Hakuna Matata

Lady Sif stepped through the Bifrost. Behind her, the chained Marauders, who were captured in Vanaheim, arrived with Fandral, Volstagg and the company of Einherjar.

Nodding to Heimdall, Sif continued her path through the Bifrost, leaving the Marauders in Fandral and Volstagg's care. The battle was finally over, it seemed. With the Bifrost repaired, the Asgardian army was able to restore peace swiftly, allowing the Nine Realms to continue in harmony once again. Still, as swiftly as it was, the battles were tiring and Sif was truly exhausted.

With Thor leaving in the middle of the campaign, it meant a longer battle. Still, Vanaheim was mostly back under their control by the time he left and Sif didn't exactly blame him for leaving, not when she found out the reason he had left. Kryptonians. Kryptonians had arrived in Midgard to wreak havoc and were stopped by another Kryptonian, one who lived his entire life in that very Realm.

Sif couldn't believe that had really happened. The Kryptonians had isolated themselves for so long that most Asgardians had never even seen one of them before and the chance to see one ever again fell to zero after they learned Krypton had imploded. Or so they thought. Apparently, they were wrong and that assumption nearly cost them Midgard and all humanity.

General Zod was a name that Sif had paid close attention over the years as had every Asgardian warrior. Krypton might be isolated, but there were always those that were either too brave or too stupid to try to invade their space. That never ended well. The things General Zod did over the years had resonated through the universe.

To see that same General Zod trying to invade Midgard was surprising, even more after the news of Krypton destruction. Knowing that Zod was defeated by another Kryptonian who lived his whole life in Midgard and fought to save humanity was shocking.

Sif was the first to admit that she didn't think much about Kryptonians. She knew by the myth and legends that they were unbelievably advanced and incredibly powerful under a yellow sun, but their culture was strange to her. Too formal, too closed off, too arrogant. According to the documentation, other life forms were barely worthy of note to Kryptonians. Zod was a famous example of that.

There were exceptions. There were Kryptonians in history who fought with the Asgardians against the threats to the universe, even against the wishes of their own council. There were those who sacrificed themselves to save "lower" life forms without hesitation. There were even those who went against their very own race in pursue of what was right.

The one who defeated Zod seemed to be like that. Kal-El, if the warrior's gossip was worth anything, was a Kryptonian raised by humans, the last of his kind now. It was a story worthy of legends and songs and Asgardians loved that kind of thing, so it was no surprise that word of his deeds traveled across the Realms. She wondered if Thor would bring him here. It would be interesting to meet a Kryptonian.

In a moment in which she was crossing the Bifrost over the city, one building exploded in a rain of debris.

Sif turned to where the noise came from, unsheathing her sword, just in time to see a huge creature passing through the walls of a building. It was green, scaly, with four immense paws full of claws, massive horns and teeth. Right now, it was trampling everything in its path.

A bilgesnipe.

Sif readied herself to pursue the bilgesnipe, wondering who was the thundering imbecile allowing one of them to roam free in the middle of the town. Bilgesnipes were very strong beasts, incredibly destructive, violent and tough to bring down. These were excellent reasons for them not to allow them close to where people lived. Whoever managed to do that stupidity deserved to be trampled by it. Maybe death could heal them of that affliction.

Her question about who was involved in this mess said itself almost immediately.

"You are not a match for the mighty Thor!" a familiar voice yelled as she saw her old friend jumping from a building and falling on top of the bilgesnipe.

Sighing, Sif jumped to the streets, landed on the ground with absolute grace, her eyes never leaving Thor as he rode the bilgesnipe through the middle of the crowds. The people were jumping out of the way, tossing themselves anywhere to escape the unstoppable fury of the animal, as Thor laughed manically while he held its horns.

Visibly irritated with the Asgardian on its back, the bilgesnipe turned and went through a building, trying to shake him off. Both Thor and the beast broke through the stone wall, with a cloud of smoke rising. Sif ran in pursuit imagining how in the world they would stop that thing before the whole city fell apart.

Bilgesnipes were tough to hunt. When they started to trample, they didn't stop until they were dead or unconscious. Asgardians hunted them in teams and even so there were tricks to avoid people dying, tricks that they could hardly replicate in the middle of the city, even less with no help.

Thor and the bilgesnipe appeared through the other side of the building, leaving a trail of rubbles behind them. Thor laughed the whole time. They got out in the middle of the market, the huge paws destroying everything in sight, as Sif prepared herself to attack. Maybe if she could harm its legs, she could bring it down.

At the moment her muscles tensed for her to jump, there was a huge boom in the sky. Sif looked up just in time to see a blue blur sped through, colliding against the bilgesnipe's side with a thundering crack. Her eyes widened when the beast was tossed in the air alongside Thor, falling on its side.

