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What Friends are For

Asgard…

Through summoning the Bifrost Thor had returned to his home-realm. As expected Heimdall, ever vigilant sentinel that he was, greeted the thunder god at the entrance.

“Returned yet again, Odinson.” He commented as Thor seemed to disregard him. “Without your ‘companion’ it seems.” Thor stopped before Heimdall clarified “Volstagg told me.”

Thor turned to continue on while saying “Things did not go as…hoped.”

“I’m aware.” He said, making Thor stop again. “I saw it. Well at least everything that happened before and after you two came out of that cave. Whatever happened down there must have been quite the incident to bring such a harsh quarrel between you both.”

“You saw into that reality?” Thor pointed out.

“Indeed.” Heimdall turned back to the expanse of the cosmos and explained “This business with Loki and the Olympians does not seem to be pure coincidence. Whatever had brought your brother into that reality, or whatever means he was able to escape there, it has begun to rip at the borders between our world and theirs.”

Now joining him in looking out Thor asked “How far are you able to see exactly?”

“Not as far as the realm of the Olympians. And not enough to know where Loki or any of his compatriots might be.” He paused for a long moment. “However….I can see your Amazonian friend. She’s on an island.”

Slightly annoyed Thor turned back towards Asgard while saying “She likely went back to her people to find her own answers.”

“No. Not Themyscira. Another island. And she’s not alone.” This drew Thor back until Heimdall turned to him, a tone of urgency in his all-seeing eyes. “She’s in danger, Thor.”

Hearing that Thor realized that if something was dangerous enough to bring such a reaction from Heimdall, likely knowing what he did about Diana from seeing her in her world, then Thor had to act. But should he? After the disagreement that nearly lead to another fight between he and Diana would it even be worth it? Would it change her mind? Was whatever she was in trouble from going to change his?

Aeaea…

Despite the boasting of a five on one fight indeed Wonder Woman’s challenge of “needing more help” proved truer than they expected. Even with her sword and shield drawn she fought with the intent to subdue, not kill, any of the Wrecking Crew; even if their actions weren’t the same. And true enough it was turning into one of the more memorable battles she had ever known.

There was hardly any coordination in the Wrecking Crew’s attacks. It wasn’t a matter of figuring how and when to strike. Instead it was more “strike when you can and make it hurt”. Bullheaded and without proper strategy.

Wrecker swung at Wonder Woman with his crowbar only to be met my god-forged steel. Piledriver’s fists were repelled by her shield. Bulldozer on several attempts tried to run her over or into walls, managing once before Wonder Woman grew aware of his blind spots and tripped him up. Titania tried to play it smart by staying back and using her environment around her as weaponry, pulling columns and debris as a makeshift club and such. Wonder Woman gave a silent admiration for trying to think outside the box but it proved little difference busted them down to not but rubble.

The one wild card in the fight however proved to be the Absorbing Man. Wonder Woman learned that it was more than just an interesting name as he revealed his power: mimicking the properties of anything he touched. His first example had been making himself like the metal of his ball and chain, his strength and durability increased to match. But Wonder Woman had bent steel before, making his brief exuberance little more than a show.

At one point she even managed to swing his ball and chain into his face, joking “Bet that hurts.”

During the battle Absorbing Man managed to snatch his hand on the God Killer blade, to Wonder Woman’s shock his powers taking effect with it. His whole body became the same unusual color, showing his was now made of the same god-forged metal that crafted the sword.

Feeling it for himself Kreel smirked “Now THAT’S what I call a power-up!”

The fight between the two was now more heated than before. Metal matched against metal while Wonder Woman used her wits to clash with the Absorbing Man’s brutish approach.

Titania had found Wrecker the only other one standing from the fighting with Wonder Woman. Both Piledriver and Bulldozer seemed to be down for the count and only they, along with the still fighting Absorbing Man, stood between defeat and victory.

Brandishing what was left of his crowbar Wrecker snarled “Let’s bust that pretty head of hers wide open!”

Titania stopped him and said “Hold it! Remember the plan. If we can’t stop her Loki has something for us that can.” Realizing what she meant Wrecker nodded, she gesturing “Keep her busy. I’ll be right back.”

