“Welcome, hero prospects.”

Thor felt himself grow mesmerised with those beautiful words, like the peerless music of a fine violin drifting through an empty auditorium-No! Thor mentally shook himself free of the glowing man’s words, he was trained to be better than this!

“Quit sweet talking ‘em Brono. I don’t wanna talk to vegetables again, pretty sure the last group you fucked with is still recovering.” The brawny monster of a man snapped to the shining man,using his gravelly voice to draw the gaze of the group from the glowing Man, Brono’s, mesmerising voice.

“C’ept fer Master chief over ‘ere, god to se some kids with a pair o’ man sacks.” The giant man growled down at Thor, in what Thor could only assume was a praising tone.

“Master Chief?” The powerful woman in furs called out from behind Brono.

“Ahh forget it…”

“Enough with your television games Ares, there is work to be done.” The ancient looking man snapped, briskly spinning his cane in lazy circles.

“Television games? You know damn fuckin well what they're called you twat! Come over ‘ere, I’ll finish you off before old age does!”  In the response to the provoctation, the old man straightened his back to his full height, pointed his cane at the giant man and drew his arm back like the javelin throwers Thor had seen on the Olympics.

“See how old I look when I put this stick 7 inches through your FUCKING EYE SOCKET!” The staff starting cracking, sparks of electricity arcing throughout the entire length, Thor felt his hair raise and the smell of burnt wood pierced his nose like a knife. The Idol group weren’t doing as good though. All four of the students were getting pushed backwards through the pristine grass, muscles straining against the powerful invisible force.

Brono’s bright shoulders visibly slumped, he looked towards the stock still armoured man, whom Thor had been considering was a statue. In response to the gaze of Brono, the knight drew his sword from the soft ground with a slick jerk, levelled the great blade at a sharp 90-degree angle, wicked edge pointed straight between the old man and giant man, visibly took a large breath, and shouted with a voice a fighter jet engine would be proud of.

“CEASE YOUR ARGUMENTS, FELLOW COMRADES!” The powerful voice reverberated around the clearing, the great trees gently shook, Thor nearly jumped out of his skin and the Idol group were blasted from their feet, landing hard on the ground with loud gasps. Seeing this the armoured man had the decency to look slightly apologetic under his thick armour.

The old man and the giant seemed to remember where they were, and with one last piercing gaze, lowered their guards. Brono once again let out a sigh, before turning to Thor and the idol group.

“Well, anyway… ahh. Oh yeah, you’re all probably wondering why we summoned you here.”

Jake took this time to speak up to the divine being, picking himself up from the floor and dusting himself off he turned to the being with a surprisingly strong voice.

“Why bring us here? Why put us in the tunnel? And who are you?”

The being took a moment to gaze down on Jake, seemingly impressed with the boy’s courage.

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“Well, we brought you here to be heroes, we put you in the tunnel to see how you’d react to an unfamiliar and alien environment, a sort of test, if you will. And I am Brono, the god of Light.”

Brono seemed to have toned down his voice to the point where it wasn’t hypnotising anymore, Thor was thankful for that, he was still embarrassed it affected him.

“He’s Ares, the God of war.” Brono continued, pointed towards the giant man, who grunted angrily in response.

“She’s Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt.” Brono remarked, pointing at the woman in furs, the woman herself awkwardly inspected her bow at the unexpected attention.

“He’s Zeus, God of the 4 core elements.”  Brono pointed at the old man.

“The core elements are earth, fi-.” The old man began before Brono cut him off, pointing towards the heavily armoured man.

“He’s Horus, God of the Sun. Not to be confused with me, god of light.” Brono finished, waiting patiently for the information to sink in. Thor’s mind was going into overdrive, calling all his knowledge of gods into action. Ares was the Greek god of war, Zeus was also a Greek god, king of the gods in-fact, though he didn’t seem to be in charge here. Brono was the Norse god of daylight, Horus was the Egyptian of the sun and Artemis was the Greek god of the hunt.

Thor was seeing a lot of different gods here. Something didn’t add up, shouldn’t there be other gods?

“What do you mean by heroes?” Jake stepped up to the plate once again, asking the question that was on all their minds, except Thor, he was trying to remember if there was a Greek hippo god.

“Good question my child, heroes are basically champions of a God. We send you down into a colosseum of sorts, a specially crafted planet. Where you will do battle with other champions of Gods. This is an event that only occurs every few million years, so as you can imagine it’s quite a large event. So large in-fact, the fate of gods are put on the shoulders of their champions. It’s a system designed to rank the Gods, and decide upon a ruler.” Brono looked each student in the eye, as if to stress the importance of this.

“The others gods have chosen their champions from around the known universe. We, have chosen you all. This is a matter that decides the fate of the universe itself, the fate of all that is and will ever be is at stake. And it will ride on your shoulders.” Thor looked at Brono in shock, the entire universe? He looked over to the Idol group, they looked at Brono with an unnaturally determined look in their eyes. Thor wondered how this wasn’t affecting them, even in the slightest!

“If we accept, what exactly will we have to do?” Jake asked Brono, this time with an even stronger voice.

“You will be placed on the planet, and every month the ‘matches’ will take place. These will occur every month, and one month will be given to prepare. The contents of these matches are unknown, and they will change and alter the rules of each. Though every match is designed to cut down a significant number of Champions.”

“How many other champions are there?”

“Millions upon millions, enough to fill up a planet 5 times the size of your earth. And each champion will have their own god.”

The group took a moment to let this sink in. Jake called out for Thor to join them for a second, the group huddled around one another.

“Are we doing this?” Sam asked Jake, a fierce smile twisting his face.

“What’s the vote?” Jake answered, a similar smile gracing his own face.

“Fuck it.” Akane answered shortly.

“Well, okay.” Jess answered, a determined look in her eyes.

“Hell fucking yeah.” Sam cheered.

“Thor?” Jake questioned, looking to Thor.

Thor couldn’t believe his ears, how were they so accepting of this! This was uncanny, but Thor thought about what he would do, he didn’t really have a reason to stay on earth. And he ached to fight, just as he was designed for! Though, would Dr Drew be okay with it? Thor mulled over this for a short while, before concluding Drew would probably tell him to do whatever’s more enjoyable. That was Drew, he always said the goal of life should be enjoyment, otherwise what was the point? Excitement arced throughout Thor’s body like lightninging, his hands clenched into fists as a rare blood-thirsty smile broke out on his scarred face, threatening to split his face in half.

“Sure.” An almost animalistic grunt came from Thor’s twisted lips, sending a shiver down the spines of the others huddled around him. Seeing this, Thor tried to bring himself back to his senses, just as Drew taught him. But slowing his breath, thinking of calming things and relaxing wasn’t working.

He was just too fucking excited for what was coming…

Unseen by Thor, Ares was looking at Thor’s terrifying smile. A soft grunt left the man as his smile twisted into a mirror image of Thor’s.

“I knew I chose right…”