A Third Path to the Future

by Vimesenthusiast

Rescued from the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four, Harry Potter discovers he is a mutant and decides to take up the cause of equality between mutants and humans (among other causes). How will a dimensionally displaced Harry Potter, one who is extremely intelligent, proactive and not afraid to get his hands dirty effect the marvel universe? Pairings: Harry/Jean/Ororo/others pos.

47. A Call For Help, Heeded

I am not Stan Lee nor Rowling. I like to think I would make better decisions in terms of plot than either…

Apologies that this is coming out so late, guys. My regular small mistake editor was slowed by RL things this month. However, I recently was approached by another long-time reader who is willing to go over this work for me. I will be sending him this chapter today, as well as the first three, and we will together try to start a minor rewrite of this story, taking into account some of the comments my reviewers have made in the past. Specifically, I want to expand the time this story covers. I know I made a hash of that trying to use 'comic book' time.

Anyway, for now, this has been edited by me with Grammarly and Morte24.

Summary of the last Chapter:

Having announced his Empire to the UN, Harry is forced to play politics and work on various business deals for a time, while plans for his and Jean's wedding proceed apace. This includes an agreement with Canada that, while not what they wanted, gives him oversight over the education of mutants with dangerous powers in their nation in return for technological aid and introduces him to a local goddess in the form of Snowbird. Bruce Banner is declared fully in control of himself by Charles, having transformed into a Bruce/Hulk hybrid form, although he has lost the ability to use anger to further empower his strength. Elsewhere, an obstruction in the form of a new alien species has appeared in Thanos' path, halting his desire to use the Skrull against Earth for now, despite setting his 'daughters' to the task of dealing with this issue. But while that threat has yet to appear, another comes to a head as Thor leads his party to victory over Níðhöggr, discovering a secret and cutting a thread holding the power of Those Who Watch Above in Shadow over his people. The Shadows are not amused and move forward the timing of Ragnarök, wishing to wipe the slate clean. The confusion and momentary weakness caused by Níðhöggr allows Odin to set the ball rolling on his own long-term plans while back on Earth, Harry weds Jean, not knowing the next crisis will soon begin.

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Chapter 47: A Call for Aid, heeded

Two days after his second of four planned weddings to the gorgeous, amazing women who had inexplicably decided to share his life, Harry sat with his apprentice, Illyana, watching as she worked on the last new lesson for the day. After that would come a practical, a small test on what she had learned in the past week. That this would come in the form of a duel might have surprised many, but Harry had long since learned that he taught better by emphasizing the practical side of things.

Even taking that out of the equation, Harry did not teach Illyana magic as he had learned it. For one thing, she was the only one he was currently teaching. Ororo had learned all he could teach her and all Gaea could in turn and was now instructing Kitty. Indeed, young Kitty used magic more often these days than her mutant powers since the magic was more useful in her day-to-day life. And the runes Harry had already taught her made her a very rich young girl. For another, Harry didn't organize his instructions along the same lines as the schools in his old universe had.

Instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts, it was Protective and Offensive magic. Instead of Transfiguration, Harry called it Universal Manipulation, thanks to a few tests he and Steven had run on what really happened when conjuration occurred. Charms were the same, but Harry broke it down into different disciplines and mixed up the spells he had learned from the different grades Hogwarts had offered.

There was no potion class. Illyana had shown no interest in cooking or potion-making, so Harry saw no need to teach it to her. Besides, Dr. Druid had begun to experiment as it was, and one person on that job was enough.

Ironically, there were some lessons on divination magic. At its heart, Divination was the ability to try to see what was hidden, past, present and future. It was time-consuming, and Illyana wasn't all that good at it yet, but Harry was proud that she had used some divination spells to help plan out her pranks occasionally in her ongoing prank viewed with Hela.

Nearby, Melody and the rest of the kids were doing their own homework, most sneaking glances over to the much more interesting lesson near the front of the hallway. Currently, the hall was empty beyond the kids, with Ororo taking a stint teaching them, Harry and his apprentice.

Illyana also had normal studies, but Harry didn't control that aspect and refused to get involved. "Just because you are my apprentice doesn't mean you're going to get special treatment, just like being my daughter doesn't give Melody any special treatment." Melody's special treatment was because of her mutant powers, not her relation to Harry.

As he thought about her normal classes, Harry looked over at the other kids, watching Ororo bend over slightly to lean over Anechka's shoulder, brushing back a bit of her currently loose silver hair as she did so. The smile on her face, more than the view the small amount of décolletage she was showing, caused him to breath in deeply, a smile of pure contentment on his face. Moments like this, with the kids and one of his loved ones around, these moments made the violence and death worth it.

"Okay, I got this," Illyana muttered, and Harry turned back to her, watching as the young Russian girl rubbed her hands together before holding them out, flicking two fingers out and holding the others in a strange gesture that she had seemingly picked up from seeing Hela use it occasionally. Harry honestly couldn't tell at times whether Hela was a good influence on Illyana or not, but she certainly left her stamp on the girl. "You ready, Trickster?"

The Megalenhydris barbaricina familiar that Illyana had bonded with during her misadventure in the Savage Land nodded its head, turning the nod into a forward roll, then twirling around itself in place, before standing upright on its back paws, tail flat on the ground and head well above Illyana's own. The aptly named Trickster was never still very long, having the energy and boisterous nature of all of its otter brethren.

Breathing in, Illyana began. "Enlarge," she whispered.

Harry nodded in approval. Today's lesson had been on the mental disciplines needed to use silent casting, but using a simple word like that rather than the actual spell was a good step forward.

At Illyana's command, the large otter grew tremendously, swiftly growing to match the size of one of the tables. The nearby children all laughed, clapping in delight, and Ororo chuckled, standing back with a faint smile on her face knowing that she wouldn't get the youngsters back on task anytime soon.

The enlarged otter twitched, looking down at itself, then bounding forward and back, moving around the tables, as adroitly as if the change to his size hadn't bothered the beast at all. He sniffed at Anechka's hair which she manipulated to smack Trickster on the nose with a giggle. The other kids all reached out and began to pat the otter's legs, one of them reaching up high enough to rub his furry belly. This caused the otter to roll onto his side, displaying his belly for more.

"When I went to Hogwarts in my original dimension, the lake had a squid in it. It was a most playful creature, always willing to help the students if they fell in or play catch with them. Perhaps if we kept your familiar in his current size, he could be our own lake monster?" Harry quipped, placing a warm hand on Illyana's shoulder. "Though, I'm afraid he wouldn't be much help with your pranks."

Ororo chuckled, watching with amusement. How Harry can instill discipline in Illyana while also encouraging her to use pranks is beyond me. But I can appreciate the results. Indeed, Ororo and the teachers had even linked a few fantasy-type writing assignments to the girl's cold war with Hela, asking the kids to write adventures based on Illyana's actions or the spells she used as if they were parts of epic battles between good and evil.

Now she watched as the Jotun otter lifted itself up and ran around the kids, being very careful despite its massive size to not knock any of them over. A moment later, Trickster was back in front of his mistress, and Illyana was smiling up at it, patting it on the nose with one hand.

This time, Illyana didn't need to use a word to help concentrate her mind on the effects she wanted. Instead, she simply touched Trickster's nose, and the spell she wanted flowed out into her familiar. Slowly he shrunk, the spell only ending when Trickster was the size of a mouse. A second after the spell ended, Illyana giggled as Trickster raced forward and up her leg, climbing her as the otter would one of the trees in the Savage Land before perching on her shoulder, then climbing further up onto the top of her head. There the tiny otter circled around a few times before standing up like an explorer who had just discovered some new lands and was declaring his presence to the world.

"Well done!" Harry announced, holding out his hand above Illyana's head. Trickster rolled forward onto his hand, and Harry gently dropped him down onto the nearby table, where Trickster gamboled around for a few moments before, at Harry's nod, Illyana returned him to his normal size. By the time that spell was done, the Jotun otter was back on the floor, closely watching his mistress and her teacher.

Harry waved him off. "We're done with you for now, my little friend. And I meant it, Illyana, that was very well done. Always remember that mentally preparing the image in your mind of what you want your spell to do will help you not need the actual spell incantation. Whatever the discipline, that aspect doesn't change. It's hard, and for some spells, it's impossible thanks to how much concentration they take, such as high-end attack spells or the Patronus Charm. But eventually, you can get so good that you can create the mental image in a second and use the spell without any buildup."

Illyana nodded, and Harry ruffled her hair before going on more seriously. "And now, let's see what you can remember from last week."

The youngest Rasputin nodded eagerly, moving into the open space between two tables. Harry moved to stand across from her, smiling faintly. The two of them stood silent for a moment as Ororo moved her pupils away from the upcoming, while her students were joined by Trickster, all of them watching the twosome avidly. Despite some of them, like young Medusa or Melody, having lived in Camelot for months now, the sight of magic was just as wondrous to them now as when they first arrived.

Harry made certain they would be safe by covering the area around the two of them and the tables to either side under a Protego. As he finished, Illyana attacked, hopping up and away from her starting position onto the nearby table as she launched a spell towards Harry.