While the Wrecker charged into to aid in the fight Titania made her way to the lower levels of the temple. Even from so far below into the blows of the island the rumblings and booms of the fighting up top could be heard and felt. Eventually Titania reached her goal: a large metal coffin-like structure waiting to be opened.

Once it was forced open Titana smiled at the thing inside, saying to it “You’re up, big guy.”

Even with Wrecker jumping into the fray it didn’t seem to discourage Wonder Woman’s fortitude during the fight. She managed to knock Wrecker back and out, a good knock to the face with her shield. That left the Absorbing Man, who was still using the absorbed properties of her sword to his advantage.

“Ha! This is great!” he boasted while using his arms as shields, forced back but unharmed. “Never tasted metal like this before. I’m stronger than steel. Than anything! And what’ve you got now, girly? Nothing but that dinky pen knife to stop me. I’m stronger than anything you’ve got!”

Eventually the two locked together as Wonder Woman commented “True, you’re more powerful now. But let me ask you: does that new strength help you to fly?”

“Wha-? Fly?” he asked before a sudden realization came to him.

Absorbing Man had looked back to find he had been forced all the way to the edge of a cliff, the one-way drop to the ocean the only thing behind him. Wonder Woman’s attacks were actually a means to lead him there.

With nothing but a smirk Wonder Woman broke their lock before giving a hard kick square into Absorbing Man’s chest. A hard clang rang out when her foot made contact before he went back with a falling screaming into the water below.

She looked down and said to herself “He’ll live.”

“You won’t.” she heard Titania behind her.

Wonder Woman turned but was surprised to see Titania wasn’t alone. Instead of another super powered criminal by her side the villainess was accompanied by a towering metal humanoid construct. It looked like living armor with two eye slots that burned with nothing but power and cold, contempt.

“A little present our friend, Loki, left behind for you and the blonde bore.” Titania boasted. “Say hello to the Destoryer, straight from Asgard. Can you guess what it does?”

Either by some unseen command or its own accord the Destroyer attacked with a blast of energy from its eyes. Wonder Woman raised her shield and managed to block it but the force of it had knocked her off her feet. By the time she recovered the Destroyer was charging for another attack, she taking cover behind a pillar just in time.

Thinking fast she attempted to get close to cut it down to size, using more columns and rubble for cover from the eye blasts. When she cut at its stomach however she found the God Killer barley made a cut against the Destroyer’s armored exterior. In response to her failing it left Wonder Woman wide open to receive a hard knock right in the face to send her flying.

It took Wonder Woman a moment to shake it off before sheathing her blade, saying “Alright. Time for a different approach.” Her hand reaching for her lasso.

Titania stood back to allow the Destroyer to do the rest of the work. It reached for Wonder Woman before she managed to rope her lasso around its wrist. With her strength she pulled and managed to bring the living armor down to the ground. Her intent was to try and hogtie the construct before it could put up more of a fight. She was stopped however when Titania interview, throwing rock that landed hard on Wonder Woman’s back.

“Just being a team player.” She coyly smirked at her.

This had been enough for the Destroyer to reach up and grab Wonder Woman’s head, its whole hand fitting around her like a walnut, and throwing her off. It stood and discarded the Lasso of Truth from its wrist before stomping towards her.

It came down to Wonder Woman using her bare fists to fight her enemy off it seemed. As it came close she managed a few punches to the face, knee, front and back. Even with her strength punching against the Destroyer’s enchanted armor was bruising her fists. These attacks were barley effective before the Destroyer countered, knocking her away before planting its foot on her to crush her into the ground.

As Titania cheered the Destroyer on to finish Wonder Woman off she struggled, feeling the massive weight and strength pressing down on her. Fighting back with all she had was proving to do nothing as she was being pressed further and further down; the ground beneath her breaking into a small creator. In that moment she feared that all she had wouldn’t be enough and that this might truly be the end for her.

The sudden distant rumble of thunder had caught everyone, even the Destroyer’s, attention. They looked up to the darkened clouds before something flew through the air and struck the Destroyer hard enough to send it flying back, nearly crushing Titania when it landed.

