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Once the two made their way back outside, they found Boom Boom, Iceman, and Rogue working with Cyclops to isolate Bulldozer away from any buildings. Once Cyclops and Boom Boom knocked him away from any potential victims with kinetic blasts, Iceman used his frost powers on the villain and the ground around him, slowing Bulldozer's movements. Between that and his inability to build up any speed thanks to the ice, Bulldozer was forced to rely on his army training to fight the far stronger Rogue, which was a losing proposition. Even after only a few minutes, the beating he was taking began cracking his armor,, and as the two teleporters appeared, Rogue got in a lucky punch, breaking one of his arms and causing him to stumble back with a cry of pain.
However, another cry of pain echoed it from nearby as Angel was blasted out of the sky by a beam of magic. A second later, Angel crashed to the ground, only his armor of yellow Orichalcum protecting him from severe injury, though one of his unprotected wings was definitely broken.
From out of the fire and smoke obscuring much of the base came Wrecker, his crowbar glowing menacingly. His magical weapon aimed towards them and bolts of purple energy, looking somewhat between one of Cyclops' beams and a lightning bolt, but hitting with all the force of an electrified tank round. . As more bolts were flung their way, Boom Boom was forced into cover while Cyclops dove to the ground to avoid another beam.
Above Wrecker, Scarlet Witchdecided to make her anger at this treatment of her friends known in no uncertain terms. Innumerable hex bolts lanced down, causing Wrecker to shout in pain as he quickly became a pincushion. He waved his crowbar around in a poor attempt at defense, though the enchanted item did seem to absorb any magical bolts it came into contact with.
Such a thing did nothing, however, for the spell which impacted the ground around Wrecker, transforming the asphalt into so many spikes, all of which lanced towards Wrecker as one. He shattered them easily, yet by the time he did so, Rogue had crossed the intervening distance between them. The larger and far stronger Rogue barreled into Wrecker, picking him up and piledriving him into the asphalt beneath them.
But Wrecker lashed out just as his head impacted the ground, smashing into Rogue's chest with his crowbar. The blow packed enough punch to send even her stumbling and the next second his crowbar flashed around to scythe Rogue's legs out from under her. Still off-balance from the unexpectedly heavy hit to her armored chest, Rogue couldn't correct her balance, and fell sideways to collapse to the ground. Immediately, she rolled away before coming back up into a shoulder charge. Wrecker held still until the last possible fraction of a second before dodging by a hair's breadth, only to eat an explosion to the face courtesy of Boom Boom. "GAH, damn it!"
A part of Wrecker had hoped that between the two of them, he and Bulldozer would've been able to handle any X-men freaks quickly, without needing any additional help, if any would've even been given considering the fact that Loki and the others were off doing their own things. But at this point, he knew that the two of them alone were going to probably lose. "Bulldozer, time to vanish!"
With that, and still blinded by the explosive strike to the face, Wrecker grabbed at a beaded necklace that had been tucked inside his suit. The necklace was already missing a couple beads, used earlier to arrive and then send off the bit of tech they'd come to retrieve, but still had plenty to spare. Crushing one bead between his fingers, Wrecker activated the enchantment within, and disappeared.
Almost hissing in fury, Scarlet Witch watched as a battered Bulldozer moved to do the same. Her hands moved on impulse, creating a tracking spell, but the man was gone before she could finish. "Oh, you goddamn ass! Grah!"
"Scarlet, calm down. See what you can do to figure out where they went. Boom Boom, stay with her, keep any authorities from interrupting her work. Politely. The rest of us will spread out to do what we can for the soldiers and civilians," Cyclops ordered, sighing as he took in the destruction around them. "If you could even just tell me how they teleported away like that, Wanda, I would still be a very happy camper."
With that, Cyclops turned and led the way to fighting the fires spreading from the various labs and rescuing casualties of the battle, even as he opened his mind to Charles' telepathic touch. "Professor, if you're in contact with Dr. Strange or Harry, we could a couple more magic-users down here. And some emergency medical and rescue teams too."
It took Cyclops about twenty minutes to find the individual who had landed the unenviable position of being the highest rank currently available to give out orders. Said individual was a captain, the commander of the Naval Ordinance Test Unit, and had taken command of the disaster. The base's officer quarters had been an early target of Bulldozer's rampage, and that had set the tone for the fight before the X-Men's arrival.
The death toll from the surprise attack had already risen into the hundreds by the time more aid arrived courtesy of the Custodes. Thankfully, when Harry, Jean, and Ororo arrived, and the latter two instantly went to work, that number never raised any further. Between them, rescue teams from the Kennedy Space Center, and the X-men, the fires were soon brought under control and the wounded organized and evacuated.
As this happened, Harry and the officer in charge debriefed on what had happened, from beginning to end, and what he heard caused Harry to scowl. "So they just appeared over the Bennet Causeway? And the rest of the Space Center didn't report seeing them at all? Not from any direction?" Well, whatever they were here for it's clear the WC are working with Loki. That's a lot of enchanted items they were using. Items, not direct magic, means tracking them will be much harder. Damn it.
"Bulldozer appeared over there, Wrecker by the other bridge. They bypassed most of the Center's security, and then demolished the bridges behind them. The X-men arrived before any reinforcements could be diverted to come over from the beaches." The middle-aged man reported. The captain had huge sideburns, almost mutton chops, and a glare fit to frighten the dead as he stared out over the wreckage. "I have no idea how they did that or why they were here, but they've cost hundreds of lives, millions of dollars in damages and set back a hundred, if not several hundred experiments. This is a disaster."
Since Harry held the monopoly on space travel in and out of the gravity well, NASA's insanely slow bureaucracy had finally been forced to change direction. Instead of space travel, they'd rededicated themselves to other endeavors: experiments in zero-g, the effects of space on metallurgy, and other various industries revolving around travel or combat in space instead of getting there. The experiments that occurred at the Space Control Center now were among the most secret and dangerous the US government conducted.
"Could they have stolen something? Or kidnapped someone? Was all this just a feint for something else in the Kennedy Center portion?" Harry asked, staring at a building a very overpowered Reparo spell had pulled back together from the rubble.
Shaking his head, the captain huffed, looking even more upset. "I have no idea. Give me a day and maybe I'll be able to come up with something. But before that, I heard earlier from a petty officer you'd been on the lookout for these bastards?"
"Not just them, others too. The other two members of the Wrecking Crew, Thunderball and Piledriver, set off on a crime spree at the same time this attack happened, unfortunately. Theirs, however, happened on the other side of the country though, up in Seattle, Washington. They were able to get away before the Custodes could respond," Harry scowled angrily. "Trust me when I say that this will not happen again."
OOOOOOO
Harry's growled vow was broken the very next day twice over, though the Wrecking Crew didn't stick around for long either time. Piledriver's hit and run attacks on banks and random electronics stores were over too quickly for even the few local heroes available—Spiderman in New York, and a man and woman pair in Chicago who went by the aliases Power Man and Jewel—to react in time.
Wrecker and Bulldozer did not take part in these smash and grab sprees, likely recovering from the beating they'd taken at the Space Center. Likewise, Thunderball never showed up either. Unknown to the the wider world he was too busy constructing the Chitauri beacons to waste time on such things.
