Chương 97: Chapter 97: Fat Thor and the Aggressive Rocket 

Half an hour ago... 

Frigga, the Queen of Asgard, walked briskly through the grand halls of the Royal Palace, meticulously inspecting the ongoing preparations for the upcoming realm-wide banquet. As she walked, she constantly issued a stream of precise instructions to her accompanying handmaidens. 

"By the way, where is Sylvie?" Frigga suddenly paused. She had just dispatched a handmaiden to deliver a stack of administrative documents to Loki, ordering him to finalize the seating arrangements. 

Her eldest son was currently completely engrossed in wooing his mortal girlfriend. Her second son was diligently sitting on the throne, handling the crushing weight of administrative affairs. But her newly adopted daughter had only just arrived in Asgard and hadn't been assigned any official duties yet. Frigga had no idea where she had run off to. 

A handmaiden immediately activated a minor magical communication array. A moment later, she received a response. 

"Princess Sylvie is currently in one of the private lounges, enjoying tea and conversing with that powerful Midgardian sorcerer," the handmaiden reported with a polite smile. 

"Ah, Master Ancient One," Frigga nodded thoughtfully. 

In truth, Frigga hadn't quite decided what role Sylvie should play in Asgard's future. Should she establish an elite order of Royal Sorcerers for Sylvie to command? The problem was, Asgard currently didn't have many dedicated, highly trained spellcasters; their military focused primarily on enchanted weaponry and martial prowess. 

Remembering that the various Midgardian delegations would be arriving shortly, Frigga frowned, considering the possibility of requesting Earth to permanently station a contingent of their sorcerers in Asgard as magical advisors. 

Suddenly, Frigga paused. Her profound magical senses detected a highly familiar, yet inexplicably strange, aura materializing nearby. 

What was even more bizarre was that the strange aura was accompanied by a completely unfamiliar, entirely alien presence. It definitely wasn't Jane Foster, nor was it anyone she recognized. 

"Where is Thor right now?" Frigga asked, her brow furrowing deeply. 

"Several guards reported seeing Prince Thor carrying Lady Jane through the sky just a few moments ago. Based on their trajectory, they were heading toward the cliffs overlooking the Bifrost to watch the sunset," a handmaiden answered promptly. 

Frigga nodded slowly. She closed her eyes and carefully analyzed the strange aura again. It was undeniably similar to Thor's biological signature, yet fundamentally different. 

"You are all dismissed for now," Frigga ordered. 

Originally, she had intended to bring her elite handmaidens with her to apprehend whoever was sneaking around the palace. However, considering the intruder's aura was almost identical to her son's, she ultimately decided to handle it personally. 

The Queen of the Nine Realms was not merely a decorative figurehead. When Odin had led the Asgardian armies across the cosmos, it was Frigga who remained behind, personally guarding the realm with her terrifying magical prowess! 

"Return to your duties. I have forgotten something in my chambers," Frigga stated. Her tone was perfectly casual, but her eyes brokered absolutely no argument. 

The handmaidens immediately bowed and dispersed. Even though Frigga's excuse was glaringly obvious, they were trained to obey her implicit commands without question. 

Frigga turned around, her senses locked onto the strange aura. She noticed that the accompanying, unfamiliar alien presence had suddenly vanished, likely slipping away to cause trouble elsewhere. 

Off to cause some mischief, are we? 

Frigga's warm smile didn't waver. She slowly raised her hands, silently gathering a massive, highly condensed sphere of pure magical energy. She seamlessly cast a high-tier cloaking spell over herself, completely masking her presence and silencing her footsteps, as she crept toward the massive golden pillar where the strange aura was hiding. 

Slipping around the pillar, Frigga prepared to strike. 

"Thor?" 

Frigga recognized him instantly. She frantically dissipated the massive sphere of destructive magic in her hands, narrowly avoiding accidentally blasting her own son into oblivion. 

"Whoa!" 'Fat Thor,' who had been carefully peering around the corner, jumped violently in surprise as a voice suddenly echoed directly behind him. 

"Uh... Mother." Thor breathed a massive sigh of relief upon recognizing her. 

However, in the very next second, pure panic washed over his face. He frantically spun around, desperately trying to shove his massive, unkempt, braided beard into his shirt. As he looked down, he realized his massive, protruding beer belly was completely exposed. 

He desperately tugged at his ragged jacket, attempting to 'seal' his massive gut, but clearly failed to find the right technique, nearly ripping the fabric in his frantic struggle. 

