Outside the Castle Schwarz, things get tense. Outside the wall, Harry Potter's pack lies in wait, hoping against hope that the rest of the pack will make it out with Ms. Chang, and whatever she needs to save their alpha.
Alas, the stealth team soon reaches the time limit...of how long they have to be detained, before the conventional team takes action. Riri Williams acknowledges this. Mila Morales acknowledges this. Black Jackal acknowledges this. Jamie Hammond acknowledges this. And finally, Carol Danvers acknowledges this.
Like water over a wall, they leap over it. They take aim for the castle...and circle it, looking for a way in. They've been ordered not to leave any permanent ways in, unless there aren't any human ones to be found.
Alas, they're soon cut off...by Griffin. He lands before them, spreads his wings, stomps, and shrieks.
The pack surrounds him. They snarl, and bark.
Alas, Griffin's brought company. Black Knight arrives, draws her sword, and poses with her shield out.
Levitating, Lightmaster arrives. She's not very bright now...but she threatens to blind all of them, if they play too rough.
And now, the defensive is on. The Masters might not yet understand what they're defending...but for the pack's sake, they'd better pray they all remain ignorant...from their omegas to their alphas.
Back in the dungeons, Vengeance comes back downstairs. The stealth team is still in hiding. They're prepared to leap out and start fighting, if they have to. Sadly for the more peaceful of their number...they'll have to.
First, Vengeance's head catches fire...and his head transforms into a flaming skull. He's brought a chain. It's coiled in his hand. He unfurls it, imbues it with hellfire, and slashes it about.
It's official now; the stealth team abandons their concealment, and goes on the offensive. A fiery and fierce fight ensues. And initially, at least, they'll have to do it all around potentially dangerous bubbling cauldrons of potions.
On the upside, Cho Chang has escaped...with insurance from a house-elf. Cho doesn't know, for a fact, that her husband and his friends have put anti-teleportation charms around the castle...but just in case they have, Cho used the house-elf to guarantee her passage out of the castle, in case they had. House-elves, despite their subordinate status to wizards, are magically stronger than their masters.
On the downside, her convoy hasn't. Enchantress has captured them. She's rounded up everyone who's given themselves away, and surrounded them in green-tainted force fields. MOST of Enchantress's spells are green-tainted...
Up in the vaults, the Crimson Cowl's cowl flies around, on patrol. The Cowl returns to its master, and reveals that Vengeance has began a defensive in the potions dungeon.
She's got Brunnhilde, Helen Cho, Janet Van Dyne, Kate Bishop, Medusa, Patsy Walker, Sharon Carter, and Yelena Belanova all trapped in green-tainted force fields. These are just the ones she's sniffed out.
"Many of you, I know," Enchantress tells them. "We've fought. I've even, on occasion, aligned myself with a few of you," she flaps her long blonde hair, "temporarily."
Within her force field, Brunnhilde sighs, and shakes her head.
"What I don't quite understand is how the witch Cho Chang, an Asian-Briton half-blood witch married into the pureblood Schwarz, Zwart, and Black families...could mean so much to you. I know, for a fact, that Ms. Chang is gifted in charms, but... To you, that could mean anything."
Nobody talks. They don't dare.
"Or perhaps," a sinister and glowing look enters Enchantress's face. None of the pack females like it. "Perhaps it isn't so much her TALENT that you've come for, as it is her HEART..."
She studies them. Nobody dares budge.
"Some of you might be lesbians. And if you are, you don't have to tell me. I, of all villainesses, understand the importance of keeping one's sexuality a secret..." She whirls, and rushes between them. "But then...just because there's no man among you, doesn't mean you're not doing this FOR a man..."
Again, nobody moves...or speaks.
She scoffs. "I admire you all. I really do. Odds are, you have feelings for this man yourself...and yet, you give him what he asks for, and take whatever crap that entails...regardless of how much your pussies throb for his company... I know the feeling. I knew Thor Odinson back when he was a boy. Every day, he'd ask me for help. Most of these favors had to do with that annoying Lady Sif...that annoying little friend of his, who wanted to revolt against the perfect caste system we had, back on Asgard, by rising above the traditional ásynja's duties, and becoming a warrior...something that, until Sif came along, was strictly meant for our æsir...
"Anyway, for years, I helped him helped her. At first, I thought he was doing it because he was having a crush on me, and had plans to enslave me as his bride and maid. O, how wonderful that would've been... He would've BDSMed me all day, and I would've sucked up to him as his gorgeous, blonde, green-clad little feminine pet..."
Hearing this out, Patsy can't help but make a disgusted face.
"It wasn't until much later," the Enchantress continues her story, "that I realized that he wasn't just TRADING with Sif." She sighs. "He was COURTING her. My doom was upon me the whole damn time, and yet... I was too much of a bimbo to see it. And yes, I know that that epiphany doesn't change the fact that I helped Thor court another woman for years, without once thinking for myself. Even so, I was unaware of my enslavement, and just as unaware that his heart wasn't mine."
