Ada, the Thunder God (Ch.3)

Ada carefully put Mjölnir down for a moment by her side and latched onto the door of the bank vault. Pressing on the edges, she took great satisfaction from the fact that her fingers were easily sinking deep into the thick metal as if it were no more than putty in her hands. When she got a good grip, she bit her lip, and then started pulling hard.

The mechanism began to shudder under the pressure she was applying; with the horrid sound of twisting, cracking steel terrifying her companions. Jon and the others stood back as a result, fearing that pieces of the huge round safe door might just snap off at any moment and hurtle towards them. While now empowered themselves by Ada, they knew that that still didn't make them invincible. Slowly but surely, however, the vault safely gave way, with Ada yanking it totally free with her great strength. She then held it over her head as if it weighed almost nothing and began laughing in slight disbelief. She threw it back into main concourse of the bank then which was now empty due to staff and customers fleeing in the face of the gang's dramatic arrival. The errant door smashed itself through the front wall of the bank and was ultimately left lodged there.

It wasn't long before Ada and the boys were filtering through an enormous cache of wealth. Some of them mockingly took out literal wads of cash and threw them in the air with a smile. Others flung the stacks of money at each other, with the elastic bands exploding upon impact. It wasn't long before dollars were individually floating around and raining down on the giddy group of criminals. Amidst it all, Ada just stood there and watched. It had been a few hours since they'd humiliated Thor and stripped him of his power. A few hours since she had taken Mjölnir up and ascended. While enjoying the change, she was also struggling to fully process what had happened.

She eventually reached down and picked up a load of hundred dollar bills that were held together by a paper band.

"I don't need this anymore, I understand that. I can, indeed, take whatever I want now. But my whole life I've struggled. I wanted to be rich. I wanted to hold this type of wealth in my hands. I'm sure you're all the same. Just to touch it. Feel it. It's almost like a fetish..."

She trailed off, feeling the stack of money in her hand again; a stack twice as thick as any old phonebook. She held it tighter then. Tighter and tighter until she started to crush the large pile. With impossible strength she crumpled the stack in her hand, and let the remains fall to the floor.

"...but no more," she finished. "That Ada is gone, I think. No more dead end jobs. No more paying bills. I'm so strong now. Immortal. Godlike. And I-"

"Sirens?" said Eric, lifting his head and interrupting her train of thought. "I think I hear them coming in the distance."

"They're aware of us now," said Jon. "Word will be out."

"Yeah," said Ada. "So let's make it official shall we? We're not far from Times Square. It's as good a place as any to say a proper hello."

With that, they exited the safe without even taking a single dollar with them, and left the decimated bank behind them. Indeed, as Ada easily pushed the vault door out of their way and entered the street again, she noticed the police arriving; yet before they could slow and stop, she grabbed the front of their car and tipped it over on its roof, causing the siren to stop abruptly.

Jon shouldered another car that appeared in their path, shoving it right into a nearby hydrant. When a number of cops did finally muster up a defence and opened fire upon them, the gang all got behind Ada, who simply threw Mjölnir and methodically knocked each of the policemen backwards one by one.

Nothing would stop their march it appeared, and when they arrived at the destination, the assorted shoppers, tourists, and locals were left shocked.

Who was this new god of thunder?

'Thor!' some cried out. Others were more specific and declared, "No, it's the Mighty Thor!"

As she listened to them, she strangely became annoyed. She walked up some of the ruby steps on the street and looked up at the night sky.

"On reflection, I've decided I'm neither. I am something new. Something unique. I am Ada, the Thunder God."

There was a single journalist who found themselves at the scene who reached out with their mic and asked seemingly the most important question: "And what do you want, Ada?"

She thought to herself for a second. She thought of what she had said to Thor earlier. She thought of the money in her hands at the bank. The crowd had hushed themselves whilst waiting for her reply; the relative silence allowing a single voice to be heard at the back of the assembled and growing gaggle of onlookers.

"She means to rule us, of course," they said.

Ada lifted her head but couldn't make out their face amongst the night-time throng.

"No," she revealed even so. "I don't actually want to rule you. But I do want you to respect me because-"

Again she was interrupted, and, before she could continue, noticed the emergence of a brilliant flash of light from above that suddenly shot down before them all, followed by a shower of colour which only fell on one particular spot on the road. The others stood back, unsure of what was occurring, but Ada stood firm, gripping Mjölnir harder than ever. When the display subsided and the street was back to its previously dark yet neon-caked glory, she could see Thor in front of her once more, now flanked by a number of Asgardian troops.

