First Roll of Thunder That Brings the Storm Ch 1

A/N: Hello, and welcome to yet another fan fiction I have written. I want to thank all of you who read "Hand of Surtur" and continued with me to the end. It couldn't have been done without all of your support.

Now, I am hoping that you will all enjoy this story just as much. I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope you will too.

This is an Avengers/Thor fic, takes place a while after the Avengers, and as a bonus, our dear little Loki has been selected to be an Avenger as well, so he is part of the team and aids them in saving the world. We'll see just how wonderful that is, and I hope all of my dear readers enjoy this!

Thank you all!


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~



The start of the New Year passed over the United States passed in much the same way every other day that year had: quietly.

For so long the deserts remained unchanged, except for a thin ribbon of train tracks laid during the Industrial Revolution, building networks between the towns as they moved west. Neither the sage bushes nor the desert seemed to mind the railroad, though the rattle of passing trains sometimes sent lizards and rodents scurrying for cover.

Which is exactly what happened when the train came roaring down the tracks. It was fast—the rails had barely started to shake when the iron beast was upon them, and just as quickly it was gone.

The train was short, consisting only of an engine and a single passenger car, all moving and working at breakneck speed by a team of elite conductors working for S.H.I.E.L.D.

The roof of the passenger car had been converted to a makeshift balcony and was in use by two of the mighty Avengers—Captain America and Dr. Bruce Banner. The infamous doctor of gamma radiation was leaning on a railing at the front of the car, his forearms draped over the edge as he eyed the horizon. The super-soldier stood with his eyes shading the light of the setting sun. His attention was focused on the sky, lightening to a soft pink and darkening to a brilliant orange as the sun set beneath a pair of tall mountains.

"We're coming to a corner, Cap!" Bruce Banner called over his shoulder. "We should be able to see him in a second!"

Ahead of them the tracks bent around a massive hill that had once been a vast mountain, until time and wind reduced it to its current state.

Steve Rogers nodded once. The strain of the day's events were clear on his face—circled, tired eyes and a frazzled expression above tight lips. He drummed his fingers lightly on the railing, careful not to dent it.

The train took the turn without slowing down. The car rocked and began leaning dangerously, but before it could roll off the tracks they rounded the curve and were back on a straightaway. Ahead of them the sun had almost set—only a tiny piece of the orb remained above the mountains. The world around them darkened as twilight took hold.

But then the train passed all the way around the hill, and sunlight found them again.

To the south, far away and high above the desert floor, something like a shooting star traced its way across the sky, paralleling the tracks as it headed west. It was nearly as bright as the setting sun, its flickering light illuminating the landscape below like noon. Thunder and lightning bolted around it in a massive cloud of blackness, scraping the sky like a handful of talons. The smell of rain lingered in the air.

Even from the train it was impossible not to feel the affects of the storm. Steve glanced up and shivered at the crack of thunder.

"Okay, that was loud," Bruce said. "Hear anything from Natasha or Clint yet?"

"No," Steve answered glumly. "S.H.I.E.L.D. really has no idea where to begin. Loki's already gone ahead, so we can't contact him, and the others have no idea what we're going up against. Even if we did learn something important, Loki's not here to tell us that it's important! And it's not like we can call Asgard and tell them what's happening."

He rested his forehead on the moving railing. Over the roar of the train he could still make out the echoing rumble of thunder.

Bruce exhaled. "We're coming to a town. We're going to have to slow down."

Steve's head came up with a jerk. "But we just barely caught up to him! If we slow down, he'll get away!"

"I know, Cap, but we can't endanger—" He stopped suddenly, his eyes on the sky head.

Captain America followed his glance and gasped. The storm was still raging, but there was a new color of lightning. Ice white. Powerful. It raged within the storm, cutting through it like a blade set up against a pad of melting butter. The flickering light in the center halted and whirled in a semi-circle.

The rumble of the new thunder burst through the ground, rattling the train worse than it had been before.

"What's going on?" Bruce murmured.

Steve looked at the whirling light, watched as it struggled feebly against the ice-white lightning that dueled with his own. "I think...I think Odin's trying to intervene."

To the west, the last silver of the sun dipped below the mountains, and the scene appeared just as clearly as it had before. Steve struggled to look directly at the bolts of lightning as the danced around the speckle of orange light.

"What?" Bruce demanded. "Odin?"

"So much for making a call to Asgard." Steve narrowed his eyes to get a better look at the scene as it unfurled before him.

It was like staring at the sun. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness, he could barely make out a pair of arms flailing as they passed in front of the god's body. The air around him seemed like an inferno, a halo of flames. The white lightning licked at his massive figure, and he swatted at it like a gnat.

"Oh, no," Steve mumbled. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Bruce turned to him with a look of confused concern. "Cap? What is it?"

"Odin's not trying to stop him." Steve was terrified by how shallow and weak his voice sounded, so pathetic for a super-soldier. "Odin's trying to—"

A massive streak of white lightning ripped through the sky, striking the god in mid-air. The figure jolted in the shadows of the thunderclouds, illuminated by the lightning bolt. He tumbled through the air as the black cloud dissipated above, powers useless, completely out of control. He spiraled toward the ground like a bullet.

"THOR!" Steve bellowed.

The falling god streaked past a low mountain and slammed into a the ground. From the train it looked like the world's largest firework; a shower of brilliant sparks rose into the air, soaring high above the mountain itself, followed by a fountain of lava that sprayed upward and out like a severed artery. The ground collapsed a moment later into a deep circle, shattering with a loud BOOM!

