North-east of Minsk in the country of Belarus
Mid-morning
With two hands, Hagrid hefted the massive tree trunk. With an added grunt, he swung the trunk back and forth as a warning.
"Ya alrigh', Olym?" he called back over his shoulder.
"Oui," she answered with a pained grown as she managed to get to her feet. "Et 'az been a long while since I 'ave been struck like zat. A good reminder az to why I stopped visiting my mother's family."
A gnarled hand missing some fingernails reached out toward them. Hagrid swung the tree trunk as hard as he could, rapping the knuckles, causing the giant hand to withdraw.
Olympe Maxime and Rubeus Hagrid were cornered into a corner of the rocky hillside. The small valley behind the menacing giant still smoldering from the bonfires from the previous evening. Various other giants could be seen milling, most watching the event between their chieftain and the two half-breeds.
Hagrid and Maxime had accepted this mission from Dumbledore after Voldemort's resurrection. They had been tasked with trying to convince the giants from siding with the dark lord. Maxime had been reluctant at first to go to the giants she had forsaken, but finally agreed that someone needed to parlay with her people, and that it would most likely come be better received if it came from someone related to them.
It wasn't hard to find where the giants were. Not because the giants didn't hide their trail, but rather to the fact that the ICW had a wizarding team that trailed the giants wherever they went in order to erase their trail, preform the necessary rescues and obliviates to any muggles that encountered the giants' path, as well as steering the giant clan away from any residential areas.
Manuel Estrada had been the head giant wrangler for nearly a decade. For new wranglers and the rare visitor, he gave this advice. It was important for wranglers to respect giants. If they couldn't respect them as sentient beings, they'd have to respect them as powerful and deadly beings. If they didn't, they wouldn't last very long.
When Hagrid and Maxime had arrived, Estrada took them in for the night and fed them. Half-giants were rare, but every once in a great while one of the wranglers might have a tryst with a giant. Sometimes they even survived the encounter. Even more rare is when someone tried to make a relationship with a giant work, like Hagrid's father had tried. Hagrid had explained to Estrada how his mother had left him at an early age because of how small he was. Hagrid has been surprised to learn from Estrada, that his mother, Fridwulfa, had joined this clan after she had left his father. She had even had another son, Grawp, before she died.
As sad as he was to hear of his mother's demise, Hagrid was thrilled to discover he had a brother. Of course, the other bad news was that his brother was being constantly bullied for being smaller than the other giants.
Hagrid had been determined to go and meet the clan and his little brother the next day. Maxime had tried to talk him out of it as she was in favor of observing the giants before encountering them, but Hagrid was unusually determined.
Estrada had warned them about the recent changeover in leadership of the clan. The new chieftain, Golgomath, was young, mean, violent and out to show everyone just who was in charge.
Hagrid tried to be a diplomat, which everyone who known him can attest that he does not qualify as. Perhaps Dumbledore had expected Olympe Maxime to try and do the necessary negotiations. No one knew. Hagrid, though, had wanted to impress his new love, and now he had a brother to impress as well.
The talks had started out slow. Hagrid had brought some gifts, most of which were packages of various foods that had been shrunk down before he left Hogwarts. The grooming kit he had brought had been made by him though the giants were not remotely interested in it once they determined it wasn't eatable.
It was then that the Death Eaters had arrived. They also had gifts for the new chieftain. The first was a burning club with a flame that would not go out. The second was a crate with an expansion charm on it holding jellified bones of muggles and animals, a favorite of giants. The next was the long rails from a railroad track for them to use as weapons or whatever they wanted.
Golgomath was thrilled with the Death Eater gifts. And when Hagrid protested, that is when Golgomath decided that he and Olympe Maxime had to go. And that was something that Golgomath wanted to do himself.
Maxime used her wand, taking an unsteady breath she cast a spell at the ground at the feet of the chieftain of the giants. The ground shook slightly beneath his feet, then shot up carrying Golgomath with it, throwing the giant off of his feet and back where he landed hard, causing the ground to shake.
Golgomath rose with a howl and began to reach for his new flaming club when a yellow spear-like object flew out of the sky, hit him in the hand and exploded, making the giant drop his flaming club.
