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Chapter 33– Thunderstruck.

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No matter where I look, I can't seem to spot Felicia anywhere. I continue searching, hopping around above the throng of Trolls below, but I can't find her. I also can't see any fighting either, with everyone having run away and the Trolls just standing around and watching Ulik fight Thor. It seems a few of the Trolls had also entered a building as well, but there is no Felicia. I take it to be good news, hoping that she had already seen the way the wind was blowing and decided to retreat.

*BWAAMM* *KSSSH*

I look over at the loud sound and discover that Thor had just bashed Mjolnir into Ulik and sent the gigantic Troll flying into the front of a store, smashing the glass and leaving him lying in the storefront. The fighting stalls for a second as all the Trolls watch on as Ulik just lays inside, using his hands to hold himself up as he sits there. Thor watches on, hefting his hammer up, ready to use it.

"Asgardian, you tempt me. If I didn't need you whole, I swear I would tear you limb from-" Ulik says, angrily snarling, but he is interrupted by a Troll who quickly runs up to him. "Master... Lord Ulik! We have done as you commanded.." The Troll says, and Ulik forgets about Thor and looks over at his subordinate as he lets out a dumb "Eh?"

"The girl is ours!" The Troll says, pointing over to the building entrance where another Troll exits, holding an unconscious black-haired woman over his shoulder. The same black-haired woman I saw earlier this day, with the blond man who ran into the alley, which Thor zoomed out of a moment later. I have a bad feeling about this. Thor himself has frozen, struck in horror and not knowing what to do.

"Splendid. We- why is there another one?" Ulik starts but then gets distracted by something else, still looking over at the entrance of the building. I follow his gaze, and then my heart stalls and I find myself having to clench my fists to stop myself from doing anything rash.

"She was in the building and tried to stop us from taking the woman. We didn't know which one it was, so we took both." I find my teeth grinding as I see the other TrollTroll at the entrance of the building, a knocked-out Felicia on his shoulder. I guess she was in the building, and she tried to help the other women, but the halls were too narrow for her to escape their prominent forms, and they managed to knock her out.

Alright, calm down, Ben. Think about this rationally. She is down there, captured by the enemy. We are surrounded by a literal army of trolls, and by the looks of it, Thor will be no help. I can't act impulsively and rush in because that could screw things up. I may only have one chance at this, and I know I am no match for Ulik. I need to wait for my opportunity and then strike, stal Felicia back, and then run away. This is Thor's ballpark, and I shouldn't be in it. We shouldn't be.

"Well, Thunder God?" Ulik says, stalking forward towards Thor menacingly, though the God of Thunder doesn't move an inch. "Are you prepared to continue our combat at the cost of these two women's lives?" The Troll leader asks, a devilish grin on his face. He already knows the answer, but he asks anyway just to drive the point home, and given the frustrated look on Thor's face, Thor gets it.

"I see you're not," Ulik says, a smile on his face along with a healthy dose of disdain. Clearly, he likes that things are going his way, but he can't help but be disgusted that such a method is working on Thor and thinks Thor is an idiot. He is right next to Thor now and puts his hand over Thor's shoulder, pulling him closer. "I expected as much... you pityable fool." Thor doesn't react, his hands down, Mjolnior limp in his grasp.

"Now, Thor, you will listen-" He punctuates that by pressing down on Thor's shoulder and clenching it hard, to the point I can hear some cracking. Thor, however, doesn't give him the satisfaction and ignores his actions which are most definitely hurting him. "Listen... and obey!" At this point, Ulik turns Thor to look away from his captured, what I assume to be, girlfriend, which means that they are both facing away from Felicia as well.

Seeing my opportunity, I strike and jump forward. The Troll carrying Felicia is at the back of the pack, and this might be my only opportunity. I don't know what Ulik is planning, especially what he would need Thor's help for, so I need to get Felicia and run now before things get more dangerous and more complicated.

I immediately go for the head with all my power. I bring my heel down on the forehead of the Troll, hearing a screech underneath my feet that I ignore, and focus instead on grabbing Felicia, who is now up in the air, the Troll having relinquished his hold on her. Gabbing her tight, I turn on a dime and fire off my grappling gun, shooting myself up into the sky. My hope is that Ulik won't care about us since he still had one hostage for Thor, and we are just minor inconveniences at most.

"It seems we have a guest. That is good timing. Time to show your worth, Asgardian. Bring him down." I hear behind me, and I thank my lucky stars when nothing happens. If Thor were to act, then I would already be yeeted out of the sky. The fact that I am still gliding means he has refused to do it. I land on top of a roof, already sprinting to evacuate further. "Have you forgotten about the girl, Thor?" I hear him bellow behind me, only having the time to internalise those words for a second before the crackle of thunder overwhelms my senses.

I am jumping to the right even before my spider sense goes off, and that is what saves me from being crushed by Thor's mighty form. The ground cracks underneath him, lightning flaring out around his form. His face is emotionless as his stoic eyes watch me. I can already tell there is no negotiating for him. There is nothing I can do right now to stop him. The woman he loves is in danger, and he will do whatever he has to do. I'll still try.

