone burst from its torso and impaled Thor's thigh. It wriggled and writhed, trying to worm its way deeper into the wound- but godflesh was not so easily broken. Thor was all too pleased with this. Finally, he was faced with a problem he already knew the solution to: rigorously applying force to the enemy's facial region.

_{'We will sunder your soul from your body.'}

"And I the flesh from your bones!" Thor roared, swinging. The rotating head in the monster's chest cavity split in twain at the axe's kiss. Grabbing the back of the axe head with his off-hand, Thor slammed it down even further. He opened its steaming guts all over the cafeteria floor, strings of intestines filled with fetid bile slinking over the tiles.

Cowering somewhere out of sight, Keith heaved.

"Hackin' them to bits won't stop them," the man called Russell said. He pulled the trigger on his flamethrower and sent a burst of fire in the direction of the wolf-woman hybrid. It shuddered away, stumbling over a table to escape the heat. "Got no idea how many of these things we killed 'fore you got here."

"Your courage-"

Thor dug his fingers into the gap he'd cut into the monster. Even its sinews seemed to grasp and cut at him in defiance. He did not flinch. Instead, he pulled. his muscles tensed and bulged with the effort. A horrifying cry pierced the air as the thing was rent asunder. Bones snapped, skin tore, and organs sloughed to the floor in the seconds before Thor tore the stag in half.

"-Is to be lauded!" He shouted, tossing each half across the room. The remains exploded against the walls, smashing the paneling to bits and smearing them with disintegrated gore.

Russell stopped to gawk. Raw power of this magnitude was not oft applied so casually. He'd seen similar feats in old news reels, perhaps, but this day and age? It was enough to give pause. Enough to drag Russ's attention away from mortal peril for a moment too long.

His head vanished inside the wolf's jaw. It devoured Russell's skull whole in a single bite, blood and brain matter spraying between its crooked fangs. The rest of the man's body convulsed before it went limp, caught in the monster's claws.

"No!" Thor cried out.

_{'The almighty Thor, anguishing over one mortal life? Please.'}

Worm-like tendrils grew from the beast's claws. They snaked along the human's corpse, wrapping around it thrice over until they found what they looked for. Then they began digging. Burrowing into his corpse like it was freshly tilled soil. They remade Russel right before Thor's very eyes. Took his hands, his eyes, his bones and dragged them from the discarded remains of his humanity- his clothes, his weapons, the watch his fiance gave him before he left. The worms joined him to the other creature's grotesque form. The process took only seconds, and when it was finished the malformed giant towered several feet taller than before.

_{'What does it matter if they die now rather than in a decade or three? Beings such as ourselves exist on a timescale incomprehensible to them. Their entire civilization will be dust before a single gray hair mar's your golden head.'}

"It matters," Thor snarled. Blood pumped in his ears to the beat of his rage. His heart thundered in his breast. Now when he shook, he knew it was not for the cold. "It matters more than you could ever know."

'Even the smallest creatures of the field and the wood have hearts,' Freya told him. Thor bounced upon her knee, his eyes shining with child-like wonder. 'They have hopes, desires, love. Same as us.'

'Even Ratatoskr?' Thor asked, his face scrunching up. 'Papa says he is a heartless rat that he should skin and-'

'Especially Ratatoskr!' His mother laughed. 'He tends the World Tree. Without him, Yggdrasil would grow too wildly, and travel through the Bifrost would be much too dangerous. Sometimes, in his anger, your good father...forgets these things.'

Thor puffed up his chest. 'When I am Allfather, I will never forget anything!'

"T...together...We must be- t-together againnnn." The head of Russell rasped from its new place in the nape of the monster's neck. It lumbered forward, arms thick as tree trunks dragging along the ground behind it. Its legs limped along, barely able to carry the immense weight of its bulging upper half. Half-formed hands grasped at the air in front of it. Too many eyes sprouted from wolf's head- human eyes, filled with a tremendous fear. Part of Thor wondered if those people subsumed in that blasphemous body were truly gone. Perhaps they lived in shards of agony, painfully aware of their misbegotten form.

The axe left Thor's hand before he knew what he was going to do. So mighty was his throw that the axe handle exploded to splinters when the head buried itself in the wolf's face. It let out a choked whimper as it died, the head falling limp against its chest. The head of the woman seemed to crawl across the chest and began feasting on the dead wolf. Her head ballooned as new flesh joined it, and the abominable whole morphed as it consumed the wolf fully into it.

