Vagary

Chapter 1: “Virago”

virago:

/ vɪˈrɑ goʊ, -ˈreɪ- /Noun

A strong, brave, or warlike woman; a woman who demonstrates exemplary and heroic qualities 

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“We all eat lies when our hearts are hungry.”

 -Penelope Douglas, Next to Never

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  February 23, 2013/ New York City, Earth

Nova took a look at the sea of people roaming the early afternoon streets of the 'city never sleeps' and sighed excitedly, this trip was going to be a lot more challenging yet exciting than she thought. The morning sun glistened on her light tan skin, making her wavy long, auburn hair glimmer with a fiery look. She looked at the white cat inside her blue raincoat mischievously, “Alright buddy, let’s get over with this soon.”  

She took a deep breath as she put the pink crystal pendulum back in her pocket and took out a piece of yellow paper she took a step forward, with a sparkle of determination in her light gray eyes and a bright smile on her face. She could do this.  

 It had been ages since the young woman left the realm, so she looked into everything with a toddler’s curiosity and interest. As she wandered in the crowded streets, she looked at the paper in her hand. “We have about six stops to get the items on the list, it won’t take long I promise. Just keep calm and we will be home as soon as possible.”  

Nova only could hope to believe what she said was true. After putting the list back in her pocket, “Our first step is to find some food,” The white fur ball inside her coat gave some annoyed growls. “Ah come on grumpy, neither of us can finish our trip with an empty stomach. Besides, I missed the delicious foods of the planet; hotdogs, burgers - oh sweet gods, I need to find chocolate- and all the unhealthy stuff doesn’t exist in  Crest Valleys. ” Ever since she left Earth she hadn't put junk food in her system, so her first stop was a small stall on the corner of a street that had a booth full of mouth-watering snacks. 

As soon as she found delights to fill her stomach, she visited the various shops to get all the ingredients and items on the list. After four hours of sightseeing and wandering around the streets freely- no longer in prison of the prying eyes judging her every move, and she had no more expectations to keep. She was finally free even for one single day- she finally decided to say goodbye to the city by taking a break somewhere south of Central Park. 

As the woman started to walk in that direction, she noticed the distressed yells of the sea of people trying to run from something. She looked into the eyes of the creature on her chest worriedly, “What’s going on?” Not long after she felt the vibrations coming from the ground and heard some blast sounds coming from the top of a building. “I swear I didn’t get us into this on purpose. Not looking for a new adventure, buddy. But something ominous is going on.” The cat gave the woman a suspicious look while growling. 

 Pieces of debris started to fall from surrounding buildings to the ground with big noises as the crowd began to run off with greater panic. Well, it appeared that trouble had no intention of leaving them alone. “Screw the laws. Prem, you know these people need help, they’re defenseless.” The cat gave the woman a murderous look and growled in protest. But when he saw the determination in her gray eyes he rolled his jade eyes as he hopped off from her chest and got to a safe distance away from her. ‘Suit yourself  Witchling, but I am not getting in this mess.’ He looked at her smiling, ‘But don’t you dare to die for these unworthy bugs, that would be a pain in the ass to explain to your precious coven.’ 

Nova smiled knowingly, “Aww, I knew you have a heart, crusty.'' More defenseless hands toward people under the way of debris coming, ''O’ sweet  Norns, bless me with your strength,'' and she created a blue-silverish force field with her hands to protect the people. 

Luckily no one was hurt, but as she looked around she spotted a herd of reptile-like creatures lurking around buildings. There was a group of people fighting with them with all kinds of weaponry; arrows, guns,- wait, is that flying thing a man in a red iron suit??- and even a shield. “Looks like we found ourselves a battle, Prem.”  

After pulling her long wavy brown hair into a ponytail, she quickly disappeared her belongings to her private pocket dimension as her clothes changed into her black cloak and black leather leggings for the battle ahead. A  long silver spear decorated with runic symbols appeared in her right hand with a silver-blue shimmer. She spun the weapon in her hand three times and got herself prepared for the battle. 

The creatures weren't any longer than 4 ft., had reptile skins of green color slick with a weird liquid, and mean-looking plenty sharp teeth, and talon-like sinister paws. Their entirely orange eyes were beaming with a ferocious-mean sparkle and, as soon as the three of them realized the weapon in Nova's hands, they started hissing like serpents and started to move toward her. ‘Oh, I would be careful with those talons,’ commented Prime. ‘They can easily rip in half a halfling such as you.’ 

“Ugh, shut up.” 

She eyed down her three opponents carefully, then took a deep breath as she took her fighting stance and spun the silver weapon impatiently once more. The creatures started to circle her like predators at a safe distance;  all waiting for her to lower her guard for attacking and gutting her down. She narrowed her eyes with annoyance, “Oh, come on! I don’t know which freak experiment's production of you, but I don’t have all day to kick your butts, you ugly nasty slime balls!" The creatures weren't looking so happy with her insult, so they growled and attacked her with ferocity.  

