The Hunt for Thor

Chapter 43: The Hunt for Thor

"That was super cool," Jake said as he approached the armored guy. "So, is there, like, a person in there, or are you totally a robot?" He asked curiously.

The robotic faceplate just turned and stared at him. "So, are you really a devil, or were those wings just for show?" Ironman retorted back.

"Half devil," Jake said. "Mom was human, dad's a devil. He's a POS, though." Jake explained.

Ironman nodded before the faceplate on his helmet opened, revealing him inside the suit.

"That's badass," Jake said. He wanted his own awesome mecha suit...

"Thanks," Tony said. "And I know all about dads being pieces of shit." Tony's father spent most of his childhood drinking and ignoring him. He also spent thousands of hours searching for the body of Captain America that Tony figured was shark food long ago.

Jake turned and looked towards the direction the last angel fled to. "We better find that last angel before he causes any more damage." He was already afraid that it had killed more people in the few minutes it took Jake and Ironman to subdue the four other angels.

Tony nodded before his faceplate closed back down. He was about to take off into the air before Jarvis spoke up in his suit. "Sir, I should warn you that catching those two angel swords has damaged your palm repulsors. I would advise not doing that again…" Jarvis said dryly. Tony was surprised his titanium gold alloy was actually damaged by some swords. He'd have to retrieve those blades later to analyze what they were made of. Tony thanked Jarvis for that information before he took off into the sky and followed the redhead in the direction the angel went.

…

It shouldn't have been so easy to track the angel in what was apparently the heart of Los Angeles, but sadly it was. Jake would have laughed at the irony of an evil angel in the city of angels, had he not been following an obvious trail of bodies. Jake thought it was very weird to be flying over city streets that were deserted.

However, as they kept flying and following the "trail," they started to see more and more people who were hiding from the chaos coming back out onto the streets.

"Ironman, over here!"

The two landed in front of a group of frazzled survivors from the angel's rampage. The people were giving Jake guarded looks as they kept glancing at his wings in fear. Jake figured it would probably be better to let the Ironman do the talking.

"What happened here, and where did that angel go?" Ironman asked the people there.

"We don't know," said a woman, while crying. "It was horrible."

Another man spoke up. He was clutching his side in pain. "A crazy man with white wings wearing a toga just kept asking everyone where we were hiding someone called Prince Thor. Whenever someone said they didn't know, he just stabbed them with his flaming sword... He was also creating fireballs, like real magic fireballs, and throwing them at cars, making them explode!" The man said. He got hit by a piece of exploding shrapnel and blacked out. When he came to, the angel was gone.

"Did anyone see which way he went? Please, we have to hurry!" Ironman bellowed.

Another man spoke out. "I saw where he went. I was hiding behind the dumpster when someone told that evil angel guy where Prince Thor was! They said a big blond guy calling himself Thor walked into the middle of the street and got hit by a car. He was taken away in an ambulance!"

"Shit," Tony cursed. He just got an alert from Jarvis that the alarms at a nearby hospital just tripped. "You should all be safe here now. We took care of the other angels– Let's go, kid!" Ironman rocketed off back into the air, and Jake followed along. The people left behind giving confused glances at who the winged man was with Ironman… Some of them had their phones out and had filmed the whole thing.

A minute later, they arrived in the air above a large hospital that had numerous patients and police trying to coordinate them outside. Various news crews had also arrived on the scene.

The patients who had been evacuated from the hospital started cheering at the sight of Ironman.

"It's Ironman!"

"Ironman, help us, please!"

"There's an insane madman attacking the hospital, he's still inside!"

Ironman and Jake landed in front of the hospital. "Ironman, Ironman, can we have a quick word with you?" A brunette reporter with glasses ran up to him and tried to shove a microphone in his metal face. He just brushed her off, telling her it was a bad time and there were still people to save in the hospital. "I'll take the left wing, kid, you check the right!" With that, he ran into the building.

