The Mighty Jane Foster Issue #3: Know Thy Self (Patreon)

A few weeks had passed since Sif’s search for Loki. The warrior goddess hadn’t returned and thanks to the local news, most villains didn’t w

A few weeks had passed since Sif’s search for Loki. The warrior goddess hadn’t returned and thanks to the local news, most villains didn’t want a piece of the new god of thunder. Except for Loki, who was still under Jane’s protection. 

The trickster god was still stuck in his dweeby body, which he finally revealed to Jane was due to a spell he had been working on to turn Thor into a baby. Since Thor had disappeared the spell had nowhere to go back to its creator, not that it turned him into a baby. Just how Loki looked at about nineteen or twenty. 

He had finally gotten more useful for Jane as well, besides pretending to be Thor and calling Tony Stark to fix her apartment, he was also her practice partner. After her fight with Sif, Jane realized she was ill-prepared to face others with powers and needed a sparring partner. Loki came in handy. 

“Ahhhh.” Loki shouted as he flew across the abandoned courtyard into a row of trashcans. The cans clattered as they fell over from being hit. The trickster god stood up, fixed his yellow headband with small yellow horns and brushed the dirt off his dark green shirt and khaki pants. 

“Are we done yet?” He asked, not hiding his annoyance at being her punching bag. In weapon combat, Loki could hold his own on skill, but once Jane threw some strength behind it, he was no match.

“Come on, a bit more.” Jane said, not hiding how much she enjoyed the power. She was currently in Thor form. In this form the normally brunette woman was a blonde with a silver half mask covering her face, black leggings with a belt to hold Mjolnir and a silver breastplate. She was also a foot taller and extremely muscular. 

“Why don’t you do some training without the hammer. You know in case you ever need to defend yourself in human form.” Loki said stretching his back.

“Why would I do that?”

“Cause it would be good to know.”

“And you want some payback?”

“And yes, I want some payback.” 

“Not a chance.” Jane said as she walked towards Loki. 

“You know without that hammer; you are just a human and you shouldn’t rely on the hammer.” He said, making a valid point that Jane didn’t want to give him. They were standing together now, and she was nodding like she was listening to what he was saying. 

“Yeah, but with it I can do this.” She said as she knocked the Asgardian helmet off and got him in a headlock. She began rubbing her knuckles up and down his head giving Loki the classic noogie.

“Ahh, stop. You are worse than Thor.” He said as his slick black hair was messed up. Jane chuckled and let go. Loki stumbled back and began to fix his hair.

“Sorry, couldn’t resist.” She said. She had noticed a more of a kindred relationship with Loki since she began watching him. It might have been the latent connection to Thor’s essence or the fact they were living together, but Jane did feel like a big sister to Loki. Though he was thousands of years older.

She knelt and hit Mjolnir's handle to the ground triggering her transformation. In a flash Thor was gone and Jane remained. 

Jane transformed back from her super powered persona. Gone is the tall, powerful warrior with flowing blonde locks. Left is Jane in a tank top and a pair of old leggings that have a few holes on the legs due to age. Mjolnir had changed as well, gone was the massive stone hammer and replacing it was a simple collapsable baton. 

“Feels good to work out.” Jane said stretching her back.

“Yeah, so much fun.” Loki said with a dry sarcasm. 

“Oh, you complain too much.” She shot back.

“I do not.” Loki said taking offense to her comment. 

Neither noticed a shadow mass form on the ground a dozen feet away from them. They still didn’t take notice as the shadow grew up, taking a form. The bulbus shadow changed from a circular shape to that of a rectangle. 

A doorway. 

A woman stepped out of the shadows. She was average height with piercing green eyes. Green was her color as her golden hair was held in place by an emerald, green tiara. She wore knee high black boots with green rings on the front of them and she wore a green leotard with a small skirt ringed around it. 

She was Amora the enchantress. The pair knew her well as Loki and she had teamed up multiple times to kill Thor and Jane.

