The first thing Thor registered upon being cast down from Asgard was the absence of Mjolnir.
He knew it before he even opened his eyes. The weight of his greatest ally that had been at his side for centuries was gone, replaced by nothing.
As he opened his eyes, he was quickly met with a rather unfortunate accident.
The unfamiliar vehicle collided with him, his body being launched backwards as he felt a pain unfamiliar to his godly form.
For a moment, he lay on the ground, his mind turning blank.
"Do me a favour and don't be dead." A rather pleasant voice made its way to his ears, causing him to take a hoarse breath, refusing to drift into unconsciousness.
He got up, confusedly looking at the people surrounding him.
"Whoa, does he need CPR? Because I totally know CPR."
Another distant voice spoke, but Thor was currently distracted, staring at the woman who had first approached him.
"Ugh."
With a slight thud, Thor fell back to the ground as the pain from the impact came back to him.
"Where did he come from?" The pretty woman asked those around her.
The people around him seemed to be curious regarding his origins, and going down that line of thought naturally made him think about what had just happened.
Rising from the ground, fighting back the pain in his chest, he grunted painfully with only one thought on his mind.
"Hammer...Hammer!" He shouted coarsely into the sky.
"Yeah, we can tell you're hammered... It's pretty obvious." The dark-haired woman seemed to be mocking him, but he cared little.
The voices of those nearby seemed to fade out as his rage grew. The pain in his body had briefly disrupted his thoughts, but he now remembered why he was here.
"Father! Heimdall! I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!" He shouted towards the sky, yet no answer came to him.
They were ignoring him, the Prince of Asgard.
Upon that realisation, he turned back to the others. He saw an older, grey-haired man, and so he naturally decided to speak to him.
"You, what realm is this, Alfheim? Nornheim?"
"New Mexico?" The dark-haired woman responded to his question in an unsatisfatory manner.
New Mexico was not a place Thor had heard of. More importantly, the same woman seemed to be aiming some sort of primitive weaponry towards him.
As he was about to berate her for daring to threaten him, he caught something in the distance.
A pair of red eyes.
A frost giant?
He couldn't make out the figure itself, but the red eyes were clear to him. Those were the eyes of a frost giant.
And right now, his anger towards the blasted frost giants that had led him to this position was at its peak.
"Cowards! Have you come to kill me, now that the Allfather has cast me out!?"
Though he put up a brave front, he instinctively knew, without his hammer, there was no hope of him defeating an army of frost giants. If they decided to strike now, he would surely be vanquished.
But unfortunately for Thor, he wasn't able to continue his thoughts much longer.
Something small struck his chest.
"U-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-hhhh!"
And then every muscle in his body seized simultaneously.
For a humiliating two seconds, Thor, Prince of Asgard, son of Odin, could not move a single limb.
Then, he fell to the ground in a rather unceremonious manner.
The last thing he registered before the darkness took him was the voice of the dark-haired woman.
"What!? He was freaking me out!"
---
I watched Thor hit the dirt from about thirty metres out.
Darcy, I remembered her name now, stood over him with a taser still crackling faintly.
[You inspired fear into Thor Odinson! +5,500 FP]
[You have inspired fear into a named character for the first time! An additional feature has been unlocked!]
'So, I was right.'
The first panel was surprising, but also not surprising.
I had earned 5,000 FP just like that. It seemed that Thor thought I was a frost giant due to the red glow of the Sharingan, probably making him think that he was about to get attacked.
I hypothesised that making main characters feel fear would net me more points, but confirming it was a good feeling.
I couldn't help but wonder how much FP I'd get if I inspired fear into all of the Avengers at once.
Anyway, something completely unexpected was the 'additional feature I had unlocked.'
Immediately, I saw that my fear system panel had widened, now having a new, never-before-seen tab.
I sat in my car and started looking through my Fear System interface.
"Oh, interesting."
The new feature was a tab for quests. Right now, I only had one active quest, but what made me interested was the fact that I could receive rewards upon completion.
[Inspire fear into the main Avengers team!]
Progress:
Iron Man: 0/1
Captain America: 0/1
The Hulk: 0/1
Thor: 1/1
Black Widow: 0/1
Hawkeye: 0/1
Reward Upon Completion: 50,000 to 500,000 FP Random Ability
Time limit before quest becomes inactive: 1 Year
It wouldn't be easy to make all the Avengers feel some form of fear towards me, but if it meant getting an ability worth up to 500,000 FP, it was an easy choice.
Hell, even if I got a 50,000 FP ability, it would still be a good haul. There weren't any bad abilities at that price range.
Regardless of the quest, it was something I'd end up doing anyway, so this simply added extra motivation.