EARTH

A Kronan came apart in a hundred pieces of rubble, blown apart by the blast of Nuklo, now having lost his two copies.

"The shields!" Nuklo said aloud. "The shields are down!"

Magneto clenched a fist. "Now! Take them down!"

Storm focused her attention on one of the Kronan warriors and unleashed a barrage of eight lightningbolts onto the giant creature, each one blasting huge pieces debris from the aliens rocky body until the last two split the Kronan apart utterly. Scarlet Witch delivered a shockwave of disruptive energies unto another Kronan, causing the invading warrior to be spread out across the battlefield in the shape of a million pebbles. Cyclops cut down two Kronan with a single blast from his visor. Volstagg severed a leg with a single blow from his mighty axe, while Siv and Hogun together brought down another Kronan.

Jean Grey, sitting in cover behind a burning car, dared to look out from her cover and saw the terrible battle; mutants versus aliens, unnatural abilities versus incredible technology. She saw Magneto's henchman, the one known as Toad, gets smashed beneath a Kronan foot, squashed to a pulp of green and red. A heatwave, combined with dust-particles, struck her skin as a explosion erupted not far from her. Jean saw Beast running over to one of the women of V-battalion, Silver Scorpion she remembered her name was; Beast picked up her lifeless body from the ground, surrounded by smoke and flames. Jean couldn't hear what Beast was calling out, or make out to whom he was shouting to, but she was relieved to see Beast ran back to safety with Silver Scorpion; maybe she could survive. The dashing rogue that was a friend of Thor was thrown several yards as a Kronan weapon fired at him at point blank range, setting him on fire and sending him crashing into a small gathering of trees still standing.

Magneto snared a Kronan with wires around the things throat, twisted metal from cars and trucks around its face to blind it and then dropped a tank down on top of it. An explosion sent Colossus flying, landing on top of the young girl known as Rogue.

Thor came flying in, landed in the middle of a group of Kronan and proceed to throw his hammer to his left, splintering a Kronan into a hundred pieces of rock and stone. The Mjölner returned to his hand and Thor instantly made use of its incoming momentum to send it on its way to his right, shattering yet another Kronan. Mjölner returned yet again to Thor's grip, just in time for Thor to use it to strike an incoming blast of energy to the side, deflected directly at yet another of the alien invaders, killing the creature in an instant. Thor roared, raised the hammer high and slammed it down into the dirt, sending a shockwave in all directions so powerful it knocked over three Kronan in an instant.

Jean watched as Scarlet Witch used her powers to rip the arms of a Kronan from its body, the thing howled a maddening sound, the sound of a mountain in pain. A Kronan came at Scarlet Witch from behind, swinging his handheld cannon like a club.

"Look Out!" Jean cried out, anticipating Scarlet Witch's gruesome death.

In the blink of an eye, Scarlet Witch was thrown to the side, and instead the Kronan melee-weapon came down on her brother, Quicksilver, who had rushed in at the last moment to save his sister; his incredible speed was not enough to get him out of the way in turn, the blow from the Kronan pulverizing Quicksilvers legs. Quicksilver, having already charged his body with momentum, found himself tumbling out of control across the battlefield, his broken legs flailing, the bones within shattering and splintering; Quicksilver screaming with pain as he eventually rolled to a stop, ending up on his back. Beast was thrown of his feet by an explosion right next to him, lacerations across his skin from debris and shrapnel, red blood smearing his blue fur and staining his blue complexion.

Jean felt anger build up inside of her, a rage she could not control; pure wrath boiling at the very core of her soul. She found the courage to stand up and walk out of cover. A hand moved to her lobe, the other reached out towards the enemy, her teeth grinding in a fierce grin of anger and hatred. A Kronan was flung high into the air by Jean's sheer willpower, so far up that when he finally came back down, ten seconds later, only a crated remained of the alien warrior, six yards across and a full two yards deep. Another Kronan was flung violently off his feet and into a comrade.

"STOP IT!" Jean cried out. "STOP IT! YOU MONSTERS! YOU GOD DAMN MONSTERS!"

Magneto turned his attention at Jean. "That's it, Jean! Trust your instincts! Feel, don't think! Give these aliens exactly what they deserve!"