The reporter didn't seem surprised that Tony blew her off. She quickly turned to Jake and shoved the mic in his face next. "What about you, can we get a quick word real fast, I promise! We can talk about your wings, behind you, are they real?" Jake thought she was a bit pushy given the circumstances here. She wouldn't take no for an answer.

"There's an evil angel on the loose in a hospital, I have to go," Jake said as he started walking towards the entrance.

"An angel?!" She questioned while still following behind him right into the hospital…

"Hey lady, don't follow him in there." One of the police officers from behind the cordon tried to call out to the reporter, but she and her cameraman just ignored them and followed Jake into the building.

"You shouldn't follow me inside," Jake said as he entered the lobby... Even here, there were blood stains scattered about. This monster needed to be stopped!

The reporter behind him gasped at the sight but quickly steeled herself with a deep breath. "I'm Katherine Farrel with the Daily Bugle News. The people have a right to know what's going on here!" She said determined. "Can you tell us-OH MY GOD!" She held back a gag as she followed Jake. They had just passed down a dark hallway with many bodies that weren't all put together anymore…

"The angel has clearly been this way." Jake said solemnly. "Hopefully Ironman will realize that and catch up to us soon."

Jake's spell circles formed in his hands, causing her to gasp in surprise. The cameraman quickly zoomed in on him to get a close-up shot. Jake just ignored them as he formed two shorter ice daggers in his hands. He couldn't go using a long sword in such narrow hallways.

"What was that?" She exclaimed.

"Magic," Jake replied, to their surprise. They had been walking for over a minute now through the empty halls and hadn't seen or heard any signs of life… There were plenty of signs of death unfortunately. It was eerie to Jake. For all he knew, the angel could be hiding anywhere, waiting to ambush him. He kept his guard up as he picked up his pace, with the two news people right behind him.

"Magic is real!" Katherine asked, trying to break the tension.

"Yes," Jake said as he slowly opened a closed door and peeked inside, still wary of an ambush. It was clear. He moved on down the hallway.

"We heard patients and police saying that it was an angel that attacked the hospital. We also heard reports that a group of them had attacked the city."

"Yeah, Tony and I took care of those four," Jake responded.

"They supposedly had white feathery wings!" she exclaimed. "Your wings weren't like that, though..." she trailed off.

"That's because I'm a devil," Jake said bluntly.

"D-devil? Like the evil kind that lives in hell and steals people's souls?" She asked, slightly afraid at just meeting the supposed villain of her religion.

"Where I'm from," Jake said, not mentioning he was from a different dimension, "pretty much all of those evil devils have been wiped out. The new younger generation is in charge now, and pretty much all of our deals at this point trade in money. Taking souls is forbidden and punished by execution." Jake explained. The reporter sighed in relief.

"So, devils aren't evil anymore."

Jake told her that wasn't quite the case either. "Some devils are still dicks. Just like regular people, though we have our good and bad devils."

"What about the angels, then?" She asked. She was wondering if her religion was wrong. If the beings they looked up to were actually evil this whole time...

"I don't know a lot about them as this was the first day I'd ever seen them, but according to Odin, they were a race so ruthless and warlike that he had to seal their entire realm away."

"Odin?"

"The king of Asgard," Jake said to her shock once again.

Before she could ask about that, Jake shushed her and told her to go hide in one of the rooms. He could sense the angel was close. She seemed to want to follow Jake further, but thankfully her cameraman grabbed her and dragged her into a nearby room to hide. He was muttering about not being paid enough to risk his life.

...

A few more turns down, Jake could hear the angel's frustrated voice.

"Why, why, why!?" It screamed to itself. "They said the prince was here. I've searched every single room in this godforsaken place, and Thor is not here!"

BANG!

The angel screamed and smashed something in the next room in its anger. Jake was also wondering what the hell had happened to Thor, but he was relieved that the man wasn't killed by this guy, at least. Ready to finish this guy once and for all, Jake kicked in the door and entered the room.