Another object, this time it appeared to be white, curved through the sky, circling the chieftain's head, emitting flashing bright lights and extreme sound waves.
Golgomath roared impotently as his swinging his arms at the flashing bright lights met with no success. The bright, loud object only circled the giant five times before ceasing all light and sound emissions, and then returning to its sender.
Down below a small cliff, a man with a blue outfit with white boomerangs deftly caught the white boomerang. "G'day, mate!" he grinned.
Golgomath yelled out something to his people and they began to respond.
Those sitting were slow to rise as they had a lot of mass to move. One female who had had her face coated with mud for some reason known only to her, had been faster than the others to respond and even had a battered telephone pole that was sharpened on one end. Before she could get totally upright, she grunted in confusion as she realized that the bottom half of her body was encased in ice. She was also alarmed as she realized she was tipping over.
A blond flying woman high above swooped down. Reddish energy beams shot out of the two large jewels she carried, one in each hand, striking each hand of an older giant with dark hair that was starting to turn grey.
"Hey, Punch, this has to be the largest fella I've ever used as a marionette! Think I can make him tap dance?"
"I'll find him a partner!" called back her husband. Punch was wearing a yellow, orange and green jester outfit with a red face mask. He was currently running through the air with his antigravity shoes, which were just one of several items that he and his wife, Jewelee, had found in a mysterious extraterrestrial chest while they were working as puppeteers at the Coney Island Fairgrounds. Punch was about to try use a hypno-gem on a brown-haired female giant wearing what looked like an outfit made out of strips of bark tied together with thin branches when his wife let out a shriek.
Jewelee's chosen marionette was struggling to be free from Jewelee's control. Jerking one way then the other.
"He's too strong!" the villainess exclaimed as she was being thrown around the sky. "He's resisting!"
"Let go of him!" Punch shouted.
Whether she heard him or not, she did let go, and was sent flying to a nearby lake, where she made a big splash next to the severed floating head of Karkus, the previous chieftain that had been killed by Golgomath.
All these events were getting the attention of the giants. A particularly slow-witted one had been standing on a cliff about to relieve himself when everything started to happen. Just below him was Captain Boomerang, who after catching his returning weapons, realized something was happening right behind him.
The slow-witted giant was turning to see what was going on while still urinating.
"Bloody hell!" 'Digger' Harkness scrambled around rubble in a mad attempt to get away from the smelly stream before it could hit him. "Where is Penguin when I could finally use him and his umbrella!"
High above, one of the Death Eaters decided to get involved and raised his wand. "Ava-" He then looked down at the yellow short javelin embedded in his chest as he stumbled back and collapsed in the arms of his fellow Death Eaters.
"Argo is dead!" shouted one of the female Death Eaters who had been one of the few to raise a protective shield around her with her magic.
"We can see that, Lucille." A short, thin man was studying the horizon. "But can anyone see where the attacker struck from?"
Something yellow smashed against one of the Death Eater's magical shields making them all jump.
"Furrel, you've got the best eyes, man! Tell me you saw where that came from?" demanded Lucille who was scanning the area she thought the projectile weapon had originated.
Getting no response, she glanced back to see Furrel kissing a redheaded woman dressed in what appeared to be only leaves. "Merlin, a dryad? Here?"
The others turned as well, wands extended toward this new arrival.
The redhead broke the kiss and glanced toward the Death Eaters. "A dryad? I'll take that as a compliment," she said in a sultry tone. "But pointing wands at me? That I take as a threat." She turned her head to the wizard she had been kissing. "Furrel, be a dear and protect me, hmm?"
Furrel was a tall, brunette with a swirly mustache. He was a frequent hunter and often accompanied Macnair on some of the more dangerous hunting excursions. His reaction to Poison Ivy's command was to snap his wand up and fired a Bombarda Maxima at the feet of the group of Death Eaters.
All but one of the Death Eaters managed to apparate away in time, the exception having been blown over the side of the cliff. Poison Ivy decided to keep her thrall with her for protection. Seeing one of the giants lumbering toward her, she threw out some of her special seeds that started to grow the moment they touched the ground. The teenage giant soon found itself battling against a giant tentacled Venus flytrap that was trying to eat his head.