In unbelievably speed, the man clad in blue began to immobilize the bilgesnipe, passing a truly thick chain around its neck while the beast tried to get up again.

"Thor, the hammer!" he yelled, tossing the chain in Thor's direction.

Thor grabbed the chain quickly, getting up much faster than the animal, and wrapped it around Mjölnir. The bilgesnipe managed to get up, roaring in fury, looking for the one who had tackled it. Finding its target, the bilgesnipe aimed and exploded forward, its paws breaking the ground.

When it was about to collide against the Kryptonian with all its strength, Thor dropped Mjölnir.

The chain whipped through the air—WHISH—as the Mjölnir remained unmoved in place, tightening itself against the bilgesnipe's throat with such strength that the beast fell back, breaking the concrete. The beast glanced around, breathless, struggling to get up once again, and then looking confused as to why it couldn't move more than a few meters.

Sighing in relief, Sif sheathed her sword again as the people around began to cheer.

"HA! Good thinking, Kal!" Thor yelled, raising a fist to the Kryptonian. "I did nearly the same thing with my brother once!"

If Sif had any questions about the man in front of her, they were said now.

"You put a leash on your brother?" Kal asked, giving the raging bilgesnipe a wide berth.

"No, I just dropped the hammer on him," Thor said. "Long story."

"What are you fools doing?!" Sif asked loudly. Both of them turned to her in surprise, as did everyone around. "Do you want to bring the city down?"

"Sif! How good to see you again!" Thor said, completely ignoring her question. "Sif, let me introduce you to Kal-El, Savior of Midgard. Kal, this is Lady Sif, one of the greatest warriors I had the pleasure to fight with."

Catching her eyes, the Kryptonian raised his hand and approached to greet her, a smile on his lips. Giving Thor a last annoyed look, Sif turned to Kal.

"It is an honor to meet you, Kal-El," she said, shaking his hand.

"The honor is all mine, Lady Sif," he said, politely.

Sif nodded courteously and turned to Thor again, slapping his chest.

"Now answer me, what were you thinking?!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Thor defended himself. "It was a straggler from the herds, they thought it would be a good idea to capture it for the tournament."

"It really wasn't," Kal added, sighing.

"It got away quite quickly, I agree," Thor laughed. "Still, good fun!"

Fun? Sif wanted to beat him.

"What are they going to do with it?" the Kryptonian asked, eyeing the beast. "Not kill it, right?"

He sounded almost regretful when he said that. Sif couldn't imagine why; if that little display didn't show what a bilgesnipe was capable of, she didn't know what would take.

"No, there is no honor in killing a caged beast," Thor said, waving his hands. "We will fight it in the tournament, maybe, and then send it back to where it can't hurt anyone. No need to kill it."

Oh, yes, Thor also had a soft spot for huge, savage creatures, to the point where he actually tried to raise a bilgesnipe when they were children. "Bilgy" didn't seem interested in share their company, if the destruction it brought in the royal palace meant something.

Sometimes Sif thought she was the only sane person in their group.

"That's good, I never liked hurting animals," Kal said.

Said animal tried to attack him again, only to be stopped by the chain like last time and fell back.

"It doesn't seem to share your kindness," Sif said, turning to Thor with a smirk. "Anyway, remember to warn me when you try to reclaim your hammer. This will be interesting to watch."

Suddenly, Thor wasn't smiling anymore.

Clark was stunned about the day he was having. Not too long after meeting the King of Asgard, Thor took him to see the preparations for the Convergence's festival. The fields on the outskirts of the city were filled with tents and overflowing with people, bustling around. Warriors practicing hand to hand combat against each other, blacksmiths hammering the molten metal, music playing in the air. A big arena had been built too, taking the horizon view.

And, of course, there was a big cage holding the scariest animal Clark had ever seen. A bilgesnipe, Thor said, that had been captured for the safety of the people and, instead of being sent back to where it belonged, it would stay for a little longer, so the Asgardians could test themselves against it.

Needless to say that Clark didn't enjoy it. Dangerous or not, it was just an animal and he couldn't agree with fighting it. According to Thor, however, bilgesnipes thrived in conflicts just as Asgardians did and it was just so strong that it hadn't any chance of actually dying in a conflict against a single Asgardian.

Before Clark could say anything in response to that, he had a glimpse of how strong a bilgesnipe really was. Waking up from its slumber, the huge animal ripped off the energy barrier surrounding the cage as if it wasn't there and got out, trampling everything in its path. He and Thor jumped forward to help, Clark incredibly worried about the people being tossed up.

Thor, however, was laughing.

And he wasn't the only one. Instead of running away scared, the Asgardians began to throw themselves against the beast, laughing too, trying to wrestle it. The bilgesnipe easily tossed them away, even trampling some, but not even then the people stopped to attack it.

It took him a few seconds to remember he wasn't on Earth anymore.