Steve covered his ears against the sound. He watched numbly as a rockslide large enough to devour Times Square slid down the mountain, accompanied by a river of lava that formed a small, burning lake at its bottom.

Bruce managed to look calm, but couldn't keep from shaking so hard his teeth chattered. From overhead came the whistle of rocks zooming by, followed by faint thuds as they landed. Some of the falling stones were nearly the size of a school bus, Steve noted absently.

Neither of them moved. The train, too, had stopped. As the sun sank further below the horizon the world grew darker, illuminated only by the flickering orange of the burning mountain. Even as night took hold they could still see clearly by the flames.

Finally Steve stepped forward. Without a word he hopped down the trap door into the car, and then jumped out the back door onto the tracks. Before Bruce could snap himself out of it, Steve was already racing toward the crash site.

"Hey...Hey! Wait for me!" Bruce hopped off the car and took off after his teammate.



>b>~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~</b>



"Slow down, Cap! You don't know what you're running into!"

"I'm fine!" Steve yelled over his shoulder. He'd stumbled a few meters back, and his ankle was throbbing. But he was a super-soldier, and he healed quickly. Already he could feel the ache dissipating to a low thrum. The glow from the crash site became the only thing telling him he was going in the right direction.

"Just take it easy," Bruce said gently, trying to reassure him. "It doesn't matter how fast we get to him."

"He needs help!"

Steve went to run again, but Bruce caught his wrist. "You won't be much help to him if you fall and hurt yourself. He survived the fall. He'll survive the few extra minutes it takes us to get to him. We have to wait for S.H.I.E.L.D. to send help, anyway."

He was right, as usual. Steve lowered his head, breathing in through his nose to keep himself from shouting.

"He's fine," Bruce said. He placed a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Loki said he's much stronger now than he was before. Thor could survive falls like that without any injuries what-so-ever. The ground is probably in worse condition than he is."

Steve couldn't help but chuckle quietly. Together they turned to the crash site and walked the rest of the way.



~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~



Thor was waiting in a pool of glowing magma perhaps twenty feet across. By approaching from the higher ground on the side of the mountain, Steve and Bruce could get within at least half the length of a school bus from the edge of the pit before their feet began to smoke and their shoes started to burn.

Bruce retreated with a startled yelp, and grabbed Steve's shoulder to stop him when he kept on rushing forward.

"We'll have to wait," he said. "I know you're a super-soldier and all, but even you can't walk right into a pool of molten lava."

"He needs us now!" Steve pointed at Thor. "Look at him!"

Bruce exhaled, exhausted. "Cap, if he can survive landing in a puddle of lava, he can survive anything. We have to wait for S.H.I.E.L.D. before we attempt anything."

The rock around their teammate simmered as they watched. Occasionally a large bubble would burst with enough force to spray flecks of lava over his arms and his head, the only parts of his body not submerged in bright red liquid stone. The drops ran like water down his flesh, leaving no mark to signify their passage.

Steve cupped his hands around his mouth. "Thor!" he called. "It's Cap! Can you hear me?"

Near the edge of the lava, a boulder cracked with a deafening snap, half of it slipping into the pool while the rest tumbled down the hillside, starting small brush fires as it rolled.

"Cap," Bruce said suddenly, "it's not a good idea to—"

"Thor!"

Bruce grasped him roughly by the shoulders and dragged him back from the pool of lava. "Cap, that's enough. He can't hear you. He's either asleep or—"

"Or what?!" Steve demanded. "He's either asleep or what, Banner?!"

"Unconscious," Bruce finished calmly. He kept his expression blank. "Either way, yelling at him isn't going to accomplish anything."

Captain America glared at him for a moment, then seemed to wilt. He flopped down on the ground like a child, on his knees in front of the magma pit, and shuddered. "I'm sorry, Banner," he said. "I don't know what else to do. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I don't know a thing about Asgardians, so I don't know what I can do to help him."

Bruce patted his shoulder reassuringly. "It's all right. We'll figure something out."

Steve continued to look at the ground for a while, contemplating. Then he lifted his head up with a determined shake. "What town are we near?"

"Auburn." Bruce cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

"We need some help. Can you head there with the train and tell them what happened? Get them to come help us out while S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to figure out what to do? Maybe we can pull him out of there."

"I can do that." Bruce looked at him. "What do we need?"

Steve thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure. Whatever they can think of. A crane, maybe? I have no clue."

"All right," Bruce said with a small laugh. "Whatever they can think of, coming right up. You going to stay here?"

Steve nodded, his gaze fixed on his downed teammate. "Maybe you should call Clint."

"Maybe I should. Tell him what's going on." Bruce started to turn, then came back and put his arm around Steve in a half-hug. "Hey, it's going to be fine. Clint and Natasha are figuring out what we can do, and Tony's searching for the Norns like Loki asked. Loki'll probably show up shortly. Until then, try to relax."

"Thanks, Banner," Steve said. "I'll try."

"That's all you can do, I suppose. Try." He closed his eyes and inhaled deep. "I'll be right back. Try to remain calm. That's always helped me."

After Bruce left, Steve tried, but it was very difficult. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a time in his life when something hadn't gone wrong. When he became an Avenger, he'd hoped it was the end of his troubles. His teammates, all six of them, were so supportive of him, so accepting, that he'd forgotten that bad things could happen.

But they had. Now Natasha and Clint were scurrying for answers, Tony was pursuing three girls in the desert he'd never heard of, Loki was a hysterical wreck, Bruce was heading off to get help from a town Steve had never been to, and Thor was an out-of-control god laying unconscious in a pool of magma at his feet. And Steve had absolutely no idea what this had all happened. Where did it all go wrong?



To Be Continued...