Whiplash- Book 3

Chapter 19

"Say it anyway, I won't be mad," he says with a smile. "Well... I'm kind of-.."
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Meanwhile-NIVADELLIR:

Rocket is in the pod, and Thor, without any environmental suit, jumps from the hull onto the ring surface with a cable in his hand attached to the pod.

"I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose," Rocket says from inside the pod.

"Leave that to me," Thor says, nonchalantly.

"Leave that to you? Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a-," Rocket gets cut off by Thor beginning to swing the pod around him in a circle.

Rocket screams loudly as Thor builds up speed with three good loops. Then he slacks his grip enough to send the pod shooting straight away from Nidavellir, trailing him behind it like a kite tail.

"Fire the engines!" Thor yells as Rocket shakes it off and puts the proverbial pedal to the metal.

As the pod skims over the surface of the next ring out, Thor reaches down and digs one hand into the surface, then both feet, finally getting a foothold against the forward motion of the pod. The ice-like accumulation around the ring axis crackles.

"MORE... POWER... RABBIT!" Thor screams as Rocket accelerates for all he's worth.

Finally the rings spin free, realigning into effective configuration as the star bursts back into life.

"Well done, boy," Eitri says from inside the molding station. Thor, clutching the pod's forward windows, points to the star.

"That's Nivadellir!" Thor says with a smile. Rocket gazes amazed at the blazing core.

An iris on the cladding around the star opens, firing pure stellar heat through the ring portals and into the forge... until the damaged mechanism fails, crumbles loose and slams shut. The iris closes and the beam of light trails off.

"Dammit," Eitri says, disappointedly.

"'Dammit'? What's 'dammit' for?" Rocket questions.

"The mechanism is crippled," Eitri says with a sigh.

"What?!" Thor asks.

"With the iris closed I can't heat the metal," Eitri says as he shakes his head.

"How long will it take to heat?" Thor asks as he rolls his shoulders back a bit.

"A few minutes, maybe more. Why?" Eitri asks.

"I'm going to hold it open," Thor says, trying to pump himself up.

LThat's suicide," Eitri says, dumbfounded.

"So is facing Thanos without that axe," Thor says as he leaps from the pod to the star's iris.
Meanwhile- EARTH

Carriers hover over the ground with Wakandan soldiers and Natasha, Steve and Bucky on board. War Machine and Falcon keep pace overhead, and Bruce is in the Hulkbuster armor. While you and Pietro keep up pace on the ground, not even using half of your full speed.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Tasha asks as she glances behind her.

Bruce, who is in a huge iron man suit, is leaping jogging along, keeping up with the carriers, and utterly delighted.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-," He gets cut off by stumbling on a rock, and a carrier goes by, from which Okoye gives him a dubious look. He stands quickly.