In the distance, a bold giant was swinging the frame of a battered truck at a metallic man made up of pieces of scrap metal who would explode into several piece, injuring the giant, and then reform in order to attack again.
The giant swung again just as the metal man exploded again. When the pieces of metal reformed into a rough humanoid figure again, his right arm was hanging loosely at his side, and a large section of his chest was also missing. The giant, very bloody at this point, was holding his hand close to one shoulder, and has clutching bloody metal pieces in his hand refusing to let go.
"Hey, let me go, you stupid giant!" Shrapnel shouted at the giant. Mark Scheffer was a meta-human supervillain who was often hired to do assassinations. His body was composed of many pieces of organic metal that made him look like a scrape head fashioned into a man-like shape. He also had the ability to explode his metallic body into hundreds of sharp projectiles and then almost immediately summon those pieces back to reconstitute his body.
A Death Eater appeared behind the man of metal twenty feet away. Seeing the metallic man attacking the giant, the dark wizard shot off a spell. "Avada Kedavra!"
The green beam of light his Shrapnel just as he turned to see who was talking. It hit him straight in the chest. Shrapnel stared down at the blackened area of his chest, and couldn't believe it when the black metal pieces just fell to the ground with a clank before rusting over completely.
Shrapnel looked up with a snarl. "Dude, that was my chest! Do you have any idea how long it will take me to regenerate that?" He took a step over his now inert pieces of scrap on the ground. "I am so going to tear you a new one!"
The Death Eater let out a little shriek before apparated away, inadvertently just missed being struck by another yellow javelin.
Shrapnel roared in fury. "Javelin! That one is mine! Got it?"
"Ja!" shouted the German former Olympic athlete turned assassin. He was wearing his yellow and blue costume and have a short javelin in either hand. "I spy him. Look northeast by the brush," he called out in heavy German-accented English.
In another spot, a giant stumbled and hit the ground after being struck with what appeared to be a small arc of lightning.
Lawrence 'Larry' Bolatinsky flew through the air in a dark blue suit that covered him from head to toe. On his chest, he wore the image of a large skull with a lightning bolt in back of it. He had once been a stuntman, but he and a friend, Carl, had been able to cobble together a suit that gave him some super strength, invulnerability, fly and able to send out bolts of electricity that were similar to lightning. There had also been a teleportation device as well, but it had only been able to teleport him to the retrieval pad in their lab. Needless to say, Larry, who was a man of action, flew the suit and Carl manned the lab. Needing money, but unwilling to part with their discoveries, Larry took to being a hitman and sometimes even a thief if the money was big enough. This led to encounters with various superheroes, known and little known. They escaped, and managed to refine the suit, until Larry didn't think he needed Carl anymore. That proved to be a mistake once he began to have problems with certain parts of the suit. For a while he couldn't fly. And then, he lost the strength enhancements and invulnerability the suit provided. Only then did he regret killing Carl. It had taken a few years of trial and error, but finally his suit was in working again. His only current regret was being incarcerated and being forced into service to Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad. Nobody likes working for free, even if it was for their own freedom. Besides, as far as Larry was concerned, Waller stacked the odds against them surviving.
Bolt barely dodged a red spell followed by a green spell, each coming from a different direction. "And this is why I wish Deadshot were here," as he barrel-rolled through the sky. He sent a bolt of electricity in both directions, but his opponents both disappeared with a popping sound. "I hate teleporters."
Spying one of the dark wizards near the riverbank, Bolt fired off another deadly arc of electricity, but not directly at the wizard so that he would not teleport away, thinking Bolt had missed his target. The wet banks of the river turned out to be a good conductor of electricity, shocking the Death Eater. Twisting in the air, so as to avoid any other spells coming his way, Bolt sent a second bolt of lightning down, thus ending the Death Eater's attack.
Before he could spot the other wizard, one of the giant's took a swing at him with one of the long railroad rail. "Idiot," muttered Bolt, as he sent several thousand volts into the metal railroad rail, which traveled down into the giant's hands, down through his body, and finally disappaiting into the ground. The giant shook briefly, every hair on its body standing straight while emitting small tendrils of smoke, before the giant finally fell to his knees, the rail being melted to his hands.
"Crucio!"
