"Good afternoon, and welcome to the show.  We are lucky to have with us today the Immortal, Wednesday", the presenter said, turning to face the hulking blue form beside her.
"Wednesday, thanks for coming".
"My pleasure, Keri, and thanks for having me", Wednesday smiled.
"Now, you're an Immortal, that must be exciting.  How did it all start?"
Wednesday's smile broadened.
"Well, I have to admit that a few centuries ago, during the Plight of Man, I was a mortal, just like you".
"No", Keri said, feigning disbelief.
"Yes, it's true.  Before magic appeared, well, returned as we've since discovered, I led an unremarkable life.  Magic came back, and with it the gods of old.  I'd always been interested in Odin, even before that, and was thrilled with the revelation that he existed."
"That must have been an interesting time".
"You have no idea.  There was pandemonium all over the world.  Chaos in the streets."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I mean literally, chaos was in the streets - it was spawning on footpaths and gutters and everything.
"People were elated with the revelation of the gods.  It proved to everyone that there was more to our world than just what we could see.  It proved existence after death.  It proved that faith was rewarded, and it showed that prayers were indeed heard, if not answered."
"And what about you?"
"I was ecstatic, of course.  The gods revealed themselves in their own ways.  Odin felt that humanity had lost touch with its sense of wonder and hope, and laid out a challenge".
"Right, granting the winner at the time three wishes of their choosing."
"That's it.  Well, there were a number of tasks that had to be completed, as well as riddles that had to be answered successfully."
"Including the infamous Riddle of Being?", Keri asked.
"Yes.  I don't even think that was the hardest.  The other riddles were pretty tough.  When people thought they had an answer to one or two of them, they mostly kept them to themselves, hoping to win the challenge, but there were lists that were leaked all over the global internet at the time.  I guess some people weren't even interested in the challenges, they just wanted to boost viewership of what were websites at the time."
"But you were the first to complete all of the challenges, and solved the Riddle of Being".
"That's right.  I won't bore your viewers with all of the challenges, but everyone seems to focus on the Riddle of Being.  The funny thing is, the answer has been around for thousands of years.  There were monks at the time that could have answered the riddle far better than I could ever have, but I was the first to answer it in conjunction with completing everything else."
"And when you finally completed the challenges, what happened next?"
"Well, it's hard to describe.  Actually, at first nothing happened, and I thought I'd done something wrong.  I went to bed exhausted, trying to figure out what I'd left undone, or worse, if someone had beaten me to it.  I woke to this golden glow in the room, and then my room and reality in general kind of folded back on itself."
"Amazing, I wish I had dreams like that", Keri said to mild tittering from the crowd.
"No, it was no dream.  I was in a giant hall, Valhalla, standing in front of the Allfather himself."
"An appointment with a real god, how exclusive".
"Well, I was pretty scared at the time.  The aura he exuded shook me, and he was a terrifying sight.  He had two wolves, one sitting either side of him, and two crows perched on his throne.  A magnificent spear rested against that throne, and he sat with a regal majesty.  In short, he congratulated me, and granted me three wishes."
"And so you asked to be made immortal then?", Keri asked.
"Not exactly", Wednesday replied.  "I had thought about the three wishes I'd wanted for a while.  Hells, even as a kid my friends and I would play super hero games, and choose three powers we would like to have for fun."
"So what did you choose?"
Wednesday shifted in his chair, and cleared his throat.
"I chose to be able to move things with my mind."
"Why is that?", Keri asked.
"Well, it was pretty popular in the media at the time.  All kinds of heroes were using that ability in fiction, and it came to represent a person being connected with their surroundings."
"Ok, what was choice number two?"
"I can teleport things."
"You mean yourself, or...?"
"Myself and other things, provided I am touching them.  I can teleport to work, for instance, or I can teleport someone else to work by touching them.  Kind of like sending them in my place."
"I see.  And your last wish?"
"The last, and main, power I chose I saw a villain use in comic books.  I'm not sure where the comic got the idea from, but I think it was based around Nietzsche’s quote 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'.  So the most important power I asked for was that whatever killed me would make me stronger."
"'Whatever kills you makes you stronger', what does that mean?"
"When I die, I come back, and become tougher than whatever killed me.  That's what's effectively made me immortal.  See, I can die, but I reincarnate, with benefits."
"How does that work?", Keri asked.
"Back when I first attained my powers, people were using projectile firearms that fired small metal slugs at mostly subsonic speeds.  When I was still figuring out the extent of my powers, I was shot and killed by one of these firearms, and when I returned, my musculature and bones had grown larger and more dense.  Now bullets from similar low-power guns don't even break my skin."
"Wow, that is truly amazing!  Ok, you've had your audience with Odin, you've just received your powers, what did you do next?"
Wednesday scratched a boney protrusion jutting out from his eyebrow.
"It was a time of troubles, back then.  All sorts of crazy things happening.  I teleported all around the world, on an extended holiday.  I had a wife then, and her parents lived overseas, so we visited them all of the time.  Sometimes we'd stay overseas, and I'd just teleport my wife to her job in my home country, and go and pick her up when she'd finished."
Wednesday frowned.
"When my wife passed away, I became a little more creative with my powers.  I hadn't died yet, and wanted to push the envelope and see what I could do.  For my first big teleport, I 'ported to the Moon."
Keri raised her eyebrows and her lips parted. Wednesday smiled.
