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Setting up the logistics side of things, correctly, took up the rest of that day with Harry leaving Jean and Carol in charge of that aspect once Jean's experiments were done. Thankfully, Sam and Carol had already put together a pair of armor styles for the Orbital Drop Marines. They just had to put them into production with the changes Jean would recommend as a result of her studies.
The next day, Harry went back to the Savage Land, not alas, to troll the local council of Prefects but to talk to Logan. Eventually, he and his daughter agreed to join the amassing might of the Custodes.
Laura was actually eager for an adventure. She'd spent most of the time since Harry had conquered the Savage Land there. It had been fun, and she was nowhere near done exploring, but there was a difference between exploring-adventure and going to war. This sounded like something she could really sink her claws into. Having been to war before, Logan was more reluctant and hoped this wouldn't turn into a real, drag-out conflict. Not to mention he still have to talk to Shanna and Fatale.
The next one Harry called in was Forge, followed by Tony. As much as he and Tony had clashing personalities, Harry knew the inventive genius could be a major aid on the logistical side of things.
To his surprise, Tony volunteered easily and even went further. "I want in on the actually going into Asgard part too."
"I thought you were only reluctantly Iron Man," Harry answered with a faint smile. "Or is this the adrenaline junkie in you?"
"Probably a bit of both frankly," Tony readily admitted. "But let's face facts. You're going to go into a primitive environment, and you're going to need an armory and a factory set up on the ground to deal with any repairs to the Oh Damns' equipment. You might be bringing in loads of parts and guns, but there's a big difference between that and having someone ther in place to see to all of your needs. And my Iron Man suit is still leagues better than even your Ghigau and Coyote suits, let alone any mass-produced model I've seen."
Harry sighed but nodded. "All right. You'll be involved in the main war against the Fire Jotun. And you'll be answering to Falcon and Steve for the most part. No offense Tony, but I don't want you in a position of command outside of logistics."
"Fine, fine," Tony answered breezily. "I never wanted to be in charge of any of your teams anyway. Sounds far too much like work in my opinion. Tell me, old boy, are you losing any hair yet? With all the balls you've got in the air, you're going to go bald before your time."
Rolling his eyes, Harry didn't respond to Tony's taunt, not seeing the point, and hung up. Knowing that the logistics of the oncoming war were now in good hands, he headed down to help out on the magical side of things. After all, the array that would help them get to Asgard, or rather Yggdrasil, wasn't the only magical aid they would need. "Cory."
There was a pop, and Cory, Harry's house elf aide-de-camp, appeared beside him. The little creature ran beside Harry to keep up before Harry slowed down to let him walk instead. "Master calls for Cory?"
"Hmm. If you could find Dr. Druid for me? And have him join me up in High Note? He and I will be working on a little project in the time capsule. I was also hoping you would come with us to bring along supplies. Specifically, we need a sand table and food."
"Yes, Master, Cory will be pleased to serve," Cory responded instantly, and Harry smiled in reply. But his eyes had already taken to staring over Cory's head, already thinking about the task in front of them. This mission was going to take a lot of prep time, and that might be the easiest part of it…
OOOOOOO
Despite Thor's fury at Volstagg's fate and the sadness of his death, the Thunderer and his companions were not people who could remain sad or angry for long. As the days' hard travel up Yggdrasil continued, Hogun was the only one to remain grim-faced. Soon Tyr, Thor, and even Fandral returned to joking and laughing, delighting in the fact they had succeeded in such a momentous quest. The death of their friend was a comparatively small price to pay for such a magnificent adventure as they'd recently had. Níðhöggr was such an opponent that it would not have been surprising if they had lost far more than just one of their companions.
Soon they reached the limb where they had originally landed within Yggdrasil's boughs. Seeing as they had basically floated down from Asgard's outermost mountainside however, the group spent the rest of what they considered a day climbing higher up the World Tree to perform the same trick going the other way. When they finally found a bough both long enough and high enough to allow them to make the leap between the dimensions, the Asgardians ate the last of their supplies, rested for a time, and then, with Thor leading them, marched out towards the edge of the branch.
Thor led the way, leaping across the dimensional gap from the bough that overlooked the mountains of Asgard closest to where the two dimensions met. For a moment, he was in freefall, nothing but an endless blackness around him, then he pierced the bubble of air encompassing Asgard.
A moment later, he landed lightly on his feet, grimacing slightly at the effort of the leap, then blinked as he saw several spears of black metal and stone being hurled his way. "What manner of ill luck!?" He bellowed, using his hammer to smash the spears aside, the swing creating a hurricane of force that shattered the spears. "Or perhaps foul design, as I do see Fire Jotun here along with Stone Jotun. Regardless, all of you will feel Mjollnir's wrath!"
The jotun had created a perfect ambush point around the area where travel between Asgard and Yggdrasil was possible. A dozen stone jotun were hidden in small carved out holes in the mountain, having used their magic to mold such, and were now firing towards Thor. At least ten fire jotun were hidden behind primitive wooden walls while hurling spears. Still more just charged forward, eagerly bellowing their war cries.
"Have at you then!" Thor shouted back, charging to meet them. With the power of his gauntlets, no jotun beyond Surtur could close to matching him in pure strength, and he barreled into the first group of ambushers to try and close with him, knocking them aside like they weighed nothing.
One stone jotun died to a blow to the head from Mjollnir, which he then whirled around in an arc to crash into the chest of another, hurling him sideways and off into the air between the dimensions where he was not nearly so lucky as to land among the boughs of the World Tree. Not that it would have mattered, as his chest had been caved in like thin tinfoil.