“Aren’t you two cute.” Enchantress said smiling at the pair. Loki and Jane stopped their argument to look at the interloper, either pleased to see her. Jane still disliked Amora for all the times she tried to kill her, and Loki wasn’t happy to see any Asgardian in his weakened state. 

“Amora.” Loki said through his teeth as he and Jane backed away from the enchantress.

“Aww, is big bad Loki just a weak little first year sorcerer again.” Amora said mocking her former boss.

“I am weaker, but still more than a match for you.” Loki lied. She laughed at that.

“Sure thing, squirt.” She said mocking the god of mischief. 

“Maybe, I should take over the title of God of Mischief.” Enchantress mused as she approached the pair. 

“You wouldn’t know mischief if it slapped you in the face.” Loki spat. Amora smiled and began moving her fingers. The slight movement gave off a faint glow. Before Loki could open his mouth again, his yellow headband with its yellow horns slid down over his eyes. He brought his hands up to pull it off, but was unable to as Amora worked her magics.

Next, one of the trash cans Loki had been flung into floated into the air. It moved towards Loki, hovering above him, opening first. Without a word just a movement of her fingers, the trash can moved swiftly down and enveloped Loki’s upper half. It all happened Jane could barely follow along as Loki shouted from inside the trash can.

Another twirl of Amora’s fingers and Loki’s trousers dropped. Under his pants Loki was wearing a forest green pair of boxer briefs with a yellow waistband. 

“Aww, he stuck to his color scheme.” Enchantress teased, ignoring her own adherence to a color. She flicked a finger a Loki, still struck in the trash can and with his pants around his ankles, flew through the air landing in a head. 

“Now, where were we?” Amora asked turning her attention back to Jane. She took a step towards Jane, who held up the disguised hammer.

“Don’t make me use this.” Jane said, ready to strike the ground and transform into her super powered form.

Amora smiled, but paid Jane no mind as she twisted her fingers in a quick motion. Before Jane could react the baton that was Mjolnir disappeared from her hands. 

“You mean this?” She said holding up the collapsible baton that was Mjolnir. Jane looked to her hand, then back to Amora shocked that the hammer is gone from her grip.

“What? How?” Jane asked. The Enchantress doesn’t answer, instead sending an invisible force to throw Jane back towards Loki. The mischief god had managed to get out of the trash can and mostly had his pants back on.

They both looked up at Amora, who was twirling the baton.

“We are going to play a little game.” The Enchantress said smiling at the pair. Before either can say anything, Amora worked more of her magic. It took the pair far too long to realize something was growing out of Jane’s shadow. It wasn’t until the blob of shadow was standing a few feet tall that they looked over. The shadow moved over to be next to Amora. 

“You know it as fetch.” Amora said as the shadow next to her took shape. The form quickly morphed into an almost perfect copy of Jane, which left the real Jane speechless. It was an almost perfect copy, except it was still made from shadows so the skin and clothing were almost see through but also dark. Amora handed the baton to the shadow creature.

The shadow copy accepted the baton and bowed, before turning and jogging off.

“Better catch her, I gave her no instructions beyond playing keep away.” The Enchantress said as she laughed before disappearing in a glow of magic. 

Jane looked to the creature, then back to Loki, then back to the shadow copy, and again back to Loki.

“What the hell?” She asked. 

“I don’t know.” Was all Loki could say. Jane reached out and tried to summon Mjolnir disguised as the baton back to her, but it didn’t work. She didn’t feel the familiar sensation of it returning. 

“It won’t work; she took your shadow. It means the magics that allow Mjolnir to return think it is already with you.” Loki said as he started to move to follow the shadow.

“Great.” Jane said with an annoyed shrug. She began to jog after Loki. The shadow copy is already halfway down the block as they leave the courtyard. Both look at each other before turning the jog into a full-on run.

“How do we stop her?” Jane asked between breaths.

