Darcy drove while keeping her eyes fixed on the detector.
London's roads were narrow to begin with—so streets barely wide enough for a single car—yet Darcy sped through them at full throttle. Jane gripped the handhold tightly, terrified she might be flung out at any mont.
After weaving through countless turns, they arrived at what looked like a warehouse district. Darcy slamd the brakes and drifted to a stop, and Jane was nearly thrown from her seat by the sudden deceleration.
"Looks like this is the place. Do you rember what that device looked like?" Darcy asked as she stepped out of the car, holding the detector and scanning the area.
"Of course I rember what it looked like," Jane replied.
She got out of the car and walked toward an open area where an overturned truck sat, clearly abandoned for years.
Following the detector's signal, the two entered the warehouse. Several children suddenly appeared, aiming slingshots at Jane and Darcy.
"Hey! I'm the one who contacted you. My na's Darcy," Darcy said quickly. Even though they were just kids, the reputation of London's street children was well known—they could be vicious.
"Are you police?" a young girl asked. She seed to be the leader of the group.
"No, we're scientists. My na is Jane—Jane Foster," Jane said gently, doing her best to appear nonthreatening.
"That place—we found it by accident," the girl said after hearing Jane's explanation.
"Could you take us to see it?" Jane asked. The detector's signal was clearly coming from nearby.
The girl nodded and led them to an open space inside the warehouse. There was a truck parked there—identical to the overturned one outside.
The girl walked forward first. To Jane and Darcy's astonishnt, she lifted the truck with just two fingers, and it floated suspended in midair.
"Amazing, right?" the girl said, turning back to them.
She then led them upstairs to the top floor. One of her companions picked up a bottle from sowhere and tossed it downward. Halfway through its fall, the bottle suddenly vanished.
"Where did it go?" Jane frowned, a realization beginning to form.
The girl pointed upward. Jane and Darcy looked up imdiately.
Sure enough, the bottle reappeared directly above them, fell to the sa spot, vanished again, then reappeared overhead—repeating the cycle endlessly.
"This is incredible…" Darcy murmured.
She bent down, picked up an old soda can, and tossed it down the sa way. As expected, it vanished. Everyone looked up, waiting.
Ten seconds passed.
Nothing.
"What happened? Where's the can?" Darcy asked, scanning the area in confusion.
"Sotis it cos back. Sotis it doesn't," the girl said with a shrug. Clearly, she had experinted with this many tis.
Jane imdiately pulled out the detector Darcy had stuffed into her bag and began carefully examining the readings.
"Strange… The last ti I saw data like this was—"
She stopped mid-sentence.
"New xico, right? That small town?" Darcy finished for her.
She was right—the readings were identical to those from their experints in New xico.
"Tell the kids not to touch anything!" Jane said abruptly before rushing off.
She began wandering through the warehouse area, seemingly at random, her eyes locked on the detector in her hand.
Suddenly, an invisible force shoved her violently toward a wall.
"No! Help!" Jane scread, crossing her arms instinctively in defense.
But the mont her body touched the wall, she vanished.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself inside an unknown cavern. She stood on a narrow platform, beneath which lay a bottomless abyss.
Jane collapsed to the ground, struggling to steady her breathing. Once she cald down, she began looking around.
Turning her head, she noticed a massive square stone pillar. A red light pulsed steadily from its center.
She stood up and cautiously approached it, moving carefully, unsure whether it was dangerous.
The pillar was enormous—ten people linking arms might not be enough to encircle it. Jane slowly walked around it, observing the red glow at its center.
She realized the pillar was divided into an upper and lower section, separated by a gap about the width of a fist. The red light emanated from that gap, as though it were holding the two halves apart.
Leaning closer, Jane peered into the gap. Inside the red light, dust-like particles drifted erratically, floating up and down without pattern. These unknown particles were clearly the source of the glow.
Suddenly, the particles reacted—as if they had found a target—and latched onto Jane's hand.
She stumbled as her body was yanked forward.
The next instant, with a thunderous crash, the upper half of the pillar slamd down onto the lower one. Jane narrowly managed to pull her arm back in ti—otherwise, she would have lost it.
The red light and the particles vanished simultaneously.
Jane hurriedly checked her hand. She was certain the particles had grabbed her, yet her hand was completely intact—no injuries, not even a mark.
Then a wave of dizziness struck her. Her vision spun, her body tilted, and she collapsed unconscious.
---
In the endless darkness of space, asteroid fields drifted like shattered castles, aimless and silent. Among them, a black, sword-shaped spacecraft suddenly began to glow with red light.
Inside the vessel, red illumination pulsed as well. A cocoon-like structure opened, revealing a figure with sharply pointed ears.
The figure stepped out and entered the ship's central chamber. One by one, others of his kind began to awaken.
"The Aether has been awakened," he declared. "And with it, we have been awakened as well. The Convergence approaches once more. This ti, we will succeed."
He looked down at the gathering figures. This was Malekith, the king of the Dark Elves—the being mockingly referred to as "Malachicken."
---
In Asgard, Thor walked along the Bifrost toward Heimdall's observatory. He was no longer wearing his armor, but a long black robe—it was clear he had slipped away from the victory celebration.
Heimdall stood atop the platform, both hands resting on his great sword, the key to the Bifrost. His eyes were closed, as still as a statue.
"You ca early, Thor," Heimdall said, opening his eyes as Thor stepped onto the platform.
"Yes," Thor replied. "At tis, celebration is more exhausting than battle."
He walked up beside Heimdall and followed his gaze into the shimring, infinite cosmos beyond the observatory.
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