Bolt was struck with the unforgivable curse, and he writhed in the air before he broke away from the curse. "That-that was something," he said through gritted teeth.
Bolt returned fire on the Death Eater that had cursed him. His store of energy had been increased dramatically thanks to the crucio curse, not that he ever wanted to absorb magical energy ever again. He could feel the magic moving inside him. Something like that had happened to an old stuntman acquaintance of his by the name of Dan Cassidy; only it left Cassidy merged with the exo-suit he had built for a movie and now he was part-time superhero known as Blue Devil. No knowing what the magical energy might do to him, Bolt pushed it out toward the wizard, adding his hate for this entire situation.
Needless to say, the Death Eater fried most painfully. The shrieking of the tortured Death Eater was so annoying that a giant child stomped over and stomped the Death Eater into the ground just to stop it.
Captain Boomerang had managed to escape the urine with only some splatters having hit him. He would be demanding a new uniform before going out on another mission. His current one was going to be burned. He was huffing as he tried to catch his breath.
He glanced back to see the giant that had almost peed on him was still just standing there staring at him stupidly. It didn't take a genius to determine that the giant was short quite a few marbles.
"Stupid inbred giant," muttered the Aussie.
His reaction time due to pitting himself against the Flash was so quick that Digger turned and sent off a swift boomerang when he heard a popping sound nearby.
The garbed Death Eater was surprised at the speed of the attack but didn't bother to put up a shield when the object seemed to go beyond him.
"Imperio," said the wizard, his spell striking the super-villain.
Then, just as the wizard was experiencing a moment of success, he had a brief moment of puzzlement as his head seemed to tumble through the air, leaving his body behind. A confusion that would continue to trouble him for eternity when he rose as a ghost on the next Halloween.
Digger Harkness had a split second to shake off the after effects of the imperio, before ducking from him own returning boomerang.
"Bloody hell!"
He turned his head to watch as his specialized weapon disappeared into a small clove of trees that the giants hadn't yet pushed down.
Digger pulled out another boomerang, deciding to give the other one up as 'lost' for now. If he had a chance, he'd look for it after the fighting, but he doubted he'd be given the opportunity.
An explosion drew his attention when Olympe Maxime used her wand to blast Golgomath back away from her and Hagrid. The blast, however, had inadvertently covered up the presence of another apparating Death Eater. If fact, Captain Boomerang only became aware of her when she shouted out, "Pertrificus totalus!"
Digger tried to dodge to the side to avoid the Full Body-Bind Curse, but the Death Eater had been expecting that. All that Digger's momentum had done was to cause him to fall in the dirt, stiff as a statue.
'What the bloody hell? Can't move! Why the hell ain't I movin'?' His eyes darted all around trying to see something that could save him.
"Crucio!"
A high-pitched scream forced its way out of Digger's petrified mouth. Despite the pain, he couldn't even thrash around on the ground. After what seemed like an eternity to Digger, the pain receded, which was almost as shocking as when it first hit him, leaving him a hyperventilating, petrified mess. Despite being paralyzed, streams of tears flowed down his face, and he was becoming aware of a wet mess in his pants.
Just out of his peripheral vision, he could make out a woman in Death Eater garb storming toward him with a wand clenched tightly in her fist.
"You worm!" she spat. "Know this, filth! From now on you will live a long and tortured existence! The wizard you beheaded was my cousin! We were to be married in less than a month!"
Now, standing in front of him, she kicked him repeatedly between the legs.
"Now, instead of planning a wedding, I shall spend my time coming up with new tortures for you to endure! I may even make sure to extend your pathetic life just so I can extend your torture! My only problem will be making sure you don't slip off into insanity as an escape! Not that it would stop me from mutilating your wretched arse!"
Digger struggled to free himself, or just to try protecting his bollocks with his hands from this wacked out sadist.
Then, through the tears, just passed the insane witch, there was a giant staggering back and forth with what looked like an iceberg encasing its head. The giant was struggling to batter the ice from its face with the broken remains of a tree branch and its fists. The giant had evidently been trying to breath for a while, and that its air was clearly up as it tipped over backwards.