“What do you mean?” Loki asked, his breathing a bit more ragged as his skinny frame clearly didn’t work out.

“You’re the magic guy; she used magic to make me-. I mean that. How do we stop it?” The scientist turned superhero asked.

“Magic guy? I am a God of Mischief and-.”

“Just answer the question.” Jane shouted as they turned down an alley cut across the shadow copy just ran down.

“I don’t know exactly how to despell her, I mean it. Since my unfortunate age regression the magics that bind me to this form have also made it difficult for me to use the skills I learned after this age.” He said as the stopped. The shadow Jane had stopped to face them. It was stretching like it was going to fight them.

“She is a copy, so she should be just as strong as you are now, so the two of us can take her.” Loki said as he licked his lips, slightly nervous. He let Jane take the lead as she marched forward. The shadow copy didn’t move, just waited. It’s face was a perfect copy of Jane’s but showed no emotion.

Jane walked forward almost within arm's reach.

“Give me the hammer and no one gets hurt.” Jane said to her shadow doppelganger. She held out her hand, ready to accept the hammer. 

For a moment it appeared her shadow copy might comply with the request. That moment didn’t last long as without warning the copy threw the baton like a dart, smacking Jane right in the forehead. She went down; her hands went to her head from the flash of pain. The copy managed to grab the baton as it bounced off Jane’s head and into the air. As the baton was in the air, Loki tried to make a grab for it but only walked closer to the copy. 

The shadow Jane smiled.

It delivered a quick series of strikes with the baton to Loki now that he was within striking distance, one to his shoulder, then his knee forcing the trickster to one knee. He didn’t have long to stay down as the copy delivered a snap kick to Loki’s back sending him sprawling face first into a puddle.

“You said no one would get hurt.” Loki groaned as he turned his head out of the puddle. He slowly got to all fours, bringing a dagger out of thin air. Jane was also getting to her feet, but had no weapon to draw on since the conjured her had it.

Loki made it to his feet first and slashed at the copy, only to miss wildly and stumble forward. Jane had just gotten to her feet when she was forced into a bent position as her copy got her in a headlock.

“What the hell?” Jane asked with a wheeze as Loki turned around only for the copy to knock his knife away with the baton.

“I thought you said she was weak?” Jane asked as she tried to free herself from her shadow copy’s headlock.

“I said should be.” Loki said as the copy shoved him away with ease. Loki stumbled back, tripping over his own feet. Jane finally managed to free herself from her copy and rolled her shoulders.

“Let’s do this, bitch.” Jane said. She tried to sound as tough as possible as she squared up with her shadow. Loki was just getting himself back to a fighting position as she made her first move. Jane tried to throw a punch. It would have connected, but the shadow copy seemed to read her thoughts knowing the move was coming. The copy let out a kick to keep Jane back, a kick right between the legs.

“Woomf.” Jane said as the blow knocked the wind out of her. It wasn’t as bad as Jane would have excepted, but it wasn’t comfortable as her hands went to put pressure on her crotch, she sunk to her knees before falling onto her side.

She watched Loki not fair much better against the copy. The copy tossed the baton in the air, drawing her and Loki’s eyes, which was the point. As the god watched the baton high up in the air, the copy struck. It delivered slaps, punches and backhands in quick succession. Her final smack sent Loki reeling and turning away from her. Jane could only watch as the copy caught the baton as it finally descended, placed it on her belt and put her focus back on Loki.

Jane knew she had to help him; it wasn’t fair to let him take the brunt of the attack. She began to move as she watched the copy reach into Loki’s slacks. 

Jane got to her knees and watched as her shadow clone yanked Loki’s green boxer-briefs with a yellow waistband out of his pants. 

“No fair, no fair.” Loki protested as the copy hiked the green material to his midback. The god of mischief let out a groan as the spandex cotton blend invaded his rear and the fabric covered his back. Jane would have thought she’d be happy seeing herself giving Loki a wedgie, like she had after Sif invaded, but right now she was worried as it was an evil copy doing it.

