Chapter 35) – Joker And The Thief

Travelling through the Bifrost tunnel, we got our first real glimpse of outer space - even when it was heavily restricted due to the speed we were travelling.

We passed by various Nebulae and stars, both of which we didn't know the name of, on our transported travel to Asgard.

The memories I inherited from the origin of my line, Venom, didn't include the journey to Earth. As such, even though I was an alien species to Earth, I had never actually seen outside of its boundaries in the same capacity as I was experiencing.

The same was the case for Mara. The Venom universe was not her own, but even she had never seen beyond Earth in either universe.

As a result of us losing our outer space virginities, we looked around the tunnel in wonderment at what awaited us in the future.

Unfortunately, all good things never last long enough.

For us, that meant our amazement at the picturesque expanse of the seemingly infinite universe was cut short due to the sheer speed in which the Bifrost transported us at.

Although the distance we covered wasn't explicitly stated, the fact that we sailed past such universal spectacles in mere moments was evident that we were going impossibly fast.

The only explanation we had, for how we were able to travel so fast, was simply 'bullshit magic'.

In fact, the entire journey, from touchdown of the tunnel on Earth to arriving at Asgard, took less than 10 seconds.

Stepping foot on what we would later come to know as Himinbjorg - the place from which the Bifrost tunnel was generated and directed - we were snapped out of our disappointment that the journey didn't last longer due to Thor, "Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun, get Heimdall to the healing room quickly! Red Crown, Sif, come with me."

When we exited Himinbjorg and set foot on the spectacular rainbow bridge, we were unable to appreciate the sight.

Thor immediately began to spin Mjolnir in his hand to build momentum and, since Mara knew what came next, it meant that we knew what we had to do.

Coiling our arm around Sif's waist to pull her close to us, such that her head was pressed against our bosom, we informed her, "Hold on tight beautiful."

Before the warrior could offer any words in response, we raised our other hand and extended our form to grab a hold of Mjolnir just as Thor released the momentum to begin flying towards the giant Asgardian palace.

Evidently never having experienced being dragged through the air via mystical hammer, Sif grabbed onto our form harder than was necessary in her surprise.

As much as we wanted to let her know that she didn't need to hold on so tight as there was no chance we would let her go, when travelling at the speed we were, the soundwaves wouldn't be able to make it into her ears without shouting, so we didn't attempt it.

Considering we were on a completely different world; we took the opportunity to look around the new place we had arrived in during our flight.

The architecture and general building design of Asgard was noticeably different from Earth.

For starters, the buildings were a lot rounder in shape than Earth. That didn't mean the buildings were all balls or spheres, but it meant that there were fewer sharp edges.

An example would be the skyscrapers.

We didn't know the purpose of the buildings in Asgard, but the tallest buildings were all arched or domed at the top. Whereas on Earth, most skyscrapers were squared on the top, or tapered to a point.

Other than the skyscrapers, there were larger buildings that were probably made for public gatherings due to them being numerous times wider than they were tall, similar to amphitheatres on Earth.

With the curved architecture that appeared to be standard in Asgard, those buildings were more like giant domes or were layered over each other in arches, like laminar armour.

As could be expected though, our sightseeing swiftly came to a close as a result of Mjolnir closing in on the gigantic golden Asgardian palace.

The palace was the tallest structure we could see. It was lit up with lights that only reflected off the golden coloured material it was made from to further highlight the importance of the building.

Surprisingly, the palace almost appeared to incorporate both Asgardian and human architecture. The standard Asgardian rounded features were present, but it also built to a point at the top.

Before we could study any further details about Asgard or the palace, we crashed directly into said palace.

Clearly Thor thought that entering the palace through the entrance would take too long.

Once we had penetrated the palace's wall, Thor cancelled out Mjolnir's momentum so that we didn't continue ploughing through the structure.

Not knowing our way around the palace, or even where we were within it, we spoke to Thor, "Nice entrance, but where do we go from here?"

Either not hearing our question, or too distracted to answer, Thor just began to walk away from our arrival site.

