The Man
Chapter 2: The Man
The man groaned and got unsteadily to his feet, looking around in confusion. He emitted a low sound from his throat, similar to a growl.
“Are you all right?” Lyssa asked worriedly while Erik took a few steps back from the unsteady man.
“Hammer?” The man growled with a cultured European accent. “Hammer?!”
“Yeah, we can tell you’re hammered.” Darcy sassed, eyeing the man nervously. “It’s pretty obvious.”
“Darcy.” Lyssa chided gently, glancing at the intern before turning to the stranger.
Jane glanced at the ground and gasped in shock. “Oh, my God. Erik, Lyssa look at this!” She cried, shining her torch at the ground.
Turning their attention from the dazed man, Erik, Lyssa and Darcy looked to the ground and saw what had caught Jane’s attention.
A large sigil had been burned into the desert sand. It was in the exact place the vortex had hit the earth.
“We have to move quickly before this all changes.” Jane continued briskly, rummaging through her pockets and pulling out several pieces of equipment.
Lyssa frowned, once again getting the feeling that the symbol was familiar in some way. Try as she might, the memories associated with the symbol, the vortex and the rainbow light stayed firmly at the very edge of her consciousness. Shaking her head, she expertly pushed the feeling aside and focused on the task at hand. “Jane, we need to take this man to the hospital.” Lyssa said firmly, watching the man stumble around almost in a daze. “I really don’t like the way he’s stumbling around. He could have a concussion or an injury that I couldn’t detect.”
“Father!” The man shouted, looking up at the sky.
“He’s fine.” Jane said dismissively, not looking away from her task of collecting samples. “Look at him.”
“Heimdall!” The man continued to shout. “I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!”
Lyssa frowned again; the man’s words reminded her of one of the lessons in the Mythology class she had taken while in school and the stories she had been told as a child. “Did he say ‘Heimdall’ and ‘Bifrost’?” She asked, looking at her friends with the frown still on her face.
“Yep.” Darcy replied, nodding.
“Hospital.” Jane said in agreement, clearly thinking the man had lost his mind. “You guys go, I’ll stay.” She said, looking at Erik and Lyssa.
“You.” The man said, turning to the group at large. “What Realm is this? Alfheim? Nornheim?”
“New Mexico?” Darcy threw in, drawing her taser and aiming it at the ranting man.
“Actually, you’re on-” Lyssa started to say, recognizing the names.
“You dare threaten me, Thor, with so puny a weapon?” The man asked, cutting Lyssa off and sneering at Darcy.
Darcy raised her eyebrow and fired her taser at the man proclaiming to be Thor. The man’s body seized up as the electrical currents shot through him. Shuddering for several seconds, he fell backwards and into the ground, unconscious.
"Oh no." Aria said, waving her hand in the unconscious man's general direction.
“Midgard.” Lyssa finished her previous statement, moving towards Thor and checking his vitals once again.
Meanwhile, Erik and Jane stared at Darcy in shock, their mouths hanging open at the uncharacteristic display.
“What?” Darcy asked defensively, seeing the shocked looks. “He was freaking me out!”
“Wow!” Aria cried delightedly, clapping her hands happily.
“Take Aria while I get this guy into the car.” Erik said, shaking his head and carefully holding Aria out to Darcy.
The intern pocketed her taser and took the toddler, making sure she was properly swaddled against the cool air and her hands were away from the taser. Erik and Lyssa worked in unison to get Thor into a fireman’s carry over the older scientist’s shoulders before walking towards the van. Darcy, keeping one arm firmly around Aria, packed up the first aid kit and followed behind the pair. Jane, meanwhile, pulled out her camera and began filming the site before nature took its course and covered the symbol over.
Reaching the van, Lyssa took Aria from Darcy and buckled her into her car seat. The little girl was nodding off once again, the excitement of the past several minutes wearing her out.
“Next time you decide to taser somebody, make sure he’s already in the car, okay?” Erik said to Darcy, gently putting the unconscious man into the trunk while being mindful of their equipment.
Darcy nodded, wincing sheepishly as Erik rubbed his shoulders. Thor was seriously heavy.
“Jane!” Lyssa called over her shoulder, getting into the van beside Aria’s car seat. “Let’s go!”