Of course, Loki was also doing his part, though his actions obfuscated what he and the Wrecking Crew were really after more than Piledriver's ever had a hope of doing.
Instead of stealing money or tech, Loki went on a string of small break-ins across America and Canada, targeting museums and religious sites, knowing that would throw off the pursuit and whatever they were thinking he might be after. Each time he did so, he would first use his own teleportation spell inward, or a series of illusions and such other magics to cover his presence, above and beyond the enchanted item that he had prepared, which would allow him to use his magic more freely.
However, the Trickster God soon realized that the Custodes' fast reaction time was not limited to just their mutant teams. Within minutes of his first break-in, Stephen Strange had appeared, and Loki barely got away before being spotted.
The second time, the Scarlet Witch had responded, a woman who he'd yet to see on the news since arriving on Earth. That time, Loki hadn't retreated immediately, determined to scout out these magic users who were hunting him. Covering himself with a series of illusions and remaining in the area, he watched as the pair helped the local church he'd broken into repair the damage and ask questions. Neither had seemed aware that he was watching them from nearby, but he'd still clutched the Eye-Blinder to him tightly, just in case, and had left as quickly as he'd felt comfortable.
Loki felt that his luck was fading each time he made a move and realized, quite quickly, that the Wrecking Crew was even more out of their weight class against the Custodes Mundi than he had thought. Indeed, as it turned out, his luck was off from the very start.
Entering the latest museum he'd targeted for a nonsensical break in through a hole he'd just made in its outer wall, Loki set the section of the wall he'd cut out back into it's place with a flick, dusting off his fingers fastidiously of the dust and ash he had created. Before he could take two steps, a light came out of nowhere and shown on him, and a voice shouted, "Freeze!"
Loki's response was instantaneous, and a little bit too overpowered for the situation. A blasting spell raced out from his hand, crashing into the individual who had discovered him. The unfortunate security guard had barely recognized a flash of purple was heading his way before the spell struck, causing his body to burst like an overripe melon hit by a warhammer.
Blood and guts went everywhere, and Loki sighed faintly, and some even splashed back towards him over the intervening fifteen feet, getting on his boots. "Well," he muttered as he used a cleaning spell. "Well, even I must get unlucky at some point."
Loki held up his Eye-Binder for a moment and frowned seeing one of the eyes upon it had opened. Shaking off his misgivings, he set it back underneath his shirt and made his way forward. I believe it would be prudent to hurry. Now then, religious iconography would be where in this hovel?
Barely out of the first wing of the museum a sound above caused Loki to instinctually dive to the side, dodging a sudden spell of some kind. Glaring upward, he saw the so-called Sorcerer Supreme there, his legs crossed under him as if he was meditating in midair, before he stood, his red cloak flapping in an unseen breeze. "Loki Lauffeyson, blood-brother of Odin Borson, you will be coming with me."
Loki hissed at the sheer arrogance of the human man, although a part of him was wondering how the fool had gotten his history wrong. A smaller part of him, however, wondered why that name and title had sounded… oddly correct to his ears.
It was a strange mental dichotomy, but Loki set such distraction aside and without saying a word began to launch spells up at the man. The Sorcerer Supreme responded in kind, the magical energies meeting midair and exploding upon impact, unchecked power lashing out in every direction.
"I think not," Loki drawled now, holding back the other man's energies back with one hand, while gesturing with the other.
Stephen Strange dodged the resulting explosion from underneath him, shifted to the side, and set to building his own attack spells around him. As he did so, a protective shield formed that held back Loki's attacks.
The two began to duel, several spells flashing between them seemingly without pause. For the most part, both sides stuck to raw magic, molding and controlling the elemental energy by will alone, although over the din of battle Loki could make out the sorcerer was simultaneously using a verbal incantation.
Perhaps it was thanks to concentrating on that spell more than he should've, but Stephen soon made a mistake, moving towards one of the outer walls of the museum instead of staying in the middle of the high-roofed hall. Before he could get his next enchantment off, a spell sent towards the foot of that wall had the entire thing transform into spikes, which shot towards him.
Those spikes were shattered under a blast of purple and black magic, as another individual arrived, her form hidden at the moment by the shadows in the hall. "Strange, you must get better at reporting these things in the future. 'Break in at the museum' is not at all helpful when there are many such museums in this blasted city."
Loki turned in the direction of the newcomer as Strange answered. "I'm sorry, I thought that speed was of the essence here. Forgive me for not taking the time to write out a full memo."
"Well, we're here now," a new voice said, revealing the arrival of a third interloper, and Loki hastily dove forward to cover as a binding spell flew through the space where he'd just been standing.
Faced with three magic users, each of them equal to his own power if not higher, Loki barely had time to notice that the latest arrival was actually Harry Potter himself before he had to throw up a series of shields. "/Defend me, defend me, oh shield of the heavens!/" He shouted in ancient Norse.
A second after he finished his incantation, there was a BOOM as Potter's spell ricocheted off a cloud of white energy that had burst from him. Luckily, the stronger the attack, the better that particular shield worked. It wouldn't last very long, but it would last long enough.
"Three of Earth's mightiest magic users for little old me?" Loki quipped, putting a hand on the necklace of beads, along with the Eye-Binder, he had around his neck. "I am truly flattered."
"Since when have I only been a power on Earth, dear patriarch? That is a rather insulting claim for one such as I, even if your mind and memories are not your own," the woman drawled, taking several steps forwards out of the shadows, finally allowing Loki to see who she was.
She stood there, resplendent in red and black armor with a long skirt of some kind, a mixed weave of metal and fiber that fell to her ankles with slits to either side. In one hand she held a sword, while in the other, eldritch magic began to flare from her fingertips. Raven-black hair cascaded down her shoulders and from behind her half mask, eyes of violet flashed as she sent a spell towards Loki. "But worry not. Soon that issue will at least be amended. What happens after shall be up to what your true personality reveals itself to be."
"My dearest daughter, Lady Hela!" Loki intoned, bowing theatrically. The showman in him urged him to put on a display, possibly gain information on his enemies as long as his absorbing shield lasted. He ignored the words his estranged daughter sent his way, they were most likely empty anyway, a strange tactic for getting under his skin. She might have instincts born from her heritage in that area, but she knows not anything of value to truly use against me. Or mayhap she is operating under the assumption I am being controlled for some reason? Regardless, the thoughts of my enemies are none of my concern. And I am a past master at getting under the skin of my enemies…
With that thought in mind, and knowing he couldn't project magic through his own shield, Loki began to trash talk, enjoying having a captive audience once more. "I had seen you a time or two in the news since I arrived back on Earth. And now, seeing you here, with present company in consideration, I have to wonder if some rumors about you being involved in an affair with Potter is based on more than just gossiping magpies. How scandalous, daughter mine, a human and a goddess. For shame, my dear, for shame. Although… given how animalistic your siblings turned out, perhaps I should not be so surprised you gave into your baser desires and began lusting after these lesser beings. However, even accepting that, why you then allowed your object of lust to marry that black-skinned woman is beyond me. Have you no pride in yourself? No pride as an Asgardian? As a goddess?"
