Prologue

“Odin Calls,” bellowed a figure standing in the doorway to a dark room. A midsized muscular man, wearing all stealth colored clothes and bandanna with an emblem on them, standing next to the android combat simulator, turned from the device and looked at the figure.

“It’s about time, I was getting bored with just training,” he said, excitedly. A burly man, with dark brown hair, wearing the same clothes without the bandanna, looked up from the book he was reading.

“Maybe you should try reading, Loki,” he remarked.

Loki looked at him and responded, “Hurts my brain, but you could really do with some brushing up of those hand to hand skills, right Freya?” An average height woman, with shoulder length black hair, looked up from the disassembled firearm on the small table in front of her and turned her head towards Loki.

“Keep me out of this Loki,” snapped Freya.

“As you wish, what about you Bragi?” asked Loki grinning from Freya’s apparent discomfort.

“Worry about your own skills, Loki, Tyr could take you while he’s reading that book,” responded a tall man, with bright blond hair, leaning casually against one of the pillars by the wall.

The figure in the doorway stepped forward and bellowed once again, “Enough Loki, Odin awaits.” The four immediately responded by making their way towards the doorway.

The dark room was basked in the glow of a large screen with the same emblem as on the clothes, displayed. Five large cubes sat at equal distances from each other, each with a name of a Norse god displayed on the top surface. The emblem is replaced by the silhouette of a man. “Your next mission is tomorrow,” boomed the speakers. “Your flights to Atlantis have already been arranged; I should not have to remind you how critical it is that you know your duties, now study up.” The silhouette was replaced by the emblem once again.

The five began to walk to their respective cubes. Loki was the first to arrive at his and placed his hand on the cube. The edges of the top of the cube began to glow a light blue color, the blue then started to fade across the top square crossing under Loki’s hand and continued to the other sides. Loki removed his hand to see the light blue glow fade away and a message appear in the center of the screen reading, ‘Loki Confirmed, Awaiting 4 Confirmations.’ Loki looked around to see that the others had not yet reached their cubes. “Come on guys, I want to get this over with,” exclaimed Loki impatiently.

“I wouldn’t be so excited about this mission if I were you Loki,” remarked Tyr.

“And why would that be Tyr?”

“Well for one the word study was used,” retorted Bragi.

“While true Bragi that is not what I meant. He mentioned Atlantis that means that the probability that the task involves complex technology is high and judging by what we have had to acquire in the past few months, this will be a very complicated mission, meaning there is going to a lot to learn in one night.”

“Then we should start learning our tasks and objectives,” announced Thor.

“If you boys could keep quiet and place your hands on your cubes we could probably be done by now. I have preparations to make before we depart for Atlantis.”

Thor, Tyr and Bragi placed their hands on their cubes. The same process that appeared on Loki’s cube worked its way through the remaining three cubes. Loki looked at the top of his cube as the ‘Loki Confirmed, Awaiting 3 Confirmations’ was replaced by a set of documents, images and schematics.

“Interesting, I thought it might be something in the university. This technology is amazing, but I still don’t see how it fits in with everything else,” said Try slightly puzzled.

“It isn’t our task to question Tyr, we are here to perform a job, nothing more nothing less,” snapped Thor.

“I apologize for thinking out loud Thor.”

“Fwew! All I have to do is stand guard,” exclaimed Loki gleefully.

“You got lucky Loki, I have to help disconnect the damn thing,” announced Bragi discontentedly. Freya looked up from her cube and then began to walk towards the door.

“Freya, are you sure you know what you need to, to complete your task?” questioned Thor.

“My task is not all that difficult to remember.”

“Lucky you Freya, I have like 15 pages to get through, this is going to take me all night,” said Loki.

“This is why you should read more Loki,” responded Tyr with a grin on his face.

“Maybe your right Tyr, how much do you have to go through anyway?”

“It seems like Odin has put me in charge of the technical aspect, I would say there are about 50 pages here.” Tyr moved his index finger over the image of something that looked like a dentist’s chair. Pressing this image with his finger he stepped back. The top corners of the cube popped out slightly and faced an invisible point above the center of the cube. A three dimensional image of the facility was displayed above the surface of the cube.

Loki seemingly not fazed by this in the slightest turned to Tyr and said, “Am I glad I’m not you, anyway,” he turned back towards Freya and with a cheerful wave exclaimed, “Later Freya!”