"BASTARDS!" Jean snarled. "YOU GOD DAMN BASTARDS!"

In quick succession, Jean flung four Kronan warriors high into the air, throwing them hundreds of yards away from the field of battle.

"Yes, Jean!" Magneto almost laughed as he watched Jean Grey's rampage. "Yes! That's it! That's it! Give in to you anger! Embrace the mutant you truly are!"

Jubilee came running up to Jean and grabbed hold of her. "Jean! Calm down! Please!"

"NO!"

Jubilee was thrown away by an unseen force as Jean Grey turned pitch-black eyes on her young friend, Jubilee spinning violently through the air like a ragdoll.

Storm, having seen what was taking place, felt a great lump in her throat. "Jubes!" she called out and with two quick steps took flight, flying after Jubilee and landing next to her young student from the Xavier Institute. Kneeling down, Storm picked up a bloodied and broken Jubilee and held her in her arms, the battle echoing half a mile away. "Jubes… oh no… Jubilee" Storm said, slowly stroking locks of hair from Jubilee's bruised and blood-covered face.

Nuklo, having split into three versions of himself once more, fired blasts of destructive radiation from each of his six palms, cutting down four more Kronan warriors.

XXX XXX

Jane Foster and Bruce Banner ran into the control-center.

"What happened?!" Foster asked.

Director Fury turned to his two scientists. "Another Asgardian teleport-event just took place. Unfortunately, it struck the Stark Orbiter and took the satellite down with it."

Banner couldn't believe it. "The crew of the Orbiter got caught in an Einstein-Rosen bridge?"

"Where are they now?" Jane inquired, looking for clues on the various screens in the room.

General Ross pointed at a map of Europe. "We have determined that the Asgardian beam struck down in eastern Europe. More exactly in the small country of Symkaria."

Banner turned to General Ross. "Do we know if they're alive? Any contact?"

Fury sighed and shook his head. "No… we have no idea if they survived. But… judging from the way the beam slammed the Orbiter back down to Earth, I would say that their chances of survival are less than favorable. I'm sorry, Bruce."

XXX XXX

"Here" Sköll said and pointed on a holographic map depicting the European continent. "The Bifrost struck right here. If the Aesir have come to Midgård…"

"They haven't" Red Skull said with a frown. "Asgård should have more pressing matters to attend to."

Sköll growled. "I have already dispatched twenty Kronan to investigate."

Red Skull nodded. "Good" he said, arms folded over his back, "what ever is going on, we must know what." He then turned to his most recent guest. "Brock Rumlow was it?"

"Yeah" Brock nodded, a frown on his face.

"A loyal Hydra soldier, I am told."

"Yes, indeed" Reinhardt cut in. "I personally oversaw his recruitment from the American special-forces, more than twelve years ago."

"And here you are" Red Skull said. "You took down four of Sköll's pirates before they managed to subdue you and bring you before me. Impressive, for a human."

"Doctor Osborn injected me with the Aryan serum" Rumlow said. "I guess it worked."

Reinhardt grinned. "Hydra's very own super-soldier, with all the strengths and abilities of Captain America."

Red Skull smiled. "Very good. I have a mission for you, Herr Rumlow. A mission I think only you and your newfound abilities can complete with an assurance of success."

Rumlow glanced at the aliens around him, at old man Reinhardt who was not so old anymore, and then back at the nightmarish creature that supposedly was the lauded founder of their organization. "Hail Hydra."

Red Skull grinned. "Hail Hydra."

XXX XXX

"I'm locked out" Stark said, sitting by a computer.

"Locked out?" Von Doom asked.

Stark nodded. "I have no access to any of my systems, computers or files."

Obadiah frowned, chewing his cigar. "They know he's compromised. That's the only explanation."

Von Strucker sneered. "So much for building our own Iron Man army."

"It can still be done" Von Doom said confidently. "Tony here can build them for us, can't you Tony."

"Sure thing" Stark said, removing his hands from the computer, almost like an automaton. "I've built six already. Including the Warmachine model for SHIELD. Five years from now, Latveria should have at least eight working Iron Man suits."