"Your words would hold more weight Trickster, if you had ever actually acted like a father. As you are now, you never have, so I believe I am fully within in my rights to tell you to get stuffed," Hela drawled in response, but Loki could hear her teeth grinding all the same.
Seeing that for all her calm appearance his teasing had hit a mark, Loki grinned to himself as he continued to taunt his adversaries, proceeding to plot with the understanding that Hela was the weak link. "And you truly believe that all three of you are needed to deal with me? Are none of you so brave as to face me one on one? Would that not be the honorable thing? Or do you believe that you need to rely on one another to match up to me? I am certain one of your brothers would wish to prove themselves against me one on one."
With that, a very subtle mental spell flashed out unseen from one of Loki's many enchanted items, a spell designed to awaken the baser instincts of an individual, to make them easier to anger quicker to respond to provocation. The spell instantly fizzled out before it could affect either of the men present. Strange's robe seemed to come alive, flowing up to cover his head to absorb the spell before it could hit the Sorcerer Supreme's head. Worryingly, Harry Potter didn't even seem to notice the spell as it washed against him and broke over his skin.
Hela, however, was affected and her response was somewhat gratifying. "He's mine! For all the wrongs he has done my family, I must be the one to bring him down—in! GAH!"
The Goddess of Death shot forward, spellfire flashing from her one hand as her other hand raised her sword. This resulted in her getting in the way of Stephen Strange's line of fire. Realizing that something had happened, Harry shouted, "Wait, Hela!"
As she charged, the absorption shield finally faded. Now free to escape with his magic, Loki grabbed at one of his teleportation beads, crushing it just as his enraged daughter reached him. He disappeared in a flicker of existence, right as a blast of lightning from Harry looped around Hela and seared the wall behind where he had been standing.
OOOOOOO
Hela stared at the spot where her father had been standing, feeling a wave of revulsion wash over her. No, no that man was not her father. Indeed, that twisted thing had barely any connection to her at all. But still, but then…. Hela shook her head, self-loathing filling her as she finally realized something had manipulated her emotions. "How did… that was…"
"That was an emotional manipulation spell of some kind, love," Harry said, confirming her thought while Stephen moved to where Loki had been, letting the two of them have their private moment. "We knew going in you would be more susceptible to magic of that nature, like most Asgardians. We should have thought that through before confronting Loki, who among all of the Asgardians would most likely be capable of using that kind of magic. That, and well, despite knowing his memories are still the ones the Shadows replaced or twisted, we didn't think how your knowing the truth would make his falsehoods seem so much more horrible."
"True. I did not think seeing him would be so difficult. I, I was off balance from the beginning at the mere sight of him. And the, the lack of… of recognition, of familial feeling? Any bond at all?! Despite knowing that his mind would not be his own, I had thought that Loki would at least acknowledge me in some manner? And… and I find that I yearned for it, as if I were a little girl again. And then his words on my brothers cut me to the quick, in a way I had not anticipated, and primed me for that blasted spell. Bah!" Hela shook her head fiercely, trying to push her momentary weakness aside.
"Easy, milady," Harry whispered, enfolding her in a hug ignoring her murmur of 'not in public' for the moment. "There is no shame in what you're feeling. Seeing someone you have recently unearthed fond memories of, someone who you well, loved, looking back at you without any such thing. I remember how it hit when Emma and I barged in to speak to you in Hel after the Shadows had gotten their hands on you. We were only friends then, and it was still jarring."
He snorted. "And you didn't take advantage of my being off-balance because, Emma was Emma and that threw you off balance in turn. Honestly, I don't think I've ever thought flyting was your strong suit my lady. Your thoughts are too direct for it."
Harry's tone made it clear he thought such a thing was a very good thing, and Hela just barely stopped herself from preening as her Seidr-man went on. "As for his words on your brothers.,, you've only recently become reacquainted with Fenris, the real Fenris, so it's understandable that any attack on that connection strikes at both your pride and feelings."
"Aye, I suppose you speak true. I will just need to keep control of myself in future. Until we can begin tearing away at the changes the Shadows wrought to his mind and body, and mayhap even return Loki's memories to him, he will remain our enemy." For a moment more, Hela leaned her head into Harry's shoulder before leaning up and giving him a quick, chaste kiss on the lips.
That was all she would allow herself with any others beyond her sister wives present to observe. Future sister wives rather, as he and I have yet to wed. Then Hela began to chuckle as a thought belatedly occurred to her. "You do realize that if we do capture my father and turn him back to his original self, or as good as, you will have to ask him for my hand? When you do, we will have fulfilled Old One Eye's prerequisite on allowing me to wed you?"
Harry paused at that, and a wry twist came to his lips. "Now on the one hand, that's mildly terrifying on several levels, both as a man asking a father for his daughter's hand in marriage, and with regards as to who Loki should be. On the other, I cannot deny I can't wait to do so. And considering I've gotten lucky about the whole in-laws thing so far, I suppose having the Trickster God of Asgard as my father-in-law is simply karma coming due."
Unfortunately, while Stephen was able to trace Loki's initial spell, once more, it ultimately led them nowhere. The location seemed randomly chosen, a mountain in Greenland of all places. While Harry was somewhat tangentially interested in the massive island given the resources Reed had once mentioned it might contain, there was nothing within easy reach that would interest Loki or any other magicals he knew of.
From that dead end, there were no more traces, and after several minutes of fruitless searching, Stephen and Harry were again somewhat annoyed. "He crushed a bead, which acted like a portkey, except the item needed to be destroyed to activate it rather than there being a verbal trigger," Harry murmured, scowling as he ran through the known facts. "But those can be traced like the one we traced here. Why can't we trace the next one?"
"The arriving splash, as it were, of the first washes out the magical jumping point of the second," Stephen murmured, staring around them. He and Harry had hit themselves with heating charms when they'd arrived, while Hela had not, and the goddess seemed to be reveling in the cold just as she did back in Camelot. "Do you think he planned that?"
"Almost certainly," Hela asserted, sounding almost proud that even as twisted as he was her father was still capable of such devioiusness, yet at the same time such an achievement vexed her. "Remember, unlike most Asgardians my father is like Odin, Freya, and myself. He's a well known seidr user, with centuries of experience, and very guileful above all that."
"True. I suppose we should've gone in with the understanding that we might not get lucky so quickly," Harry said with a nod. He sighed as Cory appeared once more.
"Master, you—" Cory choked to a stop, shivering in the cold before Harry interrupted, laying a hand on the short house elf's head.
"Yes Cory, I know." He shook his head, looking over at Stephen. "Keep me apprised of anything you and the others discover. That is, I trust that you will continue to help with this matter?"
"As this situation directly impacts the use of magic upon non-magical beings here on Earth, for once your business falls directly under my purview," Strange answered with a nod and a bit of snark. "My domain might have been lessened since your arrival Harry, but this sort of thing is still my calling."
"Thank you Stephen," Harry sighed. "For now, I need to get to a meeting… unfortunately. I don't know why, but no one ever mentioned the unending meetings when they talk about attaining great political or social power. Responsibility? More like with great power comes a great deal less free time, and a great deal more meetings."