A fireball hurled his way from a fire jotun caught Thor on the back, searing his clothing sending him stumbling, that was all. Thor's Gauntlets of Power didn't just heighten the strength of his arms but the rest of his body as well, adding to his already formidable durability. The blow might have scorched his shirt, but that was all.
More serious than those flames was the black metal spear thrust into his side, which tore through Thor's already battered armor like butter. Luckily, he was already turning, and the spear skittered across his ribs rather than striking him dead on. The opportunistic attacker died an instant later to a kick which ruptured his insides and hurled him backward, magma blood gushing out of his mouth as he rolled among the snow and stone.
Then Sif and Tyr were there, having hurled themselves across the dimensional gap as one. They landed in the space that Thor's charge had won them, swords flashing down and slaying any jotun he had already bulled over. After a second spent regaining their bearings, the duo moved forward, engaging the enemy, forging a path towards their friend. Behind them came the others, and when the Warriors Two hurled themselves into the fight, the name of their rotund friend was on their lips. "For brave Volstagg!"
With Thor at their head, the friends formed a tight wedge, charging towards the enemy's archers. Unlike Thor, they were not immune to their enemies' weapons and needed to get in among those archers quickly before they became pincushions.
As they close, the jotun behind the wooden walls lit their barriers on fire. The simple structures seemed to have been coated with some alchemical product, perhaps even the jotun's own magma-like blood, which after it cooled left a kind of rubbery, gelatinous muck behind. Very flammable muck.
Whatever the case, the jotun smashed the walls from behind, sending the burning logs towards the Asgardians. But Thor simply bellowed in laughter, smashing the two closest logs to flinders. "Burning logs!? Truly? You think that will stop us!?"
"Speak for yourself, thoughtless one!" Skadi shouted, from behind the others. of all the warriors there, Skadi was the least durable.
The fires truly must have had something added to them though, as they burned both a dark red and a toxic-looking green. Skadi and the others could actually feel the heat off of them. The other Asgardians flinched back while Sif and Hogun were burned as a few stray splinters landed on them, both of whom hissed in pain, retreating.
Seeing that, Thor took a step back, letting Hogun and Fandral guard him for a moment. Both took wounds from the archers but could keep the jotun in front of them at bay. This let Thor twirl Mjollnir above his head, bellowing to the sky as he called upon his powers over the weather.
Soon a heavy rain began to fall, dampening the fires, the unnatural flames sizzling in the downpour so loudly it almost drowned out the sound of the continuing battle. And as those flames were dampened, the Asgardians leapt over the still-hot coals, charging forward towards the jotun archers.
Yet the state of their equipment and the lack of shielding began to tell, injuries abounding. The Asgardians' armor had been ruined or lost during the battle against Níðhöggr. On top of that, more than one of them was wounded at this point with Tyr and Sif still nursing injuries from that dread battle.
And yet, for all that, Skadi could only stare in shock at the number of dead that littered the field, watching as Thor, undaunted, continued to swing his hammer, slaying with each blow, hurling bodies aside as if they were mere chattel. The others were not nearly as deadly, the loss of weapons hampering their progress, and Fandral was limping badly from a long gash in his thigh that went from hip to knee. Despite that, Tyr came close to Thor's lethality, and he and Hogun went about their business in the same grim, professional manner. Their blade and mace might lack the power of Mjollnir, but the two had skill enough to attempt to close the gap.
"And here is me, without any arrows to my name," Skadi grimaced. She hadn't been able to pull any of her arrowheads from Níðhöggr's corpse and had even dropped her hunting dagger, lost in the darkness when the wyrm had dislodged it in his death throes.
But Skadi wasn't one to dwell on things lost. Instead, she grabbed up a fallen stone jotun's spear. She charged forward, her spear tip taking a fire jotun in the back as he tried to get around Tyr's left flank. Then as magma gushed out of his wound and the jotun collapsed to his knees, Skadi ripped the sword from the jotun's grip. Welding it in a two-handed style, Skadi whirled like a top to cut into the thigh of another jotun, sending it squalling to the ground in agony where Tyr finished it off with a precise sword thrust to the neck. "How many of our foes have gathered to halt our return?"
"Do you think any of us have had time to be counting bodies?" Tyr answered tartly, ducking a close blow that would've opened his face, the near miss still catching his helmet with a ringing blow that sent him stumbling.
"That isn't what I meant, oh serious one," Skadi grumbled yet still stepped forward to guard her downed friend for a brief moment.
Tyr recovered, thrusting forward hard, knocking aside the next blow before his blade punctured into the chest of the fire jotun that had attacked him. Molten blood spurted out, and Tyr growled angrily as his sword began to melt, the enchantments on it finally overcome by the continued use. "Then what?"
"Truly I am wondering about the Fire Jotun's involvement most of all," Skadi admitted, even as she parried a blow that nearly put her on her rear.
"Ah, aye, it is something to note, but for later, yes Huntress? Keep your eyes on the current prize and do not hark after the goose in the distance," Tyr warned, smashing an attacking jotun across the face so hard his weakened blade shattered.
A second later, he stole a weapon from one of their enemy and used it against them. Indeed, only Hogun and Thor hadn't done the same by this point. And as Tyr glanced over his shoulder, he saw Fandral going down, with Hogun moving in to guard him as Sif dragged him behind the mace-wielder.
She had to leave him and rejoin the battle as the archers began to throw down their bows. Pulling out spears, the ambushers charged forward, switching to an all-out close-quarters attack. Those on the edges attempted to encircle the Asgardians, and Sif, Skadi, and Tyr soon found themselves hard-pressed from all sides, their wedge forming into a circle, with the injured Fandral guarded in the center, his life's blood pumping out of his thigh wound.