Humans were fragile beings. A particularly hard fall could kill them quite easily. If that crowd he was seeing was composed of humans, they would all be dead by now; Asgardians, however, were sturdy. Clark saw them flying meters up in the air and crashing against the ground strongly enough to break it, only to get up laughing to try again. It was unbelievable. For the first time Clark was witnessing a race as strong as he was, living in a world where they didn't need to watch out for every single gesture they made in fear to break something.

It was a very weird thing to see. In a way, it was quite freeing.

Clark caught himself enjoying the chase through the city, not having to worry so much about the wellbeing of the citizens down there. Some of the buildings, of course, were destroyed by the bilgesnipe and the overzealous Asgardians, but nobody seemed concerned and soon enough Clark saw why: one of the first buildings to come down simply restored itself back together, the stones being pulled back to their previously places and fitting together once again.

They probably had a limit about the severity of the damage that they could restore themselves from, but something like a big animal trampling the city things seemed to be just fine. He didn't pretend to understand how that worked, be it was magic or technology, and he couldn't lie about being curious. He had bigger things to worry about, things like the huge animal that had broken those buildings in the first place.

Grabbing a truly thick chain close by, he took off to the sky, using his eyes to track the beast, watching the Asgardians running behind it through the streets with Thor leading them. Following the crowd, Clark saw Thor jumping all the way up to the roof of a building, running through it to cut the path to the bilgesnipe; without a care in the world, the Prince jumped from the roof, falling right on top of it, riding it as if he were a cowboy.

Clark smiled as he saw this. Well, it was time to join the hunt. Flying quickly, he aimed at the bilgesnipe side and exploded down, knowing that a half-assed hit would just drop him instead, and clashed against the big animal with strength, sending it and Thor flying away.

And then he laughed, without a worry in the world, knowing Thor would be just fine.

From there on, it was a matter of working together with Thor to chain the bilgesnipe again and making sure it wouldn't run off. The people began to cheer, not in the least scared about what had just happened, and Clark couldn't help but compare this behavior to Earth; if something like this happened in New York, it would probably be a case serious enough for them to call the army.

It was then that Thor's friend, Lady Sif, arrived, ready to fight as well. Clark looked on curiously as she talked to Thor for a while, being quite excited about seeing another figure from the myths of old, the Goddess Sif in the flesh. Most of the stories were probably nonsense, of course, but that didn't change the fact that she was incredibly famous, almost as much as Thor; she probably made quite the impression on those little trips Thor and his friends took to Midgard.

Clark could see why. Sif was as deadly as she was beautiful. He couldn't help but to compare her to Faora, another beautiful and dangerous warrior, but that was where the similarities ended. Sif didn't have the cold eyes Faora had, nor she exuded that aura of pure arrogance and terror Faora did; even knowing she was a warrior and probably a very lethal one, Sif didn't look like someone who killed for pleasure. Quite the contrary, in her armor, she was the very picture of the medieval knights of old, honored and esteemed, at least in the stories of course.

"So you are back from Vanaheim?" Thor asked as the Einherjar arrived to put the bilgesnipe back in the cage. "Is it over?"

Clark listened to the conversation, seeing Sif nod.

"It is over. Fandral and Volstagg are taking the last of them to the dungeons. Hogun stayed, as you know."

"Yes, he misses home," Thor said, smiling. "But we will still have many adventures together, I am certain of it."

"Adventures," Sif sighed, rolling her eyes. "Last time we got in one of those 'adventures' we almost started a war with the Frost Giants and you got banished."

"Yes! I can only imagine what we will do next!" Thor laughed, turning to Clark. "Can you even think what we can accomplish with a Kryptonian by our side? Starting with our battle in the tournament!"

Wait, what?

"Our battle in the tournament?" Clark asked, almost certain he had misheard it.

"I forgot to tell you!" Thor slapped his own forehead. "We are all in it. I have always wanted to fight a Kryptonian!"

Clark was having difficulty to find the words to explain that he didn't want, in any circumstance, to fight in a tournament, when Thor grabbed his shoulder.

"It will be a tale worthy of Asgard's stories!"

"T-Thor, I don't know how–"

"THOR!" a loud voice interrupted.

They all turned to see two men walking through the crowd. One of them, the one who yelled, was the very picture of what most thought a Viking would look like. Tall, strong, with long hair and beard of a vivid red and a huge axe strapped on his back. The other was tall too, but slender, with blond hair, a mustache and goatee, intelligent eyes and a handsome face.

"My friends!" Thor yelled back, crushing them with a hug. "I missed you! Kal, come here. Volstagg, Fandral, meet Kal-El, Savior of Midgard, and Last Son of Krypton."

"Oh, yes, the Kryptonian!" said Volstagg and then his face acquired an excited expression. "Are you here for the tournament?!"

Jesus Christ, what was the deal these people had with this tournament?! As if reading his mind, Sif deadpanned: "We like to fight."