"It doesn't scan well does it?" Stephen answered, chuckling as he gestured Harry off. "And more power to you, my friend. I doubt I'd ever wish try and juggle everything you have going on. But if you could, kindly send a message to your hunting team? I'd like to know if there is anything here they might be able to discover along the physical aspect of things."
There wouldn't be, but despite that, the search for the rogue Asgardian and his quartet of minions continued.
OOOOOOO
On the other side of the line, speed continued to be the key to the fivesome's success, the only thing that saved the small group from being overwhelmed. However, when the Wrecking Crew went after their next few high tech parts needed, this time in teams of two, that same speed turned against them. The first to realize this were the pair of Thunderball and Piledriver as they attacked the Higher Energy Technological Institute for the Betterment of the People's Party in Tianjin, China.
"I have to wonder just how these criminals have been breaking in so quickly before their magical signatures register to Strange. Don't you? He's not that busy is he?" Magma muttered. She was leading this team, as all of the higher ups were busy with various things, and they'd been pinged to make haste to the Institute as quickly as possible. And Harry's day is going to be getting a lot busier after this.
"No, he is not. It's possible that their means have nothing to do with magic however. Elseway I cannot image how they arrived here in China without setting off some alarm. I do not believe they would be able to blend in. Perhaps they were able to find a location inside this institute to teleport to? I am still uncertain as to how much magic the Asgardian Trickster can use without triggering the Eye of Agamoto's wards," Clea suggested. Since Harry and Ororo were both busy, she'd been seconded to the team for the day. Wanda, likewise, had been sent to back up the X-men. "That he can hide at all from the All-Seeing Eye at all is worrisome enough though."
"The amount of planning that implies worries and annoys me," Magma murmured, unknowingly repeating Harry's words from days past as she turned to the sorceress. "Try and see if you can figure out how. If you cannot, pull back and set up all the wards you can. I know those are hit or miss, but if we can block them our quarry from escaping we can take them." And I doubt we need a magical powerhouse to deal with only two of the Wreckers.
Clea nodded and with that, the team arrived above the sprawling institute, where fires and smoke could be seen running rampant. The popping cracks of small arms fire in the distance, and periodic explosions, told them that the two Wrecking Crew members were still around. While maintaining their invisibility, the magic carpet flew low, and then Magma saw their targets, the two racing out of a building that burst into flames behind them. "Cannonball, now. Husk, Colossus, split and follow."
Instantly, Cannonball blasted off the carpet, launching himself downwards and catching both of the present Wrecking Crew members one after another,. Of the pair, Piledriver turned at just the right split second to take only a glancing blow while Thunderball was sent flying.
But a second later Piledriver was driven to his knees by Husk, who hammered out several hard blows into his upper body, having shifted into her metal form. However, unlike Thunderball, Piledriver had previously had some training in combat. All it took was Husk being a little too slow to pull an arm back, and the far larger man saw his chance to grab her. Picking Husk up, he flung her into the wall of the nearest building, tearing a gasp from her as her back shattered concrete. The hand grasping her steel arm then began to twist. "Ya think yer hot stuff, bitch, but Piledriver's gonna pound you into the ground! Shit, maybe ya'll even like iiiIIIIIIIIITTTAAGGHHH!"
The criminal's words warp into a yowl of pain as a bolt of tectonic energy crashed into his back, searing through his enforced uniform and leaving a large second-degree burn despite his above-normal Asgardian disposition. Piledriver reached back with both hands in a futile attempt to assuage the searing agony, releasing Husk, who dropped to her feet. Instantly, her leg struck out against his own legs, taking them out from under him. At the same time, several shots rang out, and high velocity rounds slammed into Thunderball with such power that the very ground shook under the man. The shock of this assault was enough to send him backwards, and his wrecking ball missed Colossus by a wide margin.
Since all four of the Wrecking Crew were pretty much bulletproof, Coyote, Uzume, and Ghigau had planned accordingly. They hadn't bothered with their rail guns, having learned that such weapons had to be very carefully aimed to affect high durability targets like stone or fire Jotun, and figured that the same would be true for the four pseudo-Asgardians. Instead, after the breakout from Final Destination, the trio had gone to Jean with requests for a different type of ammunition.
The result was now blinding Thunderball, who was really having a very bad day. The exotic rounds from the sharpshooters had taken him in the face, covering it entirely with what looked like… well, to many of the younger members of the Custodes it looked almost like the sentient substance Flubber, from a movie that had come out in theaters a few months back. Or perhaps its evil twin, given that the substance was grey and dark brown in color, and seemed intent on sticking like concrete to its new home.
Blind and slowly suffocating, Thunderball grabbed at his necklace, his fingers scrambling but ultimately pinching one of the beads there. Destroying it with frantic haste, the magic activated and a moment later, he disappeared.
Colossus, bereft of the target he'd been about to finish off, instead, charged into battle against the semi-recovered Piledriver. The Russian slammed hard blow after a hard blow into the criminal's face, never once letting up. Taking the opportunity presented, Magma launched her own bolts into the mix. As they teamed up on Piledriver, louder booming sounds from above told both that Cannonball was coming back.
However, while Piledriver was stubborn beyond a fault, he wasn't a complete idiot. Instead of continuing a fight he wasn't sure he'd be able to win, he leapt upwards, jumping to the rooftop of a nearby apartment complex to escape. By complete accident, this allowed him to dodge evil-Flubber bullets from Coyote and Uzume.
With the Custodes after him, he climbed up the side of the building like a monkey, evading Colossus and Husk for a moment before the large Russian took off after him. Showcasing his gymnast background, Colossus bounded up the side of the building even faster than Piledriver had.
Ultimately, it would prove for naught, as while he climbed, Piledriver also grabbed at the necklace under his shirt. Not even looking at what he was doing, he pinched one of the beads between two fingers and crushed it, disappearing and reappearing an instant later in a desert somewhere. Alone. "Well, fuck. Goddamn it, what color did the others say we were using as our base now? Shit!"
Back at the Institute, Colossus could only glare at where Piledriver had been before cursing under his breath in Russian. Gritting his teeth, he dropped back to the ground, and took stock of the rest of his team. Calls for status reports came back mostly positive, one of the only good things that had come out of the encounter.
The only one who even reported being battered around the edges was Husk, whose arm had been wrenched badly. But even as she revealed her injury, the country girl peeled out of her steel form, a grimace of pain on her face the only trace of the wound's existence as underneath warped steel was revealed to be pristine flesh and bones.
However, Magma barely paid attention to the rest of the team, as she turned away from her team and instead walked towards one of the nearby surviving soldiers, who just so happened to be shouting something into his battered walkie-talkie. In the distance, the Neo-Grecian could hear the rumble of nearing tanks, and so Magma decided to try and nip a possible incident in the bud before it got worse. In Chinese, she announced, "We are the Custodes Mundi. We responded to a supernatural threat we detected going on here. The situation is over. We will be leaving now."
"You will not be going anywhere, enemy of the State! You will all surrender now! You and your men will pay for your part in this madness!" The officer shouted back, eyes bloodshot and wide. Waving a hand at her, he gestured towards a group of nearby soldiers who'd been cowering nearby while the battle had been going on. "Get them!"
Sighing, Magma raised a wall in front of the soldiers. Turning back to the rest of her team, she jacked a thumb over her shoulder at the obscured soldiers. "Time we left crew."
