No. 22

Prompt: Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, While on an offworld mission, the team comes across a bunch of Nordic looking people, who are led by a man named Odin.
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/699166.html?thread=92240414#t92240414

John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon stepped through the gate – and right up against giant double doors for some kind of medieval-looking hall. The doors swung open into a massive banquet hall where a bunch of tall, blond, strong-looking men and women were seated around a table feasting on just about everything under the sun.

The man at the head of the table, dressed in an amalgamation of armor and furs, rose up and hoisted his goblet.

"Welcome, Travelers! You who are brave enough and strong enough to traverse the Bifrost road are welcome in the Hall of Odin!" He had a deep, booming voice.

"Odin?" Rodney echoed.

"You don't think –" John began, but then Teyla stepped forward, a bright smile on her face.

"Thank you for your kind welcome, Odin," she said. "I am Teyla, and these are my companions Ronon, Rodney, and John. We are peaceful explorers from the City of Atlantis –"

"Peaceful? Carrying P-90's and Berettas and a...what is that?"

A man rose up from the end of the table near Odin. He was tall and blond and strong, but he was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Teyla balked, cast a confused look at John.

John raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "We really are people, but sometimes we've gated into sticky situations, and it never hurts to be prepared."

"Calm yourself, Steve Rodgers," the man who called himself Odin said, laughing jovially. "Warriors are welcome in my hall so long as they come in peace."

John and Rodney exchanged looks.

"Did he just – ?" Rodney asked.

"Pretty sure he did," John muttered out of the corner of his mouth, then pasted on his most charming smile. "We do absolutely come in peace. We're interested in seeking mutually beneficial trade agreements or allies in the war against the Wraith."

"I'm sorry, did you say Atlantis?" A man popped up from seemingly nowhere beside the Earth-looking man; this new man was older, unshaven, dark-haired, sharp-eyed.

"Yes, also known as the City of the Ancestors," Teyla said, and she wasn't catching the references, not catching them at all, because the dark-haired man was wearing a white-t-shirt, and John was pretty sure he could make out a faint blue circular glow emanating from his chest.

"Say, Odin, you don't happen to have a son named Thor, do you?"

Odin beamed and clapped the shoulder of the massive blond, bearded man to his right. "You've heard of my son and his valiant deeds?"

"Yes," John said. "Heard of many of them. Thor, God of Thunder, wielded of the Hammer – uh –"

"My girlfriend's sister calls it Mew-Mew," Thor said, and this was just unreal.

"Hold on." The dark-haired man with the glow under his t-shirt held up a hand. "You said your names were Teyla, Ronon, Rodney, and John. As in...John Sheppard?"

A red-headed woman clad all in black lifted her head. "Did you say John Sheppard?"

It was John's turn to blink. "You've heard of us?"

Ronon said, "How did you know what our weapons are?"

"Are you from Earth?" Teyla asked. She'd realized something strange was going on.

"Earth?" Odin echoed blankly, and Thor supplied, "Midgard."

"Ah!" Odin beamed. "Friends from Midgard are always welcome." He waggled his eyebrows at Steve Rogers. "A surprising number of your kind have proven worthy of passage to Midgard."

"How have you heard of us?" Rodney asked.

The red-headed woman grinned. "Syfy Channel. Watch it religiously."

"You mean, a TV show?" Rodney's voice went up.

"You recognized us first," Steve Rogers said, and holy crap, was he really Steve Rogers?

"From comic books I read as a child," Rodney snapped.

"Rodney," John said in a low voice, "was there an explosion behind us when we stepped through the gate?"

"No."

"Quantum mirror."

"Also no."

"So..."

"Yes."

John cleared his throat. "Well, Odin All-Father, thank you for your generous welcome to your feasting hall, but I think we'd better be going. Right now."

"I thought you wanted to trade." The red-haired woman smirked at him, positively predatory.

Rodney glared and muttered, "Back off, Black Widow."

Teyla also looked confused. "John –"

"I have it on good authority you're busy with your own Interdimensional alien wars, and we're busy with our intergalactic alien war, so we won't bother you any longer." John grinned and started backing toward the gate.

"John," Teyla said in a low voice, "there's no dialing device."

"Nonsense." Odin waved them in. "Join us! There is plenty of food and drink. I would like to learn more about your people!"

"I bet Loki has the dialing device," Rodney grumbled under his breath.

Teyla smiled brightly again. "Thank you. Come, John, Rodney, Ronon, let us not offend our host's hospitality." And into the hall they went.

They emerged through the gate in Atlantis three days later hungover, well-fed, and with a trade agreement for the best apples the World Tree had to offer. Rodney discovered up close and personal that Natasha Romanov liked nerdy scientists (and it was John's turn to say Back off, Black Widow!), John was quicker at math than Tony Stark, and Ronon and Teyla still weren't sure how any of Odin's other earth-based guests knew half of their team.