"Like? We love it!" Volstagg laughed then stopped once he saw Clark silent. "You don't?"

"Well, no, not unless it's absolutely necessary, really," Clark said.

Thor, Volstagg and Fandral turned to look at him, jaws agape. Clark truly didn't understand why they were so surprised.

"But you were the one who defeated Zod!" Volstagg retorted. "We all saw Heimdall's memories of that fight, it was amazing!"

"It was truly inspiring," Fandral agreed, nodding sagely.

"I fought to stop him from killing everybody on Earth," Clark said, solemn. "Thousands of people died, many more lost their homes and everything they had. There was nothing inspiring about it."

Silence fell when he said that. Thor, Volstagg, Fandral and Sif stared at him.

"You are right," Thor finally said, sobering up. "Sometimes we forget Earth is not ready for these kinds of conflicts." He looked at Clark. "But what you did was inspiring."

"Thor is right," Sif added. "If it weren't for you, Midgard would be gone and Asgard would be fighting another war right now."

Volstagg touched his shoulder.

"I am sorry for my careless words, but know that I truly value what you did."

"As do I," Fandral said.

"And that is why I signed you in this tournament," Thor said.

Clark turned to him, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Kal, have you ever fought for fun?" Thor asked. "Used your strength not to save people, but to unwind a little bit? To relax?"

No, Clark had not. How could he, when a single twitch of his fingers could kill someone? If there was one thing he was good at, that was control. Clark, in every moment of his life, kept himself under control, so he wouldn't destroy everything around him.

The fight against Zod was the first time he had used all his gifts, but there was nothing "relaxing" happening at that time.

"I haven't," he said, slowly.

Thor smiled and slapped his shoulder again.

"You are in Asgard, my friend. Forget about your worries for a bit. Here you are among beings a little stronger than in Midgard. Relax."

Clark was ready to disagree, but then the bilgesnipe chase crossed his mind. Thor was right, Asgardians didn't need his help. Here he didn't have to worry about bumping into someone and sending him to the hospital, touching a wall and turning it into dust, snapping his fingers accidentally and piercing someone's eardrums with the sound. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel like a bull in a china shop.

"I don't know how to fight," he said, lamely.

Thor's smile got even wider.

"Oh, do not worry about that. We can solve that quite easily."

Tony looked around the building with disdain on his face.

"Is this what the slums look like?" he asked, looking at Pepper. "I mean, I knew it would be bad, but this is terrible!"

Pepper sighed and rolled her eyes.

"It's just a cheap building, Tony," she said. "You know he is not rich."

"He is!"

"Maybe now, but I don't see him spending money to go live in Malibu."

"Well, at least he is bullet proof, right? I'm really scared about Happy down there. Someone will stab him for sure."

"All the more reason for us to move fast, then," Pepper said, stopping in front of Clark's apartment. "Do you have his key?"

It was Tony's turn to roll his eyes.

"Of course I don't, but that is easily fixed," he said, taking a little cylinder from his pocket.

Pressing a small button on the cylinder, Tony stuck it into the keyhole of the apartment. As if coming to life, the little cylinder began to open, revealing several tiny arms, holding itself alone and beginning to pick the lock with amazing speed. In less than 10 seconds, they heard a click and Tony opened the door.

Pepper might have said it was just a cheap place, but Tony was shocked that Clark really lived here. This was the guy who was most definitely the strongest man on the planet, possessor of tech that cost more than his own and – his ego almost made him bury this thought – the most famous person on Earth at the moment.

And he lived in a dump. One thing he could agree upon was how little Clark cared about money and fame; Pepper would say it was a good thing, but he wasn't that sure.

Looking at Pepper, Tony could see the disapproval on her face as well, even if much more concealed than his own. Pepper could talk a lot, but she was used to the finest things in life, there was no denying that. So maybe it wasn't a back alley, but it was way less than any of them was accustomed.

He opened his mouth to say that when they heard a toilet flushing; both of them turned to the direction the sound was coming. There was someone inside the apartment. Very carefully, Tony put his hand inside his pocket, retrieving the small repulsor glove. He had no idea what a thief could steal from this place, but he wasn't about to let that happen.

The bathroom's door swung opened with such a force that caused it to bounce against the wall, and Tony immediately stepped in front of Pepper. A woman came out, wearing only panties and an old t-shirt. And then she looked at them.

"Who the fuck are you?!" she asked, sneering, and not waiting for an answer, she continued, "You know what, it doesn't matter. You have 10 seconds to leave through that door before I make you leave through the window."

"Wait!" Pepper said, raising her hands in the air. "We are not robbers! We–"

"I don't give a shit about who you are," the woman interrupted. "You are trespassing."

"So are you," Tony said, looking around. "This isn't your place."

