"My friends I bring ill tidings from Asgard!" Thor said as he appeared in the living room floor.
"What the hell!" Half of the room shouted, everyone jumping up from where they were at the sudden appearance (and the smashed windows). The Bifrost didn't like windows. A few moments later everyone slowly got up and walked closer to where the Asgardian was standing.
"Okay point break what's gone wrong?" Tony asked taking charge. His house, he gets to ask to the questions. Cora had a bad feeling, as did everyone though they were making a good job to hide it. They weren't exactly worried, everyone was more experienced at this whole superhero business by now (they'd had a few incidents in the past months, now that Earth had 'declared it was ready for a higher state of war' or whatever people were popping up everywhere, some off world some locals, luckily most were rather small things organized by but a few people, nothing as bad as the Chitauri invasion) but Asgard was a different matter entirely.
"Yesterday there was a... Breakout. A great many prisoners were freed." Thor said visibly grimacing at the thought. A breakout. A prison breakout, that was all this worry was about? Alaw thought that was a little bit overdramatic, there were prison breakouts all the time. "But it wasn't just any old security centre... It was the high dungeons." Thor said as if that would clarify something and make everyone give a larger reaction. All the Asgardian received was a bunch of confused looks willing him to elaborate further. Thor sighed before giving them a description.
"Many criminals stay in jail settlements in their own realms, but some villains are to evil and or dangerous. The worst people of all the nine realms are transported to Asgard, such as the destroyer of worlds, the mage of Saturn and other killers who are far to dangerous to even see face to face. Their home is in the depths of the palace, the higher dungeons. Magic forcefields, tens of guards and exhaustion charms are but a few of the measures used to subdue these people..." Thor trailed off for a moment giving Tony the perfect opportunity to start asking questions.
"Woah, hold up so who are these people you named? The wizard of Pluto or whatever?"
"They are the most wanted criminals in all of the nine realms and beyond. The mage of Saturn is one of the strongest spell weavers in all of the nine realms. She used to be one of the kindest people I knew but she was possessed by an ancient male being who was utterly insane, she then went about killing people in their millions..." Thor shook his head at the loss of one who was once such a sweet woman. "The destroyer of worlds is a man from beyond Heimdall's reach. To put it lightly it is because of him that you're 'pluto' is not in fact as large as Jupiter. And that was him on a bad day." Okay so these guys were bad people.
"How come I feel like there's something you're not telling us buddy, spill the beans..." Jackie butted in, yes she had questions but time to get the important facts first.
"Loki and Jessica were among the ones who escaped. They are roaming free." There were a mixture of reactions, though not many were visible. Obviously most of the older Avengers were concerned, probably thinking the earth was about to get attacked again any second now. The younger Avengers, well yes they were concerned about that too, but they were also curious as to what would happen next. It was best not to think in too much detail about this, until anything happened they could continue on as normal couldn't they?
"Okay, well yeah, it's not like they're a problem anyway is it? Think about how easy we handled them last time? They can't even plan a good invasion." Tony pointed out obviously eager to get back to his questioning. "So... what measures, exactly, do you use to 'subdue' these dangerous criminals?"
"The main spell which is used is a draining spell, in simple terms it slowly makes the subject lose interest in escaping and feeds of their emotions and feelings, meaning they think of nothing and therefore do not escape nor exact evil plans." Thor said that as if it was something to be proud of, as if leeching of someone's emotions was a good idea.
"Wait, you basically lobotomise them, just slowly?" Cora said, slightly horrified. Steve's expression mimicked hers.
"I'm afraid I do not know what a 'lobotomise' is my friends. However we have a more pressing matter, I must leave to secure the safety of other realms, here on Midgard you might be especially vulnerable because of the novelty of invading Midgard." Clint scowled, since the Chitauri there had been one other other worldly experience, but two within a year was still rather a lot considering the radio silence beforehand.
"You deal with what you must. We're fine here buddy." Tony reassured.
"Where's Alanna?" Natasha asked, making her first input into the conversation.
"She is currently on Asgard, why do you ask?" Tony butted in before the agent could reply.