"I died instantly, of course.  When I came around, I didn't need to breathe anymore, and I could survive in a vacuum.  I'd put on my first significant increase of body mass as my muscles strengthened, and bones began to grow out of me, toughening my limbs and protecting my sensitive organs.  Oh, and my skin changed to this blue colour, and cold temperatures haven't bothered me since."
"So you... sought death?"
"I guess you could say that I wanted to improve my body.  I'd been toying with the idea of a selling my services to the prominent space exploration organisation at the time."
"You didn't want to help in any of the Great Wars?  You could have been a powerful force.  Why settle for being an explorer?"
"Why not?  I wasn't convinced by any of the governments at the time, certainly not enough to want to kill for them.  In fact, the governments that I would have naturally allied with were acting more like invaders than peacekeepers.  I didn't want to kill, and I didn't want to help any country subdue another by force.  I felt my actions should have a higher purpose than mere fighting.  I thought, if we could find worlds to inhabit and provide for us, then people wouldn't be so wound up about resources.  We could spread out at our leisure, and groups that didn't like each other could literally leave for other worlds.  I don't know if my adopted father approved of my decision."
"You're adopted father?  You mean Odin?", Keri asked.
"Yes, I was born once to mortal parents, and born a second time as an Immortal.  I'm not truly a son of Odin, as Thor and Loki are."
"So, you decided you wanted to explore, and to prepare for that you chose to kill yourself knowing that you will come back stronger for it", Keri said.
"Well, I assumed I'd come back, but that first 'port into space, I was pretty nervous my abilities wouldn't kick in or something.  But I survived, after a fashion, and then, after a bit of research, I jumped to Pluto."
"Pluto?"
"I figured that I could survive in a vacuum, and the opposite would be of that would mean being able to survive in crushing pressure."
"I see."
"I also became immune to high temperatures and various other forms of radiation as a result.  When I felt I was ready, I offered my services for space exploration.  Finding planets was pretty hit and miss back in those days.  In fact, we were pioneering the processes of discovery and colonisation.  It was a time-consuming process, and I blindly 'ported hundreds or maybe thousands of times before I came across even a single extra-solar planet.  That first one was pretty special.  No good for people to live on, though."
"You can really teleport that far?"
"Yeah, distance doesn't really seem to be a problem, and the more familiar I am with a place, the easier it is for me to 'port there."
"What's it like?"
"The planet?"
"No, I mean teleporting.  What does it feel like?", Keri asked.
"Oh, well I kind of send my mind out first to where I'm going.  If I'd arrive in the middle of something, it feels like something hard or dense in the path, and I'm shunted off to the nearest place where I'd fit.  Then it feels like a split second of falling, and I appear."
"It sounds like you need to put a lot of effort into it."
"At first I did, now I'm pretty quick."
Keri turned to her audience.
"Would you like to see Wednesday teleport?", she asked, and everyone cheered.
"Do you mind?", Keri asked Wednesday.  Wednesday smiled.
"Of course not.  Is there somewhere you want me to go?"
"Just in the studio, please.  Hopefully our cameras will pick you up quickly."
"Sure", Wednesday said, standing up.  He looked around.
"Ready?"
Keri nodded.  Wednesday smiled, and with a tiny pop and breeze, suddenly appeared behind Keri's chair.  The cameras panned to his new position.
The audience laughed, and Keri spun around, startled to see Wednesday behind her.
Wednesday performed a slight bow to the clapping audience.  He walked over to his chair and sat down.
"As easy as that?", Keri asked.
Wednesday shrugged.  "It's virtually silent, although you may have noticed a very small breeze."
"Why's that?"
"When I 'ported from my original place it created a little vacuum, and when I arrived at my destination", Wednesday pointed to behind Keri's chair, "I displaced the air molecules.  The air rushed to fill in the hole I left."
"I see.  Moving on, we know that you can't tell us your real name, but can you tell us why you chose Wednesday?  Did you get your powers on a Wednesday?"
"I did, actually, but that is not why I chose Wednesday.  The word Wednesday comes from Woden's, or Odin's Day, just like Thursday is Thor's Day and so on.  I took the name to honour the Allfather."
"Speaking of your family, there's a rumour going around that Runestone is your brother", Keri said.
"Well, we kind of came to power at the same time, so I can see how that rumour got started.  Runestone is a Demigod though, so he's an actual son of Odin, born to a mortal mother.  I'm more of an adopted son, I guess.  Runestone and I catch up from time to time, when our busy schedules allow."
"What's your schedule like these days?"
"Busy.  I'm helping to ferry exploration teams to three different worlds this afternoon.  They'll need supplies for about a month, which is when we expect the ships to arrive there.  We try make them as independent as possible, just in case something happens to me.  I've got a few long range 'ports lined up later in the week.  I'm zeroing in on another planet, which I hope to find before the end of the month."
"And that's all we have time for to-", Keri started.
The studio split in half, and Wednesday jerked violently backwards, tumbling across the floor.  The audience behind him evaporated in a red mist, and Keri was thrown from her chair.  A boom echoed through the sudden silence, loud enough for Keri to hear over the ringing of her ears.  She crawled through the shattered studio to the crater where Wednesday lay.  The surviving audience members wailed as they tried to stand.
Small tendrils of smoke rose from the crater, and Wednesday's headless body.