"Odin's beard- how wretched!" Thor flinched away, unwilling to watch it cannibalize itself.

"We gotta get outta here!" Keith screamed, scrambling from his hiding place beneath one of the tables and making for the door.

Thor's eyes widened. "Not so close-"

His warning came too late as the beast flung out one of its gargantuan arms, slamming it into Keith's back and knocking him to the floor. He let out a gasping breath before slipping into unconsciousness, blood dripping from a cut in his forehead.

"Release him! Release him at once or face my wrath!" Thor bellowed, springing forward. He rocketed into the monster's chest, shoulder first, knocking it back. Unarmed, all he could do was swing his fists into its great bulk and hope it was enough. Every blow was absorbed by the squirming mass. It was like trying to wrestle a river: it just flowed over him, subsuming him into itself.

The tide pushed him the floor, holding him fast against the tile even as he struggled. It mattered little how hard he fought. Strength could not help against the rapidly liquidizing mass. He had to give the monster credit: its impossible biology had adapted to his methods. He could not triumph, not like this.

"Mjö...lnir-" He choked, trying to keep his head out of the muck. Hand to the sky, Thor willed his hammer return to him. Practically begged to feel its leather-wrapped hilt hit his open palm. If only he could wield her for a moment, Thor knew with all his heart he would vanquish this foul creature. One blow, one burst of lightning and it would never haunt Midgard again.

"To me...t-to me..."

A deafening roar filled his ears, followed a second later by a bright light. Mjölnir had come. He had called, and she had answered, soaring into his-

His still empty hand.

The weight on his chest lessened as the monster stumbled back. Its waves of flesh crashed back together, reforming into its more solid build. Twins heads roared in pain as fire licked at its every pore. Flames danced all across the room. Thor looked to the canisters Russell once carried, discarded when he was slain- they were sundered to pierces. Someone had destroyed them and released the flames borne within.

"Are you still alive? Oh God, I didn't kill you, did I?" A woman asked, leaning over Thor.

With her short hair, sharp angles and hard set jaw, he mistook her in that moment for a valkyrie, come to carry his soul away to Valhalla. It was only when he noticed the winter clothing she wore and the gun in her hand that he realized she was another mortal. Thor nodded, unable to speak with the rawness of his throat. Mjölnir denied him still.

"You're a little big for me to carry. Can you walk?" she asked, grabbing his hand to help him to his feet.

Thor rose on unsteady legs. Together, the two of them rushed to Keith's side and lifted him up between them. They made for the door as quick as they could. By luck or fate, the monster did not stir to follow, and they were able to retreat into the winding halls of the research station.

"Who are you?" He finally asked, voice hoarse.

"Me? I'm Jane. Jane Foster, I'm the doctor on base. Who the hell are you?"

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Thor will be leaving his frozen hell in a post or three as well. Will be down to clown with any fuckos as soon as he's near civilization.

(editor's note: there are no real people in Alaska. This is a myth perpetuated by the government to make you move to the cold, dark north full of freaky monsters)

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Supermaxx>

Would've got you back for this shit. I'll never forgive you for making me quadruple gay. That's like, twice the amount I already was.

@Simple Unicycle

how the fuck do you remember that lmfao

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Next person to post in the OOC is gay

@Simple Unicycle

ah man i didn't post in time :(

Pariah Online

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

_{UOU Presents: THOR, GOD OF THUNDER}

ISSUE #3: Heart of Ice

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_{Winchester Point ♦ Alaska}

Silence descended on the Alaskan woodland as the monster died. Keith Kincaid lay with his back against the stream bank for several minutes taking deep, long breaths. He'd just watched one of his friends- maybe friend was a strong word- coworkers transform into some...thing. Some terrible, monstrous thing, and then it tried to kill him. Him and the freak in the sleeveless breastplate. Keith still wasn't sure he hadn't hallucinated the other guy. He was a giant dressed for LARP camp in the middle of one of the harshest snowstorms Keith had ever seen. That, and every punch he threw carried the force of an artillery shell.

"Jane's not gonna believe any of this shit," he muttered, dragging himself to his feet.

It was a short walk to where Thor hunched over the remains of the Man-Beast. The big man was covered in blood, only some of it his own. That dip in the frozen stream had drenched him from golden-haired head to wing-tipped boot. His hands were balled into fists. He was shaking. Whether it was fueled by rage or him succumbing to the cold, Keith couldn't say.

Keith cleared his throat. "You saved my life," he started hesitantly, "thanks. But we really oughtta get out of here. I'm surprised you haven't collapsed yet, to be honest with ya."