The woman stared at him and stepped forward, a very intimidating expression on her face for someone of that size; Tony caught himself stepping back.

"Wait, I'm Tony Stark!" he said, before he was forced to use his repulsor on the girl.

The woman slapped on the light switch. The woman stared at his face.

"You really are that Iron-Dude," she finally said.

Tony gave her a winning smile.

"See, there is no reason for viol–"

"You have 5 seconds to get out."

God dammit! Tony opened his mouth to speak again, knowing for certain he could say something to make her stand down, but Pepper didn't seem to agree with him, because she stepped from behind him.

"How do you know Clark?" she asked.

The woman turned her eyes to Pepper.

"Neighbors," she said. Then she smirked. "And how do you know Clark, Mr. Iron-Briefs?"

Well, what the hell was he supposed to say now? That he knew her neighbor because he happened to also be Superman?

"He is, uh, my personal reporter!" he babbled.

Both the woman and Pepper looked at him with disbelief.

"What is that even supposed to mean?! Does he write stories about you? Does he take pictures? What is it?"

"He, uh, he does all those things, of course. That's what a personal reporter does. All that. Clark is–"

"You know he is Superman, don't you?" Pepper suddenly said and Tony felt his heart stop beating for a second.

He turned to the woman, ready to see the incredulity on her face, but there wasn't any. She wasn't surprised or scared, she was just looking at Pepper, a single eyebrow raised.

Suddenly, she gave a little laugh.

"And people say he is the smart one?" she mocked; Tony was offended, even more when Pepper laughed as well.

"When it comes to his inventions, he has no match. When it comes to anything else…"

"When the hell did you two teamed up against me?!" Tony said.

"Hush, dear, women are talking," Pepper said. "So, how did you find out your neighbor is Superman? And does he know you know?"

The woman sighed.

"When I met him he wasn't Superman. There was no Superman. I just saw a guy being hit by a car and turning the car into scrap. I confronted him, broke my hand on his chin and then one thing led to another and I'm here."

It was a terrible story, but she clearly had no idea how to build suspense.

"What is your name?" Pepper asked. "I'm Pepper, by the way."

"I know who you are, my sister, Trish, talks about you a lot."

Wait a second.

"Are you Trish's sister? Jessica?" Pepper said and Tony was feeling a bit left out.

"Yep, in the flesh," Jessica deadpanned. "So, what are you two doing here? Trying to be robbed? Hell's Kitchen changed a lot since The Incident, it isn't that safe to walk here without that fancy suit of yours."

Tony swallowed, feeling Pepper's fingers holding his own for a second. If there was one thing he didn't like, then that would be remembering all the terrible consequences of the Battle of New York. Still, that was hard to do when he was in the epicenter of it.

"Clark is in Asgard with Thor," Tony said and Jessica's eyes widened for a second. "We wanted to take this as a chance to see where he was liv–"

"Wait a minute, he is in Asgard?!" Jessica interrupted, pissed. "He told me he would warn me!"

Okay, that was weird. Were they dating?

"Are you da–"

"We are not dating, damn it!"

"Alright, jeez, it was just a question!" Tony tried to calm her. "Anyway, Clark had to go to Asgard, there was a problem with Thor's girlfriend and he went there to help, at least that was what Romanoff told me. So I took this opportunity to check where Clark lived."

"Why?" Jessica asked. "What's it to you?"

That woman was very aggressive, Tony finally realized.

"We just wanted to help," Pepper said, before Tony could say anything else. "We know he doesn't have much money, so–"

"So you came to check the slums where he lived?" Jessica said.

"Ye–" Pepper elbowed his ribs before he could finish. "I mean, no."

Jessica Jones got closer. Tony was taller than her, he had his repulsor glove in his pocket and he had faced truly scary enemies over the course of his hero career. And yet, for some reason, he was feeling a tiny bit intimidated right now.

"Get out," she said.

And then she turned her back to them, obviously waiting for them to leave. But of course he wouldn't.

"I would, but turns out the entire building is mine," he retorted. Jessica stopped and turned slowly. "I bought it on a whim, didn't really spend much, but hey? It's the right market to buy in Hell's Kitchen."

Jessica turned again, looking at him with eyes that sworn to bring fury and hell. He felt Pepper poking him so he would be quiet.

"We were planning to surprise Clark. Renovate the whole place, make it sparkle!" he continued, looking at Jessica. "Maybe I could be convinced to renovate two apartments instead, if you know a cool neighbor here in the building, of course."

She stopped, no longer looking threatening, but interested.

"I'm listening."

"Punch me," Volstagg said, looking Clark in the eye. "Go ahead, punch me!"

Clark could only stare at the crazy Asgardian in front of him. After the bilgesnipe was once again secured and Thor had retrieved his hammer, the four of them went back to the outskirts of the city, continued to oversee the preparations. Of course, apparently, that was just an excuse to bring Clark here and force him to fight them.

