ask_the_right_questions

Entry tags:

(no subject)

"So, Jane, you really think you've got something?"
'Despite all the previous false starts?' is the unspoken question.

"Yes," comes the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Ok, I'll be there in a week." Erik replies. He needed to check up on her soon, anyway, so it makes sense to do it now, out of term time, when there are no undergrad students to lecture.

*************

The flight from Richmond to Albuquerque had taken most of the day, and then Jane showed up in, well, it can only really be described as a tooled up camper van. That was when Erik started to have some concerns about what she was studying out here. It took them the rest of the day to get back to Puente Antiguo, where Jane had based herself for this field study. When she said that there was another event expected tonight, well, that's exactly what they were there to study. So into the desert, away from the town lights they headed.

So, out in the desert, waiting for a seemingly ridiculous event to occur. Standing through the sunroof of a camper van packed to bursting with high-tech equipment. The anticipated time comes, and passes, seemingly without incident.

"Wait for it." Jane tells them. Except, the predicted moment has been and gone, so they're waiting for nothing, now.

Indeed, when Darcy asks to turn on the radio, the moment seems to be gone, despite Jane's insistence that it's not.

But, Erik's job is to see that funding money is being well spent, which, a failed event doesn't really help, so, maybe it's time to bring her down slightly. "Jane, you can't keep doing this."

"The last seventeen have been predictable to the second," insists Jane, dropping back to check her notebook.

"Jane, you're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser." Even as Jane calls up the images of the previous events on her computer, that they've already been over on the phone, the reason Erik's out here in the first place.

"I'm telling you, there's a connection between these atmospheric disturbances and my research. Erik, I wouldn't have asked you to fly out here, if I wasn't absolutely sure." says Jane, sighing.

"Jane, I think you want to see this." Ok, what's Darcy seen? Time to look in the mirrors.

You know, "What's that?" is probably exactly the right question to be asking at the moment, Jane. Back up through the sunroof to get a better look.

"I thought you said it was a subtle aurora?" Erik murmured.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"GO!" yells Jane, and Darcy pulls the van around, driving the disturbed mass of clouds which are shining steadily from inside like they're backlit. Jane clambers into the passenger seat. "Get close."

"Right, good one," Darcy says, before she realizes Jane is serious. What is she, a fan of Twister? But at Jane's encouragement, she keeps driving towards it -- it's just clouds.

But then the light strikes the ground, throwing up clouds of dust, and Darcy swerves away. "What are you doing?"

Darcy can't believe this. She's saving their lives. "I am not dying for six college credits," she says, and then Jane grabs the wheel, forcing them towards the storm of wind and light.

Odin Allfather's voice echoes in his ears, harsh and unforgiving. You are unworthy of these realms. You are unworthy of your title.

He's taken the Bifrost before, and he's been at the center of storms. He's Thor, Odinson, Mjolnir's wielder; he is the center of the storm, in himself, always.

But not like this. He's tossed about like a child's toy, buffeted by frigid winds. There's grit sanding at his skin, through his knitted undershirt and trousers. He has no control, no power, nothing but helpless disorientation.

You are unworthy of the loved ones you have betrayed.

And then --

WHAM.

Well, that was something hard he just rebounded bodily off.

Ow.

(The ground is also hard. He knows that because he just rebounded off it, too.)

Edited 2012-05-18 23:46 (UTC)

Erik climbs into his seat as they take off towards the event.

THUMP

There's a man, splayed across the window for a moment, before he slides off it as the van comes screeching to a halt.

A beat, while the three of them look at each other.

Then they are scrambling out of the van to see what happened.

Darcy's having an adrenaline rush of the not-fun-can't-process kind. "I think that was legally your fault!" Darcy yells, heart in her throat. Is he dead? Was she just in a van that killed someone? Jane should have let her steer.

"Get the first-aid kit!" Jane commands, by virtue of being the one closer to the guy; after a split-second of trying to find in her mind where the first aid kit is, Darcy rushes off to the van.

Behind her, she can hear Jane say "Do me a favor, don't be dead. Please, please don't be dead," and she adds an extra silent please.

She double-checks the taser in her jacket pocket, just in case, and heads back with the kit.

Ow.

Ow.

He feels as battered as if he'd fought a hundred warriors barehanded, not simply been tossed through a storm and into a few solid objects; battered as he hasn't felt since the earliest years of his training. The breath feels punched out of him.

He wheezes in a breath, staring up at the shadowy forms above him. Three people, not attacking (yet), but dim. Is his vision, too, failing him?

--No. It's night. It's just night, in a realm where that means darkness.

With a groan, Thor rolls onto his back, and lets his eyes slip closed again.

Ow.

Well, he's alive!

"Woah," Darcy says, getting a good look at him, "does he need CPR? Because I totally know CPR."

Jane stares at the man for what seems to Erik, to be an unnecessarily long time, before voicing the question that they're all asking inside.

"Where did he come from?"

