The New Thor (Patreon)

This 1,737 word story was inspired by a prompt from Ninjakeyblader who gave the awesome suggestion of “Superhero chooses next successor; unexpected choice”. I tossed around a few ideas for what I might do with it before finally settling on this one. Hope you all enjoy!

Warren had spent almost forty years working as an elite level surgeon, but Father Time had finally caught up with him and at the age of sixty-five he had been forced to retire as a result of his unsteady hands. It wouldn’t have been safe for him to continue but that didn’t mean that he didn’t miss the intensity of the operating room and the indescribable feelings of knowing you were directly responsible for saving another man’s life. Since stepping back from surgery, he had been employed as a mentor to the younger doctors and had offered consultations to his former patients, but nothing offered the same kind of thrill that he had spent the better part of his life chasing.

Due to the severity of the current medical crisis, Warren’s hours at the hospital had seen an increase and even though he knew he was doing the best that he could under his circumstances, it didn’t stop the retired surgeon from wishing there was more he could do. He had just finished up a ten hour shift which had involved multiple difficult conversations with distraught family members, and supporting the workers who were doing their very best to keep going even under the most extreme pressure of their lives. Many of them had commented on his seemingly infallible calm even in the face of such hardship and described him as the hospital’s “rock” - a reliable constant. Warren took that as a point of pride, but he didn’t think it was necessarily the truth. He was as tired and scared as anyone, he had just learned to hide it while in public and distract himself as much as possible while he was away from the hospital.

A sudden clap of thunder startled Warren as he trudged across the staff car park to his beat-up wagon. It seemed he had parked it in the furthest away spot and his aching legs were anything but thankful for it. He was looking forward to getting under the covers and reading a book under the light of his bedside lamp, then settling in for a comfortable night of sleep in that delightfully warm bed. The droplets of rain that fell onto his bald head encouraged him to hurry his step, but he had made it only a few feet further when he was suddenly blinded by the brightest flash of lightning he had ever witnessed. It was accompanied by another loud rumble of thunder, like a mighty warhorn, and then a further boom that sounded much closer and caused the ground to shake with such fervour that he was knocked to the floor!

When Warren’s sight returned, he soon discovered the source of that second noise: something had struck the ground with such force that it had created a mini-crater right in the middle of the hospital car park! With some difficulty, the retired surgeon pushed himself up to his feet and cautiously moved closer to inspect what had caused such damage. The crater itself was far too small for a meteor and, if it had been something of the sort, Warren was certain that he would have perished. Even then, some sort of tiny space rock would have been less of a surprise than what Warren found in the very centre of the wreckage. There was absolutely no mistaking Mjolnir, the legendary hammer of the norse god Thor and a member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers. But what had caused it to crash down from the skies and where was its owner, Thor?

Warren himself had never had an interaction with any of the Avengers, but working at a hospital meant that he had heard plenty of stories from the people who had been saved by them, and of course he appreciated everything the heroes did to keep the world safe from the various threats that put them in jeopardy. While he didn’t exactly keep up with the latest superhero news, Warren could faintly remember overhearing some of the nurses talking about how Thor was off world and hadn’t been seen on Earth in almost a year. Their conversation had also involved them wistfully recalling his handsome face and muscular body, but he was much less interested in that. Right now, all he was interested in was learning what had brought Mjolnir crashing down before him.

Like everybody else in the modern world, Warren had heard all of the stories about how only the truly worthy could lift Mjolnir, and nobody had known anybody but Thor to achieve such a feat. He’d allowed people to test themselves with the hammer while making public appearances in the past but of course nobody had been able to make the hammer move even an inch. There were rumours that Captain America had been able to wield the hammer but there was no proof he had achieved such a feat, and Warren had little time for such petty disagreements. He never would have even considered trying to lift Mjolnir - not until it was right in front of him, that was. Now… how was he supposed to resist?

After a few tentative steps towards the hammer, Warren finally reached out and wrapped his fingers around the leather handle. He could already feel its weight without even applying any pressure, but his curiosity was too much to contain. Without much hope at all, he gave it an experimental tug. A number of things happened at once: the hammer lifted an inch from the ground, a clap of thunder rang out above him, and a lightning bolt shot down from the sky to impact with his aged body. His body felt as if it was on fire - his muscles burned and skull throbbed in momentary pain before, as quickly as it had arrived, all of the pain simply vanished.

This is it. I’ve died! Right outside the hospital I spent most of my life in… what pitiful irony!

What was happening to Warren wasn’t quite so easily explained though. While it was true that a part of him had died from the lightning strike, it had also triggered a rebirth that soon began to manifest in physical form, resculpting the rather frail base to become something more worthy of the godly power he held within his grasp. Electricity crackled to form a barrier around his body, while the contents within was imbued with the strength needed to become one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The first change to occur was the dramatic rolling back of years, as the tired skin of the sixty-five year old man took on a youthful glow and tightened around Warren’s slender frame. The grey in his beard was swept away by a flood of golden blond bristles, while his smooth scalp became the birthing ground for a healthy head of blond hair that travelled down past his ears and settled around his shoulders. After being cursed with premature balding back in his twenties, never in his life had Warren ever had such luscious locks - not until now, at least!

Although he appeared to be at least thirty years younger, Warren was still rather skinny, but that issue was soon eliminated as his body began to rapidly augment. His clothes, already torn and charred from the crackling electricity, fell victim to the changes as his muscles massively magnified all at once. The rags that were once his shirt could do little to stop the huge smooth expanse of his chest with those prodigious pecs and taut abdominals, nor the titanic shoulders or the remarkably powerful arms attached to them. The huge muscles tensed and flexed with every little movement, sweat dripping down the lines between his perfect six-pack abs.

Warren’s form was stretched both horizontally and vertically with the huge increase of mass, bringing him from five-foot-nine all the way up to a massive six-foot-six and given the broadness of his shoulders, it seemed likely that he would have to try and shrink himself to make it through a doorway made for measly mortals. His spindly, weak legs were refreshed to become colossal pillars of strength, accompanied by an artfully curved rear. Even his feet were pulled into the changes, growing to become humongous and hairy. His body looked like the work of some ancient sculptor with an unmatched and intense love for the male form. Every inch of him promised unbelievable potential that he felt so eager to try out!

As the thunder finally settled and the electricity was absorbed into his form, the muscular titan rose to his full height and lifted the hammer up to inspect it in more detail. He could feel the power that was held within, almost as if it was communicating with him. There was no doubt in his mind that he could throw the hammer with ease, then summon it right back into his grasp, or use it to call down lightning from the skies. He had the abilities of a god inside of him and a mighty hammer that would strike down any foe to make their presence known.

The giant was aroused from his silent contemplation of the hammer when he heard a feminine gasp from a short distance away. Despite now being entirely naked, he felt no shame as he turned towards the source and discovered one of the nurses from the hospital staring at him with a stunned expression - although deep in her eyes, he was sure he also detected a hungry lust. “Wh-who are you?” she croaked out, her gaze moving across every inch of his huge body. He let her enjoy her admiration for a few moments before offering his simple reply:

“Why, I’m Thor, of course.” He had the hammer, the blond hair and beard, the godly physique and the deep booming voice, all of which clearly indicated that he was the latest in a long line of people to take on the identity of the Norse God of Thunder. Nobody would ever know who he had been before accepting Mjolnir but if they did, his old compatriots would have understood. They’d always said that if any one of them was going to be worthy, it would be Warren. He’d always laughed them off, but how foolish of him to do so, because it turned out they had been right all along: he was not only worthy to wield the hammer, but also to be the Mighty Thor!