Oh god they were multiplying.

Accompanying the witch, he had defeated and turned over to Dr. Strange, was another obviously powerful magical person who, apart from the pressure he exuded merely by existing, wore one of the most unique hats Jack had ever seen. It was a golden metal helmet adorned with enormous curling metallic ram's horns. He kind of wanted one but doubted he would be able to pull it off quite as effortlessly as the stranger, besides it was tacky to copy the dress styles of others.

Quite apart from the stranger's novel fashion sense, that would normally have put him Jack's good graces by itself, this fellow didn't seem inclined to be antagonistic judging by the curious glances he was sending everywhere. Indeed, he was acting like a typical tourist. If Jack couldn't feel the magical pressure coming off the man or see the subdued witch following docilely behind him Jack could have mistaken him for an eccentric rich guy come to tour the facilities.

"What are doing dealing with Asgardians Jack?" Wuya asked askance.

Asgardians?

As in the Norse mythology?

So, that was what they were, Jack thought that Skurge guy was way to strong to be a normal human but had just caulked it up to magical shenanigans.

He was not terribly surprised to hear that the mythical realm of Asgard was real, he had seen stranger things, but he wasn't quite willing to admit he had been ignorant before.

"I caught that witch in the chains. As for what they want, let's find out." Jack said in a chipper tone.

Jack had learned long ago that if you wanted to have any kind of success you needed to be able to adapt to new situations in an instant.

So, adapt he did.

Jack quickly made his way down to the area that his uninvited guests had been led to which happened to be a garden. He had gone a little crazy with his experiments with magically growing plants and had been growing huge fields of various greeneries all throughout the land of nowhere hoping to make the land a bit more hospitable. Jack had decided, with Phil's advice, to grow a garden for visitors to enjoy at the factory, and that was where he met the magical intruders.

"Hello, I am sorry to say that we are outside of visiting hours, so the normal tour isn't running." Jack announced catching the attention of the two.

Jack had not made the journey alone as Phil walked deferentially at his right side while Wanda followed. On his left Wuya prowled like a cat unable to curb her curiosity at the unexpected arrivals. The boys, who had apparently been listening in, fanned out behind the procession.

"I am not here for any tour mortal, at least not today. I am Loki Odinson Prince of Asgard and you, Jacob Smith also known as Jack Spicer, have been presented with the dubious honor of playing babysitter to dear Amora here while she serves out her sentence for sedition to the throne of Asgard." Loki said cheerily.

"Oh, you're Odin's boy, so that man finally went and had children, and such a handsome child at that." Wuya cut in, slinking up to a bemused Loki.

"How do you know my father, miss?" Loki asked indulgently.

"I am Wuya, Odin and I go way back. Me commanding legions of rock trolls to conquer Asia, him cutting a path of destruction through Norway. Oh yes, we knew each other, but that was long ago, are you perhaps Frigga's boy?" Wuya recounted fondly.

As Wuya chatted about events that must have occurred thousands of years ago with a politely attentive Loki, Jack mulled the situation over. This was apparently Loki the Norse god of mischief, the actual one, from mythology. They were also trying to foist responsibility for handling a criminal off to him rather than just throw her in god jail or something.

Did gods have jails?

It wouldn't be hard to simply shrink her down again and throw her into a gerbil cage, but why should it be him that did it?

How could he take advantage of the situation?

Ugh.

Amora walked over to him. She couldn't quite make the prisoner thing she had going on look anything less than miserable though she managed to keep her head up proud. Still, he wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic for his former enemy.

"This is a rare opportunity for you Jacob, having Asgard owe you a favor isn't something most mortal sorcerers can claim. You can ask Loki for a boon in exchange for your services." She spoke.

She was trying rather blatantly to get him to agree to what?

Imprison her? Why would she want that?

What would happen to her if he said no?

Jack grinned cruelly on the inside while on the outside maintaining his businesslike neutral face. He was not inclined to be kind to this woman who had ordered him kidnapped and had his house destroyed in the process. He decided to taunt her a little.

"Are you so eager to go back into the hat? I don't have devoted cell space you know." Jack referenced her original capture.

Amora shuddered at the thought but her face hardened in resolve.

"Better than the alternative." She conceded

Really, whatever her fate was if he didn't agree to take her was worse than unescapable solitary confinement in the dark. These Asgard guys were kind of harsh. Not enough to get him to agree to take her, but still, harsh.

"You shouldn't accept, I don't want her around." Wanda said from behind him.

"Oh, but Wanda Loki might be willing to give me something nice in exchange for taking care of his prisoner for him." Jack said clearly.

Loki, who had been distracted by Wuya, took that moment to interject.

"You should be honored to aide Asgard." He said proudly.