As we followed behind him, Sif answered us, "The Allfather's bedchambers are up ahead. As a result of banishing Thor, he fell into Odinsleep. As Thor previously stated, the Odinforce energy that the Destroyer used originated from the Allfather. However, the Allfather must regularly enter a state of deep sleep, termed Odinsleep, in order to recharge his Odinforce. Due to the deep sleep state, the Allfather is most vulnerable during this time and thus makes it the best opportunity for Loki to carry out his nefarious schemes."

Continuing to follow behind Thor as he made his way through various doors, we thanked Sif, "Thanks gorgeous. Do you think Loki has taken Odin hostage then in anticipation of Thor's return?"

With each door we passed through, the lack of guards became more and more apparent.

Sif also appeared to notice the absence of security as she completely ignored our complement in favour of answering the question, "There is a possibility. With the Allfather in Odinsleep, there should be more guards than usual, rather than a complete lack of them. This is very concerning. Also, could you put me down please? I understood the need to hold me close for the Mjolnir flight, but it is unnecessary now, no?"

Not breaking stride as we trailed behind the god of thunder, we answered the woman still held in our arms, pressed against our body, "Unnecessary? We think it's completely necessary."

Unfortunately for Sif, we didn't give her a reason why it was necessary and before she could pose that very question Thor opened the largest door yet, which also turned out to be the door leading into Odin's bedchambers.

There was another set of doors that separated us from the actual bedchamber, but those were already open and presented us with the site of Loki hugging a woman who we found out to be his mother.

Loki was around the same height as we were in our suited form, 6'2", had black hair which was just shy of his shoulder, and blue eyes. He had cool, ivory, skin that was darkened by the poor lighting in the bedchamber. His hair was covered by a golden helmet that had large, curved, horns and matched the rest of his golden battle armour. Just like Thor, his battle armour also had a cape, but Loki's was hunter green, and he held a golden spear with 1 hand while using the other to hug his mother.

Thor's mother was slightly smaller than Mara's natural height at 5'8" tall. She was wearing a silver dress made from an unknown fabric, but, considering her position, it was undoubtably an expensive or precious material. She had golden brown hair that was styled in a crown braid which was then tied into a ponytail at the back of her head and rested on her shoulder with the tip of the tail reaching down just below her breasts. Her skin was a flawless fawn tone which only served to make her blue eyes, which Thor clearly inherited, more prominent.

As Thor stood within the open doors, he called out, "Brother!"

With Thor's entrance, his mother broke off the hug she was having with Loki and ran over to the god of thunder, "Thor! I knew you would return."

Finally putting down Sif, we walked around the embracing pair of Thor and his mother to enter the bedchamber.

Since Thor was just staring menacingly at the mastermind, we took it upon ourselves to start the conversation, "So this is the snake that deployed the Destroyer and caused so much headache? Doesn't seem like much. Can we go first Thor? We won't kill him… too quickly anyways."

Obviously unimpressed with our choice of words, Thor's mother, Frigga, narrowed her eyes at us, "Thor what is this creature that threatens my child and your brother?"

Breaking off the hug, and gently pushing his mother off him, Thor answered her, "That is Red Crown, Earth's mightiest warrior and the main reason I was able to return home. Loki sent the Destroyer to kill me and our friends, but Red Crown fended off the automaton until I could regain my right to wield Mjolnir and defeat it. Fret not though mother, there shall be no killing. Loki must pay for his crimes against Asgard. Is that understood Red Crown?"

Clicking our tongue we tried to argue against the would-be ruler of Asgard, "Tsk. If he's as much of a snake as we think, he'll only return and wreak more havoc later down the line. It's easier to cut off the bud before it blooms."

Stepping forward to stand between us and Loki, Thor stated, "No! Even after all he's done, Loki deserves a second chance once he has served his punishment and self-reflected."

Controlling our building anger at the continual refusal from Thor, we channelled it towards Loki, "Fine, he'll live. But he won't be whole if we've got anything to say about it."

Not willing to converse any longer Mara's body went into Adrenaline production overdrive, and I lapped it up to supercharge our strength.

Exploding forward, we used the unexpected instantaneous shift, from conversation into battle, to our advantage in order to catch Loki off-guard.

Although we hadn't seen Loki use the spear in his hands, Mara's thoughts were sending extreme danger warnings about it and so we aimed for that first.