"Just get her here, she hasn't been to visit in a few months anyway." Jackie could see Tony was aiming to sound as casual as possible, but the knew the billionaire fairly well by know, well enough to know he was hiding something. She could ask about it later.
Ten hours later and Alanna was chilling on the sofa watching one of the latest released they didn't have electricity in Asgard, even though they were supposed to be 'technologically advanced'. That was a lie. They didn't have television so it had to be a lie.
Alanna had came speaking in the Asgardian fashion but had quickly slipped back into her old accent. It only reminded the gang of how much things had changed for them. They were all used to it, children acting as adults, their age frozen for another few months. It had been June 2014 when they transferred across the universes, it had been July 2012 (A/N: I don't know the actual month so lets guess.) when they arrived here, it had been 2011 when Alanna and Jessica had appeared. It was now February 2013, it would be over a year before they could start having birthdays again. You don't know how much you miss them until you spend years without them.
The Avengers were their second family here but not by blood, everyone missed home a little, but this was as much their home now as their original universe. Some people, upon entering some alternate reality would jump at the chance to see what their family was like here. None of the six had done that, none of the six wanted to do that. It would only bring feelings to the surface and would probably leave them wanting to become part of the families. No, that was for people longing for home. Yeah, sometimes Cora would imagine what life back there would be like, but she didn't yearn for it. Every so often Keira would wonder how people would react to learning she was now a super soldier with an awesome shield. However nobody really cared, they liked it here, life was probably fine back home, they were missing and everyone would get over it.
Two days later the anticipated attack came. It was the definition of deja vu. Only this time it was worse.
The day started out normally, eleven people fighting over what to have for breakfast. Unbeknownst to them Jessica had teleported to a bank in New York with a new acquaintance. Loki was nowhere in sight, it seemed he had ditched her in favour of someone else.
SHIELD called at exactly 9:53AM telling the Avengers to assemble immediately. Tony sent out a suit, talking from a headset as he sat in his even more secret workshop. None f the other ten knew that it was just an empty suit and not Stark himself.
It didn't take long to get to the hellicarrier, such was the convenience of having a large quinjet parked on the helipad on the roof of the tower. Soon enough people were gathered around the glass table in the hellicarrier command centre, a multitude of agents sitting by computers doing their assigned task. Most were looking for Loki and keeping tabs on Jessica.
Apparently a surveillance camera had caught sight of her, a 89% match, which was close enough. The Avengers saw the photo (which had been taken about twelve hours ago) briefly, it was in monochrome and a little unclear but it showed their old friend walking down the street in Vienna wearing black heels - she always had been one for high heels, as if she wasn't bloody tall enough already - which left her standing at about six foot, some black leather jeans, a top with a blazer (the arms of which came only half way down her forearm) and a fedora.
"Any sign of her since then?" Fury asked the agent sitting by the nearest computer. "Or anyone else for that matter?" There was a small nod of the head.
"Yes Sir... Five minutes ago she was seen entering a bank a few blocks East of Stark Tower."
"You heard the man. Go sort it out. We want this woman secured with minimal civilian damage, this is a wanted criminal."
There was a chorus of 'yes Director Fury' before they left the room. That male agent was still playing Galaga, thought nobody would notice, nobody did, not this time.
If you listened you would only be able to hear seven pairs of footsteps though there were eleven people (well ten actually, but the avengers didn't know Tony was still in the tower). Over the months they'd been here Leah and Alaw had improved their stealth skills, it was habit now for them to walk as silently as possible. Technically they weren't agents because all of the gang, though with superpowers, it was proportionate to their age and size, which did mean they were getting better and stronger all the time but weren't yet as strong as their counterparts.
Agents moved out of their way as they walked down various halls and corridors on their way back to the quinjet, more because they didn't want to get knocked onto their asses than out of respect. It would take fifteen minutes to get to their destination, they could only hope things would be okay until then.
Back they went, past the tower until the quinjet was invisibly hovering over the bank which had been flagged. One by one they entered different points of the building, the key was stealth and to keep everything as low key as possible. If they could avoid violence and making a scene there would be no public fear, no more than usual at least.
