05:49:54 P.M. June 14/2012 Joutenhiem Ice Giant Encampment.
"Why don't you cool down the barrel in the ice?" Natasha pointed her chin at the red hot muzzle.
"Don't wanna chance it." he put the machine pistol away and brought up an auto combat shotgun with an extra long banana clip.
"What's to chance? A little dip and you're good to go."
"Anyone else Nat, maybe? But mojo and the Xan-Man are unmixy things." he braced himself and fired full auto. The devastation left behind was nothing short of awesome.
"That may have been a bit over-much, not overkill..."
"...As there's no such thing as overkill." they said together in unison.
They smiled at each other. "That reminds me here you go..." he reached inside his jacket and came out with a plate-mail that would cover her upper half, "Here. Put this on while I cover you..." another spray of explosive spread at the ground tripped up the rest of the Ice Giants and sent a message to be more cautious.
"Thanks, but I'm already wearing armor." she put it on anyway. Xander always knew what he was doing. She could argue later. "Hey!?"
"Thought you'd like it. Black Mithril Plate-Mail. With a full life-support environmental package. Nice and toasty." he smiled.
She smiled back. It was as advertised 'Nice and toasty. No loss of movement or flexibility.'
They reached the first barrier and they jumped over it, she with a back flip somersault combination move that left her facing the enemy.
"Neat. Should get you to teach the kids a class in combat acrobatics. Faith and Bobbi barely add those kinds of moves. They could come in handy."
"I'll think about it. Now why is it that you and magic have incompatibility issues?" she shot a wide beam to make a trench forty feet from their position. She made it harder for the enemy to rush them, by breaking up the ground.
"I have a touch of chaos energy clinging to me. Mostly since I was possessed by a soldier spirit cast by a chaos mage as a Halloween prank. It's been a part of my soul ever since. So magic works, just not like it's supposed to. I have to concentrate and put four to five times the effort to cast a spell that anyone can do with ease. It's not just energy expenditure, it control."
"That makes more sense. But why would you have a problem with just dousing the red hot muzzle in he ice?"
"Magic rich environment. Mostly water and wind elementals, but there are a lot of old magics floating about. I can taste them. After spending twenty one years trying to break through, you start to get a feel for it."
"Alright I can see..."
CRACK!
"Not good!" Clint exclaimed, "Is that a head the size of a city bus, coming out of the ground?"
"Yeah, but it's not serious until it roars."
RRRROOOOAAAAARRRR!
"SHUT UP XANDER!" everyone shouted.
Asgard.
June 15.
Odin watched through the connection he had with Gungnir as Ymir's head burst through the ice. 'That could have gone better. At least I'll get a measure of the hybrids' mettle.' he sighed and motioned for Balder the brave to approach.
Balder the hidden son of Odin approached the All-father, with pride in every step. He may have not known that Odin was his father, but he walked with pride as a favored son of Asgard. "Hail Odin! Command me."
Odin smiled at his kneeling son, "Rise brave one. I have need of Tyr, the God of War. Ask him to make haste and to give the 's for the host to gather on the field. I fear we are about to have war visit our shores."
"My liege..."
"Not now Balder. Time is short. The host must be ready. Quickly."
"As you command!" Balder ran from the Great Hall. He had an important task that must be completed as soon as possible.
'My son, what have you wrought?' he looked on as the champions of Jord flew on, oblivious of the danger that awaited them.
05:56:06 P.M.
June 15/2012
Jotunhiem.
"Is he stuck?" after the giant head broke through, it stopped moving.
"I think he's still waking up..." Xander sighed. 'That was close.'
"That was close. Quick Tasha, change the subject." Clint begged.
'I'm going to regret this, but...here goes', "Have you tried casting your spells like they do in D&D. As I recall the mages primed the spells beforehand and only cast by firing the primed description for the spell."
"Nat...Did you play D&D?" Xander could not believe his ears. Did the ultra cool super-spy assassin fulfill every nerd's secret fantasy of a hot babe playing the ultimate fantasy game?
"It's a way to pass the time on stakeouts." she glanced at Clint when she said that.
"Traitor." Clint accused her.
She gave him an innocent smile, as if to say 'Who? Me?'
"Clinton, have you been holding out on me?" Xander gave his buddy the dreaded puppy eye treatment.
"Ah knock it off ya' great big ham. We were living in D&D land. Now had you asked to start a Shadowrun game..." Clint wiggled his eyebrows to add salt to the wound. "Say aren't the guys a little late?"
As soon as Clint asked that out loud, he heard the opening strings of AC/DC's Thunderstruck.
"No. I think Tony's right on time." Xander looked at the sky and saw with his eyes what the ethereal network map had been telling him for a while, the rest of the Avengers have just arrived.
"Seriously Tony, AC/DC?" Xander asked as he watched Stark dive into the camp with someone in his arms.
"The only thing missing is the thunder..."
Clint laughed, "Wait for it..."
BAAARROOOOMM!
"...and there it is. Never doubt the thunder when you have a Thunder God on staff." Clint laughed and Xander joined him.
Natasha looked at the two men curiously, "It's not that funny," she told them.
"You had to be there...So. You up for a game?" Xander asked Natasha. That's when he saw Stark raise his gauntlets to fire his repulsors, "Hey! Tony lay off the big guy in the ice." Xander told the high flyer.
"Why? He makes for a great target."
"That's like a huge NO! Guy's still asleep. No need to wake him up before we have an evac plan. Please tell me we at least have an evac plan."
"Well it's like this..." he said as he landed next to them with Sif still in his arms. "We didn't think we'd need one, but..."
"You can put me down now."
"Uh, what?"
"We're on the ground. Put me down." Sif was about to get all sorts of nasty on his ass when he put her down.
"So sorry. I didn't realize..."
She waived him off. Sif looked around and recognized Gungnir in the Valkyrie's hand. She acknowledged the woman, "Well met warrior." she greeted Natasha. Sif knew that Gungnir would only choose the best warrior available. That this woman was his chosen meant, that this was a woman worthy of her respect. She had already seen her bravery when she stood her ground in the middle of an Ice Giant fortress on her own and played the scout for Lord Thor and his companions. When she revealed herself and attacked a vastly superior enemy. When she also saw that these same warriors now still stood in the face of Ymir's rise, her respect only became that much higher.
Sif didn't expect to live out the day. Unless Thor came up with a way, but then with Thor you never knew.
"Say Xand..."
"Yes Tony?"
"Where's Loki?"
"He's the big white wolf on the right."
Tony looked at the wolves among the pack and noted that there were a lot more people here than left a few days ago. "Who are all these people? Are the other wolves people?"
"Oh yeah. Three of my kids are wolf right now. Alex, Jenny. Change back. We'll need the guns more than the speed."
"Whoa." Tony said as a beautiful girl, who looked a lot like Dawn, and a large intimidating warrior in armor who looked like a bigger version of Xander, changed in front of him. "What about them?" he pointed at Gram and Joyce on the left.
"That's my daughter Joyce and her husband Gram. That's Loki's youngest by the way. Whatever you do, don't hit on Joyce or Gram will remove your jewels before you can say ouch. And Don't say I never give good advice. You can take that one to the bank."
"Gotcha. No flirting...What about her, he pointed at the blonde girl.
"Jenny, what would you do when uncle Tony flirts with you?"
"Well first daddy I'll be faltered and then I'll tell Phil."
"Who's Phil?" Tony asked.
"That would be my oldest." Clint told him simply.
Tony got the message. 'Son of an assassin, knife in the back for a starter, no thank you. Plus Xander. Never forget Xander is the father.'