As Mjolnir flew through the air back to his hand Thor, flying into the scene, called “The Destroyer? Really, Titania? I’ve broken it once and I can do it again!”

It rose and tried to attack Thor but he summoned a bold that blasted it back. Once Thor had kept the living armor down long enough he landed next to Wonder Woman, offering a hand to get her back on her feet.

“I thought you were doing things on your own.” She commented.

“I thought you weren’t going to let anything stop you.” He smirked back.

She returned the smile and nodded “Thank you.”

The two turned as the Destroyer groaned while getting back to its feet, Thor brandishing his hammer and asking “Shall we?”

After drawing her sword and shield again she gestured “By all means.”

With weapons in hand the two demigods charged. Sword and hammer scratched and banged against the Destroyer’s exterior. Every counter attack it made against one was met by another, the two working well off each other to in a cooperative manner.

Seeing as the Destroyer was being outmatched by both of them Titania slunk away in the confusion. Slipping away in the shadows she found her way back to the beach and, spotting Wonder Woman’s jet, found her way out and away from here.

As the battle continued Thor had finally managed to knock the legs out from under the Destroyer, planting it on its back, before he called “Diana, NOW!”

With that signal she leapt into the air, bearing the God Killer down into the Destroyer’s face. After all the knocks from Mjolnir it took the blade was now able to stab clean through it and poke out the other side. Wonder Woman cleared the way as Thor, flying into the air, spun his hammer to summon more thunder and lightning to him. With enough built he fired it at the hilt of the sword, acting as a divine conductor. The electricity surged all through the armor, burning out whatever power brought it to life before nothing but an inanimate husk remained.

After letting the hilt of her sword cool down Diana retrieved it, looking to Thor and commenting “Always the light shows with you?”

“With a father who’s a thunder god I’d think you’d be used to it.” He quipped, the two sharing a smile between them. After that came an awkward silence before Thor broke it by saying “I’m….sorry. About what I said.”

“No. You were right to be concerned with my decision. I…I should’ve thought it through further.”

Thor was about to say more before he realized “Titania! Where’d she go?” They looked around before he insisted “She may know where Loki and the rest are. We have to find her.”

Suddenly someone had called “Hey! Looking for this?”

The two looked up to see who it was: a young girl of about 17 at most. She had flowing blonde hair and an outfit that was a far cry reflection of what Wonder Woman wore; even to bearing the same double W symbol on her shirt and carrying her own lasso that she had Titania wrapped in and dangling like a fish on a hook. To the world she was from they called her Wonder Girl but to Diana she knew her more personally.

“Cassie!” Diana smiled as her friend and partner lowered herself down in the air, dropping Titania before the two embraced. “I was wondering what was keeping you.”

“Well sorry I was late. But after I got the message I had trouble finding directions to an ancient island that once belonged to a witch. Had to ask a few water nymphs for some tips and believe me, they’re not the best with directions.” After that she spotted Thor, her eyebrow arching with interest “Who’s the hot looking guy with the hammer? New boyfriend? Are things not working out with you and Steve?”

Diana quickly shot the idea down before introducing “This is Thor, from Asgard.” From there she introduced him to her as “This is Cassie Sandsmark. My…‘adopted sister’.” When Thor questioned about it she only responded “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

Upon hearing he was Asgardian Cassie had given Thor an uneasy look before asking “Diana are you serious? You’re hanging around with him after what happened?” Diana began to assure her that had happened with Thor’s attack on Themyscira was a misunderstanding, before she said “No, not that. You didn’t hear? One of the Asgardians defied the treaty and attacked Olympus. Athena was nearly killed and now the entire mountain is readying for war. They even called for the Amazons to aid them when the time comes.”

Diana seemed horrified while Thor shocked, the former looking to the latter and quickly saying “I had no idea about that. And I had nothing do to with it.”

She was about to say something but Diana rethought her response and said “I don’t any of them did. Loki and Ares. They’re stoking the fire and trying to start a war.” When Thor asked why it started to dawn on Diana “Ares feeds of conflict. Any and all forms of it given him strength. Warring and fighting among mortals is what makes him a god… But a war amongst gods… He’d be unstoppable!”