We sent our hair tendrils ahead of us as they wrapped around the spear's shaft.

Pulling the spear towards us, Loki held his grip on it tight so we couldn't wrench it out of his hands.

With our initial plan of just ripping the spear out of his hands out of the window, we used the fact that Loki was pulled towards us to our advantage.

Pulling our head back slightly, we swiftly threw it forward for a headbutt and made a clean connection against Loki's forehead.

With the trickster's head snapping backwards we stuck to our earlier words to Thor.

Raising our right arm into the air, we transitioned it into that of a blade and swung it down at Loki's hands - fully intending to amputate them to achieve our goal of removing the spear from his hands.

Still reeling from the head collision, Loki must have sensed the incoming blade because he let go of the spear barely in time to save his fingers.

In fact, it was so close that his fingernails were actually trimmed.

Kicking out at the Asgardian, we sent him flying backwards and into the wall of the bedchamber.

Not appreciating the fact that we tried to dismember his brother, Thor had thrown Mjolnir at us to try and prevent us from succeeding in our attempt to lob off Loki's hands.

Unfortunately for him, the throw had been a second too slow, so the hammer arrived after we had already secured the spear. That short window gave us enough time to hold out our free left hand and catch Mjolnir.

Feeling the familiar happy hum, we turned to face the interrupter and stepped towards him, "Don't forget sparky, you're not the only being worthy of Molly. Let us blow off some steam and we'll promise he won't lose too many limbs."

Handing Mjolnir to Thor, we turned to Sif and handed her the spear that was held in our tendrils, "Don't lose this. Seems pretty important."

With our hands and hair tendrils free, we re-focused back on Loki.

Unfortunately, we had kicked him too hard and blasted him through the palace walls.

Even though the palace was gold in colour we thought it was made of some other material, but, considering how weak the walls appeared to be, it seemed to genuinely be made from gold.

Looking out of the Loki-hole we made, we spotted the man himself standing up from his presumed previously prone position on the rainbow bridge.

Impressed with how durable he was, we reverted our bladed hand back to normal as we jumped out of the hole towards the rainbow bridge - so that we could resume the beatdown.

Impacting the bridge and rippling our form to disperse the force, we walked up to the now standing snake until we were half a dozen metres away, "You know, if you apologise we might let you keep a leg or 2."

Chuckling at us, Loki replied, "Why would I, a god, apologize to a lesser being such as yourself. You should be grovelling at my feet in gratitude at just being in my very presence!"

Deciding that the man wasn't as durable as we had initially thought, due to him clearly suffering from brain damage, we realised that conversation would be wasted on him.

Concentrating some of our form into our right arm, we threw our open hand forward and extended our hand with our aim set at the self-proclaimed god's neck.

Closing our fingers around the neck, our hand phased through Loki's body before the man in front of us dissipated in an emerald-green mirage.

Impressed at the magic trick, we pulled our extended hand back and at the same time felt a small impact on our left hip.

Turning to look behind us, we saw Loki stood there with a small dagger, in his right hand, that he had tried to stab into our form.

Giggling at the attempt, we commended the man, "Hehe impressive effort. Unfortunately, it'll take more than a toothpick to harm us, oh mighty god."

Not wanting to let Loki disappear through his magic phasing bollocks, we wrapped our form, from the point of contact on our hip, around the knife and his hand.

With 1 of his hands locked down, Loki pulled another knife out of seemingly nowhere in his left hand and tried to stab us in the face.

Spotting the clearly telegraphed attack, we fully expected it to be a feint or an illusion using his magic with how obvious it was.

Fortunately, our act of securing the man's hand must have made him panic and forget to utilise his greatest strength.

As the new knife came close to our face, we opened our mouth and strengthened our teeth as we bit the blade in half.

Spitting the broken blade in our mouth back towards Loki we added a bit of sonic force to it, so it shot out like a bullet towards his left shoulder.

Again, supporting what we had already learned about the snake, Loki's body was considerably more durable than a normal human.

The blade tip pierced through the armour he was wearing, but even with his lithe frame, his body was able to prevent the projectile from penetrating all the way through his shoulder. Instead, 3-quarters of the chomped blade was all that entered the nuisance's body.

