In the royal suite of the Statesmen formerly known as the Ark, Thor let out a soft sigh as he stood at the viewing port of the room. His sole eye scanned the array of stars in the far distance, in thought of how he was going to proceed now.
His sister was dead, his father was dead, Asgard was gone, and currently, he was in a spaceship with the remnants of Asgard's residents as well as some escaped slaves from Sakaar.
Right now, they were on their way to Earth after their planet exploded, but he couldn't help but feel stressed at how everything was going.
It was going too smooth and too perfect, something he was most definitely not used to as conflict and battles were definitely something that he was used to on a trip.
"My king," Thor turned his head as the doors to his room opened, giving a soft smile as one of his few remaining friends entered with a bow of their head.
"Come now, Sif. How long have we known each other for you to suddenly call me King?"
"You are the king, Thor."
"And I am also the same Thor that stole your undergarments and ran around Asgard with you chasing me down," Thor countered, to which Sif just rolled her eyes as she stood beside him. "So, what brings you here?"
"The citizens wish to know of our destination."
"Truthfully, Midgard is the only destination that came to mind," Thor replied, rubbing the back of his head. "There are many other places, but my greatest allies are situated on Midgard and they may be able to provide help."
"Well, let us hope they can. Your denizens are becoming anxious and Loki is not helping at all."
"What is my brother doing now?"
"The usual. Tricks, taunts and everything in between."
"Is it bad?" Thor asked, feeling a bit surprised as Sif looked conflicted between agreeing and disagreeing. If that was the case, then it might be in the middle.
"No, it appears more that he's trying to keep everyone's attention focused on being angry at him instead of on each other."
"Truly?" he asked, humming as Sif nodded. "He may be trying to help everyone in his own way then."
"Or he could simply be bored."
"That too, yes," Thor nodded with a chuckle, drawing a smirk from Sif as the King of Asgard looked through the viewing port.
A knock on the door frame drew his attention and Sif's as they turned, smiling at Heimdall walking into the room and bowing his head.
"Heimdall, my friend! What brings you here?"
"It appears that the Midgardians have a way to get us all safely back to Midgard, but they do not know how to find us."
"Their technology has advanced that much?"
"No, they have someone that can cross the distance and carry us there."
"Well, do you believe they can make it to us?"
"They would need to take 1200 jump points, but yes, it's possible."
"Wonderful! Sif, go and tell everyone that our time on this ship will soon be over! Heimdall, inform our friends on Midgard of our situation and our coordinates!"
"As you command, my king," Heimdall and Sif bowed, both amused at the groan that escaped Thor's lips before the latter left the room.
The former simply stood back up straight and looked forward, gazing across light years within the blink of an eye until he saw their destination.
Scanning the entire planet down to the last ant, it didn't take him long to find the target of his telepathy and he took a deep breath before speaking with a soft whisper.
"Allfathers, let the dark magic flow through me. Pietro Maximoff, can you hear me?"
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"Speaking of which, anyone have dinner plans or can we just eat here and begin our plans?" I asked, smirking as the group glanced at each other.
"Pietro Maximoff, can you hear me?" I blinked as I heard a faint whisper in my ears, drawing Tony's attention when he saw me frown.
"Everything okay, Flash?"
"I...don't know? Who's talking to me?"
"Thank you for speaking out loud. It is quite hard to hear your thoughts given how fast they are."
"Uh, cool. Guys, do you guys know any telepaths?"
"No, we do not. Is one talking to you?" I nodded at Natasha's question and my frown deepened.
"Okay, then. Mr. or Mrs. Telepath-"
"Mister and I am Heimdall, friend to Thor."
"Oh, you're an Asgardian? Okay, that's fine then. What's u-Wait, where are you guys right now?!"
"I was going to tell you that. We are currently drifting in the Odin-Share sector, approximately 1,200 standard jump points away from Midgard."
"I am a Midgardian that has never gone into space nor studied it."
"Here," I flinched as I felt a sudden jolt hit my brain, feeling a highly detailed 3D star map forming. Planets, stars and solar systems formed in my mind with the map. Then, I was even further mesmerised as I felt a golden ping near one of the solar systems.
"Wow, that's cool."