"Points for remembering to move, and remembering that in a real fight, waiting for your opponent to be ready is quite foolish," Harry opined, even as he waved one finger, catching the spell, a stunning charm, with a magic-lined finger and then flicking it sideways, redirecting it rather than using his own spell. Then he too was moving, darting forward and around, pushing Illyana to turn with him on the table, although he kept to the speed the younger girl was capable of. The idea of these duels wasn't to overwhelm Illyana after all, but to see what she could do.

Illyana raced along the table, sending spells Harry's way, one after another.

A spell chain? I hadn't thought Illyana was up to that just yet, even if Ororo and I used them in our mock duel last week. The two of them had spent the entire evening with the kids, putting on the play duel after watching the Sword in the Stone before leaving the kids to their pizza and having a nice in-castle date for themselves. The memory of how that date ended brought a smile to Harry's face, so much so that he nearly missed that one of the spells that Illyana was using wasn't aimed at him. Rather, it was aimed at the floor below Harry.

"Glacius!" Illyana announced between muttering Stupefy and Immobilis under her breath.

Harry felt the stone underneath him start to cover with ice and quickly leaped to the side onto the other table. For a moment, he then went on the attack, launching spells at Illyana, first bracketing her, then aiming directly at the young girl. As Harry had hoped, this forced her to use a Protego covering her entire front.

"Good, but remember, if you keep the image in your mind and continue to funnel energy into the spell, you can manipulate what it does. Just like you were doing last week with the Rubik's cubes and changing its colors several times in a row," Harry explained calmly, slowly launching another low-powered spell at Illyana's shield.

Illyana grimaced but continued to concentrate on the protective spell, and the magical shield slowly shifted. It had started as a simple half-circle in front of her, but now it expanded into a wall and then shrank until it covered her entire body like a poncho. "Urgh… this is tough, and I don't think I can do that and concentrate on another spell."

"The fact that you can do it at all at your age is enough," Harry said, hopping down from his perch on the table and flicking his fingers once upward, canceling the Protego around them. "These duels of ours aren't for you to try your best to win, although if you can, that's great. The main point behind them is to show me what you've learned. And I have to say you are learning extremely well. The spell chain was impressive, as was the trick with Glacius."

Illyana smiled cheerfully at that but waited until Harry said the duel was over before canceling her own Protego. That was another lesson Harry had drilled into her, and he smiled and helped her down from the table by lifting her into a brief hug before setting her down the ground, ruffling her hair. "Now, was there anything else you wanted to do? Because we're done with my lesson for the day for you."

Illyana beamed at that, then paused, thinking about it, and nodding. "I wanted to try a few divination spells. I want to learn how to find something lost, and then wanted to… predict the future," she ended cautiously, watching her master's reaction.

Thankfully Harry didn't really have a problem with trying to see into the future, so long as you weren't going to base life and death decisions on all-too vague prophecies anyway. "Well, looking into the future is quite wooly, as I've stated before. How far into the future are you talking about, and whose particular future?"

"Hela, and three days from now," Illyana chirped instantly.

"Ah, I should have known. And well, that's something different," Harry said with a laugh, ruffling her hair. "Come on, you know I'm not good enough for Divination to teach you without books on hand. To the tower!"

Illyana nodded scampered over to the other kids, where she asked Ororo politely if she could take Melody with her. Harry didn't hear the explanation, but his mocha-colored lover eventually let them go, and the three of them headed up to Ravenclaw Tower.

The library of the deceased wizards who had attempted to fort up in the castle had remained unchanged despite all the other changes Harry had made to everything else in the castle. Soon, the three of them were hovering around the third floor of the tower, an open book and Illyana's chosen method of Divination rattling in a cup. These were several dozen sticks of different sizes and shapes, each with a word painted on them.

Melody sat holding Illyana's hand as she shook a small tumbler and tossed them down onto the table, with several of them on top of one another. "Where is Melody's favorite hair squeegee?"

The two girls then clambered into Harry's lap, and the three of them looked at the words visible on the sticks, then checked with the text. "Well, it looks like your lost hair tie is either gone or deep under frozen water, which I would assume means snow."

Melody sighed, unhappy it wasn't anything specific. "I like that hair tie. It was soft, squishy, and had lots of colors in it. Ororo got it for me the first time she and you, Father, brought me out shopping."

Harry chuckled, pulling his daughter into a hug, then pushed the two kids off his lap before standing up, moving to the wall as it turned see-through thanks to one of the enchantments on the castle's towers he had seen no reason to change. Heck, the opacity spell was probably the best non-protection enchantment on the castle, thanks to how much it helped with Ororo's claustrophobia. "Then we can't have it be lost now, can we? Accio Melody's hair tie!"

"I have to learn how to do that. I can pull things to me if I see them, but for some reason, I just have trouble with the general kind of out of sight pull thing," Illyana muttered as the three of them looked outside over the gray landscape of Camelot's grounds in winter. It had snowed the day after the wedding, adding another foot onto the snow already on the ground, and it was now so cold out that only Garm and the few truly dedicated runners went out without warming charms.

"We can work on that next week if you want? But I want to get your existing spell work in transfiguration and protection magic up to the point where you don't have to verbalize the last few spells we've covered first. Then we'll go on tougher stuff," Harry warned before something flew out from a small grotto near the edge of the woods, flying towards the library tower, smacking into the outer wall.

A moment later, Hedwig appeared from out of nowhere, swooping down on it before it could smack against the wall. Hedwig appeared above them within a second, landing lightly on the table and holding out the soaked squeegee to a grateful Melody. The owl accepted Melody's feather stroking as her just and bobbed her head in thanks to Melody's promise to save some bacon for Hedwig the next time she had any.

"Well, I have to say, and those sticks were a lot more accurate than I thought," Harry mused, looking over as Illyana gleefully gathered the sticks in and began to shake the container again.

Laying down a picture of Hela in the middle of the table, Illyana tapped it three times with her fingers as the book dictated, then asked her question. "Which meal will Hela eat in the main hall, and which entrance will she enter by?"

With that, Illyana dumped the sticks back over the picture before picking up the book from where Harry had left it. Harry watched as her brows furrowed in intense concentration, then in a real frown. Before he could offer to help, she pokes up. "Er, Master Harry, I think that we might not have time to prank Hela like I planned to. It says here that there will be new challenges and a darkness that must be vanquished appearing that day for Hela. Nothing about her eating in the main hall."

Harry frowned, looking over her shoulder for a few moments, and then slowly nodding, seeing that Illyana had interpreted the fallen sticks correctly. Normally I wouldn't put much truck in Divination, but the sticks just proved they were kind of accurate. And let's face facts, with our lives, it isn't exactly unusual to have a new challenge pop up like that.

More to the point, Harry had two very worried-looking kids staring at him. "Well, that isn't ominous at all," he drawled. "But then again, it isn't as if we are unused to such situations. It just means the next disaster is coming a little earlier than scheduled. Disasters often do."

The tone of uncaring amusement carried over, and both girls smiled, their momentary trepidation disappearing. It was helped along by Harry suddenly conjuring a snowball into one hand. "I'm not going to worry about it right now. I have a much better way to spend the rest of my day off in mind."

With that, he hurled the snowball towards Melody across the table, causing her to squawk as she fell backward, rolling end over and through the air as she slowly descended to the ground thanks to the various weightless and levitation enchantments on the tower.

"Vengeance!" Illyana cackled as she also conjured a snowball. She tossed it at Harry before ducking down to try to find some cover, with Melody doing the same, and Harry laughed, letting them gather enough snow to launch back his way. Whatever would happen in the future, they would handle when it came. Beyond the general warning to the various teams to be ready, there was nothing Harry could do about it now. So why bother worrying?

OOOOOOO

"Fall back! Fall back to the woodlands!" Balder bellowed. His men, a mix of Asgardians and human warrior spirits, karls, or common warriors whose original deaths had been deemed worthy of joining Odin in Valhalla, fell back, barely keeping a shield in front of themselves as the fire Jotun advanced. Towering over all but the tallest, with strength that no mortal men could match, they had made a shambles of any attempt to hold a line against them where they had first invaded Asgard, slaying the border forces almost to a man.

The keyword being 'almost', as since then, Balder had led his men in a few sharp ambushes, which he taught them some caution. This was but the latest one, built around two light cavalry charges which had pinned the enemy's vanguard as Balder led his footmen in to attack one group which was furthest away from the rest of the fire Jotun's forces.

By the time the infantry closed, the cavalry had already been forced into a retreat. Even from the top of a horse, a Jotun towered over Aesir or karl. This use of cavalry had been doomed from the start, only speed and surprise letting it make any impact, and the majority of the men who had ridden out would not be returning to their homes. But that assault, and indeed this entire battle, had been designed to buy time.

Time, time, ask me for anything but time! Balder nearly sang to himself mentally as he charged forward, getting his shield in front of a spear that would've stabbed its target through. The other man fell back, pulling an arrow from his quiver and letting it fly at a fire Jotun barely a few feet away. Balder blocked another blow before the arrow struck. Enspelled byFreya before they came out here with powers of the wind, the arrow blasted the fire around the fire Jotun away, the steel point of the arrow impacting the Jotun's face right below one of its eyes, causing it to cry out in pain and fall back a step, despite the arrow not digging very deep.