Loki threw some punches as the copy pulled that accomplished nothing. The shadowy figure of Jane kept pulling and as it did Loki’s attacks grew less aggressive and less often. As the copy brought the waistband up and over Loki’s head, he had stopped trying to fight back at all. For the second time in a few weeks, Jane watched as Loki’s underpants were pulled over his head by her hands. 

“Avenge me.” Loki said, his voice a high squeak as the copy shoved him away. He blindly fell on his front as his hands tried to remove the underpants from his head.

She barely had time to react as a knee was driven into her stomach driving the wind from her again. Jane sagged forward as the copy held her over her knee for a moment. The pain was extreme as Jane wondered how it could get any worse. She didn’t have long to wonder as the copy dug its hands into the back of her old yoga pants.

She felt the doppelganger grab the waistband of her underpants and with no hesitation begin the process of yanking them up, giving Jane a wedgie. She wanted to shout in pain, but the wind being knocked out of her made it impossible as the cotton blend slid between her cheeks and up her back. It felt like an eternity, but was about thirty seconds as the shadow copy went from normal wedgie to near atomic and the copy wasn’t stopping. Jane could feel the waistband on the back of her head. The shadow clone kept pulling.

“No, no, no.” Jane squeaked as her doppelganger pulled her pink and white striped briefs up and over her head. One minute she was seeing the empty courtyard, the next she was blinded by fabric. 

Jane was stunned as the shadow copy let go and shoved her backwards. She felt another pair of hands on her back, keeping her from falling over. She heard footsteps running away. Hands grabbed the waistband covering her eyes.

“First time?” Loki asked as Jane forced the waistband that was covering her eyes to her forehead. She let out a small gasp of pain as the pressure on her behind was slightly lessened. 

“Not in a long time.” She whined. The pair, both with their underpants yanked over their heads, watched Jane’s shadow copy run off still holding the baton that was truly Mjolnir. 

“We should go after her?” Loki asked. He was used to running away when out classed, which in this form he was. 

“Yes, but first.” Jane said referring to their current atomic wedgied state. The pair removed their undies from their heads and took a few minutes to adjust their respective underpants.

“Why does she even know to do that?” Jane asked, wondering how an Asgardian sorceress learned to give an atomic wedgie. 

“Ahh, that might have been my fault.” Loki said as he maneuvered his boxer briefs back into his pants. “I spent some time on Midgard and learned your ways for my mischief making and I may have done this to Amora a few times.”

Jane chuckled then sighed. Of course, Loki was the cause. 

Once their undies were properly adjusted the pair took off to follow Jane’s copy. It wasn’t hard as a few people ran past them. The copy wasn’t as destructive of a force as Sif had been, but it did a good amount of property damage, flipping tables and smashing windows. No one appeared to be hurt, which Jane was thankful for. 

“I need to get the hammer from her.” Jane said as she tried to think quickly. While Jane wasn’t unhealthy in her current form, having the strength and speed of Thor would make this fight a cake walk.

“I may have an idea.” Loki said as he disappeared into thin air. He was depowered but still had the magical skills to pull that off. She looked around for Loki, before he reappeared further down the row of shops. He appeared on top of an awning.

“Round two.” He shouted as Loki began summoning knives. The copy looked just in time as the first knife flew down at her. The shadow copy used the baton to deflect the first knife and the second. Jane took cover as the knives went flying from the deflections only to disappear and reappear in Loki’s hands.

The copy was doing a good job blocking the incoming daggers, but Loki pressed with more speed. After what seemed like an eternity and a few hundred knife throws, the intended effect happened. Loki threw the knife at just the right angle and the shadow copy deflected with the wrong grip. The baton that was secretly Mjolnir flew from her hands into the air.