Captain Boomerang stared in disbelief as the iceberg-encased giant fell right for him. His wide-eyed stare looking passed her had also alerted the plotting witch to something happening. She turned around just in time to be crushed by the giant's ice-covered head.
Digger found himself free to move again now that the witch's death ended her spell. Some of her blood had splattered on him, but he gave it no head as he reached out for something that he considered to be much more important. He took a large ice shard that had broken off and applied it to between his legs to alleviate some of his pain.
"Bloody witches," he groaned, deciding to just lie there for a while. In his other hand, he grasped a boomerang so as to protect himself even though he was in no condition to throw it.
Olympe Maxime had destroyed Golgomath's new fire club, a fact that made Golgomath filled with rage. The chieftain rushed forward, but when Maxime cast another spell, the giant used the remains of the club to bat it away, and then he was on her, fists striking.
Hagrid, furious, picked himself off the ground and charged to defend his lady love. Coming up behind Golgomath, Hagrid jumped on his back, using his dagger, which was actually an enchanted short sword, to stab him with.
The giant chieftain roared in outrage as he climbed to his full height, twisting around and around in his attempt to get at Hagrid, who was holding on tight to the handle of his 'dagger'.
Such was his rage, that Golgomath didn't notice the stomps coming toward him, or even the shadow that soon covered him.
"ENOUGH! YOU THINGS ARE DISGUSTING! I'M PUTTING AN END TO THIS SO I CAN GET AWAY FROM YOU FILTHY THINGS!"
Towering three times higher that Golgomath stood a giant redheaded woman in a leopard skin outfit. Giganta looked down scornfully at the much smaller giants. Golgomath stood there in shock. Hagrid meekly let go of his dagger, leaving it in Golgomath's back, and shuffled off to see to the battered Olympe Maxime.
"NOW PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER!" For emphasis, Giganta bent down and swatted the rest of Golgomath's broken club from his hands.
Having his new weapon, broken though it may be, knocked from his hands, brought the giant chieftain out of his amazement. With a deafening roar, he launched himself at the being towering over him.
"YOU IDIOT! I'M OVER THREE TIMES YOUR SIZE! YOU CAN'T- OW! YOU BIT ME?! YOU BASTARD!"
Giganta grabbed the smaller chieftain by the beard with one hand, and by one of his legs with another hand. She hoisted him up over her head, then threw him down hard onto the ground. She then repeated that three times while everyone watched and didn't interfere. Finally, Golgomath was no longer moving and she threw him out into the lake, creating huge waves, and the chieftain disappeared beneath the waters.
Killer Frost stepped around some thick foliage to stand next to Poison Ivy. "Well, that was something you don't see every day."
Ivy gave the temperature-impaired woman a shrug. "You don't come through Gotham City much, do you?"
The scrap metal man assassin Shrapnel stomped in, several sections of his body covered in the blood of wizards and giants. "So fightin's done, right? Or do we kill the rest of 'em?"
"Hey! Hey! Look who I found!" Punch loudly danced about high in the air as he spun his wife, the soaking wet Jewelee, around by her elbows. "She was handing around in the water next to some giant guy's decapitated head! She kept trying to climb on top of it, but it would spin and dunk her back under!"
"Knock it off, Punch. You know I can't swim," Jewelee growled. She'd been stranded in the water after being thrown by the giant she had tried to gain control over. Some of her alien accessories, like the one that let her fly, had to dry before they could be used again. She'd still be in the lake trying to use the giant's head as a floatation device if her husband hadn't come to find her.
The others turned away from the insane couple. They examined the terrain which had been demolished before the giants had settled there for the night. Now it looked like a warzone with bodies large and small strewn around the area.
"With the Death Eaters gone," began Poison Ivy, "I doubt that there is any reason to kill any more of the giants."
Bolt, floating a few feet off the ground, looked around. "Any one see our fearless leader, or did we get lucky, and one of the wizards or giants scragged him."
Killer Frost snorted in amusement. "The way I hear it, old Boomerbutt has a way of surviving every situation he's involved in, no matter how bad they turn out."
"Can't believe they made him leader of this team," scoffed Shrapnel.