Thor turned. His face was marred by grief, yet only for a moment. On looking the mortal in the eye a steel came over him like a mask, hard and unflinching. He rose.

"Nay, I must thank you. That abomination would have surely ended me without your timely intervention. You must be one of Midgard's finest warriors to face down such a monster so readily." Thor raised a hand to Keith in acknowledgement of his valor.

Keith blinked. The offered hand went ignored as Keith threw his own to the sky. "What the fuck, dude?! I'm a radio engineer, not- Do you know what that was? Why are you- I mean, Jesus Christ, what is happening?"

"In truth, I know not the nature of the beast that assailed us," Thor confessed. "It seemed able to probe my inner thoughts. There are some manner of creatures I know of that can accomplish such things, though none of them are of your realm. I wonder how it came to be here..."

"How did you come to be here? We're in the middle of nowhere and you look like you just stepped outta the Renaissance fair."

"I come from Asgard by by of the Bifrost," Thor explained, pointing up at the Aurora Borealis.

"Alright, don't tell me." Keith held his hands up, palms forward in surrender. "But we can't stay here. If you want I can take you back to my truck and I'll drive you to Winchester Point. We've got a base there. Jane can check you for, uh, hypothermia. Maybe we can find you a ride home."

"I have my doubts I will ever return home. Let us go to your abode, then. I wish to learn more of what attacked us."

Together, the two unlikely companions made their way through the storm stricken wilderness. It was a long walk, and each of them was already bone tired. Thankfully Keith proved a worthy navigator. He'd gone on a number of hunting trips up this direction; animals getting into the transmission array had damaged some of their equipment in the past, so they had the all-clear to trap and shoot anything they found in two mile radius of the station. When Thor asked Keith to explain what he was doing up here, Keith tried and failed miserably to get across the concept of a radio.

"You are telling me that you can speak into a device and another, identical device on the other side of your planet can hear what you say in the same instant? And you claim this is not sorcery?" Thor asked as he shoved a tree down over a crevice several dozen feet deep. Once he was sure the tree was secure, he climbed atop it and crossed to the other side of the crevice. Keith followed reluctantly.

"Radio waves travel at the same speed as light, man. A signal can loop all the way around the planet seven times in a second."

"Mine brother Hermod can do much the same. As our messenger, he is tasked with delivering the word of Odin to every realm on the branches of Yggdrasil. Once, he rode for nine days and nine nights to the depths of Helheim on a dare! None have ever replicated his feat."

Keith sighed. If anyone else had said that it would've been a joke, but after walking with 'Thor' for over an hour it was clear he either believed every word or had the best damned poker face Keith had ever seen. It wasn't worth trying to argue with him, nor could Keith coax out the truth. In all likelihood, Thor was a delusional mutant that wasn't up to date on his X-inhibitor shots. He'd need to contact the authorities- both about the monster and his new friend.

Relief warmed his weary bones when they broke the treeline and found the array station. The truck was right where Keith had left it, and there was no sign of anything that went bump in the night. Kieth all but fell over himself climbing inside to start the heater. Warm air brushed the frost from his cheeks. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

Afterward, he rummaged around in the back of the cabin for a spare set of cold weather gear. They didn't have any clothes in his new friend's size, unfortunately, but he could squeeze into the coat with a little effort.

"You have my thanks, mortal." Thor gave an approving nod even as he struggled to get the zipper more than halfway up the coat.

'Might fit better if you ditch the fake armor,' Keith thought, adjusting the dials on the radio transmitter mounted in the dash. The storm hadn't subsided much but the northern lights seemed to be back to normal. If he bumped up the wattage on the transmitter he might be able to get a signal out- wouldn't help much with getting one back, though. Still, he needed to warn his team if he could.

Not that he knew how to explain a psychic, body-snatching monster without sounding fucking nuts.

"This is Keith to base, come in. Russ, some crazy shit has happened and I need you to pick up. Now."

All that came through was static. Static, and a strange, keening whine. Must've been more interference. Strange way for it to manifest, though. There was a clarity to it almost if as it 'COME AND SEE' talking.

"Bzztttt..eith is that...I will make you perfect can't hea-BRRRRTMold your flesh as if it zzzzt is clay in my hands rrrr...you. Say ag Sinsain?" of your humanity washed away in my image.

Stars spun in Keith's eyes. His jaw slackened. The words behind the broadcast coiled around his brain like a serpent. Beneath his skin, something crawled.