He had clearly used his mighty axe Stormbreaker to become whole again, summoned himself to his father's realm, before then returning to 'Midgard' to confront them, with backup.

"Now," Thor began, "You'll lay down that hammer for good, and you'll come with us to Asgard; your jumped-up friends included."

Ada smirked. "Wow, that's a neat trick you've pulled. You have a magical axe, too?! But as for going with you, I'm afraid it's going to have to be a big no from me, sorry."

Thor nodded then, triggering his troops into a preplanned attack. He had swiftly recruited them as he felt their presence was necessary in order to hold her gang at bay long enough to allow him a fair crack at Ada alone. Thus, amidst the super-powered brawl and bystanders scattering, the two thunder gods duelled again in Times Square.

Thor was secretly afraid he still wouldn't be able to strip Ada of her power even if he got hold of his hammer so hoped to somehow subdue and bring her back to Asgard alive and imprisoned her there until they could figure out what to do with her.

As they fought as before, they both threw huge punches at one another that caused vibrations that smashed nearby store windows, yet they took no notice themselves. At one point, Ada picked Thor up and dropped him straight down on her knee, but Thor got back up to his feet quickly, grabbed her cape and flung her over his head and directly onto the ground, leaving a deep outline in the pavement.

Angered, she struck him with Mjölnir and sent him hurtling against the red steps. A groggy Thor struggled to steady himself as she closed in.

"This time," she started, "I'm gonna-"

But, suddenly, she felt a pull on both of her arms. She looked down and saw that a number of the Asgardian warriors had wrapped their hands around her bulgling biceps and meaty forearms. They had already overcome her buddies and had now collectively switched their attention to her.

"Oh, how the tables have turned!" exclaimed Thor, taking a little satisfaction of his own from watching Ada go through a similar experience that she had previously inflicted upon him via her empowered friends, the same ones who now lay unconscious around her.

She struggled to free herself as Thor whipped out a set of magical cuffs meant for her wide, muscular wrists. There were six Asgardians holding her down as their captain snapped them on and made sure to lock the bolt. As he did so, Mjölnir fell from Ada's hand and cracked the path at her feet.

She tried to use all of her might to break free but realized this wasn't about pure brute strength anymore. This incantation had power over the physical and superseded the chaotic magic that had allowed her to even lift the hammer in the first place. Indeed, she was now Thor's prisoner.

"You'll pay for this!" she declared with a scowl, jumping free of the warriors' grip and towards an unconcerned Thor.

"Empty threats and a last, desperate strike? Typical," he replied. "Like a trapped or wounded animal whose back is against the wall. Not feeling too godlike now, eh? Well, this contraption will keep you quiet until we get you back to Asgard."

"What will you do with me then?" she asked with a grumble.

"Well, considering I wasn't able to use Mjölnir to transform you back, we're going to have to find another way to do it. Which reminds me, where did my hammer go?"

He looked a few meters behind Ada and his warriors to see where she had dropped it. He planned to will it to himself again, but in his hesitation he had actually allowed another to take hold of it. With some of Thor's power already coursing through his body, the assailant lifted it above his head with a beaming smile across his face, and reached out to the heavens. There was a noticeable rumble above, and then a bolt of lightning shot down and struck the hammer.

Jon cackled as he felt the transformation take hold. He had finally gotten what he wanted. His muscles started pushing through what was left of his clothes now, he grew taller again, and, in a flash, was left wearing Asgardin armour of his own complete with a blue cape. Due to Thor and Ada's quarrelling, and through his own actions, a third Thor had been birthed.

"Oh, you've all made a terrible mistake," he grunted, taking the opportunity to slam the hammer off the surface of the road, sending a tremor throughout Times Square. Under Thor's orders, the Asgardians dropped the imprisoned Ada and proceeded to tackle the now godly Jon instead. But, unlike Ada, who chose to fight her foes individually, Jon simply reached into the air and called upon the elements to aid him, with a number of lightning bolts crackling down, striking the warriors, immobilising them then and there.