Without a word, Coyote deftly brought the magic carpet down toward the rest of the team. Once they were all aboard, the various enchantments on the magic carpet went to work, turning away the attention of nearby people even as they shimmered into invisibility and ascended into the air.
Despite the fact they'd left without issue, distant cannon fire still erupted as a mortar team and several tanks opened fire at where the battle had been going on a moment ago.
"All in favor of not responding to any more incidents in China raise yer hand?" Paige snarked, as Cannonball zoomed through the air, alighting on the magic carpet next to the others, heavy machine gun fire tracing up into the air behind him before falling away as he was enveloped by the carpet's magics. "You'd think they didn't like us or something."
"Clea, tell me you have something?" Amara asked, ignoring Paige's attempt at humor, looking over to see the sorceress was doing something… sorcery… with her hands. There was a promising spark in her eyes—
"I do," Clea announced eagerly. "We can go after them now."
"Call it in. And Paige, that sounds like a fantastic idea," Amara growled.
OOOOOOO
At the same time that Piledriver and Thunderball were teleporting out of China, the other two Wrecking Crew members were also hastily retreating from a brawl with Alpha Flight and the X-men in which they had likewise been doing quite poorly in. Although Wrecker could create illusions with his crowbar, they couldn't hope to fool Scarlet Witch or Hela, who had decided to join the team on that particular mission. And although he was super-strong, enough to fight Thor on a near-even footing, so could Warpath, who hadn't been part of the Wrecking Crew's first battle with the X-men. His force field, as durable as it was, could be overcome, not to mention it was slow to expand. Worse, the heroes outnumbered him and Bulldozer again, just as they had at Cape Canaveral.
The only saving grace for the Wrecking Crew was that Storm and Phoenix hadn't shown up as they had prior engagements.
Jean had a meeting with Reed and Forge regarding finalizing the first human-designed spacefaring capital ship . Ororo had a meeting with the board of education for the Savage Land, soothing some concerns from parents who were leery of Pinoptes' central position in the Savage Land and Fortress Mars' educational systems.
Loki too was having issues, although much worse than his patsies. He had run into Harry Potter. Again. Fortunately, this had occurred at the height of the local tourist time, and Loki's quick thinking and numerous hostages had allowed him to get away, despite being mildly crisped around the edges. Still, he came to realize that Potter was now biting at his heels with even more tenacity than the other teams were after the Wrecking Crew.
OOOOOOO
When the next set of smash and grabs occurred, Harry and the other magical members of his various teams arrived on the heels of their disparate opponents teleporting away, which caused something of a scrum as bodies slammed into or piled onto one another.
"OW!"
"Get your elbow out of my face!"
"Get your face off my ass!"
"Whoever just touched my tit better own up!"
This is most undignifIIEEDDD!"
"Oops, sorry teach, didn't mean to headbutt yah there."
"GRRRR! If whoever doesn't stop rubbing my fur the wrong way I will start biting!"
For a few moments chaos reigned until Stephen managed to cast a spell and the various bodies all tangled together began to separate and hover in the air. A few moments of apology and reports followed, and Harry and Stephen began to trace for more teleportation spells. Unfortunately, their search came up with multiple spells, all going off in different directions. Quickly taking charge, Harry ordered Wanda and the rest of the Custodes Mundi who had fought Thunderball and Piledriver previously to follow one lead. He directed Clea and Stephen to follow a second. Phoenix, Storm took the Proudstar brothers to follow a third trail. Meanwhile, Harry claimed the last with Hela and Garm.
"Wait!" Ghigau shouted a split second before everyone set off, getting their attention. Harry and the rest of the admittedly large group turned to where she was crouching by the door to the large wedding suite, along with a shrunken Fenrir. "There's a trail here too. Wrecker at least split off and came this way."
"The scent matches that of one of the ones from the prison. There are others here, but they are so overlapped, I cannot tell them apart ," the young wolf added, scowling with annoyance, an extremely frightening expression on his lupine face.
"Good catch you two. Garm, join Danielle and Fenrir." Harry ordered hastily, changing his plan. "You three together would be a better mix of tracking and power against whoever you end up tracking."
The older wolfed scowled at the idea of not hunting beside his mistress. The pup and the baby Valkyrie didn't need him. He made to object, but Hela lightly cuffed him on the back of the head with a snort. "Do it, my wolf. Now is not the time to argue. Let us all quickly follow our trails as best we can. Hopefully one of us will get lucky."
Such hope was dashed as when Harry and Hela soon followed the trail of the portkey-like enchantment Harry had chosen, all they found on the other end was an empty warehouse somewhere with the note 'Better lUck neXt TimE' sitting in the middle of the floor. Glaring at the taunt, Hela raised a finger and set the crate it was attached to ablaze. "Such an irritating man!"
Ignoring the flickering flames, Harry attempted to use his tracing spell again, hoping that he could just keep on the trail long enough for Loki, or whoever they were after currently, to run out of enchanted beads.
Unfortunately, that would not be the case. That first teleportation away from the suite they had arrived in turned out to be a red herring and ended there. Harry took a brief moment to step outside the warehouse to discover where they were, an industrial district somewhere filled with similar-looking warehouses, before teleporting back to the suite using Ororo's method with Hela in tow.
When they arrived back, the two discovered that they were not the first to return. Wanda and her group had also returned, and were completely drenched to the bone, save for the redhead herself who was only half wet. As soon as her feet it the ground, Wanda hastily conjured up some towels, but after chattering teeth caused her creations to fall apart upon forming she called for several of the house elves to pop to her with towels from Camelot.
"A dead end, I take it?" Harry asked, his own frustration at having chosen the wrong trace to follow lessening as he took in how bedraggled the rest of the Custodes seemed.
"Very much a dead end. It dumped us about a foot over a body of water. Hells, even Cannonball didn't have time to activate his powers before we splashed down! And the water was so freaking freezing! If it wasn't for Colossus grabbing me at the last second and tossing me up before I went under, I might've been too cold to concentrate on any spellwork to get us out of there," Wanda grumbled. "I didn't even know that it was possible to do that with a teleportation spell; appearing midair over someplace without any discerning features or anything like that."
"Loki's ability to enchant items with teleportation spells seem to be almost a perfect cross between my own portkey spell, and Ororo's, longitude and latitude based spells," Harry mused, calming down still further as he contemplated the magic involved. Hela exchanged a nod of greeting with the Colossus, who among all of those who'd taken a dip in the drink didn't seem to be bothered by the cold. The goddess also noticed that Ms. Guthrie appeared to be in some sort of rocky form, although what type of rock would have been appropriate to turn into while plummeting into the ocean, she couldn't fathom.
A moment later, Jean and Ororo appeared, the two leaning on one another, shaking snow and ice off of themselves as they looked around. "Near the top of the Tibetan mountains," Ororo reported, shaking her head. "It was quite a beautiful spot, but horrendously cold and low on oxygen. And Wreckers."
Stephen and Clea took the longest to return, and by the time they did, Dennis had already reported in on an interesting piece of breaking news that explained exactly where they'd ended up. "The personal bedroom of North Korea's dictator, was it? How tempted were you to just overthrow their whole sham of a government when the little fool ordered you to be detained?" Hela asked with a snicker.
