"Treat prisoners well?" Emma Frost looked as though she had just heard the joke of the century. Her furious eyes rested on Thor, making him shiver.
"Don't you know me so well, Thor Odinson? Then you should know how I treat prisoners. In my world, prisoners have two choices: if they're useful, they live; if they're useless, they die."
"Which do you choose?"
Thor secretly used psionic energy to form a small knife, cut through the energy whip wrapped around him, and retreated behind Elizabeth.
A faint green light spread from his palm. Within a few breaths, the small amount of divine power and mental energy he had expended was fully restored.
Thor was still clutching the three law fragments he had snatched from Pyro's jeep. While confronting Emma Frost, he frantically absorbed and comprehended them.
Two minutes later, the Law of Life he controlled had grown a little stronger, the injuries to his body had healed a little more, and his divine power had increased considerably as well.
Restoring a little divine power had been enough to deal with Cassandra's subordinates. Now that he had absorbed two Law of Life fragments, why should he fear the White Queen?!
"Emma Frost, you make a good point, but I really don't like your tone."
"Oh? Who gave you the nerve to talk to me like that?!"
Thor didn't answer. With someone like her, all he had to do was give her a good beating and she would behave. Did she really think he was weak just because he had backed down earlier?
With a thought, he summoned a familiar blue spatial vortex and vanished from the spot.
Emma Frost was a genuine Omega Mutant. She had once been the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, as well as a teacher at Xavier's School.
She had a wealth of combat experience. Without even thinking, she spun around and threw a punch purely on instinct.
Boom!
A large fist and a smaller one collided, sending out wave after wave of invisible force.
Rather than retreat from Thor's attack, Emma Frost pressed forward. Her long leg sliced through the air, aimed straight at his face.
Bang!
Thor casually reached out and seized Emma Frost's leg, giving her no chance to pull it back. After all, he knew only too well that while the White Queen's diamond form had strong defenses, her strength was an obvious weakness.
By his estimate, she was probably about as strong as Captain America, perhaps not even as strong as Spider-Man.
Finding that she couldn't pull her leg free from Thor's grip, Emma Frost pushed off the ground with her remaining foot. She spun through the air like an elegant white swan and kicked hard at his chest.
Thor reached out with his other hand and blocked Emma Frost's attack. Then an idea struck him, and he grabbed both her legs and refused to let go.
Poor Emma Frost wasn't as strong as Thor. With both legs in his grasp, she couldn't escape at all. Her body hung halfway in the air, leaving her no way to gain leverage.
"Thor Odinson! I order you to let go of me!"
After failing to break free, Emma Frost was clearly growing angry with embarrassment. Her current position really wasn't very dignified.
Thor turned a deaf ear to Emma Frost's threat. He had realized that among Mutants, the proud, aloof and sharp-tongued White Queen was only impressive for her telepathy.
Once her telepathy stopped working, she really was a lamb in a tiger's jaws.
At the thought, a wicked smile curled across Thor's face, his mouth practically stretching to his ears. "Hehehe... Emma Frost, even if you beg for mercy now, I won't let you go. Hehehe!"
Elizabeth stood at a distance with her arms folded, watching the absurd scene. Emma Frost was struggling madly, but unfortunately she wasn't as strong as Thor, making the scene a little inappropriate for children.
She had no intention of helping Emma Frost. After all, it was very, very rare to get a chance to see the once-famous White Queen of the Hellfire Club suffer a setback, much less one as unusual as this.
She ought to record the scene. After searching all over herself, she remembered that she had given Thor the working phone she had picked up in here.
After some thought, she decided against it. If she really did record it, the White Queen would come after her.
Emma Frost's voice suddenly rang out in her mind. "Are you just going to watch?!"
Elizabeth replied coolly, "It's a rare opportunity."
"Elizabeth-!"
"Don't worry, I won't take any pictures."
"Thor! Let go of me right now! Or else..."
"Or else what? Esteemed White Queen, Emma Frost, your threats aren't very intimidating right now, are they?"
Thor had finally gotten a chance to mock the White Queen to his heart's content, and immediately activated his passive skill, sarcasm.
"If you don't let go, our deal is off immediately! And I'll definitely kill you!"
Thor understood that the White Queen, Emma Frost, was genuinely furious. He stopped teasing her and let go with both hands. Emma Frost crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Thor! You're finished!"
Emma Frost sprang to her feet and instantly canceled her full-body Diamond Form. Unleashing the full extent of her Omega-level telepathy and mental power, she gathered them into a massive cone and drove it viciously toward Thor's mind.
"Emma Frost, I never expected the famous White Queen to be such a sore loser."
Thor knew that although his mental power had indeed reached Quasi-Omega-level, he would still suffer considerably against the White Queen's full-strength attack.
So he showed his hand and went straight for a cheat!
A pale green light spread out from Thor, instantly enveloping them both.
He rewound time directly, returning to a dozen or so seconds before Emma Frost used her mental power, and paused time around her as well.
Just before the Law of Time ended, he reached out and stroked Emma Frost's smooth golden hair, then flashed back to Elizabeth's side.
Time resumed.
Emma Frost froze for a moment, unsure what had happened. The enormous mental power she had just summoned lost its target and subsided.
She reached up and touched her long hair. She had the feeling that something had happened, but she couldn't remember what.
Seeing this terrifying scene, Elizabeth instinctively rested her fingers on the hilt of her blade.
She had seen everything that had just happened clearly from where she stood. Emma Frost had already unleashed her mental power at Thor, but the next instant, it was as though nothing had happened, and she was pinned in place, unable to move.
The scene reminded her vividly of the moment those agents from the Time Variance Authority had sent her in here. Those agents had used some unknown piece of technology to pause time around her.
Otherwise, with her strength as a Quasi-Omega-level Mutant, how could she have been thrown into this garbage dump so easily?
This Thor could actually pause time in a similar way?!!
The discovery left Elizabeth utterly silent. At the same time, a tiny flame called hope flared up in her heart.
It seemed he hadn't lied about the deal. He really could do it.
After more than a decade, she had finally seen hope of once again having a body that belonged to her alone.