"Why is it that your brother has finally abandoned his habit of sneaking around, yet you have suddenly taken it up?" Frigga asked, observing this highly familiar, yet incredibly strange version of Thor. 

The undeniable, unbreakable bond of blood confirmed that this was indeed her son, but she frowned deeply at his state. 

"And why on Earth are you dressed like a vagrant?" Frigga probed gently, noticing the drastic, tragic changes in Thor's physical appearance and demeanor. 

"I always dress like this! It's... it's comfortable! I like dressing like this," Thor forced a wide, fake smile, but tears had already begun to well up in his eyes. 

Frigga stepped forward and gently took Thor's hands. She looked closely at his matted beard, which hung down to his chest, and his soft, heavily bloated stomach. 

"What happened to your eye?" Frigga reached out, her fingertips gently caressing the jagged scar across his face and the obvious prosthetic eye. 

At that single, incredibly tender touch, the dam finally broke. The tears Thor had been desperately holding back spilled over, streaming silently down his scarred face. 

"Uh... the Battle of Harokin! Remember? I caught a sword to the face!" Thor stammered, desperately trying to maintain his lie. 

But Frigga was not so easily deceived. As her hand rested on his cheek, her profound magical perception subtly brushed against his mind, catching horrifying, fragmented glimpses of his agonizing memories. 

"It seems the universe was exceedingly cruel to us in your timeline. I am so sorry, Thor," Frigga whispered softly, stepping forward and pulling Thor into a tight, unconditional embrace. 

Thor completely broke down. He collapsed into his mother's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. 

"You were all gone... Father... you... Asgard was completely destroyed... Thanos came... he killed Loki right in front of me... Heimdall died... our people were slaughtered..." Thor choked out between heavy sobs. 

Overwhelmed by his desperate longing and absolute dependency on his mother, he poured out all the agonizing trauma, guilt, and unfairness the universe had inflicted upon him. 

Frigga didn't pull away. She gently, rhythmically patted his broad back, comforting the three-hundred-pound, broken God of Thunder as he trembled and wept in her arms. 

"Shh... it's alright, Thor. Take your time. I am right here," Frigga murmured soothingly, subtly weaving calming magic into her voice to ease his panic. "However, this hallway is hardly the place for such a heavy conversation. Come, let me prepare some food for you. I imagine you must be quite hungry." 

Frigga offered him a smile that was even warmer and more gentle than usual. She gently guided the weeping Thor toward a secure, private lounge nearby. 

Meanwhile, Rocket Raccoon had stealthily infiltrated the specific royal lounge Thor had originally pointed out to him. 

Peeking into the room, Rocket frowned deeply. He saw two women enjoying tea. He constantly checked the holographic display on his wrist-pad. 

"This is weird. Either Thor gave me completely wrong intelligence, or these people had some serious cosmic plastic surgery," Rocket muttered to himself, watching the two women conversing happily. 

Okay, one is bald, the other has hair. The real question is: which one of them has the Infinity Stone inside them?! 

Rocket scratched his head, completely stumped. 

Screw it! I'll just extract it from both of them! 

Rocket scanned the hallway, picked up a massive, incredibly heavy golden candelabra, and prepared to rush in and bludgeon them both unconscious. 

"Wow, these people are loaded. Using this much pure gold just for a candlestick? If I survive this, I'm definitely stealing some of this stuff," Rocket muttered, testing the weight of the candelabra before bursting into the room with a battle cry. 

"Oh? A little red panda?" Sylvie had sensed the alien presence lingering in the hallway for a while. She hadn't immediately engaged, instead subtly informing the Ancient One. 

The Ancient One merely smiled, taking a sip of her tea as she watched her new disciple casually stroll over to the doorway just as Rocket charged in. 

"Little pets shouldn't be playing with heavy, breakable things," Sylvie scolded playfully. With a flick of her wrist, a glowing magical chain whipped out, instantly binding Rocket securely and snatching the heavy candelabra from his paws. 

"I AIN'T NO FREAKIN' PET! AND I'M NOT A RED PANDA! CALL ME ROCKET!" Even tightly bound, Rocket absolutely refused to accept the 'insulting' nicknames, thrashing wildly. 

"You are significantly more adorable when you aren't speaking," Sylvie frowned slightly. She conjured a silk scarf and securely gagged him. 

"Guards! Please remove this unruly little creature from the premises," Sylvie called out into the hallway. 

Two heavily armored Einherjar guards immediately marched into the lounge, grabbed the struggling, muffled raccoon by the scruff of his neck, and prepared to haul him away. 