That was all Balder needed, and his sword was up and striking across the Jotun's stomach, spilling its intestines onto the snow. Such as they were, anyway. The Jotun might look human, but they were not. Their insides showed this, being mostly magma somehow contained in thin, skin-like outer shells. That outer shell was tougher than old wood and worked almost as well as the Fire Jotun's crude, black stone armor.

A moment later, Balder ducked under another blow from another fire Jotun, his riposte nearly chopping its arm off, as another attacked from nearby. That Jotun's spear was blocked by his shield, and for a moment, Balder danced among the Jotun, blocking and hewing, using his smaller size to good effect.

One of the Fire Jotun went shield to shield on him, and Balder gave way, nearly bowled off his feet. But in doing so that fire Jotun overextended. As he pushed forward, Balder was able to twirl around, slamming his shield into the Jotun's side and knocking him into a second Jotun, before falling back with his men. Both died to hurled spears from his men, while another fell screaming in agony from a blow to the knee from a Warhammer-wielding warrior who danced away from a sword chop with a laugh. The blow hadn't broken the skin, but the bone beneath had proven to be less resistant.

Wielding only a hammer, the man, a berserker, had given up any pretense at defense for greater speed. Now turning, he quickly caught up and began to run along beside Balder, snorting. "Balls, knees and ankles, they can't be protectin' all three!"

Balder chuckled at the man's good spirits. "Aye, Harnell. But there be too many of them to kill even if we took all day doing it and they were so kind as to let us. Pity that none seem so inclined."

Harnell and the other men nearby laughed at the Bright One's words, taking heart in his presence as they did in his courage in battle. The courage and determination he instilled in them was a near physical thing, and above them, the sun shone all the fiercer, blinding their enemies with its radiance for a time, giving the last of Balder's men cover as they entered the woods.

The battle, such as it was, had occurred on the road leading up into the mountains nearest where the Fire Jotun had begun their invasion. But out here, the road was the only real sign of any civilization, which was precisely the way Lord Odin had wanted it. To really hurt the Asgardians, a force would have to make their way weeks inland at the pace a Fire Jotun could make per day.

As they came closer, arrows and even a few heartily flung Spears lanced out from the woodlands, impacting the chest and legs of the Jotun. The fire Jotun responded with surprise, but one of their number blew a horn, and soon they reformed into a makeshift shield line. Their shields, massive slabs of sharp black metal like their armor, were soon festooned with arrows and spears as they advanced doggedly after Balder and his men. And in the distance, still more were coming, hundreds strong.

Thank all the gods the Jotun do not breed like men! This invasion is dire, but this army looks to be the majority of their numbers if Lord Odin's estimates of yore were accurate as to the size of Muspellheim and how low their population size is. If the Fire Jotun could breed like men, make up their numbers so quickly every generation, we would have long been overrun.

Balder nearly shivered as he watched the inexorable advance. He had personally seen more than fourteen thousand Jotun in the enemy army. That was barely a fifth the numbers Asgard could wield, but each Jotun was normally more than a match for any four or even five warrior spirits, who made up the vast amount of the Lord Odin's army. Small attacks like the one Balder had played to the strengths of the spirits, as the Jotun lacked any ability to work together and were easily confused unless a chieftain was nearby, and those chieftains were rarely seen with the vanguard. But in a larger-scale battle out in the open, the odds would shift to that of the Jotun.

After a few moments, Balder nodded to the nearby men, two of whom pulled out horns and blew interspersed notes. The different tones of the horns, one low, the other almost like a flute, were a signal. Instead of continuing to fall backward, moving in the same direction that he and his men had been retreating the past few days along the road nearby, everyone turned to the left, racing through the woods lengthwise.

When the Jotun reached the woods, they set several trees on fire in a fury at yet another ambush. When they continued to move forward, they also began to run into traps. Large beams suspended in midair by ropes flung themselves forward when Fire Jotun burned through the trip lines, weights falling from above. Pits dug in the earth of the forest. Stakes hidden in the underbrush.

These last two were particularly effective. Thanks to their size, the fire Jotun had a lot of trouble looking down. This meant that traps like this could truly slow them down, especially in this terrain. After all, they can't burn the whole forest, not at this time of year. Not unless they burn each tree in turn. Pine might be flammable, snow is not, and if they melt the snow, the tree becomes wet and hard to set alight, regardless of type.

And even this far removed from Asgard, Odin and his court could offer some aid. This came in the form of a cold, wet wind that put out any large fire that appeared. Odin sent it using his Farseeing skill, and Njord, the Vanir lord of the oceans. Njord could control the weather to a certain degree. Not enough to call up storms or utterly change the weather as Thor could, but enough to calm them in other areas of Asgard in such a way that it created the wet wind at need here at the front. It was a subtle rather than brute force measure, but it worked quite well.

With the Jotun slowed, Balder and his men moved through the woods to the left of where they had previously been retreating, joined by still other karls Balder had sent back earlier. One of them, a massive man named Arnolf, reported. "We shattered the Bridge, my Lord. Hard thing to do to such a beautiful thing, but this be a hard time, Aye?"

"I know, lads, but it had to be done. Lord Odin ordered us to delay this invading army, and that bridge was the easiest way across this gorge."

The gorge's name was forgotten to all but Odin, but Queen Freya herself had enchanted that bridge, made by dvergar craftsman in ancient times, with her magic and craft. The Bridge of True Beauty, it was called, a place for lovers to come and pledge their troth to one another. The trip out this far, weeks from the nearest hamlet, let alone the mighty city of Asgard for which the realm was named, served as proof of the fidelity of those who made the journey.

It would do so no longer. It had to be sacrificed to give the realm more time for Asgard's host to muster.

"Aye, my Lord, but we're leading them straight to another bridge. It would be bad luck if our work on destroying such beauty as that bridge were for naught."

Balder smirked, showing a hint of teeth in the expression. "Indeed we are, and I sent Barnabas to the town of Anvilcroft for more arrows and spears. After all, a bridge can be described as more than simply a means of getting from one side of an obstacle to another, my friend."

While no Jarl in life, there was nothing wrong with Arnolf's brain, and he instantly understood what his war chief was talking about. "A narrow place to defend my Lord. Made worse by the sheer size of the damned Fire Jotun."

Laughing, Balder clapped him on the shoulder and urged him over to an Asgardian named Togrun, who carried some of the day's supplies. Every day six of the men were chosen to carry the supplies in terms of food and what limited bandages and so forth they had available rather than take part in the battle. It was chosen by lot, so there could be no hard feelings among Karls or Asgardians. Even Balder had to take a turn early on, which neatly removed any kind of annoyance with the duty.

Not that there had been much of that. While this war band had been hastily pulled together by the outermost villages nearest the point of the invasion when the initial defenders had taken such horrendous losses, all of them were warriors. They knew this particular dance all too well. The Asgardians had recently seen action against the dark elves of Svartalfheim both in short sharp campaigns and in skirmishes since. The karls were slightly rustier in terms of real warfare. But they were more numerous and burned with an urge to prove themselves to Lord Odin and Lady Freya, who had chosen them.

The battles in the forest continued for another two days with the fire Jotun's vanguard rushed after them, desperate to develop Balder's men. While Balder led the majority in small, scattered ambushes at random ridges, outcrops of stone or ditches, the rest of his forces concentrated on putting down traps. To avoid friendly fire incidents, the traps were marked out differently each day so that the fire Jotun, no fools, understood where the traps were, but the retreating Asgardians did.

But always, the fires and strength of the fire Jotun drove them back. While traps and sneak attacks worked very well in the forest, the woodland underbrush also negated much of the advantages the karls had in terms of teamwork. And most Asgardians were weaker than fire Jotun's in terms of pure strength, leaving them to fall back on their skill with their weapons, which were always of higher quality. And the skill of the Karls was such that even most Asgardians were not their equal in pure sword work.

Both groups took losses in the woods. Here a man would go down, split through by a fire Jotun. There, a karl would be torn asunder by a blade coming down too fast to dodge, or a karl would burn as a Fire Jotun's blood splashed him, an Asgardian run through nearby.

Blood painted the snow, and fire wound its way through the Woodlands as the enemy army kept on pressing, pressing hard, bringing up more and more of their people.

Grimly Balder led them on, slowing the enemy advance as best he could until a report from one of his scouts told Balder that they were coming across the next bridge. That was the signal, and Balder led the fittest of his warriors into one final holding action as the rest of his men fell back, creating a wide area of traps through the woods.

They used their last arrows and spears and then broke contact entirely, fleeing away. One of his scouts led each band in the proper direction towards the bridge. This split seemed to confuse the Jotun and allowed the survivors of the action in the woods to get away more cleanly than Balder had dared hope.

Meeting up once more, the warrior band made their way wearily towards the bridge. Soon they came out of the woodland and saw it ahead of them. This bridge wasn't named anything and was a much more prosaic thing, made of metal and wood rather than the stone and metal masterpiece of the dvergar.