Stephen, slightly more professional, than Clea, who was grining, snorted at Hela's question, though Jean and Ororo looked quite annoyed. North Korea was one of the few places that remained on Earth that was very staunchly anti-progress, anti-Potter, and anti-mutant. Stinger's retrieval teams had been called to the isolated country a number of times over the past few months, although thankfully that seemed to be less and less the case as time went on. New mutants just weren't showing up there as much, not in comparison to North Korea's very large neighbor to the north, west, and southwest.
That being said, both women still looked as if the idea of overthrowing the pathetic bully boy greatly appealed to both of them now that Hela had brought it up. Regardless of what issues doing so would undoubtedly cause.
Harry, wise to his ladies' minds, looked at the two and winked, all but agreeing that he too would have been incredibly tempted in their friend's shoes.
But Stephen replied in the negative, and further explained that he and Clea had been able to talk the pajama-wearing dictator down. "This was after, it has to be admitted, we threatened to 'beam' him up into space," Clea added, snorting a little as well.
Yet despite the moment of levity, the general consensus was a feeling of resigned annoyance. "Loki might be a Trickster God, but even so this is most annoying," Ororo announced, looking over at Hela. "I am sorry love, but your father is making me very frustrated with how easily he can give us the slip."
"Actually, I doubt it's that easy for him. I think what we're looking at here is the fruit of a lot of preparation. That and detailed knowledge of what he might face…" Harry murmured, not noticing that Stephen was nodding along with him due to a thought sparking up into an epiphany. Suddenly, his eyes began to gleam with mirth, and he held up an arm.
A moment later as those gathered lookied at him like he'd lost his mind, Hedwig appeared in the air above him. Blink, and most of those others who knew the ins and outs of teleportation, stared at the beautiful snowy owl with wide eyes, all of them curious as to how her ability differed from their own and what Harry was doing.
Ororo, however, had already gotten the idea. "You think that Loki wouldn't have thought to block whatever ability Hedwig employs to find people? That would be a magnificent joke if so."
"It's not so much he might not have thought of it, as it is he has no idea how it works. Anti-scrying or warding spells, and even runic arrays, against being found or against teleportation all depend on having knowledge of the type of act you wish to block. Loki might have worked out how I could go about finding him, but Hedwig is extremely unique, one-of-a-kind, even. There's no way he'd be able to understand her skill set, if he even knew about it in the first place. So what do you think girl, do you think you can find this trickster for us?"
Hedwig puffed up proudly on Harry's forearm, precking loudly. Without further discussion, Harry began to write out a note. It was common knowledge, at least in his original world, that to find someone else, a messenger bird like Hedwig had to be given a message for that individual to deliver. As he worked, Ororo stood by, preparing her own means of teleportation, waiting for the coordinates she would hopefully soon receive to discover their enemy. Simultaneously, Stephen and Wanda set about casting a spell that would give then the coordinates of where Hedwig had gone once she returned. While Harry could have undoubtedly been able to teleport the hunting party to her position using Hedwig's sight and memory, that would've take a few moments to complete. Given the runaround that Loki had already set his pursuers through twice now, none were sanguine with the idea of giving him any more time to prepare or escape again than absolutely necessary.
Moments later, Hedwig had a message to Loki held tightly within her talons. With one last preck, she leapt into the air, disappearing an instant later.
OOOOOOO
While the Custodes were pursuing them, the Wrecking Crew plus one Asgardian trickster had come together once again in a villa in Mexico City. However, no sooner had they all arrived before Loki ordered them all to flee once more using more beads while he fled on foot with Wrecker. After hurried and angry grumblings, the other three villains disappeared.
Alone, the two scrambled to leave the suite and duck into the next building over, under a series of illusions courtesy of Loki of course. Then, the two took a trip into the sewers culminating in the release of several odor bombs and another teleportation bead.
The bead took the two of them to another suite in Nice, France, where Loki immediately sprawled onto a sofa. Rolling over, he stared at the battered faces of Thunderball and Piledriver before looking over at Bulldozer who seemed a little fresher, if just as haggard. "I hope that none of you will argue further regarding our need to avoid challenging the Custodes directly?"
"Yeah, no shit. And what the hell happened to you?" Bulldozer snorted, looking at the somewhat flash-fried appearance of the so-called God.
"Let us just say that I too ran into … issues… and that I am very glad that I took the time to prepare so many different teleportation beads. Otherwise, a number of us would have been caught in that nuptial suite earlier today, given it appears as if we all were forced to flee rather hastily. A pity, I quite liked that city, it had elegance," Loki groused somewhat mournfully, scowling as he made to sit up. He stared grimly at the four muscle-bound morons he'd stuck himself with. "We will need to wait a bit while I make more of them, or else…"
Loki's words died as the Eye-Binder that he kept around his neck began to warm against his skin. He reached into his shirt, pulling it out only to stare as the object's many eyes began to open, one after another. Wha—How? This is supposed to stop people from finding me at all. Full stop. Scrying, divination, summoning, all of it! But if those eyes are opening, then someone has discovered a means to locate me it cannot block! The enchantment is collapsing! Standing up abruptly, Loki shouted, "We must flee! Somehow they have been able to track us. Red!"
At once, all of the Wreckers grabbed at a red bead from their necklaces as ordered, crushing them and teleporting to the same position. Said location was the same city in Portugal where Loki had first begun his journey across the European continent. For a moment, Loki allowed himself hope to enter his heart, that his fast thinking would be enough to throw off the trail of whoever or whatever had found him.
It was not to be. Not even three minutes later, the same heat came to him again, the Eye-binder growing warm in his pocket. He pulled out the object and watched as still more of its eyes began to open. "Green!"
The moment the world stabilized around them again, Thunderball shouted the group's growing frustration. "We can't just keep running! Fuck! We only got two of the colored beads left, so unless we want to split up again—"
Hissing, Loki snapped into action. Reaching up to his head, he pulled out several strands of hair with one hand while reaching into an expanded bag for what looked like a doll of himself. He stuffed the hairs into the doll, then marched over to Wrecker and tugged out a piece of his air, ignoring the man's furious look and loud cursing. Hunching over, Loki did something to the taken hair that wound it around itself in a dizzying display, ultimately culminating in a ring of hair on his finger.
"Because that's not disturbing at all," Bulldozer muttered, shaking his head. Loki then barked out a command to break the Yellow beads. As the four Wreckers fumbled for another of their dwindling beads, Loki stuffed one of the random beads into the mouth of the doll of himself.
This time, the group appeared in the city of Milan. As soon as they landed, Loki began to cast spells on the ring of hair on his finger. Other dolls, looking much like the Wrecking Crew, shimmered into existence. "This might not hold them off for long if whoever is attempted to discover me simply switches targets. You all, de-power, head out, and see if you can find some random hairs somewhere. They need to be human, but other than that…"
The four men looked at one another, more than one carrying a mutinous look, before Wrecker's scowl deepened and with an effort, his power flowed back into his crowbar. Reluctantly, the others touched the tool as well, willing their own power away. Thunderball and Bulldozer both grunted when the full weight of their enchanted items hit them without the added strength the crowbar had provided them. Groaning, they set their enchanted items on the bed and stepped back. Moving quickly, Loki transfigured the four's clothing, which had reverted to prison garb once more, into simple jeans and blank T-shirts.