Erik has no answer, the ground in the area had clearly been empty before that twister thing had destroyed all lines of sight, they'd got a good enough look at it to know that. So he just shrugs his shoulders.

Thor's vaguely aware that he's being asked questions. But they're just concern -- no one he knows, no one attacking him, no important information.

And his head is swimming less. He shoves himself to his feet, calling Mjolnir silently to his hand. He saw it spinning through the air after him, before he lost it in the clouds and disorientation -- it must be in this realm, and it'll come to his call.

...Any minute now.

"Hammer!" he roars. "Hammer!"

There's no response. There's not even a tug of location; it's as if Mjolnir doesn't exist.

Or isn't his.

"You all right?" Darcy asks, squeaking with uncertainty as he stands up. He's huge.

When he starts yelling, she says "Yeah, we can tell you're hammered," tone attempting lightness but nervous. Make that huge and probably totally dangerous. "It's pretty obvious."

She shifts what she has, so that the first aid kit's on the ground, her flashlight is in her left hand, and her taser is in her right. What, is she supposed to rely on Jane or Doctor Old to protect them?

Jane, meanwhile, has noticed that the ground in front of them, which was in the very heart of the storm, is covered in intricate markings.

"Oh my god, Erik. Look at this. We have to move quickly before this all changes." She says as she drops to her knees to get a closer look.

Erik joins her, but as the huge fellow starts pacing, he notes, "Jane, we have to take him to the hospital."

"Father!"

Okay, so Thor's plan was -- honorable, but not the most wise. And the fallout was definitely more than he intended.

But they can defeat the Jotuns as they once did, all Asgard's warriors fighting side by side. Odin can command victory again, if he'd only do it, instead of hiding lazily behind a truce while the Nine Realms slide away from Asgard. The Allfather will see that, if he'd only stop to listen!

And yes, he was furious at Thor, more furious than Thor's ever seen, but -- but he can't have actually meant true banishment. He has to intend to call Thor back, now that his point has been made.

"He's fine!" insists the mortal woman Jane, who apparently sees more clearly than the others. "Look at him!"

"Heimdall!" Thor roars, furious again, furious still. Mjolnir still hasn't come, and there's no response from Asgard -- does Odin truly mean to deprive Asgard of one of its strongest warriors now? To condemn Thor to a petty punishment when Asgard lies on the brink of war with Jotunheim? "I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!"

Okay. So now he's calling out to someone who...

Hang on a minute, those names. He'd recognise those names anywhere. He grew up with those stories. The stories of Odin, Thor, Loki and all the others.

Jane evidently agrees with Erik now, with regards to the man's needs, but, not willing to give up the evidence to be gathered in the area, says, "Hospital, you go, I'll stay."

On the other hand, if this fellow doesn't want to come, how are they going to, ahem, encourage him? There's no way even all three of them could take this guy on, is there?

What's a 'hospital'?

Thor swings around towards the nearest person, who happens to be the woman not staring at the Bifrost site. "You! What realm is this? Alfheim? Niflheim?"

He doesn't recognize his surroundings, but he's hardly been to every corner of every realm.

...Yeah, okay. This guy is getting way too riled up. Darcy's taser comes up, holding it pressed against the flashlight, shining both at the center of his chest.

"New Mexico?"

"You dare threaten me, Thor?" Whatever that tiny weapon is, it's unlikely to do much against an Asgardian. "With so puny a wea--"

He's looming over her, and yelling, and he could probably rip her apart one handedly.

She steadies her grip, and pulls the trigger.

Two objects thump lightly against his chest, and he nearly scoffs -- and then the power courses through them.

Thor is used to strength, effortless and surging, ready to be called upon; he's used to feeling electricity under his skin, the power of thunderstorms and lightning at his beck and call. He knows well the exhilaration of a lightning strike coursing through his body and on to Mjolnir's target.

This is like that, except it isn't his, and it's only pain.

He tries, automatically, to direct the half-familiar jolt, but nothing will obey him. His muscles clench and judder, his teeth clack together, and this strange not-lightning sears its way through, and drops him into blackness.

The scientists give her a look.

"What?" she asks, "He was freaking me out!"

Whatever happened to him before must have taken a toll on him, though, because he's passed out -- she's pretty darn sure the taser wasn't supposed to do that.

Erik's mind needs a few moments to catch up with what his eyes have just seen...

Then he and Darcy get to carrying the huge fellow into the car. Given the size of the guy and the way he's built, it's more half dragging, half lifting, than carrying, at least until they get to the car, where the high floor suddenly becomes far more of an issue than any of them had ever expected it would be.

Eventually, after much heaving, Thor is laid out across the back of the car. Erik really doesn't want to have to do that again, so he turns to Darcy and says, "Next time you decide to taser somebody, make sure he's already in the car, okay?"

"Jane, come on." calls Erik, and Jane, who had been continuing to take measurements at the site, joins them in the front of the car and they drive off to the hospital.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only