Jane nodded and ran to the van, climbing into the front passenger seat while Darcy got behind the wheel once again. Erik closed the back doors and slid into his previous seat behind the driver, nodding at Darcy once the door was closed. She started the van, turning on the headlights and driving down the road once more, this time heading towards town.
The drive itself was passed silently and they reached the County Hospital nearly 20 minutes later. Erik, Darcy, Jane and Lyssa, with Aria in her arms and once again wide awake, climbed out of the van and made their way to the reception desk. They stopped in front of the admin nurse who quickly called for a pair of orderlies to take the unconscious male into an empty room, a doctor checking his vitals while keeping pace with the moving stretcher.
“Name?” The nurse asked, pulling up a blank patient chart and preparing to document the relative information.
“Thor.” Lyssa replied, adjusting her hold on Aria who was wriggling in her arms. “No, baby, you can’t go down.”
“Here, let me take her.” Erik said, holding his hands out to Lyssa while the nurse spelled out the patient’s name as she slowly entered it into the computer.
Lyssa passed her daughter over to the older man, Erik swiftly lifting the girl onto his shoulders and drawing a happy giggle.
“And your relationship to him?” The nurse asked, a small smile on her face as she glanced at the baby for a moment.
“None of us have ever met him before.” Jane replied, shrugging and getting nods of agreement from the others.
“Until Jane hit him with a car.” Darcy threw in helpfully.
“I grazed him.” Jane corrected defensively. “But she tasered him.” She pointed at Darcy.
“Yes, I did.” Darcy said, smiling proudly.
“Ignore them.” Lyssa said with a long-suffering sigh, rolling her large eyes. “We just want to be sure that he’ll be okay.”
“Okay.” The nurse said, nodding. “Uh, I need a contact name and a number.”
“Lysianassa Potter.” Lyssa replied, giving the name on her ID card rather than her preferred nickname.
“L-Y-” The nurse spelled out as she began slowly entering the letters of the impossibly long name into the computer.
“Wait.” Erik said, cutting the nurse off. He reached into his pocket with his free hand while holding Aria in place with his other and pulled out a card. “I’ve got a card here.” He handed it to the nurse with a smile. “Thank you.” He said earnestly, expertly masking his desire to leave the hospital as fast as possible. “I guess we can go.”
The nurse nodded absently, focused on the card and adding the details to the computer.
As quickly yet inconspicuously as possible, Erik herded Lyssa, Darcy and Jane out of the hospital. He moved Aria off his shoulders and back into his arms as they crossed the threshold and out into the cool night air.
~*~
June 1, 2011
The next day, after a few hours of sleep, Erik, Jane, Darcy and Lyssa were in the main area of their temporary home/ makeshift lab/ research base, looking at their readings from the previous night. The building had previously been an auto shop called ‘Smith Motors’ before Lyssa and Jane had rented it from the owners who had moved out of town.
“You girls don’t think this was just a magnetic storm, do you?” Erik asked Lyssa and Jane.
“Not in the least.” Lyssa chirped, grinning up at the older man from where she was feeding Aria his breakfast.
While Erik, Darcy and Jane were still in their clothes from the previous day, Lyssa had changed and put Aria in a fresh outfit as well. Aria was dressed in a long-sleeved soft blue onesie with a delicate cloud and rainbow pattern embroidered on the chest and a pair of navy blue denim jeans with black flats. Lyssa was wearing a greyish-pink short-sleeved cowl neck blouse, hip-hugging jeans and a pair of black 4” high heeled ankle boots. In addition, she had a light pink watch on her left wrist, a cuff bangle on her right wrist and a pair of small pearl pink earrings in her ears*. She tied her long hair back in a low pony, though a few strands escaped the binding and framed her face gently.
“Look, the lensing around these edges.” Jane said, gesturing to her laptop screen. “It’s characteristic of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge.”
“A what?” Darcy asked, confused.
“I thought you were a science major?” Erik asked, looking at the young woman in confusion.
“Political Science.” Darcy said, pushing her glasses up her nose.
“She was the only applicant for the internship position.” Lyssa said sheepishly.
“An Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a theoretical connection between two different points of space-time.” Erik explained to Darcy.