Thor drove his fist through the console with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

The sudden explosion of sparks and plastic woke Keith, who blinked a few times before his face twisted in baffled anger. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Your magic box is vulnerable to the same mental emanations that creature used. I could see your sanity slipping away."

"Oh, you're one to fuckin' talk." Keith slammed his forehead against the steering wheel. After a few more impacts, he was satisfied he'd bashed whatever remained of his rationality out. A giant, red mark covered half of his face, but he felt better.

Lines of worry crisscrossed Thor's face. "We ought to return to your base camp with all due haste. I do not believe our troubles are over."

"On that we can agree." Keith sighed, starting the car.

---

Winchester Point was burning when their truck pulled into the yard.

The main building was a long, single story structure shaped like the letter U. It was a boxy, ugly building, and its leftmost arm was on fire. Black smoke and ash choked the air. Flames danced along the wooden rooftop, stifled by the cold but not wholly choked out. This was the main building where the crew lived and did most of their work. A secondary structure on the right-hand side was also on fire. That was the garage, and the open vehicle bay showed their ATVS, trucks and snowmobiles were all ablaze.

"Shit, shit, shit." Keith cursed under his breath, throwing the truck into park and jumping out. "Do you see anybody?"

"Nay. The smoke clouds my vision as well."

"We need to get inside. People might be hurt. Come on!"

Smoke-choke air burned their lungs as the two ran into danger. Thor went first, tearing the door off its hinges and throwing it aside. Mounted on the wall just in the entrance were a fire extinguisher and a fire man's axe for just such an emergency. Keith retrieved the former and started cutting a path through the hallway to the sleeping quarters. Thor took up the axe. It lacked the comfortable heft of his signature weapon, but its edge was sharp. This would do.

_{'Have you come to witness my works, Son of Odin? Will you surrender your flesh to our choir? To join godhood and mortalkind...We will be the envy of the universe...'}

Thor gritted his teeth. "I have had enough of you. I will take your mocking tongue."

_{'I have no tongue yet I have many voices. No arms, yet a thousand hands do my work. You inhale me with every breath you take, child of lightning. To resist is pointless. You are a shell already- stripped of all that made you...you.'}

Shutting out the voice, Thor pressed on, shouldering past Keith to delve into the fire. Flames licked at his flesh. Pain seared his muscles as the fire caught on his clothing. Thor cared not.

He found the source of the flames only moments later. It lay in a pool of dismembered limbs and meat. Parts of it were identifiably human, like the face of a man twisted in fear. Others were covered in thick fur, like that of a dog or a wolf. All of it was sloshed together into one, horrific whole. The gore pile was drenched in a stinking liquid he couldn't identify- that seemed to be the source of the fire.

"Another monster," Thor called over his shoulder to Keith, "and someone else seems to have taken care of it first. Rejoice, friend. Your comrades struggle on."

Keith wasn't as enthusiastic about the find as Thor. He had to fight to keep the bile from rising in his throat. The stench of the thing was unbearable, like rotten meat cooking in a copper pan. "Jesus H. Christ."

Down the tunnel came the crash of steel, the snapping of wood and a scream. It sounded only partially human.

Without another word Thor was off at a dead sprint. He covered the full length of the hallway in a quarter of the time a normal man might have, and he was moving so quickly he couldn't stop at the turn without bashing into the wall. Past a pair of double doors lying on the floor was a large, open chamber filled with tables and benches. It reminded Thor of a mead hall, though it lacked the homely feel with its bare steel and white tiles instead of hardwood and furs. All the blood on the ground didn't help the atmosphere.

Two more monsters lumbered across the room. One had a pair of stately antlers growing from a stump in its neck where a head should've been. Its face was instead lodged in its chest cavity, and it rotated fully in place to stare at Thor with cold, empty eyes. The other thing had two heads: a dog that was barking and snapping at him, and a woman's head, hanging at an odd angle like it was broken. 'Her' jaw hung limply to the side, shattered.

"Look out! Get back!" A man on the opposite side of the monsters yelled at Thor. He had long, flowing hair and a beard to match, and on his back was a strange pair of cylindrical containers. The stranger lifted a tube toward the wolf-woman hybrid and doused it in a spray of fire.

Keith came rushing in a moment later. "Shit, Russ! You're aliv- ah, fuck me." He skidded to a stop at the sight of the monsters and promptly left the room.

"Keith?! Who in God's name is this guy?"

Thor took the fireman's axe in both hands, lifting it high as he charged.

"For Asgard!"