"Anyway," continued Killer Frost. "Old Digger got his bollocks repeated assaulted by a witch wearing sturdy boots. He's using some of the ice I made to kill some giants to ease his pain." She pointed casually over to a fallen giant with its head encased in ice. Bolt and Shrapnel, after exchanging an amused look, decided to go and see for themselves.
"You people," called out a pained voice. The two villainess watched as a wounded man limped over towards them. There was plenty of blood about his person, most seemed to belong to himself. He was clearly a wizard, but also not one of the Death Eaters they had been fighting. "Who are you?" He appeared to be both angry and sad. Shock was also evident on his face.
"We're the ones who saved your sorry backsides," responded Frost. "So, who are you supposed to be?"
"Manuel Estrada, head giant wrangler," he answered. "The Death Eaters came down on my people, too. Most of my colleagues and friends are dead." He paused to stare at the landscape turned battlefield. "Merlin, did you people have to kill so many of them?"
A chuckle came from Poison Ivy. "You think we should have just let them hit us with all their spells?"
Estrada gave her a dark look. "I am referring to the giants."
"To be fair, we only went after those that attacked us," said Killer Frost, who was watching Jewelee attack her husband Punch with what looked like a rubber chicken, but probably was some modified death tool of theirs.
"You attacked their chieftain! Of course, they were going to attack you!"
"Their chieftain agreed to support Lord Volt-something or other," Poison Ivy responded. "That being the case, the chief had to be removed from the equation. If you and your team had kept the Death Eaters from talking with the leader of the giants, this all would not have happened."
"My people were not trained to fight Death Eaters!" barked Estrada. "That is why most of them are dead or wounded so bad they will probably be crippled for life!"
"Shouldn't you be attending to them then?" Frost said, annoyed with the giant wrangler.
"I've already sent them to be treated with emergency portkeys."
Killer Frost rolled her eyes, since she really didn't care at this point. The giggling made her look back and she could see that Punch had now gotten the upper hand and was tickling Jewelee and that her top was starting to come off. With a growl of annoyance, Killer Frost quickly created a large igloo over the amorous, insane couple.
"Where did you get her?" Estrada said, in wonder as he stared up at Giganta. The enlarged woman was encircled by several other giants, though none came up to her hips. One of the smaller giants had been very persistent in getting Giganta's attention to the point that she picked him up. They would later learn that the small giant was Grawp, Hagrid's half-brother. Despite Giganta's earlier disgust at the giants, she seemed to be somewhat taken by Grawp, and was cradling him to her.
"Uh oh, looks like someone's maternal instinct has gone off," a bemused Poison Ivy remarked.
Killer Frost looked on with some disdain. "She knows she can't bring that thing back with us, right? Waller would do unspeakable things to it."
"She is one of you?" a surprised Estrada asked. "How did you keep her hidden? Someone that big should have been seen for miles away."
Poison Ivy looked up from where she was tending to a damaged tree. "Giganta changes size, of course. We couldn't use her until the Death Eaters were put down first. We heard of your mind control spells. The last thing we would need is for her to turn on us just as we get things calmed down."
Frost put a hand on the wrangler's shoulder. "Wait, when you sent your wounded to the hospital, did you contact the authorities, too?"
"Of course, I did!" snapped Estrada. "For all I know, there could be another group of Death Eaters coming to finish what the first group failed to do!"
"Damn! We have to get out of here!" Killer Frost stormed over to the igloo, causing the structure to crumble to chucks of snow that fell on the passionate couple beneath it.
"Hey, what the hell?!" Punch shouted as Jewelee gave off a shrill shriek.
"We got to leave before the magic cops get here! Put your clown outfits back on! We have to go!"
"Frost?" Poison Ivy asked.
"What?"
"Giganta."
They watched as their towering comrade began to shrink until she was around a head taller than the other giants. She still held Grawp, but she set him down as a battered Hagrid made introductions to his younger brother who he had never met before.
Bolt flew over, landing near Poison Ivy. "Hey, I was looking around doing a fly thru and I just realized Javelin is nowhere around."
Frost grimaced. "Damn, I'll have to tell Waller. Do another sweep, just to be sure."
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Lucille Krampus walked into the dark lord's chamber. Floating behind her was the stiff figure in a yellow and blue torn and dirtied outfit. Javelin's eyes were the only part of him that could move, and they darted around the room, hoping for some means of rescue or escape.