As that little revelation dawned on Thor he began to realize “And with most of the Asgardians dead, possibly even Odin himself, Loki will have full control of Asgard. They’ll both have what they want.”

With urgency fueling both of them further Thor and Diana, along with Cassie, gathered all of the Wrecking Crew together before tying them in one big group. Using both Diana and Cassie’s lassos to keep them in place it was always double the truth inducing spell to get them to talk. The attention now came to Titania, the only one still conscious and the one whom Diana surmised might know more than the others.

“I’m only going to ask once.” Diana threatened while tugging on her end of the lasso. “Where is Ares?”

“I do not know.” Titania was compelled to answer. “I never met him. I was ordered by Loki and this creepy looking witch woman.”

“The Enchantress?” Thor asked.

“No. Someone else. She had red hair.”

“Circe.” Cassie realized.

“Where are they?” Diana insisted.

There was a long pause before Titania replied “I do not know. They never told us where they were going. Only to stay here and wait for the two of you.”

Thor cursed under his breath while Diana insisted “Nothing? Not even a hint?”

Another pause before she answered “There was mention of some place. Circe and Loki mentioned it. Some place in the south. Corto Maltese.”

The reaction from both Diana and Cassie had prompted Thor to ask “What realm is that?”

“It’s not a realm. It’s an island.” Diana explained. “Of the coast on South America. There’s a rebellion taking place right now. The entire nation is in the middle of a war. It’s the perfect place for Ares to hide and build his strength.”

“Then we should be of at once!” Thor insisted. “But will it be enough to stop the gods from going to war?”

Diana thought for a moment before turning “Cassie, take the Wrecking Crew back to Themyscira and keep them locked away. And tell my mother not to march the Amazons to war. Just try to explain what’s going on until we return.”

She nodded, the two Amazon sisters giving a quick hug for luck before Diana removed her Lasso of Truth from the group of villains. It was left to Cassie to fly them away, Thor at first questioning if she would be able to carry all of them on her own. In answering Cassie was able to lift them up, with a bit of difficulty at first, and began flying back to Themyscira with ease.

Seeing that Thor admitted “I stand corrected.”

“Come on.” Diana insisted as the two went towards the shores. “We can take my jet. It’ll be faster. We can land of the coast and keep it cloaked while we go in to deal with Ares.”

“We’ve barley even started and already you have a plan.” Thor smirked with respect. “Impressive.”

She turned back and smiled at him “I’m an Amazon. We’re always prepared.”

The two continued further on before Thor stopped her with “Wait, Diana. Before we go further….I feel I need to formally apologize for what I said.” She began to tell him it was nothing serious but he insisted “As a show of good form from at least one Asgardian, indulge me. Please.” Diana fully turned to give her attention as he confessed “When Hades made that offer I’d be remised to admit…if it was my friend I’d have done the same.”

“You lost someone too?” she asked.

“A good friend and a great leader.” He answered. “His name was Steve Rogers. When he died I felt as though it was my fault for not being there to stop it. I tried to bury such thoughts and yet… Yet when I saw the look on your face when seeing, Clark was it?” She confirmed this. “When I saw you the chance to bring Clark back it had brought that same feeling I had been trying to deny even to myself. What I’m trying to say is-”

“I was wrong to judge you.” Diana suddenly said. While Thor agreed that was what he meant she replied “Actually I was talking about you, Thor. For all your strength and boasting, deep down there’s a more tender heart. And here I thought you were just as dangerous and deceitful as the tales I was told of the Asgardians of old.”

“Funny. Was going to say the same about the Olympians and Amazons.” He quipped. “Guess we shouldn’t put so much faith in myths, should we?”

Diana laughed a little. “I suppose not.”

The moment between the two seemed the most sincere. They had each found more than just a warrior’s exterior in the other. The more they were around each other the more Diana and Thor began to see they were more alike than they realized. They both had silently hoped that the other gods of their respective pantheons would be able to see that way someday.