The angel, startled by the noise, turned around and faced Jake before snarling at him. "Oh, you have got to be shitting me," he screamed at Jake in frustration upon seeing him. "How!? How are you still alive!? I left you alone against four of my brethren, and they couldn't kill you!? Fuck!" He cursed in anger before he slashed his sword at a nearby table, destroying it in rage.

Jake raised his ice dagger towards the screaming winged man. "It's over, you piece of shit. I'm putting you down."

"Fine then, if you want something done right, you really do have to do it yourself, I suppose. Let us fight to the death, Jake Gremory! And know that it was I, Uraviel, the greatest spy of Heaven, that slew you!" Uraviel sneered.

Jake just smirked at him. "I don't give a shit about your name. You called yourself a nameless soldier in front of Odin, and that's all you are!" Jake declared to Uraviel's snarling face!

"To dare disrespect me! Die!" He raised his palm, and to Jake's surprise, a ball of fire oozing with holy energy launched towards him. Jake hurled both of his ice daggers at the fireball. They clashed in mid-air and caused an explosion. The small room was temporarily blanketed in smoke, causing both of them to lose their vision.

To Jake's surprise, Uraviel's magical signature completely vanished. He had thoroughly cloaked himself and now might as well be invisible to Jake!

...he had learned how to deal with invisible opponents from his latest spar, however. "Mini Frozen Hell!" From Jake's body, a wave of ice sprang forth, blanketing the entire room in ice. Not enough to cause damage, just enough to cover everything in frost. He kept the spell small to avoid destroying too much of the hospital or potentially hitting the reporter who was hiding a few rooms down.

CRUNCH!

'There he is!' He thought to himself. Jake heard the telltale sound of ice being stepped on and cracking right behind him! He conjured an ice dagger quickly in his hand before spinning around and slashing out blindly!

CLANG!

His ice blade slammed down on Uraviel's burning sword. As the smoke in the room cleared, the two of them locked eyes, fiercely glaring at each other. Jake started pumping as much magic into his muscles as possible, so much that they started to burn from the strain. It was worth it, though, because Jake was starting to overpower the angel as his dagger was bearing down closer and closer towards Uraviel's throat.

"How!" Uraviel screamed in frustration, doing his best to hold onto this standoff while slowly being overpowered. "I'm an elite soldier of Heaven! How am I losing to you!?" He screamed. "How did my men lose to you!"

Their blades still locked together, Jake just smirked at him. "I had some help."

"Who?"

"That would be me." Ironman said, standing behind Uraviel, who was too distracted by Jake. He wrapped his armored arms right around the angel's throat, putting him in an unbreakable chokehold! Uraviel gagged and gasped as he tried to pry the metal arms loose, but Jake conjured a second ice dagger and slammed both of them down right through Uraviel's arms, making them go limp. The angel's eyes widened as it let out a silent scream of pain before Ironman finally choked him out, and the mass murderer dropped to the floor unconscious and captured.

"I'm surprised you took him alive," Jake said.

Ironman simply shrugged. "I got a call when I entered the hospital from the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., demanding that I capture this guy alive so we could interrogate him. Once we're done with him, I'm sure he'll disappear if you catch my drift. Shady spy stuff and all that." Jake just nodded along. He had seen movies. He could guess how it would go for this guy.

What Jake was really worried about at the moment, now that Uraviel was dealt with, was Thor's whereabouts. He had no idea what the hell happened to the guy...

Jake just sighed and figured he'd find the guy eventually before turning back to Ironman. "We haven't quite introduced ourselves, have we?" Jake asked.

Tony's faceplate once again lifted, and he nodded. "I'm kinda surprised you don't know who I am, to be honest. I thought everyone knew... I'm Tony Stark, otherwise known as Ironman. So, what's your name, kid?" Tony asked him.

"Nice to meet you, Tony. My name's Jake Gremory." Jake held out his hand to shake.

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