Lucille froze when her master's familiar, Nagini, crossed her path. Javelin's eyes seemed to almost pop out of his head as he watched the serpent, having never seen a larger one. He'd taken several assassination jobs in his career, but he was always wary of the ones where he was hired by someone who kept snakes. They seemed to be more vicious and often out of their mind.
Once the snake had passed, giving a large part of its attention going to a skittish, rat-faced, chubby man, Lucille moved forward until coming before her master and bowed.
Javelin couldn't see the person Lucille was bowing to, but his nervous body betrayed him by letting out a loud fart. Javelin closed his eyes in shame, but was also glad that it was only air that had come out.
"Krampus," said a low, silky voice. "You are here without your comrades. Tell me what has transpired? What of the giants?"
"M-master, we-we had been well received by the giants. There had been a poor group sent by Dumbledore. He sent his half-giant and that other French half-giant from Beauxbatons to try convince the giants to not join us. The new chieftain chose to side with us and attacked the two half-breeds. That's when we were attacked by… a most unusual team. Some had uncanny weapons like this fool here. Others had powers the likes of which I had never seen or heard of before."
"Tell me," came the quiet command.
Krampus' eyes darted back and forth as she stared at the floor. "It-it might be better – do you have a pensieve available here. I think… the details, they would be important to you. I could not possibly descr-"
"I'll see for myself." Leaning down, he gentle reached down and took her chin, raising her head until she could look him in the eyes. "Legilimens," he whispered.
Lucille gasped in surprise and quite a bit of discomfort as the dark lord rooted through her recent memories, which caused her spell on Javelin to fade and he dropped to the ground in surprise. The assassin barely had a chance to sit up before Nagini was upon him tightening her coils until he could barely breathe. Javelin doubted he would have been able to escape regardless, as this Krampus woman had stripped him of his weapons as well as somehow made the bones in his hands vanish with some incantation.
Lucius Malfoy stood off to one side waiting to see what was to become of this man and possibly Krampus as well. Wormtail stood in his corner, shivering as he watched the great snake, hoping that she would eat the blond man so that she would not look at him hungrily for a time.
Lucius looked up when the door opened, and his sister-in-law came in. She looked at the dark lord with delight, but came quietly over to Lucius. "What transpires?" she whispered. "And who is the colorful fellow entertaining dear Nagini?"
Lucius had to keep his face neutral. He had never liked his sister-in-law. Before Bellatrix had married into the Lestrange family, she had been determined and frustrating in his opinion. But after her marriage, she seemed to go mad in delving into the dark arts, so much so that it brought her to the attention of the dark lord himself. Voldemort fanned the flames of her needs and penchant for cruelty.
"Krampus' mission to the giants had a mishap of some severe consequence. She brought the muggle as a prisoner. Our lord is learning why right now."
Bellatrix tittered in amusement, but kept quiet, staying near Lucius until Voldemort finished studying the memories.
Finally, the dark lord released his servant, letting Krampus fall to the floor in stifled sobs.
"You killed Furrel," he accused.
"The-the dryad- she had him in her thrall," Lucille blurted out, trying to defend herself with excuses. "He was killing us!"
"I know. That is why I do not kill you." He stepped around her to go over by where Nagini lay with her captured prey. "Not that you won't be punished."
Voldemort looked down serenely at Javelin. Reaching out, his long fingers gently traced the lines of the assassin's face. "You are the most remarkable muggle I have ever met. And yet the other individuals you accompanied are even more fascinating. You will tell me everything you know about them. Everything." And with a wave of his hands, Nagini loosed her coils slightly to let Javelin to breathe easier.
Javelin looked at this hybrid snake-man in fear as he recovered his breath. Javelin had encountered Kobra once and worked alongside Copperhead twice, and yet this snake-man made him more afraid than either of those two had done. "I can't!"
Voldemort flicked his wrist which was all the cue that Nagini needed as she started to swallow his head.
"Wait! Wait! You don't understand!" the assassin shouted out in his thick German accented English as the snake had already come over his eyes before she stopped. "Waller will kill me! She can kill me even here!"