The enemy attempted to close in, but Thor was too powerful. He burst out through the encirclement with great sweeps of Mjollnir. He turned to one side, whirling his hammer and created a blast of air so powerful that it knocked a dozen attackers there off their feet, although it also caused Skadi and Tyr to stumble. Then, he turned to the other side and with a few strokes of his hammer, downed enough enemies to give Hogun and Sif the advantage. Once stable, Skadi and Tyr moved to slay many of those knocked off their feet.
The last fire jotun turned to flee, but Skadi picked up a stray dagger and raced after him, shouting out, "Open combat might be the calling of you Aesir, but leave the hunt to me!"
A moment later, the final Stone Jotun fell, leaving the field to the battered Asgardians. By that point, both Skadi and her prey were out of sight, but none were overly concerned. If the Huntress ran into something she couldn't handle, she was smart enough to retreat. And they had their own injuries to attend to besides.
"I just finished healing from the wounds caused by the dread wyrm, and now I am injured once again! What will the ladies think of me when I return to the city with my beautiful body covered in scars?" Fandral moaned as Sif and Hogun saw to the wound sliced deeply into his thigh.
"At least you took no injuries to the face. That should be some measure of saving grace, especially considering that few ladies would like to see you below the neck anyway," Sif answered mock-sweetly as she examined the grim wound.
"Your words are as cruel as you are fair," Fandral answered with a laugh. "Still, mayhap you have a point. I am lucky to not be injured in the face. I doubt you would like me to recount all my tales of lust and love at this moment in time to refute your other claim, however."
"You are most correct, and indeed, your luck of not being wounded in the face will surely change very quickly if you try," Sif answered with a snort.
"Enough," Hogun grunted, pushing Fandral's head back down. "You have lost enough blood for one day, my friend, do not do anything that will have you losing more now."
Tyr was also hurting, having taken another strike across the ribs, breaking only recently healed fractures and reopening the wounds he had taken from Níðhöggr. Hogun had been burned along one side, although not too badly. His thick gambeson had protected him somewhat although he was now limping slightly, something having broken in one of his legs. Sif had taken a few wounds to the shoulders and head, having lost her helmet in the recent battle, the headgear being stepped on near the end of the fight by one of the jotun.
Of all of them, Thor was the only one who remained uninjured. While his armor had been battered and torn so much that it was functionally useless, his body was entirely unmarred. Once he realized this he discarded the scrap to one side while the others saw to their own injuries.
Yet despite his power-up, this had been far too near a thing. The presence of the fire jotun also worried them all, and the party looked after their wounds and policed the area as best they could, talking quietly on that score while waiting for Skadi to return.
The Huntress did so quickly, moving to scour around the area to find what arrows she could. "The way is clear ahead of us for a bit down the trail, but I would recommend I scout ahead of us from now on. I do not think we are in any condition to fight another battle like this one. At least not any time soon."
"Aye. And we must report to Lord Odin. If the Fire Jotun are about in our realm, that could mean trouble. Especially here as we are in the east, whereas Muspellheim is to the west from Asgard within the boughs of Yggdrasil," Tyr announced, nodding towards Thor.
And it could also mean that the Fire Jotun are in league with whoever was attempting to stop us from reaching and fighting Níðhöggr in the first place. None of the others seemed to have made that connection, and Tyr didn't speak his concerns aloud for fear of summoning up still more trouble. But it was an obvious conclusion to his sharp mind.
Getting out of the mountains safely caused them some delay, taking six days, but back on actual earth rather than the boughs of Yggdrasil, Skadi was not only able to scout ahead of the party with ease but also able to hunt. She found food, leaving rabbits and other small animals hung up on string for the others to find during the day, along with a few herbs that would hasten the healing process. One particular herb aided in removing the lingering burns that pained Hogun and the others.
Yet it was still a very bedraggled group that finally reached the plains below two days after leaving Yggdrasil behind.
From there, travel went far faster, and they stopped in at Hamlet to acquire horses for themselves. But the news that the karls shared with them there was grim. The fire jotun were indeed on the move, and a massive invasion had begun to the south.
"Word reached us here that Lord Balder was leading a staunch defense but had no means to wholly stop the invasion. If the Bright One has been pushed back too quickly, you may find your way back to Asgard a perilous one, my Lord." A simply dressed farmer, a warrior spirit who'd taken up farming since arriving in Asgard, answered. He was sharing a tankard of ale with Thor and Tyr as the others bartered with his wife for the farm's horses, all three sitting on his small wooden porch.
"Bah! Hard or easy, naught will stop the mighty Thor from returning home! Let those who wish to get in my way do so at their own peril!"
The man laughed at that, and he and Thor continued to joke and share tales as his neighbors came along to pay their respects to the Asgardians, particularly Thor. Not for nothing was he known as the defender of the common man, and Thor was one of the most beloved of the Asgardians to karls such as these. They respected and gave fealty to Odin, but they loved his sons, Thor and Balder , far more dearly.
The group decided to spend the rest of the day there, purchasing what supplies and clothing they could before hurrying on. But instead of making for Asgard, the group eventually learned where Odin had chosen to muster his host and diverted their journey towards that point. The area was called the Fields of Gronulf's Wrath, named after a jotun Stone Lord that had been slain there in ages past. Unlike their debased cousins, the Stone Lords had power, mental capacity and skills to match those of the Aesir, and the battle between this particular one and Thor had been a thing of legend although few, including even Thor, could now remember either battle or Stone Lord.
But the rest of the news wasn't as good. Balder's forces had done their job well, but the fire jotun force was truly massive, and all warriors would be needed to turn back the tide. Many a human jarl had already taken his men to the muster, and the Asgardians had brought their dvergar and alfar allies to the battle as well.