Jane ran for it. Her arms outstretched hoping to grasp the baton. The copy was right on her heels, but Jane determined. She kept her arms out as the baton fell and landed right in her hands.

“I got it.” Jane shouted as she held up Mjolnir in disguise like she had just won the Super Bowl. She only had a moment to celebrate as she felt the copy’s hands grab the sides of her leggings. With more force than she thought the copy could muster, the Jane duplicate pulled back on the leggings. The old pants gave way, ripping to shreds from the pull. The sound of ripping fabric echoed around the alley.

Jane looked down in a fraction of a second to see the remains of her pants disappear and she was left standing in her fullback pink and white striped undies. She spun around to see her copy holding the tattered remains of her pants. 

“That’s it. No more Mrs. Nice Girl.” Jane said and struck the baton to the ground ignoring her embarrassment.

Jane turned in her super powered state in a flash of lightning. She had pants again, this time black battle leggings with almost knee-high fur boots, a silver breastplate covered her torso, a long red cape flowed from her shoulders and a silver half mask that hide her identity while her hair, now blonde, sat on her shoulders. Jane as Lady Thor spun Mjolnir, now in its hammer form, in the air. She was ready to defeat her shadow copy only to stop in her tracks. When she was just Jane the shadow also just looked like Jane, but now that she was in Thor form the shadow took on the same appearance. 

Jane had only a moment to sit there puzzled, before the shadow copy lashed out and delivered a punch square to her face. The blow connected with a force that if Jane had been in a non-super powered state, it would have killed her. Even in a super powered state it hurt, a lot. Her helmet absorbed most of the blow, but Jane went flying backwards through the air.

She smashed through the window of a pizza shop, slamming into the pizza oven. She landed in a head on the floor, her back hurt from the over which thankfully wasn’t on, and her head was ringing. It took Jane a moment to realize she lost Mjolnir. Her hands reached out scrambling for it but not feeling it around her as her eyes finally focused.

Her hammer had landed towards the rest rooms. She rolled over and began to crawl towards it as the sounds of her copy entering the pizzeria got louder. Jane knew it was a bit undignified to be crawling away on all fours in her super powered state, but she was a bit at a loss at what to do to deal with this shadow copy until she got her hammer back.

Her copy grew closer, but Jane just focused on the hammer. It was only a few feet away, but the copy was right on top of her. Jane was so intent on retrieving her fallen weapon, she didn’t realize the copy had grabbed a weapon of her own that was aimed straight as Jane’s behind.

The pizza board slammed into her backside and Jane jumped forward. The wood shattered against the muscular behind this form granted her. It still stung and Jane’s eyes water a tiny bit. Her hands went to her butt to hold it in pain as she was left on her knees.

The copy wasted no time as it grabbed the defenseless Jane by the back of her cape and legging giving Jane another, albeit much lesser, wedgie. Jane had no time to focus on that though as her doppelganger threw her forward. Jane didn’t have far to get thrown though as she smashed into the bathroom door, breaking it in multiple places as she landed in a heap in the door frame. She rolled over to see her copy standing above her, a smile that felt predatory on the shadow face.

That smile disappeared as Loki, appearing from nowhere, jumped on the shadow copy’s back. The mischief god began stabbing at the Jane copy, which would have been much more gruesome, but the copy didn’t bleed or even seem to be in pain.

The copy struggled for a moment to get Loki off its back. After a few moments of struggle, the copy grabbed him and tossed him off to the side, a sneer on the shadow’s face. In the time it took for it to dislodge Loki, Jane had grabbed Mjolnir and was aimed directly at her copy.

Lightning began to crackle.

“Bye, bitch.” Jane said as she blasted her shadow copy with a full-on lightning bolt.

The pizza shop exploded in light and energy as the copy was vaporized by the lightning. It was strong, but it wasn’t stronger than the hammer. When the bright flash subsided, the copy was gone, and Jane was alone. She leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Time to go?” Loki asked, his voice a little weak from outside.