The Ancient One suddenly spoke up. "Perhaps you should take him directly to Queen Frigga. She might know how to properly handle him." 

The Asgardian guards hesitated for a moment, but Sylvie gestured for them to follow the Sorcerer Supreme's advice. The guards nodded and turned to leave with their bizarre prisoner. 

"Do you know that little red panda, Master?" Sylvie asked curiously. 

"I know of him, yes. I also know that he doesn't belong here," the Ancient One smiled. Her profound temporal senses easily detected that the raccoon carried the exact same unique, dissonant temporal signature as the time-traveling Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. 

Sylvie watched her Master speak in riddles again and shook her head helplessly. 

The two Einherjar guards carried the securely bound, aggressively thrashing Rocket Raccoon directly to the private lounge where Frigga was currently comforting her time-traveling son. 

"My Queen. Your Highness. Princess Sylvie ordered us to bring this creature to you for judgment. He attempted to infiltrate the royal lounges," the guard reported respectfully, dropping the furious raccoon onto the floor. 

"Whoa! Hey! He's not a criminal!" Thor, having unloaded his emotional trauma and consumed a massive platter of food, was feeling significantly more stable. He quickly rushed forward to take Rocket from the guards. 

? 

Why is the Prince acting so... dominant today? 

The guards stared in absolute bewilderment at Thor's massive, protruding stomach. Can Asgardian abs actually get that big?! 

"You are dismissed," Frigga ordered the guards. 

Although the guards found the Prince's sudden physical transformation incredibly bizarre, they didn't dare question the Queen. They bowed and left immediately. 

Thor quickly untied Rocket and removed the gag. 

"IF YOUR INTELLIGENCE WAS ACTUALLY CORRECT, YOU MIGHT HAVE MENTIONED THAT THE WOMAN IS A FREAKIN' MASTER OF MAGICAL BONDAGE!" Rocket roared furiously at Thor the second the gag was off. "Now look what happened! We lost the Reality Stone!" 

"Uh, is he your companion?" Frigga offered Rocket a polite, welcoming smile, completely unfazed by his outburst. She then turned to Thor. "As for the Reality Stone... I believe it is currently in the possession of your Uncle." 

"Uncle?" Thor asked, his face scrunching up in profound confusion. 

"I KNEW IT! YOUR INTEL WAS COMPLETELY WRONG! HOW INCREDIBLY STUPID DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO CONFUSE YOUR UNCLE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND?! HOW MUCH BEER DID YOU DRINK BEFORE WE JUMPED?!" Rocket berated Thor mercilessly. 

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Thor muttered, feeling incredibly embarrassed as Rocket aggressively exposed his incompetence in front of his mother. He instinctively glanced at Frigga like a scolded child. 

"Uh... my Uncle? I don't remember ever having an Uncle," Thor said, forcefully clamping a hand over Rocket's mouth to shut him up. 

Poor Rocket bit down as hard as he could on Thor's hand, but his teeth couldn't even leave a scratch on the Asgardian's dense, star-forged skin. 

Watching Rocket's muffled, furious struggles, Frigga smiled patiently. "Actually, Thor, you haven't simply traveled back along your own timeline. You have crossed over into an entirely different, parallel universe. And in this specific universe, you happen to have a rather extraordinary Uncle." 

"So... this Uncle has the Reality Stone?" Thor asked, still struggling to process the fact that he suddenly had an uncle. 

Frigga nodded. "Would you like me to contact him for you?" 

Thor hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly. Frigga immediately turned around to activate a communication array. 

Thor finally released his grip on Rocket's mouth. Rocket instantly punched Thor in the arm, though it had absolutely no effect. 

"I really hope your intel doesn't have any more massive screw-ups," Rocket grumbled, turning away in sheer annoyance. 

"Did you not just hear her? My intel wasn't wrong! We're in a completely different parallel universe!" Thor defended himself. 

"Oh, really? Considering you were just crying and chatting happily with your mother, I assumed everything was exactly the same!" Rocket shot back sarcastically. 

However, Thor, currently riding an incredible emotional high from reuniting with his mother, completely ignored the sarcasm. 

"Actually... there are certain things that absolutely must remain the same," Thor's eyes suddenly lit up with intense hope. He turned and raised his hand toward the open window, his fingers stretched out, anticipating the familiar weight. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Rocket asked, confused. 

"Sometimes... it takes a little while to arrive," Thor whispered, his eyes locked on the horizon. 

Frigga glanced back with a knowing smile, before returning her attention to establishing the magical link with Luke. 

read more & support me at patreon(.)com/Lestusk