“It’s a wormhole.” Jane summarized, walking around the pair and moving towards the printer, grabbing the sheet that came out. “Erik, look.” She showed him the paper. “What do you see?” She asked.
“Stars.” Erik replied, taking the paper and looking at the image.
“Yeah, but not our stars.” Jane pointed out.
Lyssa cleaned Aria’s face and picked her up from the highchair, settling her into the playpen that was set up in a corner with some toys and her blanket. Once she was settled and playing happily, babbling to herself, Lyssa joined her colleagues, looking at the image in Erik’s hand. “She’s right, Erik.” The pretty redhead said, a small frown on her face. “These aren’t our constellation alignments for this time of year.” She glanced up at him briefly, seeing the unconvinced look on his face. “Believe me Erik, I took Astronomy for 7 years at school before taking the courses required for my undergrad in University. These aren’t our stars for this time of year.”
“These are the ones for our quadrant this time of year.” Jane said, picking up another sheet and showing them the image, comparing the two. “Unless Ursa Major decided to take a day off, these are someone else’s constellations.”
“Hey!” Darcy called from where she was standing by the propped-up bulletin board. She beckoned them over, gesturing to the images that were pinned up. “Check this out.”
Looking at the images, they could see the silhouette of a man inside the storm cloud.
“No, it can’t be.” Erik breathed in shock.
Lyssa’s eyes widened, realizing that the man they encountered the previous night really was Thor as he proclaimed to be. The storm cloud had been the Bifrost Bridge transporting him to Earth, or Midgard as it was known among the Norse. “I think we left something at the hospital, Jane.” Lyssa said, hurrying to Aria and picking her up, making sure to grab her blanket as well.
“I think so too.” Jane agreed, grabbing her jacket and journal before hurrying out to the car.
Erik and Darcy exchanged looks and shrugged, grabbing their coats as well. Lyssa quickly bundled Aria up in her coat and slipped a dark grey sweater on before following Jane out.
Arriving at the hospital barely five minutes later, the small group carefully and quietly made their way through the corridors to Thor’s room, Aria in Lyssa’s arms. Thankfully, they weren’t stopped by anyone and quickly reached it.
Entering the sterile room, they found the bed empty despite the restraints that suggested Thor had been bound.
“Oh, my God.” Darcy groaned, seeing the restraints and how they had been torn apart.
Lyssa wasn’t too surprised, knowing the basics of Asgardian physiology from school, while Jane looked around the empty room with a scowl on her pretty face. “Come on.” Lyssa hissed, slipping back out of the room.
Jane, Erik and Darcy followed after her, all of them keeping their stride just below a run to keep from drawing attention. They kept up the pace until they left the hospital and climbed back into the van, Jane at the wheel with Erik beside her, Darcy and Lyssa in the back with Aria in her car seat.
“We just lost our most important piece of evidence.” Jane said frustratedly, smacking the steering wheel. “Typical.”
“So now what?” Darcy asked, pushing her glasses up her nose.
“We find him.” Lyssa said firmly, pulling a small toy from the diaper bag and giving it to Aria to play with.
“Did either of you see what he did in there?” Erik asked, looking between Jane and Lyssa. “I’m not sure finding him is the best idea.”
“Well, our data can’t tell us what it was like to be inside that event and he can.” Jane snapped. “So, we’re gonna find him.”
“Okay.” Darcy said, pulling out her taser and checking to make sure it was still functioning.
“So we’re gonna look all over New Mexico, right?” Erik asked, the question only half-rhetorical.
“Exactly.” Jane agreed, starting the engine. Looking out the back window, Jane began carefully pulling them out of their parking spot. Only, before they moved more than a few inches, she hit the blond man they were searching for when he suddenly walked into their path. “What?!” Jane exclaimed in shock, quickly stopping the van.
"Oh no." Aria chirped cheerfully.
Climbing out with Lyssa and Darcy, the three women ran to the prone man while Erik stayed inside with Aria, looking out of his open door.
“I’m so sorry! I swear, I’m not doing this on purpose.” Jane rambled in a near panic.
“He’s unconscious again.” Lyssa said, checking Thor’s vitals. Pulling his arms up, she looked at her friends “Help me get him into the car.” She said, straining under his weight.