The few remaining thoughts of past glory left in the band's heads fled at such dire news, and throwing caution and comfort to the winds, the party pushed their horses to the briskest pace they could manage. Thor could well have just flown ahead of the others, but he refrained, instead racing alongside Sif tirelessly while she rode. This breakneck pace brought them within the Valkyries' scouting sphere within three days, a feat which nearly killed their horses.
A Valkyrie speedily rode off, returning just as quickly with more horses for the tired dragonslayers, something they were all pleased with. From that point forward, they moved at a slightly more sedate pace and within another day, cheers arose from the Asgardian host as Thor led the band through the huge encampment's outer perimeter.
But it was not Odin who greeted them at the camp's center. Instead, if was Queen Freya, resplendent in silver chain mail and hauberk, with a blade set in the ground nearby. She greeted Thor with a tight hug and a breathy whisper of, "Praise be that you have returned, my son!"
She nodded to the others, although sobered at the fact she could not see Volstagg among them, and at how bedraggled the rest of them looked. "I see that your victorious return comes at a cost."
"Aye, my queen, but there is also a mystery to be solved here," Tyr answered for them all. At Tyr's gesture, Thor held up his gauntlets as if he had just remembered their presence.
With the thought of further war ahead of them, Thor had put aside the mystery about them. Tyr's words reminded him though, and the memory of Volstagg's abnormal demise recalled it to him again now, his joyful expression at meeting his mother turning grim. He relayed what had occurred with a growl and how he had once more acquired his Gauntlets of Power.
Freya listened silently, looking between Tyr and Fandral who held up the claws and teeth they had taken from Níðhöggr's body and then back to the gauntlets before gesturing to a nearby alfar. That worthy came forward and took the bag from Fandral, as Freya ordered him to deliver it to the chief dvergar. In the manner of that clannish folk, the most senior leader was also the most skilled blacksmith.
"Such can be made into weapons of dread strength and ability, as you all know. When this war is over, I will commission daggers or swords for each of you, whatever you wish."
The others all nodded, even Hogun and Thor grateful for the queen's largess. The dvergar were notoriously difficult to work with, let along make agreements with. But Tyr remained stoic, and kept his eyes on the queen as she gestured them all into her tent. This was a massive thing, easily as large and as long as some of the log houses being set up nearby.
Within, they found an odd dichotomy. Several goddesses rested on cushions, but instead of working on cloth or whatever other project they might have done in peace time, several were enchanting weapons. And while there were cushions, soft music and lighting within the tent, in the center of the tent was a magical map of Asgard, showing the invading army and several dozen markers of of small hamlets, villages and even a few military units on the move.
Sif however noticed it wasn't just showing Surtur's advance. Elsewhere on the map a few clan markers were situated around the deep south, where the Dark Elves realm could be reached. Across from them were symbols of deep blue marked by white runes indicating the dark elves were on the move, but not in any number. Another sign, a green serpent mark by the ocean's shore, worried her far more however.
But Tyr was still more concerned about the possible mystery they might have on their hands, as was Freya as she sat near the map, gesturing them all into chairs or cushions as was their preference. After they sat down, she addressed that mystery, a faint scowl on her face as she tugged at her honey-blonde curls. "in terms of Volstagg and the mystery of his existence, neither the Enchantress nor Malekith have the power to kindle the flame of life imperishable. They could perhaps have created an illusion of an individual and indeed ensorcelled a few of our people to believe it. But they could not have fooled Heimdall, myself of my husband."
"If I may, mother, where is Father?" Thor asked, looking at the map.
Skadi nodded too, looking worried. "Surely he should have taken the field with you, unless he has decided to crush the dark elves first?"
"Alas, no. The Odin-sleep has come upon him at the most inopportune time," Freya admitted, shaking her head with a sigh.
Such was the power and subtlety of the Shadow's mental manipulation that none of the gathered Asgardians thought that odd, only, as Freya had said, a matter of bad timing. Every one of them knew with the same certainty that they knew their own abilities that Odin occasionally had to sleep for months on end in order to recover his strength from keeping the realm intact and whole. Why that was, or why Odin would even need to will Asgard to remain intact like that, none of them even considered.
"That is grim tidings, Queen Freya. I have trust in your skill and that of the Bright One to lead, but King Odin is not known as the Judge of Kings for no reason," Frandral murmured.
"Truly. But one should not waste time wishing for things beyond their control. For now, let us return to your mystery before speaking of the war against Surtur," Freya commanded, a hand chopping through the air. "Continuing to speak of Volstagg, even Odin and I could not create a simulacrum to so ape true life. Instead, we, and even such a one as Malekith, would have to take someone already alive and mold them into the desired personality and form."
Getting the implications faster than the others, Skadi hissed. "You're saying that whoever hid the Gauntlets of Power within Volstagg actually took someone else and molded the gauntlets into that individual somehow? I did not even think magic could do something so outrageous."
The snarl of hatred in her voice at the term magic was not unusual, and Freya didn't take it personally. While seidr was a woman's field, Skadi had never enjoyed such education, and even as a practitioner herself, Freya knew the disdain most had towards magic. She could even agree with it in a way, as one could achieve great things with magic, but you could do equally terrible ones, such as this issue with Volstagg. But if your enemy comes at you with magic, it behooves you to have some magic to counter it.
"This is merely speculation on my part, as if such a thing was done, it suprasses far my own knowledge of the magical arts. That alone says this mystery is perhaps larger and far more dangerous than we can conjecture at this moment." So saying Freya seemed to shiver from head to toe for a moment, an odd body movement that caught the eyes of those around her and she seemed to visibly set aside the mystery for now.