She turns, and faces them again. "YOU, however, seem VERY knowing in your enslavement." She looks around. "Some of you are wolves. Who is he? Your alpha? A beta?" She flaps her hair, and adjusts her green top. "A rival pack's alpha, that you're having an affair with, perhaps?"
Some of them snicker, helplessly. Helen and Medusa don't.
Again, Enchantress faces them, and starts slinking away. "I can't say that Ms. Chang is my blood sister. But being stationed in her home, at times, has taught me a few things about her. I know that she's an Asian-Briton witch. I know that only one of her parents is magical...and that whoever they are, they're a Ministry employee. I know that she was in Ravenclaw House, at Hogwarts...at that Ravenclaw corresponds to the element air, in the classical four-element system."
At this, Kate snickers.
"But even more steamy than all of that," Enchantress holds up a green-polished finger. "I know that during her time at Hogwarts, she only dated three boys. If I'm not mistaken, the boy she was seeing when she graduated, was a year younger than him. And I'm pretty sure, unless my memory deludes me...and it doesn't...that his name was Michael Corner."
She studies their faces. "Does that name ring any bells to you? No? Maybe? A vague one, perhaps?"
Nobody answers. Nobody dares give away the mission's dossier.
"However," Enchantress continues, "she did have one other boyfriend, while there... What was his name? Cedric...Diggory, I think?"
Again, she studies them. "Diggory? Any bells? Tenor? Bass?" She shrugs. "Golden Snitches? Swedish Shortsnouts?"
They don't dare move...or speak.
"Oh!" She raises her finger again, and laughs. "But of course! I'm forgetting her most political boyfriend of all! After all, he DID slay the darkest wizard of all time, a couple of years after she dumped him for dear Michael. Crying shame; if she'd known he was going to defeat the dreaded Lord Voldemort, she probably would've married him."
At this, Janet scoffs. "Of course she would've," she mutters.
Enchantress walks between her own force fields, looking up at them, with green-glowing eyes, and studying her eight prisoners with green-lit passion. "Harry Potter? Is HE who you're doing this for? Is he," she flaps her hair, "your alpha, by any chance? The man whose cock you probably only get to blow once a week, if you're lucky?"
At this, many of them feel like barfing.
Enchantress nods, and smirks. "He wants her back, doesn't he? Ah, how lovely! I'm almost tempted to let you go...just so you can make sure that that happy reunion becomes a reality, and goes as well as it possibly could...especially in times of such strife... Alas, the Masters of Evil have been good to me...and I'd HATE to betray them for a reason I KNOW they wouldn't understand." She studies them. "YOU know what that's like...don't you?"
They all only shake their heads, and scoff.
Down in the dungeon, the fight with Vengeance rages on. So far, Tilda Johnson and Bobbi Morse have contracted hellfire scars...
Ares, Autumn Soldier, and Rogue still fight Vengeance. At one point, Rogue catches Vengeance's hellfire chain, in midair. With her mutant power, she endeavors to absorb its energy. While doing so, she bares the fangs of a hellhound...and starts transforming into one, via the connection to Hell she now has, via Vengeance's chain.
With a flaming skull for a head, Vengeance can't make facial expressions. He does, however, lower his jaw...suggesting a gape.
Outside, the fight between the conventional pack and half the Masters is raging. The Masters seem to have an advantage.
Over by the hyena houses, Synapse still keeps the hyenas subdued. She can't help but notice that one of the Masters is a griffin. She doesn't think they've spotted her...so she seizes an opportunity. Trying to stay atop the hyenas, she whistles for Carol.
Carol sees her...and seems to understand what Emily's thinking, when she flies over, grabs Synapse's arms, flies over Griffin, and drops her onto his back. Once there, she attempts to use his powers to subdue her.
It works. Griffin lies down, and takes a nap...in the heat of a battle. Now, if only the rest of the pack can keep the other two Masters...and more of late, the hyenas, who're now on their guard again...too occupied to try to forcefully dismount Synapse.
Far away, Cho deviously teleports to the top of a battlement in the castle wall. She looks far, as the battle between Harry's pack and the three Masters rages. She hates to see them suffer like this...even if they are rival women...
Cho made it out with her spellbook. Here, she flips through it. She flips to the counter-curse she's invented; the one that can save Harry's life.
On the grounds, Bowman still practices his marksmanship...with a bow and arrow. If he's aware of the battle elsewhere, he's not showing it.
Now, Cho thinks she understands. BOWMAN'S the reason why her ex-boyfriend is in mortal peril. At this, her gaze narrows. She pulls out her wand, and teleports the spellbook away to somewhere safe, in the woods.