In the end, even magically cleaned up, Piledriver still looked a little too much like a criminal thanks to a permanent sneer on his mug that only a mother could love. So he stayed behind, while the other three headed out quickly.
By the time the trio came back with several dozen hairs, Loki had finished creating more dolls, using a modified trick that warriors routinely employed to keep curses and foul things at bay while at war in Asgard, each taking the appearance of one of the Wreckers. They won't last forever, but they should last long eno—or perhaps not!
Even as he prepared the dolls that very second, his once magnificent working, his Eye Binder, began to act up once more. "We are out of time! Three random this time, then the green."
Several hours later, the group of five would meet up once more in an expensive mansion, this time on the outskirts of the Canadian city of Edmonton. All of them looked bedraggled, and the four Wreckers did not relax until Loki announced that they could not be followed any further.
At that, a palpable feeling of relief swept through all of them, and the four supervillains looked at one another as they began to laugh, slightly hysterically. They had been defeated by Thor and the Fantastic Four before, sure, and knew they weren't the top of the food chain. But being hunted like this, especially after being so overwhelmed as they had been in their battles against the superheroes?
It was humbling, and these were not men who appreciated being humbled.
"What the fuck are we gonna to do now? We can't even knock a place over cause we're afraid of being jumped on so quickly! There's no way we can go through with your plan Loki! Hell, I don't think we can even keep living like we had been; taking what we wanted when we wanted," "Or at least, not for long. Fucking capes," Garth grumbled, leaning back in one of several large soft chairs scattered around the sitting room.
Nearby, his three fellows were going over the bottles of hard liquor and wine stacked along a rack bolted into one of the walls. Watching them, he idly wondered just whose mansion they were in at the moment. But then, he really didn't give a fuck unless it added to their troubles.
"I believe that we will need to continue to use sleight-of-hand to our advantage my friends," Loki finally said grandiosely, waving a large stein of something in one hand. Where he might have gotten it, none had noticed, nor cared. Unlike the four Wreckers, the Trickster seemed almost cheerful, his eyes alight with a fiendish sort of delight at how he'd been forced to think so quickly on his feet. It had been quite a long while since he had felt so challenged. "Tell me gentlemen, do you know the first rule of being a stage magician?"
When all he received from the Wreckers was looks of confusion, he sighed theatrically. "You get a crowd's attention focused on one hand. Meanwhile, the other is the one doing the actual magic. Thunderball, how many beacons could you create from what we have now?"
"The term you're looking for is 'build' and four. But we could raise that to six if we could get our hands on a bit more circuitry parts like motherboards and such. And we'd need one more Hyalic Dispersal system," Thunderball answered, dumbing down the needs to fit his audience.
Loki bit his thumb, thinking over his options. While the chases they had all been forced to lead the local defenders on were worrisome, the battering the four Wrecking Crew members had taken were brutal, and his own confrontations with the heroic magic users proved that they were well out of their depth, such would not do as an excuse to Thanos. And the last thing Loki wanted was for Thanos to be displeased with him when he arrived.
I want them to have a very hard time of it, obviously, but there is a vast difference between the subtle art of masterful sabotage and Thanos deciding to point the finger at me for any perceived failures.
"In that case, you four will need to do a bit of non-superpowered thievery. I do not think that my using any sort of large-scale or high caliber magic would be a good idea right now. I can still aid you in with illusions and conjurations though, but only those. Then… well, our enemy has seemed somewhat fixated on me compared to you four. Their response to any of my activities has been… overwhelming… regardless as to their level of violence. So, while you four make with the magic, as they say, I will be our stage hand, using their fixation against them."
you four can retrieve one more whatever system all together, I think we will have to use that against them…"
OOOOOOO
Looking at where Hedwig had drooped on her perch, Harry stroked his owl's plumage for a moment, calling for a house-elf to prepare a plate of bacon for her. "Well shite. Almost had him. Ah well, you tried your best girl. We'll just have to play the defensive game some more until they make a mistake."
"I hate it, but unless we want to waste time and effort to enhance Strange's Eye of Agamoto, which might not even work, we don't have any options left," Ororo said with a grimace. Harry could only nod in grim acceptance.
"Still, I think at this point we can all assume that our quarry is after something more than just fast money or causing mayhem, correct?" At Harry's question, Ororo, Hela, and Jean all nodded. Emma wasn't there at the moment; busy with one of two managerial meetings she had that day. "In that case, let's get everyone together and see if we can figure out what is going on."
That evening, Harry organized a meeting of his advisors, which was not easy given their various duties. Eventually his trio of military commanders, Murphy, Powers, and now Cesaro, agreed to join him via a video call, their faces appearing along one wall of the meeting hall. Sam joined Cesaro on his screen, Steve was there in person, along with Cyclops and Amara, to speak for the Custodes and X-Men, and Dani for the hunting experts.
This group had, given the inclusion of Fenrir and Skadi, naturally enough become something of a semi-unofficial secondary scouting and tracking team. With Logan and Laura only willing to leave the Savage Land for specific missions, and Morph and Mystique were best kept as special operatives. It just made sense that a new team would form to fill in the gaps. And that was before considering Wyatt and his proven abilities.
The fact that Skadi and Dani were practically joined at the hip at this point was not something Harry felt the need to comment on. Internally, he thought the blushing twosome were easily in the top five cutest things he'd ever seen since coming to this dimension. Although, he did wonder what Odin and the rest of the Asgardians thought about Skadi basically leaving Asgard behind just to be with her new beau, rather than chasing after a powerful believer as she'd originally declared.
Also present in person was Reed Richards. The FF had dealt with the Wrecking Crew before, although Harry had not brought them in on this latest series of attacks save for asking Reed if he had some scientific means of tracking them. He hadn't, unless they were actively using the magic the WV had been given by the enchanted crowbar. The magic that had enhanced their bodies was untraceable through scientific means.
After giving a brief overview of the breakout from Final Destination as a preamble, Harry then reminded them all about the type of mental changes that had been wrought upon Loki by the Shadows; that instead of being atroublemaker and foil, a mixture of ally and annoyance for the Asgardians, he had been warped into a true enemy to Thor and the others, an active antagonist for the various plays that the Shadows had so enjoyed. "And through interacting with Loki we know the one time we nearly caught him that those mental changes remain. And we also know from experience that, it's going to take a lot of effort on either Charles, Emma, or Jean's part to undo them. Jean?"
Grimacing, Jean shook her head. "While my efforts to clear Heimdall's mind of the Shadows' influence didn't quite match up to Emma's freeing Hela, it was still easily the hardest thing I've ever done. The Shadows' touch was insidious, their changes building up over time, layers upon layers. Yet, in comparison to what they had done to Hela, who was only supposed to be a minor antagonist in the Shadows' plays, Heimdall had been a rush job. It was quick, brutal, and thorough, but the changed were easily visible, if hard to repair. That's not what we're dealing with here. Emma?"
That was putting it mildly. Even now, Heimdall was not altogether recovered mentally, his memories and perceptions still creating moments of mental dissonance. But Asgard's own healers were more than up to the task of helping him along.