She fended off the first attack with a fast duck, rolled on the ground, and swung her spear to the beast's feet. When the grey creature fell to the ground, she got up quickly afterward, took a step forward twirled her spear, and turned her back right in time to stop another attack on her lower back. With the end of her weapon, she pushed the second opponent and its long talons over her. 

When ugly-number-one tried to grab the silver spear from Nova’s hands, she got closer to the monster and swung her elbow on its face. Next, she turned around and shoved a kick to its chest. After showing it off from herself a safe distance away, she sent a swirl of a blue-white explosion from her spear’s tip to the monster and blew the ferocious thing’s head. The lifeless chunk fell to the ground with a thud. 

After seeing their fellow’s head blow off, the creatures started to move away from her hissing. They knew they needed to be more careful to win this fight and stay alive. Nova snorted and taunted them with more of her insults: “Good, you’re not as dumb as you look,” White-blue light started to dance at the silver spear’s tip again. “Last warning. Unless you want more from this stuff, go back to wherever ugly nest you came from and leave this realm alone.”  

As soon as the words left her mouth, a fourth monster came out of nowhere and jumped her back. Prem tsked unimpressed, ‘Careful as always Nova. I start to think you have a death wish.’ Nova yelped out of surprise and tried to push the ferocious creature’s mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and claws away from herself with her spear. “Get the  Hel  away from me you beast! And if you know so well o’ mighty warrior, why don’t you give a hand over here?” 

The white cat smirked, ‘Not interested.’ 

 Other creatures moved toward her while she finally managed to poke the creature’s eye with the end of her weapon and the thing shrieked out of pain. Her focus was on the one at her back yet she was vulnerable against other threats. As the ugly-number-three was about to gut her down with its paw, a blur of red and blue tackled the monster to the ground.  

She looked to the ground with a surprised expression and saw a circular red-blue shield with a big white star painted in the middle. The monsters were as surprised as her, but she was the first one who got rid of her shock and she used this opportunity to finish the rest of the creatures she was dealing with quickly. Then she picked up the circle-shaped shield from the ground and tried to understand who threw it. It was lighter than it looked, which made her think about what metal it was made of. 

Her gray eyes caught the fight half a few hundred feet away from her. A muscular man in a red-white striped blue uniform with a white star on his chest was fighting five monsters at once, he looked a bit troubled apparently, but he was a good fighter. His moves were skillful and he was strong. Powerful enough to keep the nasty-looking jaws and claws from himself, and throw that heavy shield her way and save her life. 

As she was trying to find out whether to help him or not, the blonde man called out to her: “Hey, kid! Would you mind throwing my shield back?” 

 Nova smiled while answering back and throwing the shield at the creature behind his back. “Not a kid, star-spangled! Thanks for saving me though, I owe you one. I’m Nova, so who are you?” She decided to come his way and help him with his fight.  

The man picked his shield from the beast’s chest and swung it to the creature next to him. “I’m Captain Steve Rogers. Surprised that you don’t know that already.” 

Nova gave the man a weird look. “Why? Are you famous or something?” Prem rolled his eyes amused, ‘All mortals think they value something, do they not?’ She rolled her eyes at the cat’s comment and swung her silver spear at a monster the man was fighting. The blue-white plasma opened a hole in the chest of the creature and its body fell to the ground like a sack.  

He gave the meowing feline a puzzled look, “Is the cat yours?” 

Nova laughed at the angry expression on the white cat’s face, “Oh, this is Prem. He’s the little menace I have to stand with.” Prem hissed to the auburn-haired woman exasperatedly, while she gave him an annoying grin. “Rude. You know it’s the truth, I am the only one here that can hear your insults buddy.” 

"You can talk with the cat?" Nova grinned sheepishly, " Yep, unless he decides to ignore me, hurt my feelings, and do whatever he wants."  

The man gave the woman an amused look and smiled, “And here I am, thinking I saw all kinds of weirdness. I am an Avenger. Guess that makes me famous, so yeah.”  

Nova thought about it while shooting more monsters, “I think the news boards I saw this morning had a headline about ‘Avengers saving the city from another alien attack’. But I have no idea about what’s going on. Tell me, since when did aliens start to attack Earth?” Steve huffed in bemusement. “My team does that from time to time. And if you don’t know about Avengers or the attacks you must be from somewhere else,  which can be told from your accent.”  

Before she or Prem had any chance to reply to him, another vibration started coming from the ground. The young woman looked at the soldier expectantly, “Does your team have any plan to end this madness? 

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February 29, 2013 / New York City, Earth

All Prem could think of was how Nova was putting them in danger in vain.  

Iðunn would be pissed, he thought. How could she talk me into this in the first place? We need to leave before any of them find out we came here. 

 At some point, the white cat gave up and decided to help and make her hurry up with their departure, the sooner the better they leave without getting into trouble. He knew the consequences of crossing the Crest Valleys from a  painful lesson. The less the girl knew and mingled with their secrets, the safer she would be. 