Von Doom smiled and turned to his guests. "You see? Iron Man armor, upgraded Warmonger battle-suits; who could resist such an army?"

At that point, Von Bardas entered the computer-lab high up in one of the castles many towers. "My liege" she said, ever the strict aristocrat in all her dealings. "A strange phenomenon just occurred in Symkaria and we have reports of twenty alien soldiers heading straight for it. We believe that something might have crashed."

Von Doom gave it some thought. "If it's important to the aliens, we could perhaps use what ever crashed as a bargaining chip? We should secure that site and delay the aliens for as long as possible. And we shall do so without drawing attention to ourselves. Tony, would you mind using your suit to distract the aliens for a while?"

"Don't mind if I do" Tony said and got out of the chair.

Obadiah exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. "I hope you don't ever pull that Jedi mindtrick on me."

Von Doom could not hide the smile. "Who says I haven't?"

Obadiah, and Von Strucker both, felt amazingly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Tony Stark moved on over to walk out onto a balcony, facing his back towards the fantastic view and held out his arm wide; within seconds, a pod came flying with its own jetpack, split apart in midflight and attached itself to Tony Starks body, transforming itself, and him, into Iron Man.

"Be right back" Stark said and took off, using his feet-mounted thrusters to achieve flight.

As they watched Iron Man fly off into the distance, Von Doom picked up a small communications-device.

"Zemo" he said. "Ready my armor. I'm leaving in ten minutes."

Iron Man flew at maximum velocity over the Latverian mountains, heading south to the neighbouring country of Symkaria. He would intercept the aliens in less than thirty minutes. Suddenly, he took a tight turn to head west instead.

"JARVIS" Stark said. "I believe I'm having some navigational difficulties."

"Not at all, sir" JARVIS replied. "I have merely shut down all local control-functions of your suit until further notice."

Tony Stark found it peculiar. "Explain."

"The Omega protocol has been enabled, sir."

Stark sighed and shook his head. "That's just stupid. Are you telling me I am out of my mind? That I have gone senile?" A thought just then occurred to him. "You think I'm trying to take over the world?"

"I am not equipped to answer those questions, sir."

Tony sneered. "But I know who can. Omega protocol requires two authorized people to be initiated in the first place. Happy and…"

"And me, that's right."

"Pepper!"

Pepper Pots voice was heard loud and clear within the helmet. "We're taking you home, Tony. You're not acting like yourself. Von Doom has drugged you with something that makes you…"

"His bitch" Happy cut in on the conversation.

"Thank you, Happy" Pepper said.

"This is silly" Tony sighed. "I am not drugged or mind-controlled or forced against my will to do anything."

Happy was not convinced, currently flying the Stark jet out of Latveria. "Sorry, boss, but if you're telling me that you are more than happy to build Iron Man outfits for a smalltime dictator who is working with Hydra for world-domination, well, in that case I'm gonna have to kill ya myself."

"Listen to us, Tony" Pepper Pots said, standing in the main office of the Stark Tower in New York City. "Something is wrong here. You're not acting like yourself."

"Guys" Tony said as he was carried along by his suit of armor. "If you would just listen to me, I can explain everything."

Pepper was not convinced. "Really?"

"Yes, really. Look, Von Doom has a crappy deal with Stane International, and I would just love to kick Obadiah in the balls by offering Doom a far better deal, building him far better suits of armor. That's all."

Pepper shook her head and sighed. "Tony… the moment you get home, I'm handing you over to SHIELD so their doctors can take a look at you."

Tony was getting annoyed by now. "Pepper… return control of this suit to the operator. Do it now."

"Sorry, Tony. I can't."

"You heard her, boss. We can't do that."

Tony frowned. "Pepper… Unlock the controls! Now! Do it now! Now, god damn it! Now!"

Pepper muted the call. "JARVIS, bring him home as quickly as possible. Unharmed."

"Of course, miss Potts" the voice of JARVIS was heard in the office.

Happy took a look out the window of the jet as he left the mountains behind him. "Bye-bye, crappy third world country. Hope I never see you again."

At that point, a missile struck the wing of the jet, sending it burning towards the ground.