Loki was an excellent speaker, very convincing.

"No. I think I want something a bit more tangible than pride, thanks." Jack dismissed.

Loki's gaze hardened.

"Then how about the enmity of Asgard if you refuse, we are not enemies to make lightly mortal." Threatened the god.

Jack shrugged.

"Fine, fine be that way, I suppose Wanda does need a target to practice her spells on. How about we turn her into a guinea pig and keep her in a shoebox." Jack offered.

Wanda actually smiled at the suggestion, He didn't think he had ever seen her smile before, progress. Who knew all he had to do was suggest she torture one of his enemies. Good to know for the future.

Wuya was giggling demurely lifting the back of her left hand to cover her mouth, faker. Loki smiled, chocking off a laugh at the suggestion, well he was the god of mischief, supposedly.

It was unsurprisingly Amora who spoke out in protest.

"That's not terribly heroic Jacob, women won't like you if you say things like that." Amora pouted.

Jack sniffed derisively. She was obviously trying to look seductive, but the intended effect was ruined by her obvious discomfort bound by chains as she was.

"Heroes don't get to conquer the world." Jack scoffed.

Loki perked up.

"You fancy yourself a conqueror?" inquired Loki intrigued.

"Nah, to conquer would mean you take what you want by force, thus inevitably what you take would be taken back or destroyed by those you trampled along the way. The only true way to seize power and keep it is to win the support of the majority. If you can't even convince your people to love you, you aren't any sort of ruler. These things take time, talent, and patience." Jack said a little too freely.

The would-be ruler of earth stood confidently among a powerful group of people, any of which could probably take him down if they decided too.

Yet none even considered it.

"I like you Jacob, Amora will probably only be in your custody for a matter of months until my brother Thor has his coronation. If you make sure she does nothing monumentally stupid, and also nothing terrible happens to her, I will gift you something interesting. Here at this interesting home you have, I notice you focus on the production of new technologies, If you look after Amora for the next three months, I will gift you a piece of Asgardian technology. How does that sound?" Loki granted seemingly amused by the whole situation.

That was something JAck simply couldn't say no to. He thought for a moment about the offer and decided that yes, he would take a piece of advanced god technology.

"You have yourself a deal Loki Odinson, I would be interested in a device that could help me monitor the land that I own." Said Jack thinking of how he could improve the Gaia system he was creating.

Loki smiled in acknowledgment.

"Then we have a deal, I look forward to talking to you and amora again in three months." Said the god of Mischief.

After Loki agreed, he made a signal and once again scorched the greenery as he vanished in a crack of lightning. The chains around Amora vanished along with Loki, and Jack had the feeling she could be more trouble than he bargained for, eh there was a simple solution for dealing with the depowered Asgardian witch.

"Wuya, you betrayed me to go to Chase who I in turn sealed, if you want to be back in my good graces you can be in charge of Amora for the next few months as well as a tutor for Wanda, I can give you some of the magic batteries I have been using for myself if you do." Jack tempted.

"Oh, I would be more than happy to be the warden for the lovely miss Amora." Wuya smiled evilly

"Excellent, Than let me tell the three of you what you will be doing for the immediate future." Said Jack happily.

Wuya, Amora, and Wanda all looked at Jack with confusion etched on their faces.

"There is a certain school of mutants I want you to infiltrate, Wanda you are to oversee these two." Jack said.

Wanda's face lit up with an enthusiasm Jack had never seen before, Wuya looke miffed and Amora looked resigned.

"Wanda, I have arranged for a residence close to Xaviers' school that you will be living in. I also have a present for you." Jack handed her the modified cloak he had made for her, it was the same as the red overcoat she had taken to wearing. Only, it had a hood that Jack had designed to block psychic interference from Xavier, it was really just lined with tinfoil, but hey, don't argue with what works.

"I am giving you authority over these two while you work. You know what you have to do. I will also assign my four chief warriors to you while enrolling you in the local high school. Have fun." Jack turned away from a pleased Wanda.

The best way to deal with crazy subordinates was to have them deal with each other, what was the worst that could happen?

Jack whistled a happy tune to himself as he walked away from the three combative witches who were all glaring at each other, he was not dealing with that today, no sir.

Charles Xavier sat at his monstrous machine cerebro as he attempted to track down the mutant signal of his lost patient Wanda Maximoff. He had almost succeeded in tracking her down when the signal simply vanished.

The only mutants who had succeded in blocking his psychic powers before were his brother, who had taken the name Juggernaut and his old friend Magneto. Both using strange helmets. If only he knew the mysterious method that they were using to block his psychic powers. He sighed and placed the headpiece of cerebro down.

Some things he was simply not meant to know.