Over the last week, they kept running into those Midgardians over and over in different locations. However, the number of problems wasn’t getting lessened and today’s battle didn’t seem to be any different from the previous ones. He was pretty eager to leave those bugs to themselves already but he knew he couldn’t change the woman’s weird obsession with the odd realm. Over the years of their strange relationship, he and many others tried and failed countless times. They will all perish like a breath of air in less than a century, she is wasting her time. 

"Cap, Nova! Be ready, the last part is coming your way!" 

Nova grinned at the blonde archer in the black-purple sleeveless jumpsuit on the balcony of a nearby building, "Got it." She looked at the white cat with adoration. “Are you ready?”  

Prem smirked at the auburn-haired woman confidently. ‘As always.’

Steve looked at the duo curiously. "Are you sure this will work? " Nova smiled reassuringly, "Trust me, captain. The spell will work. Just cover your eyes when I say so."

The young woman held her glowing hands in front of her chest while the white feline held his paw through the sky. 

 *  “ I neled híril swaui med I elena -o

 I menel foroth er andre på uireb anrand ellr neder gaer,

 O’ lend Mené, Ithil, Bil; Fein galad car -o ammen,

 Galad cín calar na narv- awaui hele I foeg er”

As they chimed the Alfim spell, a strong breeze swarmed around them and a bright white light ball appeared in the air among their palms. Both of them waited and waited until all the swarming aliens got into the fireline, then took a deep breath and closed their eyes to avoid getting blind. "Now!" 

As she flicked her wrists, silver-azure mists exploded like a shock wave from the light ball, and like a wildfire, it wiped off every alien it touched within its radius. 

As she opened her eyes breathlessly and looked around to see anything they missed, she saw the impressed look on the soldier's face. " Now that was quite the show. Nice work." 

She lowered her hands and tried to fix her very wrong posture as she blew out a piece of hair falling into her eyes. She was feeling very giddy as now the battle rush and adrenaline were leaving her system, she was well spent and needed some time to recharge her strength. " Thanks. Well, since all of this is done, where can I eat something substantial? Those tricks took quite some power, I'm starving! " 

Prem facepalmed his paw on his face groaning at the background, 'This girl's appetite would compete with a bilgesnipe, I swear. You couldn’t just wait for a second until we go home, could you?' 

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“Norns, I knew I missed burgers but didn’t know I missed them this much,” Nova murmured while biting her almost-finished burger.  

Prem nodded at the next chair from her, ‘ This  is not bad for Midgardian food, I suppose.’  

Clint chuckled at the weirdness of the duo. “ You talk just like Thor, where are you guys from anyway?” Other heroes around the plastic table hummed in agreement.

The white cat stopped eating. How in the Norns do these mortals know of the crown prince of Æesir?

Nova chewed her last bite, swallowed it quickly, and wiped her mouth on her napkin to answer the blonde man’s question. “ Well, we’re from a place called Crest Valleys of Vanaheim. I grew up on Earth, and Prem has never belonged to one place. He wasn’t always a cat, you know, but that’s a very long tale, isn’t it true crusty?” 

She ignored the warning look the white cat gave her. “ We came here for some of the ingredients I needed endemic to Earth, so we had a shortstop. At least our intention was that way. “

“ If you’re from Earth, then how did you end up in space, aren’t you human?” asked the man in the red-gold iron suit. 

Nova shrugged and clasped her hands on the table as she looked into his brown eyes. “Not quite so, I’m not human. I am a novice of Völva of Crest Valleys, which is something that can be called a ‘Witch’. Let’s just say that I have a complicated story.” She chuckled lightly. “Now you tell me how do you guys know Prince Thor  and since when does Earth deal with the crap we dealt with earlier?” 

“Since Loki invaded New York and Thor helped us to stop his brother, ever since he’s an Avenger too.” answered the redhead woman next to Tony. Prem swallowed with panic. Shit. 

With a weak voice,  Nova asked: “ Prince Loki is alive?” 

“ Did you know him?” asked Steve warily,  everyone at the table was tense now. 

The auburn-haired woman shrugged again and shook her head. “ Except the fact he’s a prince and master magician of Asgard? I don’t know him personally, no.”  With weary eyes, she looked at the feline beside her, and dreadfully she asked: “You knew about this, didn’t you?” 

 Prem guiltily looked down. ‘ Yes, but -’

Nova sighed and held her hand to silence him calmly. With a serious expression, she said, “ We’ll have this conversation later, in private.” She looked at the faces of four heroes on the table with a softer expression. “Now, can you guys tell me how the Hel did this happened?”

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Chapter Endnotes:

*:    The three peeresses dance with the stars of the heavens,

      Chasing each other in an endless cycle above nine seas,

      O’ sweet Mené, Moon, Bil;  sheenful beacons of us,

      Light your torch to crisp nefarious even the slightest