None noticed that Tyr too shivered. When he stopped, the idea of him speaking to Freya about the Fire Jotun possibly being allied with whomever had hidden Thor's gauntlets was gone from his mind as if it had never been, and he turned his full attention on the queen's words.
"However, such a mystery cannot control our attention at this moment. We have a war to win, an enemy more powerful than the dark elves or Stone Jotun to defeat. One whose numbers eclipse our own, and whose strength is beyond most of our warriors one on one."
The hunting band nodded grimly at that, and Freya stood, moving to a nearby table. There she took up a series of goblets made of gold and glass, filling each with mead from her own hand before going to each of the party, giving them the victory cup, exchanging words with each. She ended this ritual acknowledgement of the victorious end of their quest with another tight hug with her son, praising Odin for his return before sitting down once more.
In her cushion Freya waited for them all to drink before she began, officially disbanding the group and then assigning them new duties in the war host. "Hogun, Fandral, you will join the host. I believe you will serve best as part of our main muster. Rest for the rest of the day and then get outfitted properly."
The two so named nodded, raising the last of the honey and apple mead to their lips before sharing a series of handclasps and backslapping hugs with their friends. Then with a deep bow to the queen, they left the tent.
Turning to her fellow Vanir, Freya smiled. "Skadi, you will join the scouts. The Valkyries have been acting as my eyes and ears, but none can go unseen as you can. Guard the flanks of our gathering hosts, and then see if you can sneak into their army. If we know which route toward Asgard the City Surtur means to follow, it would help our plans immensely."
The younger goddess nodded in formal acknowledgment and also excused herself quickly. Skadi would leave the camp within an hour after gaining a bag of supplies and a new bow, quiver, spear, and dagger. She wasn't the strongest of the Aesir or Vanir, but she had endurance to spare and needed no rest now, as the others did, bar Thor.
"Tyr, come the morrow, you will be given a command of your own. I will place you in charge of a thousand human warriors and fifty Asgardians for now, and also charge you with continuing our muster. I think we've done the best job we could, but another eye on things would be good. When it comes time to offer open battle, you will follow my second born, Balder's orders. He has command at the front now."
"As you will, my Queen," the god of Justice and law answered bowing from the waist. He asked a few questions about the war and the map, then he too left the tent, having received permission to return after resting to examine the map again.
This left Sif and Thor, and Freya turned to them, smiling faintly. "Sif, I wish for you to join another, smaller band for now. The dvergar will fit you with a new set of armor and weapons, then you will head out. While Balder and his warriors have done a magnificent job, the jotun are marching faster than we could wish and are nearly past the Long Gorge. I will place a spell on you and yours that will allow me to update the terrain of my map, so Tyr, Balder and I can find the right ground to force a battle on our terms. I trust you to know what manner of terrain we will seek."
Sif bowed deeply, proud of the important task, and Thor stepped forward, speaking before Sif could take her leave in turn. "And what of me, Mother? What duty would you have me do?"
Freya smiled faintly standing up and taking Thor's chin in her hand, chuckling quietly. "Why my son, your duty will be to do what you do best. Chaos havoc."
As Thor burst out into laughter and Sif rolled her eyes, the queen strode past them back out the tent calling over her shoulder for the pair to follow her. If the goddess of love had more than simple whimsy in letting the pair remain together for now, she didn't say.
Regardless, a few minutes' walk brought them to the area where horses and other animals were kept in paddocks. Here Freya gestured to a chariot while nearby two large goat, their horns covered in steel, their hooves gleaming copper, nipped at the grass. "While you cannot fly on your own, your chariot can, and will do so now. I have seen to the training of these two goats, and they are enchanted to fly where you will, so long as they are tied into your chariot's bridles."
Thor whooped at that, smiling and moving over to the goats, running his hands from their horns down their flanks. Before this, Thor couldn't really fly, instead using the force of Mjollnir hurled ahead of him to pull his body along. But to truly fly, even if not under his own power, would be a tremendous boon. "I will leave at once, by the halls of Valhalla I will give Surtur and his folk a drubbing they will not soon forget!"
"Not yet, Thor. Even you need rest. Not to put too fine a point on it, my son, but you stink, and your clothing is a disgrace," Freya laughed, ruffling Thor's hair as if he was a child, causing him to pout while the nearby Sif snorted in ill-hidden humor. "Take a bath, take the day to get your clothing in order and rest, and then see the armorer. You have done well, and you can take a brief moment before we ask still more of you."
Thor nodded and turned back to Sif as Freya left them heading back to her tent, pointing the way towards where she had ordered tents be made ready for them. Like the other goddesses within, Freya needed to return to the task of casting enchantments on weapons and arrows alike.
Sif walked beside Thor for a few moments as they made their way into the area where Freya had told them he had set up tents for them all. The silence between them was somewhat awkward, neither knowing what to say at the moment but also not willing to part just yet.
This awkward silence ended when they spotted a large sign with three flags. There a Valkyrie trotted up to Sif, gesturing back the way she had come to where the womenfolk had set up a bathing area behind a small wooden palisade.
Sif thanked the Valkyrie, then turned back to Thor, thumping him on the shoulder. "Well, it was fun and harrowing and an adventure we'll be able to boast about for ages. My thanks for choosing me to come with you."
"My thanks for choosing to come. You more than held up your part in the journey, more so than Fandral or even Tyr, although it is dishonest to speak so of friends. But it would have been a much poorer journey without your wit and sword beside me," Thor answered with a wide grin.
