Thor
is on his way back into Earth’s solar system to prevent the battle between Ego the Living Planet
and his long-isolated brother Alter Ego. The Collector sees
him coming and is angry at him for freeing Alter Ego for his own arrogant
reasons and seeks to recapture the planet and Thor, too. Zephyr doesn’t like
this and seeks to depart….
Thor
reaches Alter Ego, which has a psychic link to his brother and is breathing
murderous threats while his surface is covered with tempests. Thor lands but
the angry world buries him alive in his rage. Zephyr appears and extracts Thor
from the rubble, arguing that saving his life cancels out her trying to kill
him earlier…and then they are swallowed by Alter Ego. Deep down in his dark
gullet, Thor explains that this is according to plan as he intends to deliver a
blast of lightning to Alter Ego’s care, rendering him unconscious then when Ego
arrives, he will do the same and then will ponder his next step. Zephyr is
amazed at how Thor can take all this in stride; she is enjoying the sense of
challenge. She and the other Elementals were interested only in power. Eventually, she came to see power as toxic and
strove to serve some nobler purpose. When the Collector captured her, she went
along with it and he fell in love with her and she went along with that too.
Now Thor has reminded her of what it means to care, to be driven by an ideal,
to be magnificent. Thor reminds her that they are being digested by Alter Ego
and they need to deal with that first. They dive into the gullet and Thor
awaits the best moment…to…strike...ZZAAAK!
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