But at the other end of its span stood groups of people who were nowhere near as prosaic as the bridge. Valkyries, forty strong, sat on their winged horses, gilded bows in hand, while nearby, large two-story-tall walls of wood and stone had been piled, with arrow slits scattered through the makeshift barriers. And alongside that was a pile of arrows, spears and shields.

At the sight of the horsewomen and the amount of piled-up shields, spears and arrows, the men with Balder whooped in delight, racing forward. Several of them ran across the span, reaching up to pull this woman or another down into a kiss. They were laughingly told off, or, more infrequently, a woman allowed herself to be pulled down into a brief kiss before pushing the man away.

These were the Valkyrie of Freya and Odin, who meted out fate to those fallen in battle. When a warrior died in battle in a glorious (or memorable, which wasn't quite the same thing) manner, the Valkyrie would come to offer their spirits the chance to come to Asgard. Here the Jarls and Karls of men could make new lives for themselves. Most were then joined by their loved ones as they died. Any children they had would grow up here, following in their parent's footsteps, providing new blood.

Despite ages having passed since their deaths back on Midgard, many a karl recognized the particular Valkyrie who had chosen him. And regardless of how many warriors were chosen by this or that Valkyrie, there was always a kind of connection, not lust or love, save in a few special cases such as Gudrun and Helgi, but still there.

Normally the Valkyries would not be warriors, but they were all renowned archers. Further, their arrows were marked by Odin and crafted by the greatest dvergar craftsmen.

"Hail, fair Balder!" The leader of the company of Valkyries greeted Balder, getting off her horse and going to one knee in front of Balder, looking up at him with a faint blush visible on her features. Balder was reckoned one of the fairest of all the Asgardians. And many women, Valkyrie and Asgardian alike, had pined for the Bright One over the years.

Balder nodded, gesturing with one hand towards his men as he asked what food had been prepared. "Though the action be hot enough, and the woods burning behind us, we have rather ironically not had enough time for any hot meals of our own. We broke contact last night, but they will be coming on swiftly enough. Even if we have taught them caution. Isn't that right, boys!?"

Around him, his men gave a ragged cheer. But surviving warriors cheered much more heartily when they saw that over a dozen womenfolk came from the nearest town along with the town's supplies for the war group. Hot soup, roasting venison and boar awaited them. Even Balder, the strongest of the warriors here, could not help but feel some hunger at the sight.

The warriors had time to eat and rest for half a day before the first of the fire Jotun found the bridge. Those first few died to arrows from the Valkyries, who could shoot further and aim even better than any of the Asgardians save the absent Skadi, their enchanted recurve bows deadly. Fate Ending, those arrows were called, used to cull those spirits unworthy of joining Lord Odin here in Asgard.

And yet even they are not the shot Skadi is. I wonder where Skadi and Thor and the rest of that band, Balder idly mused as he watched the fire Jotun on the other side of the gorge die to the accurate, powerful bows of the Valkyries. Enchanted in both bow and arrow by the dvergar smiths answering to Lord Odin himself, no armor that any fire Jotun had could stop such arrows, and the five fire Jotun and the other side on the bridge looked like pincushions, none of them surviving to retreat back into the woods.

However, the enemy attack began in earnest swiftly after that. The local commander of the fire Jotun, Balder had no idea of his identity was surely no fool. When faced with the Valkyries, the fire Jotun melted nearby stone into large shields, bringing them forward and setting them up under cover of their own spear throwers and archers just like the walls the locals had prepared for Balder and his men.

They still lost people, though. The Valkyries could simply ride their flying horses up into the air and fire down on the fire Jotun from above. But the work continued, and then several larger-than-average fire Jotun joined them. They cut their palms on small daggers and hurled their blood into the air, where they became large fireballs, the magma of the Jotun's blood acting like a spell component for a moment. And winged or not, the Valkyries' horses were still horses. The fear of fire could not be trained out of such mounts, and they shied in midair, ruining the Valkyrie's aim.

"Fall back across the bridge," Balder bellowed. "Give us fire from the sides down here!"

The lead Valkyrie obeyed reluctantly, her horse stomping to the ground nearby, her mouth open in an angry retort. Balder stopped her, holding up a hand and shaking his head. "We are fighting for time, not to the last man. Losing your Valkyries would hurt our cause more than any number of karls or Asgardians."

There were far fewer Valkyries than there were Asgardians, let alone karls. Indeed, there were fewer Valkyries than there were Álfar, the light elves who served in Odin's hall as servants and messengers. There were several armies worth of karls, a powerful host of Asgardians and some thousand dvergar. But across the lands of Asgard, there were only two hundred or so Valkyries.

"And when it becomes time for Lord Odin to take the field with our main host, it is you and your sisters who will be our eyes and ears. You know this. Do not throw their lives away. Do not throw your life away," Balder ordered intensely.

The Valkyrie blushed under Balder's gaze, her earlier anger evaporating, as she nodded at the Bright One. "Your pardon Lord Balder, you are right, of course."

Balder simply smiled at her, patting her on the shoulder, careful not to notice her trembling at the touch, before gesturing her back to her women. They spread out to either side of the bridge, giggling among themselves like farmgirls for a moment. Yet even as they did, their arrows still flew, further and stronger than even a fire Jotun's spear could be thrown.

Meanwhile, the karls began to trade fire with the fire Jotun across the way, and the fire Jotun began to form up to cross the bridge. As they did, the Jotun used their limited transfiguration skills to change their bodies, becoming thinner and smaller to let more press across the bridge at a time.

"Remember, lads. Smaller the Seidr users might have made themselves, but their strength is still the same," Balder warned, earning laughter from the warriors around him. After all, being male and using magic was a sign of weakness and femininity that no warrior could stomach.

As he finished speaking, Balder moved forward, rubbing elbows with Pazi, another Asgardian, Arnolf and Mactan, another karl. While Balder and Pazi were armed with swords and shields, the karls only held swords, longer than the long swords that the two Asgardians used. No armor or shield would stand up against a fire Jotun's blow after all, so it was best not to wear them at all and make use of speed.

To either side of the bridge, the defenders hiding behind the prepared wood walls were taking losses. The walls were a good defense, but any spear that got through an arrow slit would kill a karl, and even an Asgardian could be slain by a lucky hit to the head. Something that had been proven before this point several times.

Still, they were also killing the enemy two for every one of their own that fell. Already several of the fire Jotun had died, having been knocked off the bridge or lost their footing, falling to their doom. But it took several wounds to slay a fire Jotun, and they charged on.

"Brace, brace," Balder said, crouching low behind his shield, hiding his head from view, Pazi doing the same. "Brace… now!"

As the enemy entered sword range, Balder and Pazi charged the few steps forward, counter charging them, smashing swords and spear to either side in their mad rush. This opened up the Jotun's defenses and the karls to either side thrust, their blades past the two Asgardians and into the guts or privates of the Jotun.

Two fire Jotun fell in agony, magma splashing down onto the bridge's stone. While the stone was proof against the magma, the rapidly cooling bodies got in the way of their fellows until they were smashed out of the way by the Jotun behind them.

Spears and swords thrust once more but were deflected, and for a moment, the warriors four stood there, hacking hewing. The Asgardians providing defense, the karls offense. Then Pazi fell back, a blow to his shoulder having deadened his sword arm. Instantly, Mactan twirled around the larger Asgardian, his great sword cleaving into the side of the fire Jotun who had struck him, pulled out, and retreated, with two other warriors taking their place as that Jotun leaked still more magma onto the stone of the bridge, where it ran to one side, hissing as it fell.

Balder did not move even as Arnolf also fell back. Instead, he shouted, "For Queen Freya and Lord Odin!"

Above them, the rainy day sent by Njord faded swiftly, and a bright blast of sunlight fell onto the bridge, giving heart to those around Balder. It did not dismay the Jotun, but it also empowered Balder with a defensive spell, an enchantment his mother had devised when he was young and had terrible nightmares of his eventual death. While it wasn't perfect, the enchantment granted him an insane level of durability even among his folk.

So arrayed, the Bright One stayed, slaying seven more Jotun, taking the arms and hands off still others who were then kicked or knocked out of the way off the bridge by their fellows. He stayed until the fire from his side of the bridge began to die down, the karls and even a few of the precious Valkyries having died to return fire from the fire Jotun as more of their number joined the battle spreading down either side of the gorge facing the defenders.

Where before there had been perhaps 100 to 200 before the fire Jotun's started across, now there were so many it looked as if the burning forest had sprouted thousands of new trees. It was only a matter of time before their numbers finished off the defenders.

"Now!" Pazi shouted, having taken his place beside Balder once more. Now his sword flicked out, stabbing into one fire Jotun's forearm, ruining a blow meant for Balder. "Balder, we must do it now!"

Balder took another blow on his shield, and a third to the head, while a fourth smashed into his leg. He twisted so that his thigh guard was able to take the blow. His mother's spell was still upon him, and none of the blows could truly harm him. In reply, his sword flicked out, killing that fire Jotun, while his shield battered aside a second blow from the one who had attacked from that side, opening that fire Jotun up to his fellow warrior.