"I don't want to hurt you!" Clark said, exasperated, for the 1000th time.

"You are not going to hurt me! I can take it! Punch me, come on!"

"Argh, just punch him," Sif added, making Fandral laugh.

"He will not stop pestering you," Fandral added.

"Go ahead, Kal, you are not going to hurt him," Thor said, stifling a laugh.

Clark sighed, looking down. He closed his hand into a fist.

"Okay, one."

"YES!" Volstagg laughed. "A strong one!"

Volstagg prepared himself, offering his face so Clark could punch him; he couldn't help but to sigh again. What exactly was he doing?! Preparing himself, still not sure about this, Clark raised his fist and punched him.

The sound of his knuckles hitting Volstagg's face echoed through the outskirts of the city and Volstagg had to retreat five steps back so he wouldn't fall. Okay, Clark had punched him, now it was over.

But of course it wasn't.

"You call that a punch?!" Volstagg said. "My grandmother could punch stronger and I mean that literally! She would knock me out frequently!"

"You could do better," Sif said, and Clark looked at her, annoyed. "What? I speak the truth."

"Just punch him, Kal," Thor said again, a hand on his shoulder. "We are Asgardians, you will not hurt us. Just let yourself go for a moment."

Let himself go? Could he really do that? Clark didn't know. To actually punch someone who hadn't done anything to deserve it, to risk a serious injury. He wouldn't be injured, Thor said. Maybe, just once, he could try.

Closing his hand into a fist again, Clark dug his feet into the ground, preparing his stance. He looked into Volstagg's eyes, feeling his own muscles contracting, feeling the energy surrounding his body, and then he punched him again, this time hard.

BOOOOM!

Like a cannon firing, it echoed. Clark felt his hand colliding against Volstagg's face with power, the air actually simmering around them, the grass, his cape, his hair swaying with the impact. This time Volstagg was sent flying in the air, gaining speed like a missile until he crashed against a building, the stone walls breaking with a BANG!

No words spoke from Thor and his cohorts. Everybody just stared at him and Clark himself couldn't move, just looking at where his punch sent Volstagg. Slowly, he turned and looked at Thor who was also glued to where Volstagg was.

"That was awesome!" Thor yelled, laughing like crazy.

His words seemed to break everyone from their stupors and everybody began to cheer and laugh.

"Is he okay?" Clark asked in a low voice to the only one who wasn't cheering, Sif.

The Asgardian woman had a shocked expression on her face, her jaw agape, but she shook her head slowly.

"Volstagg has a hard head, I am certain he will be fine."

In the exact moment, the entire building collapsed on top of Volstagg.

All of them ran toward the fallen building, ready to dig Volstagg out from the pile of debris. Clark remained in daze, still not believing in what he had just done.

"Do not worry, my friend!" Thor said. "Volstagg will be just fine!"

"That was an incredible punch, by the way," Fandral said.

"Not now, Fandral!" Sif said.

They removed the stones, each and every one of them lifting huge piles of debris with ease and tossing them to the side. Clark used his x-ray vision to find Volstagg and jumped there. That's when the whole thing began to vibrate, like a small earthquake.

It took him almost a minute to understand that Volstagg was laughing.

The stones flew apart and then Volstagg stood tall, laughing and coughing at the same time, trying to dust himself.

"Great punch, Kal-El!" he said as soon as he could, massaging the bruise on his face, that was already fading. "I don't think even Thor's hammer could be that strong!"

"Of course it can!" Thor cut in, then smiling at Clark. "I would very much like to try it against you! It is decided, Kal: I will teach you how to fight and we will face each other in the tournament!"

"No." Clark was surprised because he wasn't the one who said that, Sif was. She looked at Thor and then at him. "I will teach him how to fight."

"What?! No, Sif, I said it first!" Thor said.

"You are a brawler, Thor!" Sif said and Clark could only stare as both of them decided that for him, without even bothering to ask if he wanted to fight in the first place. "He does not need strength or speed, he already has too much of that. What he need is technique. I can teach him that way better than anyone else."

Clark didn't understand what was happening anymore. It seemed he was participating on that tournament agreeing with it or not.

"I have a lot of technique," Fandral objected. "Why shouldn't I have the honor to train the Kryptonian?"

"And what about me?" Volstagg asked.

"Ha! And what would you teach him, Volstagg? How to get punched and destroy buildings with your own head?" Fandral laughed.

Before anyone could say anything else, however, Sif took front.

"It is already decided!"

And so it was, Clark accepted, too dazed to say anything.

"The universe rotates in a 5000 years cycle and once a cycle all the worlds align!" Doctor Erik Selvig said, pointing at drawings of the Realms on the blackboard.