That caused Sif to blush slightly, and she looked away. "Well, were it not for your own prowess, the entire trip would have ended in misery and ruin at the paws of Níðhöggr. Dare I say it, but there was a moment there when you actually looked formidable, as astonishing as that thought may be."
"Hah! Well, unlike Fandral or yourself, no one has yet commented on my beauty, only my strength. So I suppose formidable is the best one such as I could hope for," Thor guffawed.
Blushing anew at a second inadvertent compliment from Thor, Sif shook her head, thumped him on the shoulder once more, and waved him on his way. "Go. The journey is over for now, and we can but have the evening to ourselves to prepare for the next challenge. And despite all your power, you still stink."
Thor laughed again, turning away and heading towards the men's bathing area nearby, while Sif followed the chortling Valkyrie, growling at her as best she could with a full blush now upon her face.
Later, as he prepared to exit the bathing area, Thor stared at his silently at his reflection before shaking his head. The image of himself with a red hair, longer than his blonde locks were now, accompanied by a thick, full beard disappeared in the steam, replaced by his normal visage. It was strange, to be sure, but Thor had no time for such distractions or amusements. There was a battle to fight, after all, a war to win.
OOOOOOO
Those Who Watch Above in Shadow looked on, doing their equivalent of gnashing their teeth in a fury. The Ragnarök was on schedule, but more than once, they'd had to step in to keep Tyr and several others from realizing the implications of such and their own adventure. Thankfully, with Odin locked in the Odin-sleep, dealing with Freya's suspicions was far easier.
But even with all their attention concentrated on that moment, something had slipped by there. Thankfully, Thor, unlike his parents, was quite stupid. If Odin or Freya had seen such a vision, they would have had to erase Freya's mind of the moment and exert even more force on keeping Odin from becoming aware able to act against them.
Still, no questions would be asked, and Ragnarök was continuing. The dark elves of Svartalfheim had sent envoys to the Fire Jotun, and when they struck, in conjunction with Jörmungandr and Fenrir's rampage, their combined might would be able to slay all of the Asgardians and their followers. Those ritual sacrifices would restart the cycle once more. And when that happened, every Asgardian, even the sleeping Odin himself, would forget everything that had happened in this cycle.
The Shadows' hold was weakened though. At the moment, They knew that they could not reform their anchors, nor could they reach Midgard and reclaim Hela and Niflheim. But, if the Ragnarök continued, the rest of the Asgardians would be within their control forevermore. Nothing any of the Asgardians did could halt that inevitability. Indeed, his best efforts would merely fuel the Ragnarök further, making the destruction all the more total.
Despite several of their pieces moving in ways they had not anticipated, the board and the game itself were still that of the Shadows. All that could be done now was to make certain that the pieces kept moving as they should.
OOOOOOO
While Tony and Forge worked on arming the four-company force of Oh Damns, Harry and Dr. Druid created runic arrays that could defend peoples' minds from illusions and physical assault. This was a extremely difficult process, with two major issues.
The first was simply that protecting the mind from exterior assault was difficult to put into runes, which had never been used like this before in this world or Harry's. Worse, Harry knew that his own technique, hiding his mind via a mental invisibility cloak, didn't work against the Shadows.
Unfortunately, that was the best concept they could come up with. Hopefully that kind of obfuscation and Emma, Jean, and the other telepaths, would be enough to protect their people from the direct, personalized assaults of the type Harry had faced when he and Emma freed Hela of the Shadows' influence. Beyond stopping that kind of assault though, Harry put more hope in the telepaths than the runic arrays designed to hide an individual's mind. They were just too limited for this kind of mind-based work.
The runes to help people see through illusions went a lot better, however. So long as the illusions were based on sight or sound, anyway. Much to their frustration, neither Harry nor Dr. Druid could figure out any combination of runes or separate arrays that could block a scent-based illusion. They could figure out an array that could tell you if something smelled off, but not if the smell itself was an illusion.
The second problem was the cost of these arrays to the wearer was huge. Harry had developed a runic sequence that fed the array via the body's natural bio-energy instead of magic for those without internal cores, acting much like exercise would in burning off calories, when he was still living in Xavier's mansion. But the energy matrix wasn't efficient at all for these arrays. Harry estimated that even someone well-fed and in excellent shape would succumb to exhaustion after only ten minutes worth of using their current mental obfuscation array. It was about forty minutes for the anti-illusion array.
Thankfully, both of the runic arrays could be designed to only work on activation, i.e. when the arrays detected a mental assault or when a magic-user created an illusion to fool the individual equipped with the array. That was honestly their only saving grace.
Adding the runic arrays into the helmets for the Custodes (and even those without head gear like Colossus and the Thing, who each received a pendant that would create the mental protection array) and the ODMs took longer. That even with Kitty joining them, that work dragged on well behind the rest of the magic-type preparations. Thankfully, the military side of those preparations was also slow, and the work on the one-size fits all two types of ODM armor was also slower than expected.
Still, around three weeks after Wander-Odin, gave his presentation to Harry and the others, the Avalon Empire Expeditionary force, as Emma called it, was ready to go. However for such a sizeable force the teleportation circle couldn't be made in Camelot.
The sheer number of bags, gear, men, and other miscellaneous stuff meant even the Great Hall wouldn't have been able to house them all. So Ororo, Hela, and others had written out the array at an old WW2 military installation in Australia that Harry had purchased months back in preparation for creating an Arc reactor factory there. It had originally been government land, and the infusion of cash had made the locals very happy with Harry. That work took another day and a half.