Darcy opened the back door and the three women loaded him into the back, the same way Erik had the previous night.
~*~
Back at the research base, Aria began whimpering and moaning, rubbing her eyes in evidence of her tiredness; the events and excitement of the previous night had kept her awake for quite a while after they had returned from the hospital and she had woken up at her usual time that morning. Lyssa swiftly cradled Aria in her arms and began feeding her with her bottle.
“You know, for a crazy homeless person, he’s pretty cut.” Darcy commented thoughtfully, sitting down at the table with Erik. She eyed a topless Thor through the slightly ajar bathroom door.
The man had woken up as they reached their home and Jane gave him some clothes before sending him to the bathroom to change.
Jane, pacing behind Darcy, peeked at the blond man over the top of her journal before looking away and blushing lightly.
“Darcy, give the man some privacy, please.” Lyssa chided gently, putting the bottle down and holding Aria upright against her shoulder, rocking her gently.
Thor walked out of the bathroom and into the main area, only wearing a pair of well-fitting navy-blue jeans.
“Hey, sorry I tased you!” Darcy called to Thor, her eyes roving his handsome figure.
Thor didn’t reply, instead catching sight of the computer mouse that was on a nearby table. He picked it up and looked at it curiously.
“Excuse me, excuse me!” Jane cried, hurrying towards Thor and taking the mouse from his hand, putting it back by the computer. Realizing she was right next to the handsome, shirtless man, she cleared her throat awkwardly and stepped back. Not sure what to say, she looked back at her journal, suddenly finding the words that she herself had written completely fascinating.
“What is this?” Thor asked, holding up the navy-blue shirt and pointing to the name sticker on the left breast.
It said ‘Donald Blake, M.D.’
“Oh.” Jane said, looking sheepish and peeling the sticker off the fabric. “My ex.” She scrunched the sticker up and tossed it into a nearby bin. “Good with patients and bad with relationships.”
“Ex?” Thor asked, confused.
“Former suitor.” Lyssa subtitled helpfully, rubbing Aria’s back soothingly.
Thor nodded in understanding.
“They’re the only clothes we have that would fit you.” Jane added.
“They will suffice.” Thor said dismissively, walking away from her.
“Your welcome.” Jane muttered, glaring at his back.
“This mortal form has grown weak.” Thor said, pulling the shirt on. “I need sustenance.”
Darcy looked at him with a raised eyebrow while Erik crossed his arms, an incredulous expression on his face.
“Okay, to start with, you say ‘please’.” Lyssa said, carefully passing a drowsy Aria to Erik before going to the kitchen. “And keep your voice low; if you wake the baby up, I will smack you.” She punctuated her last statement with a fierce glare at Thor that brokered no argument.
Thor looked at her for a single moment and nodded in understanding, bowing his head to her in respect. Though she was seemingly a mortal, she was speaking as a mother.
Erik and Darcy exchanged looks, both biting back their snickers. Lyssa was already a force to be reckoned with; but when it came to her child, or any child for that matter, she was absolutely lethal and there would be no power in the Universe to stop her from carrying out her promise.
Thor watched as Lyssa puttered about the kitchen, all but gliding around the small space with the grace of a warrior and a dancer, putting several Pop Tarts on a plate that she then handed him. He nodded to her in thanks and began eating, practically inhaling the food.
“You might need to make more.” Darcy said, eyeing the rapidly emptying plate.
“I can see that.” Lyssa said, only mildly surprised at the man’s appetite as she began making the rest of the Pop Tarts in the box.
Not being a human, Thor probably needed to consume a lot of food in order to meet his body’s energy outputs. He may be in a mortal form, if his own admission was anything to go by, he still needed to consume a lot so he could maintain his muscle mass and body strength, even if it was weaker than what he was used to.
Thor continued to watch Lyssa out of the corner of his eye, taking in the way she seemed to glide around the kitchen, preparing the food while watching her child in Erik’s arms. He wondered who the little girl was, if she was Lyssa’s daughter. If so, he wondered where the girl’s father was as he was certain it wasn’t the elderly man sitting across from him. Erik seemed to behave more like the child’s grandfather than father.
