***
Earth
Before Thor accesses inventory
Catlin was surrounded by holographic displays, temporal distortion maps and quantum entanglement visualisations.
It has been 1 year since Thor vanished off the face of the solar system. In that time a lot happened. Brazil had briefly become what others always called it. Hell. It had fallen to the Eldritch.
A group of Void Elder descended a few weeks after Thor vanished, undefended many demi-gods fell in battle the Void spread across the land officially tainting the Earth.
Gods themselves had to descend and many have had to stay descended to hold them off, losing most of their power. During this time many of the gods convened and even she herself was called along with Scathach.
The reason, Thor's absence obviously, other than that he disappeared, they didn't get anything else due to Scathaches subtle threats.
In the end the two of them along with many others descended to push the Void back and reclaimed the land.
Catlin's eyes flicked across the holograms — every flicker a reminder: Thor was still out there. Somewhere.
And she wouldn't stop searching until she found him.
–SHHHH–
"Cat!" Catlin paused her movements, glancing back she saw Scathach.
They watched each other, scanning one another before Catlin turned back to what she was doing, continuing to search for Thor.
Scathach frowned, Catlin's behaviour has been… self-destructive to say the least. If it wasn't for taking Catlin into her domain to watch over this ticking time-bomb, the world would have already been subjected to Catlin's experiments.
"Here to tell me to take a break again?" Catlin's voice dripped with sarcasm. Her eyes didn't leave the screens, hands still typing and moving.
"Not today. I came here more to see how you will handle Hades and Hermes. The two gods have declared their intentions to court you." Scathach began to grin as Catlin clenched her fists and started shaking, not from fear but rage.
She stopped and went back to what she was doing, "Who? Those two cowards? The cowards who would never dare to say such things if Thor were still here? I would've vapourised their mortal coils if not for the fallout."
"Hahaha… Good, at least you've not grown stupid in this time." She pulled out a piece of paper from the robe. She floated it over to Catlin.
"What?" She grabs the paper and unravels it… only for her cheeks to redden, her breath becomes hot and heavy and her eyes burned with intensity.
A photo… A hot photo, something she thought she'd never see.
She stared at the photo for a few long minutes before realising that Scathach was right there. "Ahem."
She folded it and placed it in her coat, saving it for later.
"Why do you have that?" She asked, trying to remain as calm as possible, while inside was a different story.
'How does she have this? Did Thor let her take this? Why did he let her but not me(She never asked)? I'll kill her soon enough… Maybe. Thor would hate me if I did.'
Scathach barely held in a laugh her attempt to stay calm and neutral. She was in a teasing mode after dealing with some annoying gods.
"Why? Why indeed? Maybe I asked him or maybe he allowed it for another reason. What do you think, Catlin?" She whispered the last part in her ear causing her to nearly lash out.
"Y-you Bit–"
–Beep– –Beep–
"Huh? Cat? What does that me–" Scathach regrettably saw Catlin's face that moment.
Pure unadulterated longing, desire, obsession and a few other feelings mixed in.
"Thor, Found you~" She instantly put the notification onto the main screen.
"AURORA was disconnected?" She looked into the details of it.
"A PDA was disconnected from the network? The PDA belonged to… Thor… The same PDA he always had in his inventory." She trembled, she first thought the worst, but then her trembling combined with a low giggle.
"He took it out. But why did it disconnect? That would only happen if there was… quantum interference." It finally hit her.
"Catlin? Did you…" Scathach couldn't finish as Catlin shouted,
"Of course! That's why I couldn't find him. I'm such a fucking idiot, He's not even in the same fucking universe anymore. Hidden behind a quantum field nothing could be seen.
His Inventory was still connected here until he used it in that universe it detached from this universe. Hahahahaha" She fell back into her chair, slumping as she laughed creepily as her hand covered her face.
Scathach, who was forced to watch, was just a little concerned for her.
She quickly forgot about her when Catlin explained her own theory. A small feeling of hope grew that was quickly dashed by reality.
'What entity could possibly send him to another universe?'
She knew his strength, she knew what he could do at his best, universal travel was not one of them.
An eerie atmosphere descended on the lab, Only Catlin's giggle cut through the mechanical beeps and boops.
***
"Scathach!" Catlin suddenly shouted, startling the God slayer.
"Hmm? Go on, tell me, how do you plan to move through universes? Even the primordial gods can't do that."
Catlin took a minute to respond, but did so with a smug grin, "Are you familiar with comics and marvel?"
"Yes? Why? Adam and Andrew always left them around the castle when Thor brought them." She won't admit that she also bought a few of the older releases due to her interest.
Her grin widened, "Do you know of Reed Richards perhaps?"
"Who?" Who the hell is Reed Richards? A side character?
Catlin lost all her momentum. She groaned, "Ugh, Reed Richards. Mr. Fantastic. High IQ low wisdom guy. Accidentally causing universe ending disasters for not thinking. That idiot." She sighed and pulled up a summary of the guy.
Scathach read it and was impressed by his feats, but also by how 90% of his issues wouldn;t happen if he thought before doing something.
"Ok? Are you going to copy one of his inventions or something?" Catlin nodded.
"Yep, I'm thinking of copying "The Bridge." With the safety protocols of course. It will cost a shit ton of money and time… But for Thor? I'd drain this planet down to the last life to do it." Her face twisted as Scathach understood her feelings, while not to that extent, she would go to similar lengths at least.
"Any materials you need? I'll pay Hephaestus a visit. He should have some useful items. If he refuses? I'll sick Aphrodite on him, she'd love to know his hidden dimension in Olympus." It's not like she would need to, Hephaestus owes her multiple favours for hiding him from Aphrodite.
Catlin glanced at her face, watching to see if she should let her help. She would be able to claim she did it all alone otherwise. She could already see it.
Catlin's Delusion -
"Catlin! You came for me, my dear sister, the love of my life, of course I'll be with you forever and never look at another woman." Afterwards they shared a kiss and lived happily ever after.
Reality -
Catlin giggled with a silly smile on her face.
Minutes passed before Catlin came back to reality and told Scathach the materials she needed.
Left alone in the room she pulls up AURORA and gives her some tasks.
"Don't worry Mother, we'll bring Father back." AURORA then went dormant in the lab.
Catlin watched the screen, "Yes… I'll find you brother. I'll bring you back… Back to me and only ME. Just wait for me okay~"
***
A/N:
Hope you enjoyed that
Sadly I won't be coming back to Catlin and Scathach and Thor's world in general until really the end of the Previous era at the earliest I think? I have got until the 9th Herrscher planned out mostly, but I might do a few little tid bits here and there. This was mostly just so I have a reason to being these two into the main story at some point.
Ciao