"Pietro? Focus," Steve's voice snapped me back to reality and I blinked, giving the man a thankful smile as I shook my head.
"Sorry. Heimdall just dropped an interstellar map in my mind and their coordinates."
"Woah, woah. Didn't we just have a dilemma in which you didn't know how long you can stay in space?" Steve asked and Tony shook his head as I dropped into a runner's stance.
"Nah, that was before he had a target and a specific pathway to take. However, can your body handle it?"
"Depends. When I make it through the first 'jump point' as Heimdall call them, I'll know and then I'll figure out if I'm continuing or waiting until they're closer."
"Just don't go too overboard. We don't want Wanda to level the compound and us for letting you die again," Natasha spoke with a smirk, which I returned, gold-blue arcs of electricity dancing around my body.
"How about a bet? I make it back and I get to take you on a date?"
"Do you even have the money?"
"Tony's card."
"How do you even-You know what? Sure, I'd like to see her lose," Tony replied with a shrug, but I just stared at Nat who held my gaze before smirking.
"Sure, and if I win, you have to stick me to a shopping trip."
"Tony's card?"
"Of course."
"Wait, this is just a lose-lose for me."
"Should have stopped us. See you guys in a sec!" With a step, time ground to a crystal-clear halt as I shot through the door.
My Super Form enveloped my body as I vibrated my body, passing through every solid wall and out onto the front yard. With another crouch and a lunge, I leapt up and made my way halfway into the sky with that first lunge.
The second one carried me through the clouds as I began to vibrate my body to the altered frequencies and wavelengths of space itself again, smiling as I felt gravity vanish and found myself floating in the empty darkness.
'Okay, now it should be...there!' Having taken enough breaths, I twisted and kicked off the slow vibrations below me. Instead of running, I was now skipping, each step pushing me further and further until I was a streak of golden-blue light soaring through the cosmos.
The first jump point was abrupt and made me jump, the hexagonal hole in space opening and sucking me in with a vengeance. Still, I did not let it scare me, instead orienting my body while watching as a kaleidoscope of colours danced around my form.
It took a mere millisecond before it spat me out into the void and I immediately scanned my body.
'No internal damage, no broken bones. Everything is still the same and in the right place. Okay, looks I'm all good,' Having made sure that I won't die, I kicked off the vibrations again and shot towards the second jump point, grinning as I was more prepared this time.
It spat me out and I raced towards the next one, treating this as a pinball with me being the ball. Jump point after jump point swallowed me up and spat me back out, the colours blurring as I went from fifty to one hundred to three hundred to five hundred.
By the thousand one, I was getting a bit sick, but I kept it together, instead focusing on adjusting and tweaking the chaos energy around my form that was keeping me alive.
'And here we are at number...1200!' With a grunt, I was spat out and I blinked as I came to a sudden stop right in front of a massive, blocky vessel.
"Okay, here we go," Rushing forward, I ceased my vibrations as I phased through a viewing port, coming to a stop and letting reality catch up.
"By Odin's beard!" Thor exclaimed with his eye widening at my sudden appearance, Heimdall catching himself from drawing Hofund while I blinked at Hulk's fist approaching.
"That's bad," I murmured while stepping to the far side, watching as the green beast cratered the steel flooring.
"Hey, I'm from Earth!"
"Cease your futile attempts at battle, Hulk!"
"Yeah, stop trying to hit me!" I shouted after Thor, immediately ducking behind the god as Hulk glared at me.
"Hey! Hey! He's here to help us get back to Midgard!"
"I am that, yes, but I'm also here to help you guys escape from someone that wants to kill half your people and steal the glowing blue cube your brother is currently hiding with an illusion."
"I have no idea what this mortal is talking about," Loki spoke with a shrug as he stepped into the room, Valkyrie entering with him and frowning as I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, please. I've been around the Mind Stone and the Time Stone enough times to recognize the frequency of an Infinity Stone and it's clinging to your aura like stink to shit. Ah, apologies for my languages."
"No need. We are not daisies that you need to fear sullying with your foul language."
"Is that just you saying that you're not frail?"
"If that helps you understand better, then yes," Valkyrie replied, to which I nodded before turning back to my earlier target who stood with his arms crossed.