But as he fought, Balder knew Pazi was right and shouted out, "do it!" He didn't want to give the fire Jotun any hint about what would happen, and keeping it simple like that was easiest.

At his cry, several spells from the Vanir Ganu lanced into the bridge. A student of Freya, her spells began to simply undo the bridge removing nails, dropping the wood frame of the rope bridge despite the best countermeasures the fire Jotun's anti-magic fields could create. There just weren't enough of them on the bridge at any one time to defend it from such a pointed assault.

The bridge collapsed along its length, just coming apart all at once, dumping more than fourteen Jotun into the gorge to their doom and forever closing this invasion route. The fire Jotun would have to skirt far to the north to find a way around this gorge now.

Suddenly, Balder gasped as a hurled spear crashed into him so fast that he had barely even seen it coming in enough time to get his shield up. The spear punched straight through his shield right below his arm, the point of the spear going on to impact his breastplate with enough force to send Balder sprawling backward, gasping in air from a suddenly very bruised chest.

From where he had been flung, Balder watched in shock as Arnolf and Pazi both fell to other equally powerfully hurled spears. This left the madman Harnell standing alone, and to his awed delight, the karl didn't retreat. Instead, he stayed there at the edge of the gorge, cackling madly. "Ar, yas got the big tools but yas don't know what ta do with 'em! You fire humpers be so slow, a tree could grow on ya. Yer fire's not hot, it's ju…""

As Balder pushed himself to his knees, Harnell's cackling tirade was cut off by a third flung spear. Larger than he was tall and thicker around than Harnell's thighs, it took his head clean off, his head just exploding with the force of the strike.

Across the span stood a fire Jotun, half again the size of any of the others, broader in the shoulder than any two of them, with a face both malicious and expressive glaring hatred across the gorge towards Balder over a long, magnificent black beard. "You have but delayed the inevitable!" The fire Jotun king, Surtur, bellowed. "Soon Balder, you and all of your fellows, will roast in the fires of Ragnarök!"

In response, Valkyrie arrows slammed into the king, doing nothing. Many burnt to ash before they reached him. Others survived but did nothing on his shiny black armor, covering him from the neck down in well-wrought armor, completely unlike the other Jotun. Even arrows spelled to end men's lines of Fate could do nothing against Surtur.

The fires slackened instantly, and Balder realized those had been the last of the Valkyries' arrows. Indeed, all of the supplies that had been gathered over the past few days for this battle had been used up. He also could see bodies, lots of them. The death toll had certainly not been one-sided. Yet the Valkyries had pulled back almost, and with them, he saw more than two dozen of his men still alive. It wasn't any kind of victory in his mind, but it would have to do for now.

As Balder was pulling his somewhat scattered wits together, Surtur pulled back his hand again, hurling another spear towards Balder, who barely got his shield up in time. The shield shattered this time above his arm, and it was his shoulder and pectoral that took the hit, further denting his armor badly and bruising the skin underneath something fierce despite the enchantment he was using as Balder was once more hurled off his feet.

When he hit the ground, this time Balder rolled desperately and kept on rolling, putting more and more distance between himself and the fire King using the slight slope of the ground here. Then a hand grabbed his leg, shouting, "Over here, milord!"

Balder stopped rolling then and was pulled into cover behind a rock. The rock instantly shattered under a blow from the spear, but it held long enough for Balder and the Valkyrie who had grabbed him to race away on their feet until they had put a slight hillock between them and the Fire Jotun king.

"You cannot escape your destiny!" Came a shout from Surtur. "You can only delay it! Asgard will be mine, and the pyres of your death will be glorious!"

Looking around, Balder saw worried and even a few frightened expressions among the Asgardians and karls. The Valkyries were harder to read, although they seemed nervous in how they held their bridles or bows. Seeing those faces in the twilight, Balder knew he had to say something to break the despondent spirit of his command before it could become addled by grief and give in to fear.

Standing straight and ignoring his wounds, Balder shouted back, his voice carrying over to the Jotun. "You have but faced a pittance of our might! I held you up for days on end with barely two hundred warriors! You face the full might of Asgard and Lord Odin, and it is your legions who will despair! Come meet us in the north if you are so eager to die!"

His only answer from Surtur was a roar of fury, but Balder's men seemed to gather more heart, and he nodded firmly at them. "This was but the last line of skirmishes, my lads."

"And lasses," the lead Valkyrie interjected.

"And lasses," Balder allowed, sending her a wink that caused her to blush like a maiden and turn away rapidly. "You have all performed magnificently here and before this day in our grim work. By our blood and toil, we have given Lord Odin time to muster the full might of Valhalla. And it will be enough as it has always been before to rid our land of the fire Jotun and send them packing to their own fiery realm."

A ragged cheer went up from the survivors of his war band, and he nodded firmly at them all. "Now, come. Let us get on our way. After all, none of us would wish to miss a battle so grand as that, would we?"

Laughter abounded, but smiles could be seen on many faces as they began to make their way west. Balder could even hear a few of the men beginning to sing songs, ribald drinking songs or boat shanties that won many an eye roll from the Valkyries, those that weren't already joining in in the choruses anyway.

Balder even joined in a few times, his clear tenor cutting through the evening as they made their way away from the battlefield, joking and laughing, slapping backs and smiling at everyone and sun-dried. Yet at the back of his mind, an exhausted Balder wondered. The full might of the fire Jotun nation had never been released like this before, and he wondered if Asgard truly was strong enough to face such a foe.

OOOOOOO

The day after Balder retreated from the nameless gorge in Asgard, the Sorceress Amora, formally of Asgard, smiled contentedly as she got into her personal canal boat. How I do love the modern world. As she sat down, the image of the boatmen waiting for her, a most excellent illusion she had created for this purpose, seemed to pole them out into the water, when in reality, it was Amora's magic which moved the small boat, the pole laying unused on the deck.

What care I for my previous plots or ambitions in cold, dreary Asgard? I can't use magic openly, but that was never my way anyway. I don't have any power over people, but what do I care for that, when I can live in comfort and leisure without such? Spas, masseuses, and pedicures, like the one I just had! In the name of all the Aesir and Vanir, where were such amenities back home?

She smiled as she heard shouts of, "hello, beautiful!" And "My God, look at that woman. She is as beautiful as the stars above!" In Italian from a few men around, lounging in her boat like a movie star as it went along the canal.

And no end of handsome men to while away time with if I wish to. Most of them don't have anything to go beyond their looks, not like Doctor Doom, who Paris snagged, but that is fine. I have no need for a husband, let alone children, ugh. Indeed. Why ever did I want a husband in the first place? Particularly Thor of all people? An intelligent conversationalist Thor is not, for all of his physical prowess. Indeed, looking back on it, I have to wonder…

Not for the first time, the Sorceress shook her head, setting that thought aside, as she looked around at the city of Venice, her personal little boat wound its way through the canals. Amora had fallen in love with this city when she came here for a photo shoot. The former Asgardian had worked for Paris in many different jobs, and while acting as a news broadcaster had been interesting, it had been her work as a model which had allowed her to explore the human world more. Of all the cities Amora had seen, Venice was the one Amora liked most. Perhaps that is the sign of the Aesir in me, Amora reflected, liking the small boats they use here and the amount of water nearby.

That thought made her chuckle to herself, then she put on some music, put on her headphones, and at the next bend in the canal as they disappeared from sight underneath a bridge, hopped to her feet. With a wave of her hand, Amora dispelled the illusion of the boatman. A second later, she canceled the spells on the boat and took over, punting the canal boat along. The music of Jennifer Lopez began, and Amora, the dread Sorceress of Asgard, continued on her way, humming along and generally grateful beyond all words to have left that life behind her.

Later that day, Amora headed back to her apartment, a very tasteful studio apartment with a magnificent view of Venice in one of its richer districts, a bag of groceries with a minor weightless charm under one arm. She left it on the table and headed into her bathroom, where she proceeded to take a long shower, smiling as she smelled the new shampoo that she had bought that day, reveling in the feel of it in her silken hair. Paris was right again, this new shampoo is magnificent, and I love the smell of pine and mint. She said the next time she needed me for a job was on the fourteenth? Time enough to perhaps purchase a larger boat and go down the shore to one of the other nearby cities. Or perhaps I could take a few days and travel someplace else?

All thought on that score left Amora's mind when she started to hear voices from her apartment. One voice said, "I don't know, this looks more like some kind of rich person's apartment, not…" the next few words were unintelligible, but the tone was that of a young girl, and it was only that which gave Amora any pause.

It was then answered by another male voice, old and crotchety. His voice was a low mumble, the words indiscernible.

They do not sound like a gang or any stalker I have heard of, but the fact that I am hearing anyone in my apartment is an issue! Not only do I have the only key, and this whole complex has up-to-date security, but I warded my home against any unwanted intrusion, magical or not! So how did they even get here? Still, if whoever this is has assumed that I am a weak mark, they will find themselves gravely mistaken.

With an angry scowl on her face, Amora wrapped a towel around herself and marched out, magic blooming around her hands. I will worry about getting rid of the bodies later. "I have no idea what you two were trying to accomplish, but you will rue the day you…" Amora's voice stuttered to a halt as she took in the scene in front of her.

