CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN —
( I better get my pants. )

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        Evelyn, Thor, and Jane brushed off the dirt from their clothes as they approached a cave, prompted by the looming storm brewing on the horizon.

"He's going to unleash it, not just on Asgard or a star. Malekith is going to destroy everything," Jane told them.

"How?" Evelyn asked.

"I saw him on Earth. Why would he go to Earth?" She asked.

"The Convergence," Thor told her.

"Oh, God. None of this would have happened if I hadn't found the Aether," Jane mumbled.

"Then Malekith would have possessed it sooner," Thor said.

"I only found it because I was looking for you," Jane told Thor. "Now we're trapped here."

The cave was suddenly filled with music. As the sound reverberated off the walls, Jane, Thor, and Evelyn exchanged puzzled glances, uncertain of its origin.

"It's not me," Thor said.

Evelyn took her phone from her pocket and saw 50 missed calls from BOSS. "Not me," Evelyn said and put her phone away.

Jane took her phone out of her pocket and answered it. "Hello?" She asked. There was mumbling. "Richard?! Where are you?" Jane put him on speaker and held up her phone. "Oh, my God! This is amazing."

"Is it? I quite enjoyed our lunch despite never actually ordering anything," Richard said.

"How am I getting service here?" Jane asked.

"Is this a bad time? Do you want me to try you later?" Richard asked. Thor and Evelyn shared a look.

"No, no, no, no! Please, whatever you do, do not hang up the phone," Jane said as she walked around with her phone in the air.

"Okay then. I was just wondering if you want to try again? Uh...maybe dinner next time."

"Uh...yeah, yeah, yeah. Um...just stay on the phone, okay?" Jane said.

"Yeah, I will," he said, and then Jane put him off speaker. She looked down and noticed empty Coke cans and keys.

"Oh, my God." Jane picked up the keys from the floor of the cave. "No, no, no, nothing at all." Jane turned to Thor and Evelyn. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Thor asked.

Evelyn glanced around and was taken aback by the sight of random shoes. "What's with all the shoes in here?" she inquired. As they ventured deeper into the cave, a strange transition occurred, and they found themselves standing amid an abandoned warehouse. "Wait, how did we end up here?" Evelyn muttered in confusion as she trailed after Jane and Thor outside and toward a neglected vehicle.

Evelyn hopped into the back as Jane and Thor sat at the front. Jane started up the car as Thor closed his door. There was a brief silence as Evelyn looked between Jane and Thor. "So, who's Richard?" Thor finally asked.

"Really?"

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As they entered Jane's apartment, Evelyn couldn't help but stifle a quiet laugh as she recalled the stunned expression on the face of the man at the front desk. Thor's presence had taken him aback, and Evelyn found his reaction amusing. 

"Jane!" Darcy called out as she ran into the room and turned to Evelyn. "Eve!" She ran up to Evelyn and pulled her into a massive hug. Evelyn hugged her back the best she could with a sword in her hands.

"It's good to see you, Darcy," Evelyn let go with a smile.

Darcy then turned to Jane. "You can't just leave like that. The whole world is going crazy!" Evelyn rested her sword against a wall just as Thor hung his hammer on the coat hanger next to the door. "All the stuff we saw is spreading." Evelyn walked over, and Darcy looked at Jane confusedly. "Did you go to a party?"

"Erik?" Jane asked in surprise, and Evelyn looked over to see Erik Selvig.

"Jane, how wonderful!" He rose from his seat and then went to hug Jane. He didn't have any pants on. "You've been to Asgard." He looked at Janes's clothing.

Evelyn looked around the apartment and noticed a man smiling brightly at Thor and Evelyn. Evelyn smiled at him, and he looked as though he was about to squeal. "Where are your pants?" Jane asked Erik.

The man replied. "Oh, uh...he uh...he says it helps him think."

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna need everything you got on this. All the work you've been doing on gravimetric anomalies, everything," Jane said and Erik nodded.

"Are you well, Erik?" Thor asked. He chuckled, but it went away soon after.

"Your brother and your father's not coming, is he?" Erik looked between the two of them.

"Loki's dead," Evelyn told him.

"Oh, thank God." Erik looked beyond relieved. Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "I...I'm so sorry."

"Thanks." Erik walked up to Evelyn and hugged her. Evelyn patted his back and then let go, and he did the same to Thor.

The man who was smiling at Thor and Evelyn walked up to Evelyn. "H-hi, I'm Ian, and I am a massive fan of you two."

"Nice to meet you, Ian," Evelyn smiled.

Ian held his phone out. "Can I have a picture with you?"

"Sure." Evelyn stood beside him and smiled at the camera.

"Do you mind if I put this on Facebook?" He asked.

"I don't mind." Ian smiled and began to type away on his phone.

"Malekith is going to fire the Aether at a spot where all the nine worlds are connecting," Jane told the group. "Amplifying the weapon's impact. With each additional world, the power will increase exponentially."

"The effect would be universal," Evelyn said.

"Yes, well, the alignment is only temporary. He must be in exactly the right place at the right time," Thor said.

"Well, how do we know where that is?" Darcy asked.

"We follow the directions. This has happened before, thousands of years ago, and The Ancients were there to see it." Erik placed a map on the coffee table. "All the great constructions: the Mayas, the Chinese, the Egyptians, they made use of the gravitational effects of the Convergence. And they left us a map." He used a ruler to connect the dots on the map with a pen. "Stonehenge. Snowdon, the Great Orme. These are all coordinates taking us...here." He pointed to Greenwich on the map.

"Greenwich?" Ian asked.

"The walls between worlds will be almost non-existent. Physics is going to go ballistic. Increase and decrease in gravity, spatial extrusions. The very fabric of reality is going to be torn apart." Jane said. Thor summoned Mjolnir, and it shot over to Thor's hand from where it was hanging on the coat hanger.

"I better get my pants," Erik said.