"Uh, Heimdall, right?" I asked and the former gatekeeper of Asgard nodded. "Great! Heimdall, am I lying?"
"No. I perceived Loki taking the Tesseract, but I did not comment on it due to our lives being at risk during the moment."
"Oh, brother. What am I going to do to you?"
"You would believe a mortal over me, your own brother?"
"Loki, enough with the theatrics. Hand it over," Thor spoke with a frown and I stayed silent with a smirk as I watched Loki look caught between wanting to be right and wanting not to be caught.
"If it helps, no one can hide an Infinity Stone from me so had it been anyone else, they would have missed it."
"Oh yes, that helps wonders," Loki replied with a sarcastic snort and I shrugged, the trickster turning back to Thor and letting out a disgruntled.
"No, the real one," I chimed in the moment he unveiled a fake and got a glare in return as the cube he had in hand shattered and he pulled the real one from thin air with a groan.
"Here. Take it."
"It's in his other hand."
"I hate you. Truly, I do."
"Mutual. Now, come on," Thor rolled his eyes as he stepped forward and took the Tesseract, ignoring the longing look from his brother as he turned to me.
"What do we do now?"
"It's quite simple, actually. I'm gonna grab this ship and everything in it, push us all through fifty jump points at a time and then in...three hours time, I'd say, you're going to have a great reunion with the Avengers."
"You can move that fast?" Valkyrie asked, giving an impressed hum when I gave a nonchalant shrug.
"Faster, but you guys can't recover as fast as I can and I don't know if you can endure doing all twelve hundred jumps at once. Also, Thor, I'm going to need you to freeze space around the ship so as to make sure that the G-Forces don't crush your ship into a pulp."
"Then, how will you move us?"
"You make sure to freeze space and I'll take care of the rest," I replied, activating my Super Mode as Thor frowned in thought before nodding.
"Understood. How do I use this?"
"Think of it as your hammer and then use it?" I suggested with an unsure look, the others looking as unsure as Thor held the Tesseract up and closed his eyes.
"Allfather, guide my hand," the godly being whispered and I watched as the Space Stone inside of the Tesseract began to emanate an azure blue hue.
However, what I didn't expect was for the cube to crack and then shatter, our eyes widening as the very space around us was enveloped with a violent blue storm of pure cosmic energy.
One moment, I found myself standing in Thor's room with the others and the next, I nearly fell over my own two feet as I stumbled into the viewing port.
Looking up and around, I blinked at the sight of Earth's blue glory below us, turning back around to see everyone else looking as disoriented as I did.
"Everyone okay?" I asked as I deactivated my Super Mode, their groans being enough of an answer as I just nodded. "Good. So, what just happened?"
"It appears...that with Thor's want to return to Midgard and you telling him to use the stone like Mjolnir, it may have teleported us directly to our target destination," Loki explained, doing his signature hair flip with a frown as Thor rubbed his forehead.
"By the Allfather, that was not good for my stomach."
"Hey, at least we made it here to Earth without any worries. That's a win in my book."
"I agree. Now, what do we do?"
"We go to the Avengers Compound and begin planning our defenses against Thanos and his army," I replied before looking at the glowing blue stone he held in hand, "and we hand that over to the Masters of the Mystic Arts to hide in a pocket dimension."
"Agreed. Let us go."
"I'll inform the pilot," Heimdall spoke as he left the room, leaving us all in the room alone before I turned to Loki.
"So, you're not still mad, right?"
"Very, but you need not worry. Your time will come."
"Great," I murmured with a roll of my eyes, grunting as Thor smacked my back with a hearty laugh.
"Hahahaha!! You needn't worry, my friend! I will make sure he does not bother you!"
"Thank you. Anyway, Hulk, think you could switch to Banner or-" I stopped talking and stepped to the side as Hulk swung a fist down, staring as the green behemoth pulled his fist out and snarled at me. "Right, you can stay in control. Now, let me fill you guys in on everything you've missed."
A/N: And we end it here!! The Asgardians are now back at Earth before schedule and with three weeks still going, Pietro and the gang have more than enough time to prepare.
Next chapter: War.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!!