"You fool," said Ada. "This is your fault, Thor. You think I was a menace, but this guy should definitely not have this type of power."

"Actually, it's your fault if we're being honest here," replied Thor, side-eyeing her. "If you had never used the hammer to begin with-"

"Maybe if you hadn't thrown it at me in the first place!" she countered.

"But if you hadn't tried rob that warehouse!" he added.

"Well, if you want to keep going back and back-" she added.

"Listen, you stay here with your ifs and buts," Thor replied, "I'm going to take care of him. He can't rob me of my power once I have Stormbreaker. I'm sure of it."

"You couldn't take me alone, yet you think you can defeat him?" she laughed. "Come on, Thor, release me and I'll help you out. Whatever differences we might have, we can still take him down together."

"Nice try," he replied before walking towards a waiting Jon, whose eyes bled electricity now. "But there's more of a chance that you'll side with him if I let you go, and all you want really is Mjölnir back."

Ada tried desperately to pull her metal binds apart, but the spell was just too effective. She had to watch on then, powerlessly, the awesome scene of Thor and Jon fighting, with sparks flying as Stormbreaker and Mjölnir clashed off one another. All about her, people screamed as they ran for cover, and, in this brief moment, while she remained trapped and on her knees, she suddenly remembered what it felt like to be mortal. Overwhelmed by all of this new power she'd obtained, she had gotten slightly carried away and forgotten how unpleasant simple fear itself felt.

Thor, meanwhile, wasn't giving the upstart an inch and was the much better fighter, managing to catch his opponent in an armbar and pulling back hard, demanding that Jon drop Mjölnir. His adversary did so, and Thor let out a small sigh of relief, only for the hammer to drift back into Jon's other hand. He had tricked Thor and quickly swung around.

Thor managed the grab his nearby axe, however, and tried to block the blow, but its force still sent him crashing down the path and left him dazed for a time, yet also left Stormbreaker directly in front of Ada. The weapon had found itself in a newly-made crater, with its sharp edge sticking right up into the sky. Ada stared at Thor and the approaching Jon, and then looked back at the axe. She knew she had one chance and decided to run towards it.

Jon stopped for a second, confused. He was unsure as to what she was up to. But, suddenly, the penny dropped. Ada threw her arms high before driving her wrists towards the axe, smashing the metal binds off Stormbreaker's blade. The enchanted object broke the shackles clear off of her, and Ada, the Thunder God, was free yet again.

She smiled and let out a long breath before turning her eyes and staring at Jon from deep under her furrowed brow. She grabbed hold of Stormbreaker in both hands then and stood in opposition to her foe.

But Jon merely laughed.

"You can't best me now, Ada. In fact, you should've just given me this hammer from the start and I would've gone easy on you. I might have even let you keep a little power. But now? Forget it."

With that, he raised Mjölnir and tried to turn her back to normal, but, like with Thor's efforts hours before, it didn't work. Ada wasn't sure if the magic was still being affected in some way, or whether Stormbreaker protected her, but she also didn't care. She liked being powerful and she wanted to stay that way. In fact, the only chance she might have against him was if she was superior to Jon, and not his equal. With that in mind, she came up with a mad idea.

"OK, let's see if this works," she whispered to herself. Reaching up into the night with Stormbreaker, she too demanded more power from the great beyond, and, subsequently, drew a giant bolt of lightning down upon herself. It was an act that left Jon aghast as, incredibly, he witnessed her change once more.

Ada held onto the magical axe for all she was worth and felt her body grow up and out. Trapped in the transformative beam of light she let out a roar which then turned into laughter. Her cape began to shread, her legs grew, her biceps exploded out of their leather armbands. Her expanding super form then broke through her armour. Even her hair grew longer. When done, she was standing there with an even larger god bod, and with a brand new, golden suit of armour and red cape wrapped around it.

Jon, in comparison, wasn't feeling so cocky now.

Between them, a newly awoken Thor finally looked up, perplexed. He was worried that he now had two mighty gods opposing him, with Ada even greater than before. But as he fully took stock of the situation, something happened that he did not expect.

"Hey! Thor!" Ada cried out, throwing him Stormbreaker. Suprised at her gesture, he took it in his hands and stared towards her.

"It's like I said!" she explained in a booming voice: "Let's take him down together. But it's also like what you said: I want my hammer back!"

To be concluded...