Emma took over then, describing how much effort it had taken to remove the Shadows' influence from Hela's mind and blood. "And that was all while she was being somewhat protected from being completely dominated by the Shadows thanks to her connection to Lady Death. Loki doesn't have any such protection, and we know the changes done to him are even worse in terms of his memory and his place in the Asgardian Pantheon. To wit, he is historically and mythologically supposed to be Odin's brother, not his adopted son. He is also supposed to have bred with a giant named Angbroda thrice but later marry Sigyn, also known as the Victorious Wife. But Sigyn was erased from the Asgardians' minds entirely. And in the Shadow's tales, he hates Thor and Odin, instead of…"
There, Emma paused, unable to come up with a way to describe the mythological Loki's relationship with the rest of Asgard in a succinct manner. Luckily, Harry had thought about it previously, and smirked slightly, interjecting quickly. "You all know how in some histories about the Roman triumphs where a triumphant Emperor would return to Rome and have a parade in his own chariot? But he would be accompanied by a jester or dwarf or slave, whose job was to tell him he too was mortal? That seemed to be the kind of person Loki was for all the Asgardians."
"It is still strange to me to hear of the differences between what we know to be true, yet was false, and what was written about us but is true," Skadi admitted. "That said, given which came to light in the Shadow War, we cannot but admit to the truth. As for your thoughts on Loki, it seems to me a right thought, though Lord Odin's pride would sit poorly with such… which, admittedly, perhaps does match some of the stories Dani has told me of their supposed interactions better; of two wily opponents trying to one up one another in painful, embarrassing, but never deadly ways for they are brothers, and thus family."
From there, Harry asked Dani to debrief the rest about the Hunters' endeavors for a moment, covering the fates of the other criminals that had been killed or recaptured again before asking Reed to speak about the personalities of the Wrecking Crew. This was an aspect of their prey none of the Custodes had gotten a handle on in their brief battles with the group. Fortunately, after fighting them, Reed had made a thorough study of the quartet in an effort to come up with a scientific means to completely cut Wrecker off from the enchanted crowbar that was the source of his powers. A full break obviously hadn't worked although he had managed to develop a serviceable dampening device which the Final Destination Penitentiary had made use of.
"Essentially, the four are… well, normal criminal types. Bulldozer, born Henry Camp, is a bit more complex, as he was a soldier at one point and has an intense loyalty to Wrecker, also known as Dirk Garthwaite, or Garth. The two are both in it for money and fame, plain and simple. They are bitter, angry individuals for whom violence is second nature, and the answer to all problems. They don't get along well with others, although Bulldozer does have a suspected connection to a longtime girlfriend. I doubt we could use her against him, however."
Eyebrows rose around the room at that, but Harry just shook his head at the normally peaceful scientist's sudden spurt of ruthlessness. Knowing the man as he did, he put it down to the fact this meeting was taking away from family time, not something Reed would actually think to do.
Not noticing the looks he was getting, Reed went on. "Piledriver, Brian Calusky, takes it to another level. Records show he's always enjoyed violence, and there have been a few instances of specific acts perpetrated against teenagers, male and female. I could not find the reasons for them, but there it is. Thunderball, formerly Dr. Eliot Franklin, is a bit different from his compatriots. While a criminal, he is also a scientist, a researcher in gamma radiation, and a decent engineer. Psychological evaluations flag him as having a problematic and inflated ego, and in the past his desire to smash anyone who hypothetically impinged upon 'his' research fueled most of the Wrecking Crew's initial clashes with myself and the rest of the FF."
"Are any of them the type to think long term?" Steve questioned.
"Dr. Franklin, Thunderball is," Reed answered concisely. "He's the only one who thinks in terms of the next heist or what the group's overall goals should be. I don't think he's the one doing the planning at this point, but it is possible. I could go into greater detail on their various psyche profiles if anyone is interested, but those are the highlights."
From there Cyclops and Amara spoke about the various clashes they and their teams had had with the Wrecking Crew, including the three that had lasted the longest to date. The general consensus resulting from this was that the Wrecking Crew could present actual danger to most of the Custodes on account of Wrecker's supernatural strength coupled with his ability to freely switch between short, mid, and long-range strikes. It made him the hardest to get a handle on, but the Custodes, and a majority of the X-men, were used to fighting similar enemies by this point, and experience had proven that if they could just pin the Wrecking Crew down, they would be able to handle them with relative ease.
"We've got the training, gear, and weapons designed to combat enemies of equal or higher weight class. The Wrecking Crew would be out of their league in a small unit combat scenario," Amara finished.
From there, Harry stood and spoke on the brief confrontation he, Hela, and Stephen had had with Loki, and his personal tiff with Loki that afternoon in Greece. "So it's obvious that the fivesome are working together, but are they working towards one goal, or several? I feel that we can discount the bank robberies, despite how widely spaced they've been. What are they after?"
"I actually have a partial answer to that one," Dennis answered suddenly, using the room's hard light controls for a moment. A video popped up after a second, showing a recorded security video. In it, Bulldozer and Piledriver could be seen through the crush of the location's bustling locals, moving through the street looking almost normal except for the orange jumpsuits they still wore, of course. The video, Spymaster revealed, was from a security camera of a building across from the bank in India that the twosome had attacked. This was proven a moment later as, caught on camera, the duo transformed and charged forward.
"They can depower and hide themselves as normal civilians, huh? And with Loki involved I wouldn't put it past them to have an illusion that covers their prison garb too," Harry mused, scowling. "Great, just great. I thought they could only get their power straight from Wrecker's crowbar? Doesn't seem that way any longer if that was ever the case to begin with. That annoys me just about as much as Loki's ability to hide his trail so well."
"Let us move on," Ororo suggested, keen to keep her husband from going down that rabbit hole once more. "We need to be asking a few other things on top of all of all of that, unfortunately. First and foremost, has there been any public fallout due to these sporadic battles?, If so, how bad? Also important is the nature of some of their targets. Why that institute in China? Why Cape Canaveral? Were they destroying something specific at those locations, or stealing something equally as rare?"
At that, Sage raised a hand and shook her head. "MJ and the rest of our PR folk are on top of the publicity issue, so there hasn't been any extreme blowback on the Custodes or the X-men. Our sticking around after the Cape Canaveral assault, as well as cleaning up after the one you dealt with today Harry, has especially won us a sizeable piece of goodwill in the U.S. and Greece."
The woman, who like the military men was taking part in the meeting via a video call, paused then looking to Dennis. In the silence,
Taking his cue, Spymaster chipped in. "As for China, we were at least able to convince the Chinese government that our presence and intervention was in no way a move against them, although it's doubtful that the current president and his council will ever look favorably upon us. However, that's more to do with our stance on Taiwan than anything else. That's about as good as we're going to get."
That president was actually the ex-criminal the Mandarin, who had, through political chicanery and social aggrandizement—and a good deal of personal firepower—become an upstanding citizen of the Chinese Communist Party. From there, he'd moved up the bureaucratic ranks at astronomical speeds, and then during the last National Congress he had been nominated to the presidential position, primarily on the basis of how much of the country's high-tech gear was supplied by the Mandarin via his various shell companies.