He ran off and picked up a shoe from somewhere. "Imagine, imagine this is our world. And this – oh, thank you! – is another world," he said, picking up another shoe and holding one in each hand. "Normally they are separate. But during the Alignment," he said, putting one on top of the other, "everything is connected, all Nine Realms. All Nine Realms are passing through each other and gravity, light and even matter is crashing from one world to the other."

He hit one shoe against it other, as if to demonstrate what would happen, and went back to the blackboard.

"But if this happens to us now, the result would be cataclysmic," Selvig continued, picking up a pair of pencils from the table. "My gravimetric spikes can stabilize the focal point of the Convergence. With them, the Alignment and all the other worlds would just pass us by. It's beautiful. It's simple. Any questions?"

Natasha raised her hand. If anyone ever told her she would be sitting in an asylum, amongst several mental patients, listening to a confused astrophysicist give a speech about the alignment of the Nine Realms of the Norse Mythology, Natasha would say they were out of their minds.

But such were the times.

"What will happen if we don't use the gravimetric spikes?" she asked, behaving as if she was in a classroom, Darcy sitting at her side.

"Excellent question!" Selvig said, pointing at her. "Five points to Gryffindor! See what I did there? Anyway, like I said, it would be catastrophic. Each Realm has its own environment. Jotunheim, for example, is colder than any place we have on Earth. Imagine if the barriers between the Realms cease to exist and Earth comes into contact with those winds? Depending where they hit, we could lose entire oceans or continents to a new Ice Age!"

Selvig seemed extremely agitated, going from one side to the other, not wearing any pants.

"Or worse, imagine if a city comes into contact with Muspelheim?!" he continued. "The Realm of the Fire Giants, a world of fire! Millions could die! That's without taking into account the indigenous life forms that could pass through. Creatures from other Realms, maybe even whole armies could end up here by accident!"

That did not sound good at all, Natasha had to agree.

"And your gravimetric spikes can stop that?" Natasha asked.

"Yes! Well, maybe. Actually they can't!" Selvig said.

"Make up your mind, Selvig!" Darcy said.

"They can't stop the Convergence, that is impossible," Selvig said. "But they can limit the amount of contact our Realm will have with the others. Instead of allowing the entire borders disappear, we will restrict it to a single place, a single focal point. It will work like, like a containment field, not allowing the Convergence to reach its full potential."

"And where will this focal point be?" Natasha asked. "Where is the center?"

"Here, of course!" Selvig said, laughing. "What else would I be doing in England?"

"Says the guy in the mental hospital," Darcy whispered.

Natasha didn't answer, too busy taking her cellphone and making a call.

"Fury, we have a big problem," she said, as soon as he said. "Yes, I know you don't like it, I don't like it either, but it is our job. I'm going to need backup here in London. Yes, a science team as well."

She turned to Selvig.

"Doctor, you are coming with me. We need your expertise."

"It would be my pleasure!"

"Don't forget your pants!" Darcy yelled. "And give the shoes back to their respectively crazy owners!"

Natasha sighed as Fury talked incessantly. She began to miss the old days when all she had to do was killing people.

"Hello, Mother," Loki said, a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I heard we have new guests."

Frigga looked at her son. "We do."

"Yes, I've heard. A Kryptonian! The last one." He looked at her. "And your son's lover. How proud are you that Asgard's Heir decided to bring a mortal to this palace, I wonder. Well, it is not like she will be a problem for much longer, will she? We all know how quick mortals are to die."

"We are not better than them, Loki."

Loki sneered. At that moment, the doors to the prisons opened, allowing a big groups of captured Marauders to go in, all of them chained and guarded by the Einherjar.

"Odin continues to bring me new friends," Loki said, glanced at them. "How thoughtful."

"The books I sent, do they not interest you?" Frigga asked, pointing at the piles of books in the cell.

"Is that how I am to while away eternity? Reading?" Loki asked.

"I've done everything in my power to make you comfortable, Loki."

"Have you?" He leaned over the table to look at her. "Does Odin share your concern? Does Thor? It must be terribly inconvenient, them asking after me day and night." Loki laughed mirthlessly. "And now you have a new visitor in these halls, someone to brighten up the shadows I brought. My, you are even making him a feast!"

"You know full well it was your actions that brought you here," Frigga said, her lips tightened into a thin line.

"My actions? I was merely giving truth to the lie that I been fed my entire life, that I was born to be a king."

"A king? A true king admits his faults. I have heard you blame every single person in this Realm for your actions, but never yourself. What of the lives you took on Earth?"

"A mere handful compared to the number that Odin has taken himself!" Loki retorted.

"Your father–"

"HE IS NOT MY FATHER!" Loki shouted.

Frigga only stared at her son sadly.

"Then am I not your mother?"

Loki held her gaze for a long time and then finally said: "You are not."

The Queen of Asgard gave a mirthless laugh.