"Thor, stop-" I jump to the left, dodging the blast of lighting he sent my way. Thankfully not a lethal amount, but enough to paralyse me momentarily and let him get his grip on me, at which point it would be game over. He doesn't want to hurt me or Felicia, but he still needs to bring us down. So I need to bring him down first, which is going to be very hard to do. At the very least, I need to find a way to halt him momentarily and disappear from his sight. Sewers should do.

I quickly duck down, avoiding the flung Mjolnir, which zooms right over my head and then I have to do a backflip as it returns and shoots through where my back would have been before returning to Thor's hand. Felicia is still in my arms, in what I think is called a bride hold, meaning both of my hands are busy. I quickly put her over my shoulder, using my hand to keep her there and my sticky powers to make sure she won't slip. I need at least one hand free.

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I flip to the side, evading Thor's mighty fist. It seems he won't be using Mjolnir much to avoid dealing too much damage. Thankfully while he is big, fast and strong, he isn't as agile as I am. I have to dodge a series of blows. Each one would probably break a few ribs. Dodging as much as I can, I know I can't keep doing it forever, and eventually, I will need to make some space to put my hastily thought-up plan into motion. The opportunity comes when Thor overreaches on a fist. It goes flying above me while I swerve under it, and then I come up to send my two fingers flying forward towards his eyes. Using the old Janken fist.

He sees what is happening and closes his eyes, trusting in his Asgardian eyelids to defend the blow. Which is why he doesn't see my finger curl in and make a fist which impacts him squarely in the face, sending him flying. He rolls across the roof, managing to come back up onto his feet smoothly. No doubt he has weathered such blows before, probably more powerful than mine. I already know that which is why I was already putting my plan into motion.

Letting go of Felicia and trusting my powers to keep her stable on my shoulder, my right hand goes behind my back to reach into a pouch, just as my left hand goes forward to aim at Thor's face, and I make the motion with my hand which feels like the most natural thing in the world. Thor opens his eyes just in time to get a face full of web fluid. I still had the web shooters on me, and man, am I glad I brought them thinking they would prove to be fun with Felicia. They did, and now they are being used for their original purpose.

Thor brings his hands up to rip the webbing off of his face, which he does in one swift pull, just in time to see the serval small black balls I had thrown forward with my other hand, dangerously close to his face. I shield myself with my cape, avoiding the bright burst of white light that no doubt blinds Thor. I pull my arm down to see Thor dazed, and I quickly shoot him in the face again, just for good measure. He is still too close for comfort, and I don't want to risk him getting a wild haymaker in.

Of course, Thor is an Asgardian god that has lived for centuries and has lived through many battles. Experience is on his side. And so before I even have a chance to make a break for it, I hear the crackle of thunder, and suddenly lightning bursts out of Thor, powerful and coming out to hurt anything in his surroundings, which includes me and Felicia.

The attack is too fast, which is to be expected because it is lightning, and I know I won't be able to dodge it. I only have moments to move Felicia down, so I hold her to my chest and turn away from it, trying to run away. The blast hits me in the back, and I am flung forward. Thankfully I managed to protect Felicia from the blast. However, the electromagnetic charge or whatever seems to have destabilised my sticking powers, and so as I crash into the ground, managing to manoeuvre onto my back to protect her from the fall, she goes tumbling out of my grasp, and I lay flat out on the ground.

Before I can do anything, I feel a weight settle gently on my chest, and when I look towards it, I see Mjolnir. I am down, and the hammer of Thor rests on my chest. Only those that are worthy are capable of removing it, and I have no doubt that that is out of my capability. Right now, the only one capable of removing this from my chest and letting me stand up is Thor. The hammer is on top of me, and though it isn't pulverising my organs, it is stopping me from moving my torso.

Looking up, I see Thor standing beside my body, looking down at me. I look back, and neither of us says anything. My eyes once again returned to the hammer, and I decided to try my luck. I can't just sit here and not try to get the bloody thing off of me. That just isn't me. I reach down and grab ahold of the shaft of the hammer and try to wrench it up off of me. It doesn't budge. Not in the least. I can't help but feel some slight disappointment. I mean, I figured I wouldn't be able to weld it. But maybe a little wiggle. But I guess not.

"You are not worthy..." I hear above me, but I ignore him. I let go of the shaft, defeated. But that is just acting, trying to make him think it is over so I can quickly make my move and escape with Felicia. The hammer might be pinning me to the concrete below me, but what if that concrete was no longer there. My current plan is to reach into my pouch, which is still accessible and pull out some bombs and then let them explode beside me, enough to break the ground beneath me with minimal damage to myself, and then use my grappling hook to pull myself to the side as I fall. Not the web shooters, since I would need to pull myself and the grapple gun would pull me.