Thor could also sense the power within Lyssa and Aria. The power within the woman seemed familiar, as though from a long distant memory of times gone by. He didn’t know why or how, but something about the woman reminded him of her. Of his beloved and his brother’s best friend, of Anera, whom they had lost to battle long ago. Except that this woman had darker hair while Anera had the trademark light hair of the Light Elves that she had been born as in her most recent life, even if it had been red in color. The only features this woman completely shared with Anera, aside from the power, was the crescent moon on her forehead and the eyes. And strangely, this woman also possessed the same otherworldly beauty of the immortal beings of the other Realms, an aura that was never found among mortals, not even those who practiced magic.
Thor was drawn out of his thoughts by a loud cry. Turning to the sound, he saw Aria wriggling in Erik’s arms, rubbing her eyes and crying.
“Mama.” Aria sobbed, silver tears falling from her large emerald green eyes. “Dada.”
“Shh, it’s okay Aria.” Erik said soothingly, rubbing his hand over the toddler’s back.
“Here, let me take her.” Lyssa said, wiping her hands on a towel before reaching out to her daughter.
“Mama.” Aria wailed.
“I don’t know what’s wrong.” Erik said in confusion, handing Aria over along with her blanket that she was loosely wrapped in. “She was fine until just now.”
As soon as Aria was in Lyssa’s arms, her cries slowed into sniffles. She tightly gripped her mother’s shirt and her blanket with one hand while sucking furiously on her other thumb.
“She misses them.” Lyssa said softly, her normally sparkling eyes dulled with pain and sorrow.
“Poor kid.” Darcy said quietly, getting to her feet and moving around the table to stand by Lyssa. She reached out and ran her hand over Aria’s cherubic cheek, the fair skin filled with the soft, rosy blush of childhood. “How long’s it been? 5, 6 months?”
“Mama.” Aria said around her thumb, snuggling against Lyssa’s chest.
“6.” Lyssa replied quietly, looking down at Aria’s face.
The toddler was wide awake, clearly not wanting to return to the dreams of her parents.
“She’ll be okay.” Erik said gently, reaching out and squeezing Lyssa’s arm reassuringly. “Kids are remarkably resilient, and Aria has you.”
“She should also have Sirius and Remus.” Lyssa said, frustration and anger seeping into her voice. She looked out through the glass that made up most of the back and side walls. “She should have her godfather and uncle here with her, teaching her how to prank and give me grey hair. She should-.” She cut herself off and shook her head, turning away and wiping the few tears that had fallen from her eyes.
Darcy, Erik and Jane exchanged looks, each one filled with sympathy for the young woman who had been through so much in so little time. While they didn’t know the entire story, like why the men she referred to couldn’t raise Aria with her or why there were things she did and said that didn’t always add up, they knew enough to feel an incredible sense of protectiveness towards her and Aria.
To lose your younger brother, sister-in-law and essentially two others you thought of as little brothers all in the span of a few hours was enough to send anyone insane, but to know that there was nothing that you could have done to save them was even worse.
All that kept her going was Aria, the sweet little emerald-eyed girl who needed Lyssa just as much as Lyssa needed Aria.
Clearing his plate, Thor watched the by-play with curious eyes, recognizing the look of anguish on Lyssa’s face. He wondered who it was that the beautiful maiden had lost, for it was obvious she had lost people she loved dearly.
“Hey, maybe we can go to Izzy’s.” Erik suggested, changing the subject entirely and wanting to clear the pain in his heart’s daughter’s eyes. “Aria loves it there and Izzy loves spoiling her.”
“Yeah, that sounds great.” Jane said, smiling brightly.
“You only think that because it’s supposed to be your turn to cook.” Lyssa said, giving the older woman a knowing look.
“Big time.” Jane said, nodding.
A running joke among the group of friends was that Jane could not cook. At all. The most she was capable of doing was putting milk in a bowl of cereal and pouring coffee from the coffee pot. Anything more and it was a recipe for an explosion just waiting to happen.
“Works for me.” Darcy chirped, making faces at Aria and drawing peals of giggles from the toddler.
Links:
*Lyssa outfit, hair in a low pony -https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/474566879475662008/