It was time to go as the property damage was extensive. Jane flew them out of there, letting the police sort of what had happened. It wasn’t the most heroic thing to do, but she wasn’t ready to take financial responsibility in what had happened.

The pair landed on the roof of her apartment building.

“Do you sense her?” Jane asked looking around waiting for Enchantress to pop up again.

“Sense her? I’m not a Jedi.” Loki said as Jane gave him a quizzical look.

“Yes, I’ve seen Star Wars. I’ve come to Earth a few times you know, not always for mayhem, sometimes just a trip to the cinema.”

“Whatever.” Jane said as she readied herself to transform from her Thor form into regular old Jane foster. She slammed the hammer on the ground, hilt first and in a flash, Lady Thor was gone. In her place was Jane.

After she had turned back into her normal state and felt slightly colder. It took her a moment to look down and realize why. Her leggings were still gone, and she was once again standing in just her pink and white striped briefs. 

“Damn it.” Jane said using her hands to cover her lower half.

“Oh, don’t worry just the two of us up here.” Loki said going out of his way not to look at her pantsless state. Jane was pissed. She had been embarrassed multiple times all thanks to Enchantress.

“When I find her, she is dead.” Jane said.

“And I want front row tickets.” He said in agreement.

The pair went back inside so Jane could put on pants. They both needed a break after the day they had.

Two Months later.

Things had been quiet.

Some would say too quiet, but not Jane. She really felt like she was getting the hang of being Thor and Loki had actually become like her defacto sidekick. They halted a few bank robberies, a runaway train, multiple assaults and purse snatchings. She had been training every single day as Lady Thor. And every single night she thought of the real Thor. There had been no news, but Jane held out hopes she’d see him again.

It was a bright sunny day as the pair returned from a afternoon out.

Jane and Loki walked towards her apartment. They had grabbed a bite to eat and had a little midday patrol. People started to recognize her, not that any name stuck. Lady Thor was most common, but some people still called her Thor, sometimes She-Thor, and once Mommy Thor which she did not especially since it came from a forty-five-year-old man.

“Fine, we’ll watch it but I don’t think I’m going to like it.” Jane said.

“I’m not even from here and I’ve seen all of them, including the prequels and sequels, you should too.” Loki said as he had discovered Jane had never watched Star Wars.

“Fine, one movie then training.” Jane said getting a nod of agreement from Loki.

“Wonderful.” Loki said as her apartment building came within view. It was good to be home.

KA BOOM.

The building exploded. Jane’s apartment building went up in a fire ball.

“My apartment!” Jane shouted as her whole living area disappeared before her eyes. She looked to Loki, who looked just as stunned as she was. Before she could utter the first syllable of a word, chaos erupted down the street. Another explosion caught her and Loki’s attention. 

People began running down the street screaming to get away at whatever caused the explosion. Hundreds of people were fleeing. Jane tried to stop one to ask what was going on, but none would stop. Finally, Loki flagged someone down enough to ask what was going on.

“The dead have risen.” The portly man shouted at the mischief god before fleeing once again.  Loki and Jane looked to one another.

“The dead?” They asked in unison. Jane wasted no time now. She struck the baton into the ground and was mighty Thor once again. She grabbed Loki in one arm and flew to a nearby roof top for a better view. 

They were only a few stories above the ground and could see multiple fires had broken out. Sirens were blaring, people were screaming, and more explosions could be heard. A huge crater had been opened in the middle of downtown with fire shooting up out of it. And worst of all the portly man had been right. The dead had risen, and they had declared war on the living.

An army of skeletons, zombies and general undead were marching out of that sinkhole, armed to the teeth. 

“How am I supposed to stop that?” Jane asked looking at the incoming army.

“Okay, undead. Not great but manageable.” Loki said nervously in his best attempted peptalk. Before he could try any further a loud roar shook the very foundation of the earth. They looked to the sink hole. 

A literal dragon flew out.