There were indeed two intruders. One was a young girl who was putting away Amora's food - in the right places a part of Amora's mind noticed - while looking around her with a sense of childlike awe and curiosity. The young girl in question had violet-colored skin, elven ears, and a few marks on her cheeks that looked somewhat like tattoos but could well be natural beauty marks. She was a toned, lithe-looking young thing and quite striking despite her drab clothing: jeans and a drab shirt, the kind of clothing Amora had seen young people wear when they were backpacking across Europe.

The second person was an old man, who laid out on Amora's sofa as if this was his apartment rather than the Sorceress. If the young girl looked like she at least tried to care for her appearance, this old man most certainly did not. His clothing was not threadbare by any means but patched and dusty from long travel and hard-living, a robe of all things over a tough pair of jeans and large boots. His gray locks were long and flowing and seemed clean but was unkempt.

But it wasn't their appearance that halted Amora, her anger snuffed out as easily as a small candle on a birthday cake. No, what stopped her was the old man's one eye-catching her own, staring into her soul in a way that she had seen only once before.

For all her power, Amora trembled, the magic around her hands going out, and she fought the urge to prostrate herself. "My Lord…"

"Say not my name in front of young Blink. That would ruin some of my fun. Call me Wanderer." The old man warned sharply before smiling beatifically. "Although considering how far we are from home, that is an appellation that could be placed at your feet too, is it not, Enchantress? You also are very far from home."

"Please tell me you don't speak in riddles," the young girl apparently named Blink almost whined, looking over at the towel-clad woman. She blushed a bit, then quickly moved to cover the old man's one eye with one of her hands. "Sorry about just, you know, coming in like this, but he was adamant that this was the place we had to be."

This act allowed Amora to regain some of her equilibrium, and she snorted at the young woman. "And obviously, he was not going to take any attempt to put things off or argue with him. Don't worry, child, I know that fact well enough." She couldn't quite hide a bit of bitterness in her tone, remembering how she had been persecuted by the Aesir for how she had used her magic back in Asgard. Mostly by the laws of this man, who himself was a practitioner of magic which no man should be. By his own rules and beliefs, Odin is a damned soul, she thought not for the first time, scowling a bit.

"Truly, we would not be here at all if it were not grave. Grave that all wanderers go home, grave enough to speak of endings and beginnings, of not just ourselves, but of all," the wanderer aspect of Odin's announced.

Amora scowled, shaking her head once, but she could still feel the older man stare, although Blink (and what kind of a name was that for a young girl?) was still holding one hand over his eye. "If this is going to be an in-depth conversation, I am going to get changed first."

A moment later, Amora came out garbed in her typical around-the-house attire, loose shirt and long loose pants, the kind of comfortable clothing she preferred to wear around the apartment. Normally I would dress up more for guests, but I will be damned to Niflheim if I show this old reprobate that much deference. "Now why are you here… Wanderer? And no prevarication! Just tell me what you want from me, and furthermore, how by Bifrost's holy light did even you get past my wards without me feeling it!?"

"What are wards? Er… sorry, but um, whatever they are, I didn't have any trouble getting us here," Blink said, blinking her eyes as she held up an Apple, asking silent permission from Amora to have a bite.

"Well, at least you have some manners, child. But the fact you didn't even notice my wards does not make me feel any better about you being here. Still, your comment at least tells me that it was you who brought the two of you here are not this old reprobate," Amora answered, waving her hand in answer.

"I don't know what that word means, but I'm certain that it describes the old goat, whatever it is," Blink answered around her mouthful, shaking her head reproachfully. "Sorry, he didn't tell me that we were here to find a woman, or else I would have tried to blink us outside on your balcony maybe."

"Foolishness. The time to care about such niceties asked. We need to get in contact with Harry Potter," the aspect of Odin announced, seemingly fed up with the niceties.

Amora scoffed. "Go through Magical Minds and get an appointment from one of his secretaries. Why do you need me?"

"Did you not hear me? We need to speak to Potter! Not his flunkies. And it is 'we', not just me," the Wanderer retorted. "I said it was time that all of us come home, and I meant it."

At that, Amora's lips curved into a snarl. "If this is your way of saying that you wish me to go back willingly to be locked up or something similar I…"

"No." The force of that one word took Amora aback, and the old man went on. "We go back to war, not to put you in a cage. We go back to the war, the war to end the cycle, a bid for freedom for all which can either lead to victory or fiery ruin."

"That tells me absolutely nothing. Freedom for who?" Amora questioned, while Blink looked both concerned and frightened, wondering what the heck she had gotten involved in here.

"Freedom for everyone left behind. Freedom for me, the Aesir and Vanir all," the wanderer aspect answered.

Amora stared at him, but the wanderer aspect had obviously said as much as he was going to and aspect or no, this was still Lord Odin in front of her and Amora sighed. The old raven-pecked fool always could do inscrutable better than a whole cadre of mummers. Best to just go along with things, for now, I suppose. "I believe I could get us into seeing Harry, yes. But even I would have to go through Sage to do it. Or perhaps I could lean on Paris and have her pass on a personal request."

The seriousness in the Wanderer faded, and he shook his head with a chuckle. "No, no, that won't do it all. While it might be time to become serious, I would loathe my last act in this grand play to be so boring. We will rely on Blink, and in doing so, will show another aspect of what we bring to the table."

"I feel as if this entire conversation is going way over my head or needs so much background will be here for days," Blink muttered. "And I don't like how you're just talking about me like I'm a commodity."

"Probably, child. Although, I do agree, organizing a meeting like that might not have the true proper flair that you are going for, my Lord." The use of that title for the old man caused Blink to stare at her then Odin, but Amora ignored the girl standing up and moving towards the kitchen. "And it has often been said that I also have a flair for the dramatic. I don't suppose that my aid would allow me to slink off after you and Potter meet?"

"Indeed not! When one has gone to the trouble of picking up a piece, you do not then set it beside the board, unused," the Wanderer announced, flicking fingers at both women.

Amora sighed again, mentally whimpering a bit at having her life so displaced but holding out hope that after this was all over, she could return to it. "Blink, would you like something to eat? I'm rather hungry myself. And you Wanderer can fend for yourself! This is my kitchen, and as you are not guests invited to my table and you are not in duress nor facing foul weather, I can decide who to serve."

The Wanderer scowled, but did not gainsay Amora, and she went on. "Instead, you will tell us more about this war you mention and what you want from me personally. And not in ribald riddles or quips, old man, or else we will be having more than words whatever your power might be!"

Later, Amora wondered if perhaps she should have allowed the wanderer aspect of Lord Odin to keep his plans to himself. They certainly didn't make for nice listening.

OOOOOOO

Harry wasn't the only one among his command cadre who hadn't been to the Savage Land in a while. Indeed, the only one who had was Hela, so Harry organized a day trip for himself and his ladies.

But when she was approached, Jean evinced no interest in doing so at present. She'd had a doctor's appointment that morning, and that always put her in an odd mood. So it was only Harry, Ororo, and Emma who decided to make the trip.

They were joined by Sage and MJ, who brought Wyatt with her. Even though this visit was mostly to just look around and have a date out on the lake, business never stopped.

"Forge reported that he's happy enough with building the first human-made ships to your specifications, although Admiral Whitaker wants it on record that he doesn't think it's a good idea. In his opinion, the first human ship should stay here to flag the Home Fleet," Sage was saying as they all stepped through the runic doorway arriving in the vestibule of the tower that was the center of the Savage Land. "As that's a human-type debate, I thought you should have some input."

"Does Forge know that he's going to be working with Kitty and that any design he makes has to be run by Carol, her think tank and Reed? I don't want him to go all absent-minded professor on us and start building ships without making certain that they match the criteria we need," Harry joked, although he knew Forge was perfectly capable of doing just that.

Still, of all the geniuses Harry had access to at present, Forge was easily the most capable of playing nice with others, and Harry took Sage at her word when she replied in the affirmative, going on to address her other point. "Good. As for Admiral Whitaker, I realize that having our flagship be a human-designed ship is a big deal in terms of morale and public relations, but the fact is, we have enough Kree-made ships we don't need more capital ships. Warspite can serve as our flagship for now. And no, I'm not going to allow the first human-made carrier to be called Victory either," Harry ended dryly. "He got away with calling the defense fleet Home Fleet. That's all he gets."

Ororo chuckled at that, as did Wyatt, although the others looked blank, and Harry rolled his eyes. "Nevermind. Let's just say that he was being very quintessentially British-first with that choice of a name and the Home Fleet thing. Now, MJ, you had something you want to say before we start our tour?"

"We're starting to get some pushback from the American public and the Chinese government who think that the Avalon Empire is just a new type of imperialism, but I had an idea about combating that, at least in the states. If you give me permission, I want to commission a documentary series about the number of alien races out there. The more information we share on that score, the better the Avalon Empire looks."