"You are always so perceptive about everyone but yourself." She turned her back at him for a moment. "Our guest, the Kryptonian? You two were not so different once upon a time. Both of you were adopted by parents that loved you more than anything. Both of you grew up to be incredible men."

Frigga looked at Loki again.

"And yet he risked his life to save a people that was not his own and you are in a cell for killing that same people because you cannot consider them equals."

She walked to him, raising her hands and touching his cheek. As she did, her astral body lost form, beginning to fade.

"Choices, Loki, choices. Take responsibility for what you have done and maybe one day you can redeem yourself. Or stay here, in this cell, blaming everybody but yourself for this. There comes a time you have to choose what kind of man you want to be. I know you can do better. But I worry you do not."

Saying that, her astral form disappeared.

"DRINK, DRINK, DRINK!"

Clark downed the tall mead mug, the contents burning his throat; that was something he had never, ever, imagined he would feel. For all his life Clark thought he was immune to alcohol. Apparently, that only happened with Midgardian alcohol. Asgardian alcohol, aged for thousands of years in barrels made from fleets wrecks, were enough to make him tipsy.

Did he know that when he started to drink? No. Would he still drink if he knew that? His first answer would be "no", but he couldn't exactly lie and say he wasn't curious about drinking Asgardian alcohol.

Well, here he was just one more man drinking mead. And Clark was happy about it. Thor was right, he had to stop worrying for a bit. Share the load, stop carrying the world on his back.

"You should slow down, Kal-El," Sif said, looking at him, her pale face slightly rosy from the drinks. "As I understand you have never tried these before, right? There is no way you can beat me, then."

It was a challenge and drunken Clark did not back down from a challenge; another new characteristic he learned about himself. What a curious thing, Clark thought, as he raised yet another mug to his mouth, Sif copying him. The table was full of empty mugs and the women serving the food and the drinks would quickly replace them again, only for him and Sif to drink once more.

"You don't know who you are dealing with, Lady Sif," Clark bragged, his voice slurred. "I am Kal-El, Superman, last son of Krypton!"

"SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN!"

"See, they know what's up!" he laughed.

"We want someone to beat her!" Fandral said, as he flirted with a beautiful woman. "Volstagg was the one who got closer, but Sif is undefeated. It cannot stand!"

"You wish, Fandral!" Sif barked back, drinking another mug.

"Give him another!" yelled Volstagg.

Clark lost count of how many mugs he had drank. For the first time in his life, his vision was blurred and his coordination was impaired. And yet he was laughing. He didn't even know why, but he felt quite happy. Looking at his side, he saw Sif holding a mug while she looked up, a grimace on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Ready to give up?"

She didn't answer and Clark followed her eyes to see what she was staring at. In the second floor of the feast hall he could see Thor and Jane holding each other, talking softly and occasionally kissing. His mind slowed because of the drink, so Clark took a while to understand the look on Sif's face, but eventually he understood: she was jealous.

"You like Thor?" he whispered.

"It is none of your business!" she snarled, drinking her mead.

Clark nodded. Any other time he wouldn't pursue this line of questioning. Any other day he would just drop it and allow Sif to keep her answers. But not this day, because this day Clark was a little bit drunk.

"You know, Thor is a great guy. I mean, I don't know him that much, but I can tell," Clark said to a grumpy Sif who remained silent. He looked at her. "But so are you. I mean, a great girl, of course. You know what I mean. You are a warrior, really cool, you have a thousand years of martial training, you fought in wars across the Nine Realms! And you are so beautiful!"

Sif was looking at him now, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

"And I know you are probably not happy about Thor dating Jane," Clark continued. "No one likes when a loved one starts to go out with other people. I was really jealous when Lana started dating too! But you shouldn't think that you lost. Nobody lost anything here. Thor found happiness in Jane, Jane found happiness in him and you will find happiness with someone too, it's only a matter of time."

Lady Sif stared at him for a long time. After a few minutes, Sif gave him a huge smile.

"Maybe you are right."

Clark groaned when his eyes opened. His head was killing him. He felt like the World Engine had tossed him in the middle of the blue beam of death again, because he could actually feel his head pulsing. Was this a hangover? Why did humans drink?! Shaking, almost not able to lift his arm, Clark extended a single finger towards a ray of sunshine entering through the balcony. As the tip of his finger touched the light, he began to feel the energy thrumming through his vein.

Relieved, Clark turned, looking around, feeling the soft sheets under him. He didn't remember everything that happened last night, but he was pretty certain he hadn't fought anybody. Yet the appearance of the room was that of a battlefield. There was a hole in the wall, like a body had been tossed through it. The ceiling was cracked, the tables were broken, and the floor had the marks of a person's body. Eyes wide, Clark looked around, searching for the source of all that destruction, his jaw dropped when he finally looked at his bed.

Sleeping peacefully by his side, not a single piece of clothing to cover her body, was Lady Sif.