Voldemort chuckled and went to sit on the throne he had made for himself while he stayed at the Malfoy Manor. "Oh, you amuse me." He leaned back smiling in delight at this unexpected enjoyment. "Normally I'd either have one of my servants flay you alive or summon the bones out of your flesh one at a time because you had cost me several of my followers as well as the giants who would have joined me. I begin to think that this is also the reason one of my werewolf group has disappeared. But, these… unusual friends of yours, they would make good additions to my ranks. A few such as yourself are clearly muggles, but with incredible weaponry. And the others, those powers, I have only heard tales that I assumed were the work of pulp fiction. What servants they would make for me."
"You don't understand!" Javelin shouted. He was terrified of this snake-man. The snake attempting to hold his head as well. But Waller had a hold over him that kept him in strict obedience to her. "Waller basically enslaves people like me! Forces us, whether we have super powers or not, to do her bidding until we are freed! Unless you help me, she'll blow my f-"
The explosion of Javelin's head caught everyone by surprise. Voldemort sitting at his chair couldn't even get his arm up in time to shield himself of the debris that was once the head of the assassin formerly know as Javelin, as well as his beloved Nagini.
"No!" Voldemort stood up. "Nagini!" The dark lord hurried over to where the body of his snake companion lay, falling as he slipped on some of the carnage on the floor. He began to pull what remained of Nagini's head into his lap, cradling it when he heard someone behind him shout out "Reducto!"
He had his shield up, only to realize that he was not under attack. Glancing back, he saw that Krampus had ended her own life by sending a strong cutting curse into her own head.
He howled in outrage at being stymied in torturing the woman that had brought the cause for his familiar's demise. And not only the death of Nagini, but the destruction of the horcrux she carried inside her as well.
Several Death Eaters rushed into the room right into their master's crucio curse. Bellatrix, Lucius and Pettigrew dared not move from their spot least they draw their master's ire down on their head.
As sudden as the dark lord's anger had begun, he went still, sitting next to the corpses of Nagini and Javelin. The crucioed Death Eaters, as they became able, crawled out from the room as quietly as they could. It was over another hour before Voldemort would speak.
"This Waller woman… she could kill from a distance. Even thru the Malfoy wards and despite it being on unplottable ground. Clever and devious. A diabolical foe. More so than even Dumbledore. Does she see me as a rival? If she is on the side of the light, she is more like the damnable Alistair Moody than Dumbledore. But, then, Hagrid did not seem to know of Waller's forces. Yes, this Waller woman is clearly another player. A deadlier player."
Rising to his feet, Voldemort walked over to the wall where he saw something sticking out of it. Pulling it out, he saw that it was one of Nagini's fangs. Reverently, he brought it up and kissed it. "You will be avenged, Nagini. I will see your fang pierce this Waller woman's throat, mark my word."
He turned and walked back to his throne, casting the scouring charm ahead of him and onto his throne.
"Bella, this is a sad day, my dearest servant." His eyes were sad, and she would have rushed to his side except he hadn't asked her to. "Go, collect those best able, then come and we shall put dear Nagini to rest."
Being dismissed, Bellatrix went to go find some Death Eaters that hadn't already been placed under the cruciatus curse that day. It would take a while as most of the able-bodied servants were hiding out, not wanting to be seen that day.
"Lucius. Come forth."
Malfoy was quick to obey. Today was not a day to enquire their master's wrath so he fond himself down on his knee before his master faster than ever.
"Lucius, I will share some of what I saw in Krampus' head before she saw fit to remove it. The fighters you will observe, are quite remarkable. And this fool whose head… exploded, he indicated that there were others like that out in the world." He took in a breath. "You will find more of these unusual beings, these beings with 'super powers'. I know not if they are muggles, wizards, or some other race. I care not. I will have them. I will use them. And with them, I will destroy Dumbledore and this Waller woman!"
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AuThOr'S NoTeS: 12/29/2018
This chapter is much like the previous, only here the Suicide Squad was asked to stop the giants instead of the werewolves.
I hope this was a good fight scene for everyone. Javelin was always going to die. He's already died twice in the Suicide Squad in the comics. I thought it only fitting to do it, too. Or maybe that is just overkill.
Let me know what you think. Thanks.