She chuckled wryly, pushing a long thread of red hair out of her hair as she went on. "We're also starting to see some local groups protesting how many veterans are signing up to have dual citizenships. And those astronomers angry we're destroying asteroids and using them as military bases have gotten organized. Their screaming is beginning to get more airtime in American news, and their rants are being taken seriously online, not something we want to see. There are also a few dozen pro-mutant supremacy sites we should be aware of, but I think between Sage and me, we can figure out who set them up and start to marginalize them without giving them the kind of attention they want."

Harry frowned at that, then shrugged his shoulders. "I think that falls on the heading of more information as well. If we can get the realists on our side, we can get the scientific purists to back off, and the astronomers aren't the kind to make trouble. As for your idea about a documentary series, that sounds like a fantastic idea."

"I would ask Una and Mar'vel to help. Having actual aliens discuss their society will add to your documentary. And if we are talking future troubles, my love?" Ororo interjected.

"I am always willing to hear whatever you want to tell me, Ororo, and now's a good time as any. Just remember to leave problems and portents at the docks, hmm?" Harry teased.

Ororo smiled back but still brought up the issue she had seen building for some weeks now. "Understood and agreed. But back to my concern. I think we need to consider adding another artificial intelligence to our resources. Pinoptes is becoming stretched between helping on the educational side of things and running our ever-growing number of sensor arrays."

"Should we slow construction of the Raven Towers, the Verdun platforms and so forth?" Emma inquired. "I don't want to know what an AI, no matter how seemingly sane, would do if he feels himself being 'stretched'. Especially one who is connected to so much of what we do."

"I don't think we should pare Pinoptes back," Ororo cautioned. "Further, I think working with the teachers and the students is good for him. But we might want to get some more help for MJ and Sage, as well as keep track of everything else we're doing in space. Let Pinoptes handle only the sensors and the education side of things. Not the thousands of repair droids, work on the various asteroids, the ships' courses and so forth, let alone Hephaestus 2."

"Agreed. I'll sit down with Tony, see if he can find it in his heart to program another artificial intelligence. And just like before, I'll have Reed go through the programming like before. That's worked so far, and I don't think relying on either one of them alone to program the AI would work as well."

"Truer words were never spoken. One big brain is never going to be as good as two," Emma quipped before glaring at all of the others bar Wyatt, her hands on her hips. "And with that out of the way, and while I realize this sounds extremely strange coming from me, no more talk of business for now. You and Hela are still going to sit in on that local meeting later, and I want to make the most of the time we have."

With even Sage being agreeable to that, Harry led the way from one runic doorway set high up in the tower in the Savage land to another local one that would bring them to the budding city on the lake. As he did, Harry reflected that Kitty had been very busy. Or is she still getting help from Wanda and Clea?

Regardless of who created this particular doorway, it deposited them within what Harry had heard called a runic waystation in the center of the as-yet-unnamed city.

They got some odd looks from the passerby, as it wasn't the normal time of people transferred from the tower into the city or vice versa, but that was all. Harry and Ororo were under a minor glamour to hide their identity, and the others were not famous enough to attract attention here.

Upon exiting the waystation into the rest of the city, MJ, Wyatt, and Emma all froze, staring around them. "By the Spirits!" Wyatt breathed.

Even Harry paused, looking around appreciatively, while Sage slowly removed her computer glasses, replacing them with regular sunglasses as she too took in the view with a faint smile on her purple-painted lips. "It's nice to see that all your hard work has paid off."

The runic waystation was set up on a small hill in the center of the growing city. Around the hill, a road circled, other roads leading into the circle leading off through the city. While this added height didn't mean they could see everything as the edifice wasn't all that tall even so, it did afford them a very nice view of the surrounding area.

The cityscape was eclectic, to say the least, just as Harry had said to Emma during their date at her mansion. Indeed, in terms of the number of buildings and size of the area, it perhaps didn't really deserve the term city yet. But it was impressive all the same.

For one thing, the waystation was situated in a building that looked like a mound crossed with a large, modern loghouse-like structure. Harry detected the hands of Hela and perhaps some of the locals in that. Don't the lizard-kin live in buildings like that? I know they are the most pleased with our takeover of the Savage Lands. On top of the mound was a small lighthouse-like structure for some reason.

Looking in one direction, the group could see one of the roads leading directly into a large, interconnected area of differently designed buildings. According to what Harry had been told, this was the area devoted to the various scientific communities developed here. Agriculture, flora, fauna, mineralogy, paleontology, all these fields and more were represented. Indeed, even Carol's original think tank had relocated to the Savage Land. Their building was a large dome-like structure with wings out to either side, arched to catch the sun's rays and lined with hundreds of solar panels.

In contrast, the botany division was a series of smaller biodomes, where local plants had been replanted to be studied in little examples of the various diverse ecologies the Savage Land boasted. The area between the small bio domes was open to the public, but each dome was also guarded by a small security fence and a retina pattern security system. People could look but could not go inside.

A small stream wound its way in a U-turn pattern in this area. Offshoots fed into several small botanical Gardens, but the main river wound under another building, apparently devoted to scientists conducting experiments and research in the lake. That building, Harry recalled, had been part of the initial base that Magneto and his Brotherhood had set up. I think only the main building of Carol's think tank could say the same. Good Grief, no wonder she said I'd recognize it by its wings. Hah!

In another direction was a housing district. There were not large, blocky apartment buildings. Most of them were small two or three-story houses. There were a few apartment buildings in the distance in different directions, including the original barracks building. But even there, Harry could see that the designers and the construction teams had gone out of their way to make the new buildings at least look impressive. One apartment building Ororo pointed out as they made their way down the hill looked like a giant triangle, while another MJ seemed to like arched over a distant street.

As they walked, Harry and his group saw that the city had various things that one would assume a city would have. A large, utilitarian ACME sat squat and almost annoyingly out of place, taking space between two intersections. Elsewhere, hardware stores and several bars also mostly looked generic compared to the rest of the city.

The theater Emma spotted and urged them towards did not. It was built around a dip in the land with a wide dome over it and a frontage that looked like a Greek temple. Inside, the theater was separated into four segments, each segment able to open up to the sky.

There were also people. Lots of people. Buildings were still being put up in a few lots even near the city's center, including what looked like some kind of sports complex, and construction teams were everywhere, speaking English, French or Mexican among themselves in the main. Other people were scientists. Harry saw more than a dozen nonhuman locals, members of Shanna's tribe, and men dressed as if they were ready to head into the jungle. And among them were normal men and women going about their lives. There were only a few kids, though, and they were teenagers or older. It was a school day, after all.

"How, I mean, I knew before coming here that this city was growing and large already, but Harry, this place has only been here for what, four months, five?" MJ asked, breaking her stunned silence while Wyatt looked around intently.

"A little longer. But you need to remember that some of these buildings have been repurposed from what Magneto and his followers created. And they also had her own homegrown construction droids for the roads and simple things," Harry opined, winking at the redhead. "As for the rest, you should know. How many applications did you and Sage take for scientists to come here and research the Savage Land?"

"If you're talking about the applications we accepted, fourteen-thousand, two-hundred and ninety-five. At your direction, I chose 'division leaders' for every five hundred. Above that, I created an oversight committed from a group of emeritus professors to organize the various divisions in different sectors so that there is some overlap, but not much. About forty percent of those scientists paid for the privilege to come here as individuals or represent various colleges or laboratories elsewhere," Sage answered instantly, although she was also shaking her head and looking back at the bio domes. "But over six thousand live here full-time by this point. And I agree with MJ. I signed off on most of the funding and expenditures here under your name, and even I'm astonished by all this."

MJ shook her head slowly, taking in the view around the theater, while Ororo looked quietly proud as she exchanged nods with a few of the people around them. They didn't recognize her thanks to her glamor, they were simply being friendly, and she returned the gesture, as pleased in that courtesy and the smiles on their faces as the rest of the city.

"When Harry and I decided that the original supply depot by the lake would be the natural place to build a community of colonists, we brought in several dozen construction companies we made agreements with via the hellfire club and Emma." Ororo nodded her head to the woman who nodded back agreeably, also smiling widely – or as widely as she ever did, at this visible sign of their efforts. Then, we simply told them that everything had to be structurally strong and beautiful if it could be done. With that, and the magic words 'money is no object', one can work wonders."

"Exactly. That, and when we started to build up a surplus of the construction robots whose design we got from Doctor Doom, we sent several hundred of them down here. Plus, most construction teams, electricians, metalworkers, and so forth live here now. Along with many Magical Minds personnel, a large majority of their families and the families of people working up in Fortress Mars. But really, the magic words Ororo mentioned, and the surplus of construction droids is the real reason behind this progress."

"I don't see many cars. I've seen lots of people on bikes and a few people using these odd two-wheeled contraptions. Is that by law?" Emma questioned.

Seeing that Sage, Wyatt and MJ also looked a little confused about the lack of actual car travel, Harry answered with a smile. "And how exactly would we transport cars here? They can't fit through runic doorways. Not the normal-sized ones, anyway."

That caused everyone to nod, but also for Wyatt to frown and gesture over to where a truck was rumbling along the road, carrying some kind of load in the back. "And what about those? Or the construction machines?"