Yet still, the day finally dawned, troops began to arrive in a slow, steady stream. First to arrive had been Harry, of course, followed by the team that had worked on the array. This consisted of Blink, Wander-Odin, Amora, Hela, Ororo, Clea, and Kitty. Harry moved over to Blink, smiling at the young somewhat elven girl as the others went over their work one more time.
Seriously, she almost looks like she could be related to Melody. Strange to think of. "Are you really fine with coming with us into what might be a warzone? Do you understand what will be required of you?"
Blink nodded slowly, her eyes glancing over to Ororo and Kitty where the two were going over a portion of the array several hundred meters away. Kitty felt her gaze and looked up, waving, which seemed to give the young mutant girl some courage. "I am, yeah. Ms. Munroe and Ms. Hela had me test my blinking ability a few times. They and Nightcrawler have been a big help." She looked back at Harry, smiling. "And thanks for agreeing to pay my way through school for this, Mr. Potter. Going to school with Jubilee and the others sounds like a lot of fun."
Chuckling, Harry waved away her thanks, saying that it was part of working for him. He had been adamant from the start that whatever their motivations, if someone worked for him, they would be getting paid what Harry felt their job was worth, regardless of what they were doing.
After a few minutes of small talk about what Blink wanted to do with her life in the future, Harry made his way over to Hela. Gently pulling her away from where Wander-Odin had been trying to draw her into a flyting, Harry pulled her into a sideways hug. "I know you've mentioned how you loathe the fact Jörmungandr hid your mother's body, but I want to make certain you're okay with our going after him. You realize if we're right about him being an anchor for the Shadows that we will have to kill him." He watched Hela's eyes and mouth, the rest of her face, as always, covered by a half-mask. "Are you… alright with that?"
"I am not happy about the need to slay one who shares parentage with me, but really Harry, I am… ambivalent about it, I suppose." Hela scowled, shaking her head. "That might be different if I could but know my oldest memories were my own. If they are, then Jörmungandr and I never got along when he was small enough to be part of our family in the first place, and it is a moot point. As it is… no. Most of my memories with him are full of spite, pranks, and threats of eating me. Not the best childhood memories, you could say."
Harry watched as her violet eyes narrowed dangerously. "And yes, his hiding of our mother's body like that, his willingness to serve those who would control us with a tyranny so complete it has no equal in human history, those are travesties. A wrongness that must be answered for. If it is to be paid for by his death, then so be it. I will not be the one to swing the sword, but neither shall I mourn."
She turned to one side as the Custodes arrived, with Dani and Piotr in the lead. Steve having opted to help lead the ODMs, was not present. While the company commanders were all experienced men, none had commanded such a large force, and both Harry and Steve had felt a calming influence, who could take in the whole battle through tried and true experience, would be a force multiplier. Scott would serve as his second-in-command, but he would be more of a second pair of eyes than anything else.
"I am more concerned about Jean coming along at all, even if she will be well away from the front. And with Dani and Garm's part in this operation," Hela added.
Dani and Garm, along with Betsy, would be splitting off almost as soon as they arrived in Asgard. Their job would be to hunt down Fenrir and talk him out of fulfilling his role in Ragnarök. Once they found him, it was felt that
"I am concerned you will miss my fang and claw mistress. But you have given me a command, and I shall obey," Garm answered, clearly hesitant. Not so much about helping Dani, but about being away from Hela if she ran into trouble.
"Finding the trail will be hard and talking Fenrir down from his anger toward Odin and the other Asgardians harder still. Even so, we're going to try our best," Dani answered briskly, still working on braiding her hair so that she could put on her suit's helmet.
Beside them, Betsy nodded, moving to scratch Garm behind the ears. But the snarl he released made her think twice about it. "Er, right. Yeah, the three of us will find the little wolfy."
Watching Dani and Garm's eyes cross at Fenrir being called a 'little wolfy' caused Betsy to break out into laughter, but Harry had already moved on to greet Ben, Johnny and Thundra as they all arrived together. Crystal had been recalled by her people barely a few days ago.
Soon the X-men arrived, or those who would be joining the battle anyway. Scott, Sam Guthrie, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Amelia Vought, who was pushing Charles in his chair, walked through followed by Xian, the Hulk, and perhaps most surprisingly, the Hulk.
A few days before, Harry decided they would need to add to their numbers a bit more, just in case. To that end, he had approached Charles and asked about all three of his past patients: Xian Coh Manh, the young Vietnamese telepath, Bruce Banner, and Emma Steed. Xian agreed instantly, despite being the next best thing to a wallflower, while Bruce took a bit of convincing before he decided he needed to pay Harry back for introducing him to Charles and for the aid he had offered Bruce after the Mad Titan incident.
Emma Steed, the former member of the Hellfire Club who was still wanted for questioning in relation to Selene Gallio's London assault, was a tougher nut to crack. But the attack force needed as many telepaths as they could get, and Emma (British Version) eventually agreed to help out, much like Bruce, to pay Harry and Charles back.
Harry nodded to Cyclops and then gestured him to one side. He and the rest from America took their position on one of the many large flying carpets scattered around the airfield. Then a moment later, the runic doorway Harry had set up here at the installation's airfield glowed blue as it connected to Fortress Mars and Iron Man stepped through.
Tony immediately flew into the air and began to circle around the area, while behind him, Polaris walked out, dozens of large metal crates surrounding her. Each of them had legs and could move on their own for short spurts of time, but for now, Lorna's power was the best way to transport them through the doorways. Behind her came several more rows of crates ushered through the runic doorway to be lifted out of the way by Lorna's power toward where other magic carpets waited, floating at rest above the ground nearby.