And then, with that done, I will quickly jump back up onto the roof and take Felicia and make a break for it. Probably hide on one of the floors further down before Thor realises what is happening. He is strong, but he isn't a tracker, and he wouldn't be able to follow if he didn't see me. And then I can just wait him out. Inching my right hand along the ground to my pouch, I do a quick surveillance of my surroundings to make sure there is nothing that would affect my plan.

My hand stalls when my eye alights on Felicia, who is just behind me, lying on the ground and too close for comfort. It puts a halt to my plan. I could withstand the explosion with some minor injuries, and so could Thor, but I don't know about Felicia. Her suit could probably handle some damage, but her face is completely uncovered and unprotected. Yeah, she would get hurt, and that was if I was lucky. I can't go through with my plan.

"Do you feel worthy?" I can't help but shoot at Thor as my body slackens in defeat. There is nothing I can do here to escape, not without putting Felicia in harm's way, and I am not that callous. So, I try and aim for the guilt centres in Thor. He is being forced to do this and has attacked a guy that hasn't done anything to him and an unconscious woman. If he can pick that hammer up, then it must be somewhat sentient and understand the situation because these are pretty unworthy things to do.

"No, my friend, I do not. I apologise in advance for whatever may come, and know that I will do my best to defeat Ulik and save you and your female companion." He says that, but I just glare back at him. I guess guilt-tripping won't work; his girl is his first priority. He sighs but doesn't say anything, and I don't feel like saying anything, either. And then he kneels beside me and raises a fist. I already know where this is going, and I guess I am too much trouble to keep conscious. My vision turns black. The last thing I see is Thor's clenched fist.

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"Your silence surprises me, thunder god. Has defeat taken your tongue?" Hearing those words spoken by a gravelly voice, I come back to consciousness, and I immediately know where I am. As if the rough thing below me and the massive hand on my back didn't tell me enough. "Have you lost your curiosity as well as your honour?" I hear Ulik remark, insulting Thor. I keep my eyes closed, and my body limp, not wanting to reveal my lucidity just yet.

"Twas no Dishonour in this defeat, Ulik. For 'twas defeat caused by base treachery!" I hear Thor reply, and I can't help but notice how his speech is much more formal and old-timey than it was up on the roof. I think he speaks differently to different people. I also hear the burning fury in his voice.

"Treachery? Are you claiming I stole my victory, thunder god? That my triumph was not deserved?" Ulik says, and I can tell that this whole procession has stopped at his words. he must have stopped. And by procession, I mean I can hear numerous footfalls all around, and we must be travelling, but they all come to a stop, and somehow knowing that they are all looking at the two strongest, I lightly open an eye.

I spot them ahead of me, squaring off against each other. But I am more concerned by my surroundings, which are dark and gloomy. We are surrounded by all sides by dark brow rock and mud, and I quickly realise that we are in a fucking massive tunnel. No doubt I would not be able to see anything if it were not for the army of trolls with torches lighting up the path. We are underground, somewhere. Hell, since this is some Thor bullshit, I am not even sure we are on Earth anymore. We are underground, and by the looks of it, we are heading even deeper down.

"Tis no claim, Troll. 'Tis plain reality." I hear the judgement in Thor's tone and no doubt Ulik hears it as well. Knowing that things are coming to a head, I try and spot Felicia in my surroundings, and I spot her to the left of me, being carried by another Troll over the shoulder. I am unsurprised when suddenly her eye flickers open, and she looks at me before she closes it again, letting me know she is awake. Good. The other woman is also being carried by another troll beside her.

"Thou dost know the limit of thy strength. And I will remind thee, thou hast been beaten by me thrice before." Thor doesn't even put any ill feeling in that and simply states it as fact. I think that is what drives Ulik over the edge.

"Enough! I won't listen to your lies, Asgardian!" Ulik grabs Thor by the shoulder and shoves him into a wall, cracking it, and I worry for a moment that this whole place will come down on our heads. Thor doesn't react to it and just takes it with a stoic look on his face. "If anyone ever stole a victory, it was you!"

"I am Ulik, thunder god!" Ulik brings his hand forward in a meaty fist, heading straight for Thor's face. Thor doesn't intend to dodge it. "Ulik, the invincible!" Uliks hand smashes into the wall, sending fragments everywhere.

"Thou art also Ulik, the quick-tempered Troll. 'Tis a failing which will betray thee someday." Thor, unfazed, replies, giving Ulik a stern look.

"Perhaps, thunder god. But by that day, you'll be long dead." Ulike pulls his hand out of the stone and turns around, continuing his trek into the depths. The whole procession quickly follows, Thor moving as well.

"We've wasted enough time on these childish games. I've a world to conquer-" I watch as Ulik stalks off, Thor turning to look over his shoulder at me and the other two ladies. I worry he can see me awake before I realise my cowl is on and my eyes are white, so he shouldn't be able to tell. "-and you've three lives to save." I guess I am counted as a hostage along with Felicia and the other lady, and we are being used to force Thor to follow Ulik's orders. Orders which will lead to him conquering a world.

I have no idea where I am or how to leave. I will bide my time and wait to gather more information. And only then will I make my move.