That didn't sound too impressive, and we didn't give the attack all of our effort, but considering the blade pierced through the metal of his armour with relative ease, it really emphasised how much of a beating the man could take.

1 thing about Loki that was identical to a human, which the supposed 'god' seemed to think were lesser beings, was the fact that he lost most motor function in his arm from the blade that was stuck into him.

Shifting our form to keep hold of Loki's right arm, we turned so that we were face-to-face with him rather than having to turn our head in order to look at him.

Grabbing his limp left arm with our right, and his shoulder with our left, we sported our best face-splitting smile as we quipped, "This is probably going to fucking hurt. But don't worry. We'll make sure you're all right soon enough."

With a firm grasp in both of our hands, Loki tried his best to pull himself free, but his desperation only fuelled our desire to make him suffer.

Considering his shoulder was already damaged, Loki immediately made it clear how painful our procedure was once we started, "AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Fibre by fibre, strand by strand, we tore his arm to the right and held his shoulder in place as we set apart dismembering the first limb of the session.

Unfortunately, we got too caught up in our enjoyment and instead of swiftly following through with what we had initially set out to do, we spent too long enjoying the sweet euphony that was Loki's pained screeches.

As a result of us taking too long, we had to remove our left hand from Loki's shoulder to catch a hammer barrelling towards us at an impressive speed.

We could have used a tendril, but just my form wouldn't have been enough to completely cancel the momentum Mjolnir was carrying and rippling my form, when we were unsure if the hammer had any charge running through it, wasn't the safest of ideas.

Due to us releasing our hold of Loki's shoulder, the man was pulled towards his half-connected arm and was dangling in the air via said arm. The position he was in still caused him pain, but his melody was muted for the most part in comparison.

Annoyed that our fun had been cut short, we turned to Thor – who had interrupted us – and barked, "Thor, you better have a good fucking reason for interrupting our fun. We told you he wouldn't die, but we need a limb or 2 before we're satisfied. He'll never learn his lesson if he doesn't face the consequences of his actions!"

Trying to appeal to us, Thor attempted to explain himself, "Worry not Red Crown. Loki will face the consequences of his actions, but in a way that allows him to reflect and learn from his mistakes. Torture and dismemberment will only breed resentment, rather than inspire the need for change. Please, put Loki down."

Even though Mara had fully expected Thor would try and prevent us from inflicting permanent damage to Loki, it didn't stop the anger that bubbled due to his naivety, "Mistake? Do you think for even a second this worm considers what he's done as a mistake?! The only mistake he probably considers is that he attacked when WE were nearby! The next time he does something like this, and there will be a next time, the scale will be much grander, and the devastation will be immense. No, it's better to ensure that he can't harm anyone ever again!"

Throwing Mjolnir towards Thor, we took the moment in which he would need to catch the hammer to turn back to Loki in our hand.

Resuming where we had left off, we grabbed his shoulder with our left hand but, instead of holding him in place with it, we pulled it to the left to accelerate the tearing process.

That was until the Loki in our hands disappeared into a mint-green mirage.

Confused at how the man had somehow escaped our grasp, we looked around us as we didn't think he would have been able to travel very far.

Regrettably, we weren't able to look for long as we heard a mellifluous voice in our ears, "Sleep."

Punctuating the word, our joint consciousness was suddenly pulled from under us.

We tried to fight the command as best we could, but with us being caught off-guard, and thus not expecting it, the effect of the obviously named spell was too strong for us to withstand for long.

Even my consciousness, which didn't require sleep, was beginning to fade.

Thankfully, when we turned around to face the magic wielder who influenced us, we quickly recognised that it wasn't Loki.

Instead, it was Loki and Thor's mother - Frigga.

Or at least with our dwindling consciousness we didn't consider it could be Loki in disguise as his mother, which, fortunately, it wasn't.

Falling to our knees my form began to recede back into my host's body and enter a dormant state due to my consciousness being supressed for the first time in my life.

Muttering out a final, "Fucking bullshit magic." Both mine and Mara's minds slipped into the realm of unconscious as my host's body flopped prone onto the ground.

Defenceless and vulnerable, we could only hope that Thor and Frigga would be capable enough to protect us from Loki - should he attempt to take the opportunity to kill us while we were incapacitated.