Finally Thor has spoken with “Diana, there’s something I need to know about you.” He held up his hammer for her to see before placing it on the ground. “My hammer, Mjolnir, has a special enchantment about it. ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor’. Only a worthy soul can lift it. And, with VERY few exceptions, only I have ever been able to lift it. I’ll admit I’m curious to know if you are worthy.”

Diana was a bit confused by his reasoning. She looked down at the hammer, finally seeing the Asgardian etchings on the side that described the same enchantment Thor had spoken of. To know such a feat was unique among even the warriors and heroes of his world was astonishing.

Diana questioned herself however: was she worthy?

Her hand reached down and grabbed the hilt. Everything went silent and still, even Thor who waited to see the answer for himself. She gave a good tug and…

Nothing.

Diana tried to lift the hammer but found she couldn’t. She even brought herself to use both hands and use all her godly strength to try and bring it up. No matter what however it would not budge.

Thor sighed before picking it up with ease, saying “Well, regardless, I still trust you, Diana. I think that is more than enough.”

While Thor walked off towards Diana’s jet she contemplated to herself silently. Maybe it was an Asgardian enchantment that kept one of Olympian blood from lifting it. Maybe because it was from another universe meant it had different properties from her own. Maybe…maybe she wasn’t worthy. And yet in the back of her mind she questioned: maybe there was something else holding her back.

All of these questions she kept to herself as Diana joined Thor. Soon they would be off to Corto Maltese to do battle with their true enemy: Ares.

Olympus…

All of Mount Olympus was ready to march against Asgard not long after Athena’s assault by “Sif”. Hephaestus was charged by Zeus himself to construct the strongest of weapons and armors for each of the gods. From Artemis’ bow and arrows to Athena’s spears and Apollo’s fire. Even Zeus was forged new armor and brandished a new batch of powerful, mystic thunderbolts to bring down all of his enemies.

With the assembled Olympians and others before him Zeus proclaimed “My brothers, sisters, and children of the mountain called Olympus! An ancient evil has dared to come to our world and seeks to supplant our power in the universe! The Asgardians have dared to return and bring with them nothing but the war and destruction they harbor with their very existence! They are the remnants of a long, dead belief that must be extinguished! We are the last of the Old Gods, I suggest we ensure it remain so!”

A great cheer came from the gods that shook the very foundation of their mountain. The war would soon come and none would stop until every last Asgardian was slain to ensure their survival and supremacy.

Asgard…

Thanks to Heimdall having seen what transpired on Aeaea he sent word to Odin of the impending attack by the Olympians. The warning had been fast and Odin, in his royal chambers, furrowed his brow at the news.

In response his stood and declared “Then let it be so. Asgard shall declare war against Mt. Olympus itself!”

Corto Maltese…

In his secluded lair Ares sat on a makeshift throne of stone while feeling the growing conflict in the heavens. He breathed it in like an empowering scent as Loki and Circe stood by the god of war.

“I can feel it.” He smiled. “The war is coming. Soon all the heavens shall tremble. And in the end I shall have powers unlike any other god!”

“And Asgard’s throne will all be mine.” Loki added. “A fair trade I should think.”

As Ares agreed the Enchantress arrived, telling all of them “Our forces failed at Aeaea. Thor and the Amazon are coming here.”

Circe tensed while Ares chuckled “Let them come. I’ll need good practice before I set my sights on claiming Olympus once the rest of the gods have fallen.” He made his way out while contemplating “A child of Zeus kills his own sister before murdering his father. Tragic as is it poetic, I think.”

When he left the three alone Circe turned and asked “I hope you know what you’re doing, Loki. If this fails-”

“It won’t.” he bluntly replied.

“But IF IT DOES you’ll have to answer to Ares’ wrath.”

He looked bemused and reminded “Then I suggest you and Amora not fail. Ares is as blind as he is pompous. He’s no idea of what truly transpires here.”

Much like Ares he scratched his chin and smirked as he pulled something from his pocket. The device in his hand was both a reminder and a key for his eventual victory over Ares and the rest of the gods, Olympian and Asgardian alike. The god of mischief played a greater game. One far more dangerous and darker than any of his compatriots realized.