"Everyone's in place. Move in now." Natasha made a few hand signals to Clint who nodded and beckoned for Leah to follow him down the corridor they were on, their boots almost soundless against the marble floors. This was a very exclusive bank.
Bruce and Cora had remained on the jet as well as Alaw, who was making sure the plane stayed in the air. The Cap, Keira and Jackie staked the three main entrances leaving Alanna and Thor on standby in case things got out of hand.
"Target is in sight." Clint said over comms. Jessica stood with a woman who looked to be twenty-five at the oldest and the two of them were quietly convening as they sat in the waiting room. They needed to get her somewhere more secluded, too many eyes watching here.
"Wait Barton, we'll stay patient until the target leaves the room."
They didn't have to wait long because Jessica left the room but a few minutes later and headed towards an empty corridor.
"Okay move in everyone." Natasha said coolly, she kept low as she ran across the waiting room, keeping to the shadows. Barton was on the floor above overlooking the room, this was one of those times having these decorative indoor balconies was a good thing. It was Leah's job to incapacitate the companion.
"Thalia!" Jessica shouted all of a sudden, rushing back into the waiting room, now dressed in her full Asgardian attire, horns and all. Surprisingly Thalia didn't run but instead her outfit changed too, into something that reminded them all very much of Sif's battle clothing only there was slightly less metal and more leather.
Probably sensing trouble (Thor seemed to have an inbuilt radar where battle was concerned) the two Thunder deities rushed in, with their help there was no escape. Thalia went straight over to Thor and Alanna, and all three kept each other occupied.
Barton who was watching from above knew he could take a shot but with all the movement going on he didn't want to risk it. Natasha and Jessica were going full out physical combat. Widow moved into a roundhouse kick which Jessica blocked and then countered with a punch to the gut. Slowly but surely Natasha was being driven back towards the centre of the room.
"Barton, you got a clear shot?" Leah asked through her earpiece. The younger agent hadn't joined in either of the fights yet, both were going fine on their own, however she was getting a little worried about Natasha. This time round Jessica seemed different, better, sharper and certainly more focused, that wasn't a good sign.
"That's a negative, I need an opening otherwise I risk hitting Nat-" Clint suddenly cut off as he fell from his perch to the floor below, rolling across the ground a few times to break his fall. Looking up he saw a few wisps of green disappear into the air, damn, he had forgotten about the woman's magic, probably because it had been rarely used during the first attack, perhaps their magic wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
"You alright Barton?" Leah asked, concerned as she rushed over to the fallen agent.
"Yeah, fine. Okay, go over and help Romanov and I'll help the Asgardians." With Barton on their side Thalia was slowly weakening, Jessica was the main concern.
Leah had a lot of training and knew how to anticipate Romanov's moves as well as help when it came to the actual attacking, somehow Jessica was keeping up just as well.
"I thought you people were assassins? Is this really all Midgard has to offer?" Jessica remarked between blows, her voice cold and hard. Now Leah looked at it she could see exactly why she would be Loki's doppelgänger, this was a whole new level of evil villain. Romanov grunted a reply that Leah didn't catch as Jessica got a successful blow on her.
"Why are you doing this Jessica?" Leah asked.
"You attacked me, remember? I was just going to the bank, don't try to pin this on me." Ye right, just going to the bank, sure, probably planning to massacre the bank more like.
There was no more conversation as the fighting reigned once more, neither side fully getting the upper hand until Tony came along, the real Tony this time.
A great many thing happened in the next few seconds, the first being that Thor simply disappeared in a golden light, one similar to the Bifrost but much more concentrated. The second, two of Tony's suits came barrelling through and pulled Clint and Natasha out of the room, the third being Cora and Alaw suddenly making a dramatic entrance into the room, both running through the door and halting suddenly in the centre of the room as they looked around in confusion and the fourth was a box - obviously one of Tony's creations - was placed on the floor by the inventor just before a white light consumed the room and forced the eight still present to close their eyes or risk temporary blindness.
When the avengers walked back into the waiting room a few seconds later, after Tony had finally stopped barricading the entrances, the eight people were gone.
"Oh Tony, what in hell's name did you do this time." Somebody sighed.