After their supplies came the regular troopers. Their outfits were outfitted with winter camo, but beyond that, they looked somewhat like the suits worn by Coyote and Uzume, though without the personal touches. The ODM suits were several inches taller and were equipped with visibly thicker armor. The suits were bulkier around their back legs and backs as well, where the thrusters for their jetpacks were located rather than being equipped with the teleportation arrays and the hover boots Coyote, Uzume and Ghigau were equipped with.
The backpack for each also contained folded wings, shorter than the Falcon's but still able to give the user some control in his or her flight for longer jumps. Their helmets fully covered their heads and faces, the front of which was a square, almost robotic-looking visor.
Most held a new weapon too, large-barreled rifles that looked like something straight out of science fiction with how large they were. Jean had called the guns Boom Sticks, and universal acclaim had taken up the name, although a few of the troopers preferred the name 'Bolter'.
Those rifles were not the guns the ODM would normally use. Jean's experiments had proven that plasma guns would barely itch a jotun, while a rail gun round tested against the jotun's armor would just bounce off. Perhaps there'd be enough force imparted to the target to knock him over, but that was all. What was needed to kill a jotun with anything but a headshot was a higher caliber bullet that flew slower so that could do more damage.
With Tony's help, Jean had designed a new gun that fired small, explosive gyro-rocket rounds. While the rifles couldn't fire nearly as fast as either Jean or Tony had wanted, they should still prove to be deadly.
They hoped, anyway. Tests on fire jotun armor the Room of Requirement created based on Harry's memory of the version he had faced said it would. But if they had significantly thicker armor now that they were assaulting Asgard, their effort would be for naught.
After the first platoons of regular troops moved to one side, lining up in ranks as Ororo dictated, the first Heavy Gunners came through. Their suits were very obviously mini-mechs rather than merely powered suits. Built off the Hulkbuster chassis that Tony had originally designed for SHIELD, they stood as tall as Colossus but looked almost squat given how bulky they were. Their arms were large and long, almost like that of a gorilla, with the wearer's arms ending well before the end of their arms.
Their legs were not short per say but they weren't nearly as powerfully built as the arms either. Their backs were stooped as well, a large hump visible there holding the large thrusters the Heavy Gunners would use to move through the air. However, unlike the regular troopers, it was obvious these troops were made to fall like meteors, not glide like birds.
Such a notion was helped along by the heavy Barret-like mortar guns many of the Gunners carried. Others held large Gatling Guns slung under their arms, fed by ammo belts that led to a second hump on their backs. Still others had large apertures sticking out of their shoulders. The only thing they had in common with the regular troopers was their helmets contained a T-shaped visor at the front of their helmets.
"Sir, Orbital Drop Marines reporting for orders, sir!" Falcon barked, saluting Harry before standing at ease, a wide grin on his face under his oversized goggles. These too were also treated to the same anti-illusion array Harry and Dr. Druid had created.
Harry nodded, then looked across the Oh Damns. "I'm not one for speeches, so I'll just say thank you for coming. I know that you don't feel as strongly about intervening here as I do, and it means a lot to me that all of you signed up to participate in this operation. Get to your places, and we will begin. And don't touch the pink javelins."
Soon the ODMs were separated into platoon and squad-sized teams around the circle's edge. The X-men and the Custodes were mostly intermingled with the troopers in various groups to combat trouble on arrival.
Inside of the circle of ODMs, X-Men, Custodes, and other assembled soldiers were two circles, each meeting at a single point in the exact center of the teleportation array. In one, Blink sat alone. Around her hands was a scintillating pink crystalline structure of some kind, her teleportation power rendered into a solid-state object. Other similar structures in the form of small javelins had been stuck into the ground throughout the array.
Across from her, Amora and Hela sat together with Wander-Odin. Both of the Asgardians and the aspect were touching a different part of the circle they were in. While Blink would be coloring the runic enchantment with her power so to speak, so that it could get around the barrier between Midgard and Asgard, the three of them and Harry would create the anchor to the other side.
Harry joined them now, walking carefully through the hundreds of runes covering the ground. He paused briefly to exchange a hug with Ororo and pat Kitty on the head. She, Una, Tony and Amelia would be the four most responsible for setting up a base camp and a medical facility when they arrived, important tasks that would no doubt be needed. In particular, creating a new anchor for the
"Remember, we don't know if you'll be teleported into the air or directly onto one of Yggdrasil's branches. You won't be teleported into anything, but you might be in danger the moment you arrive," Harry shouted as he sat down next to Hela, forming a square with the trio's previous triangle. Amplified by magic, his voice carried to everyone there. "Keep your fingers on your jump jet buttons or hold on tight to the magic carpets. This is your last chance to turn back."
The replies he received were firm and unyielding. The Marines gave their famous cry of "OORAH!" over and over again. The sound came out tinny due to their helmets, but it was still loud. The Custodes shouted wordlessly, and the X-men just thrust their hands into the air, even Charles getting into it.
Seeing everyone was ready, Harry nodded over to Blink, who nodded shyly back, lips twitching into the ghost of a smile at the whispers of encouragement from the nearby Hela and a backhanded compliment from Amora. Wander-Odin simply growled, "Enough with this false modesty, girl! You know you can do this. Get on with it."
Marveling at perhaps the most arrogant and annoying words of encouragement he had ever heard, Harry leaned forward and began to project his power into the array. At the same time Blink closed her eyes, calling her power into being around her. The gathered pink-hued energy was pulled out, away, and into the array.
A moment later, the entire runic array, longer than two passenger planes head to tail, thrummed to life with a pink glow, concentrated at the points where the crystalline javelins stood. There was a loud crash of sound as air rushed into a suddenly created vacuum as the land forces of the Avalon Empire disappeared from Earth between one moment and the next…