"We use the submarine to bring in necessary material. Cars would be luxury goods. Trucks, on the other hand, are useful. Eventually, we might have a homegrown car-building division of Magical Minds, especially given my acquisition of Saab. But for now, if it can't be used for actual work, it's classified as a luxury good and isn't going to be coming in via the submarines or the runic doorways. The only exception are jeeps, as they can be used in the jungle."

"There is a certain amount of forethought going into that, as well as our system of public transportation. Tramways as you saw in the center of the city, hover buses leading out of the city, and so forth," Ororo explained further, not noticing that only Emma was nodding in agreement. Sage, Wyatt and MJ had all missed the tram earlier.

"Indeed, the hover technology has been a boon for many of the indigenous clans, just as much as medical technology. We've made a point of not doing anything to change their culture beyond keeping the peace between the various groups, and the medical side of things has been the key to practically every group signing onboard with Harry and the Avalon Empire acting as the federal government here in the Savage Land. That, and an agreement not to create roads beyond the area ceded to us as a 'colonial zone'."

"I can see your point, but that is a pity. Imagine the kind of racecourses you could build in a place like this," Emma murmured, practically drooling at the thought. If she had one vice, it was that she loved sports cars and racing them.

Something that Harry fully understood and even shared with Emma. He could all too easily remember how meeting Emma and racing her in Switzerland had changed both her life and his, after all. Just as much as meeting Ororo when she came with Charles to speak with Reed about me.

Sensing the nature of his thoughts, Emma moved over, putting one arm around his waist before leaning up to kiss his chin as Harry's arm wound around her in turn. Mentally she sent, "Yes, love, that was a most serendipitous moment for me as well. Still, tell me you have some plans in that area?"

"Well…" Harry hedged, then laughed. "Maybe in the future. One massive road all along the edge of the Savage Land. I don't want to put in roads beyond the area we've already worked out with the locals without their approval."

Wyatt nodded firm agreement at that, reflecting that Harry's takeover of the Savage Land had more probably also been helped by the fact that he had essentially replaced the previous tyrant, in this case, Magneto. The locals were already used to having an overlord by the time Harry arrived. He simply replaced tyranny and aloof despotism with a new, more democratic and kind type of leadership. "Just so long as the local populations don't start to be pushed and sequestered away in their reservations," he announced warningly.

"Not going to happen. As Harry said, the city's limits have already been decided. And with how many scientists are here to study the local wildlife in its native habitat, there's always going to be a local representation against unplanned expansion in the local government too," Ororo announced firmly.

"We might want to emphasize that in the documentary series about the Savage Land. If we can show we're working with the natives and that they are happy to help us, we can undercut a lot of people wondering if the Savage Land has been subjected to the same type of Imperial colonization and takeover that India, Africa and even the Middle East were subjected to," MJ murmured.

"Further, there's no real need for expansion here," Harry added. "The Savage Land produces food, sure, and exotic plants and animals. But I'm not interested in selling any of that, nor is there any kind of black market."

"See the issue about getting cars in. Anything going out is also highly secured," Emma interjected.

"Right. There's also no local market, so no black market even here. As for mineral resources, I've got several hundred asteroids, many of whom have precious minerals, to exploit. I've got no need to mine anything here in the Savage Land."

So saying, Harry sent a teasing look down towards Emma, whose face assumed a cold, aloof expression, and she made to pull away, but Harry didn't let her. Emma was still somewhat sore at Lorna Dane being officially the richest woman in the world thanks to her work on the various asteroids. Worse for Emma's sensibilities, that fortune grew as Lorna continued to work with the Avalon Empire.

"She isn't even doing anything with it!" Emma groused mentally to Harry, though her attempts to get away had faded, and now she had a pout on her face. "It's just building up in her bank accounts! What is the use of being wealthy if you don't do anything with it? Lorna has more gold than most first-world countries, and it's just sitting there! More than her pride that offended Emma's sensibilities. "She even turned down my advice on investing!"

Harry commiserated with her, but mainly by giving her a mental ear to listen, as he knew Polaris didn't have any real plans for her money just yet. She was too busy enjoying her time with Steve and Betsy. Meanwhile, the group made their way through the city, heading out to its outer edges. This area reminded Wyatt of frontier towns, which he said aloud. "Almost like a mix between a Hollywood Wild West set and farms in Texas."

The buildings around them were indeed somewhat smaller and cruder-looking. To one side of the road that they were walking along was a large paddock full of cows, and elsewhere, other animals could be seen, including some of the local animals. Interspersed within this area were watchtowers, each containing a few people that Wyatt could barely see from here, armed with large rifles. And in the distance, he could make out the sonic towers, the sound-based weapons system that kept the animals of the jungle at bay.

Wyatt also noticed that people around them were armed in contrast to the city's center. He pointed this out, saying, "I had thought that the various animals were not much trouble. Why the guns?"

"Because a lot of these people out here on the edges of the city head out with scientists and explorers daily. And out here on the edge, sometimes the animals can bull through the sonic-based defenses. A few local species seem to be developing an immunity to them." Harry answered before shrugging. "Or maybe they are going deaf. We're not certain which."

"There's also defending against other people to consider. But you'll notice the signs." Wyatt looked in the direction Ororo pointed and noticed the signs. Closer to the city center, the signs had been white on blue, but they were now purple on black. "You pass further in towards the city center, and the signs change. That tells people that they are entering an area where they are not allowed to carry arms unless they are part of the police force. What people do in their own homes is up to them, but they can't carry in public."

Sage nodded. "We also offer incentives in terms of money and other things for people to exchange the rifles they brought in with them for gene-locked rifles and guns. And the gun owners must all submit to monthly safety tests to make sure that they understand what they're doing with their weapons. That caused a bit of a kerfuffle from a few Americans, but they agreed to it eventually."

"Aren't you an American too?" MJ asked, cocking her head to one side as she looked at the other woman. "Or have you gone native thanks to how much time you've spent in the UK?" The way Sage had said it made it seem like she was speaking of a group of foreigners.

Sage shrugged. "I've moved my permanent place of residence into the Avalon Empire. I'm no longer an American citizen."

That caused MJ to nod, wondering if she would ever get to that point. She still identified herself as an American, but the only times she ever went to the states was when she stayed at Emma's mansion, meeting with Susan, doing various PR-related jobs, or shopping in New York. She even lived in an apartment near Magical Minds. I suppose when the locals here in the Savage Land develop their own sense of fashion and build up a decent enough shopping district, I might think of doing the same thing.

From there, the group wound their way around the outskirts of the city, seeing the different types of architecture on display, before stopping near the lake in the dock district. Here, the docks that had previously serviced Magneto's submarine had been expanded. There were now more than a dozen different wharves, including an area devoted to swimming and boating for the local students, one to the local scientist community, and three for people who just wanted to go out onto the lake, either for exercise or pleasure.

It was to these that they eventually wound their way, although Ororo spent a few moments explaining about the elementary system here in the Savage Land, with Harry and Sage asking questions as she did. Emma was not interested, and the others had already split up.

MJ and Wyatt were interested in exploring the Savage Land, and Wyatt had brought along the magical pouch that contained his rifle. MJ just wanted to see what driving the cool, dune buggy-like things would be like.

Emma and Harry were also mildly interested in that, but when they arrived at the wharf, they found Hela waiting for them, a smile visible under her half-mask. "There you are! I've already booked us one of the larger private catamarans for the day, my Seidr Man. Come," she gestured imperiously. "It is a gorgeous day out, and I believe that we should make the most of it."

She looked at Sage apologetically but very firmly, not that she needed to. The other woman was already backing away, smiling cheerfully at them. "You all have fun. I think I'm going to head back to the science sector. I want to know what has been discovered about various plants here in the Savage Land."

Jean soon joined them, and the group of lovers spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon out on the lake. Jean and Emma laid out on lounge chairs, soaking in the sun, with Jean dressed in a full one-piece suit after much cajoling from Harry and Ororo. In stark contrast, Emma wore a bikini that would probably have been illegal in most countries, the thing barely covering her nipples and privates, while she delighted in Harry and Ororo combining their efforts to cover her in sunscreen. Ororo and Hela enjoyed sailing around, as did Harry, engaging all of his lovers in conversation until Jean and Emma fell asleep lulled by the sun and the waves.

But unfortunately for the sleeping twosome, their naps were interrupted about an hour later.

Harry looked up from where Hela was teaching him how to steer at a sudden shift in the air. An instant later, there was a loud pop, and three people appeared in the air above the boat. Two of them instantly fell with a yelp, one of them shouting, "I told you I couldn't guarantee our landing!" to the other. The third, a woman recognized, waved her hands, and all three paused in midair.

It was that recognition and the haphazard method of their arrival that halted Harry, Hela and Ororo's instant violent response to such sudden interruptions, and Harry lowered his hand, staring at the blonde woman as she alighted onto their boat, while nearby, Jean and Emma woke up, with Emma scowling and Jean instantly creating a barrier over the twosome.

With Ororo taking over for Hela at the wheel, Harry strode forward with the Asgardian goddess flanking him, scowling as he addressed the blonde. "Amora. I could've sworn that you had turned your back on your whole evil sorceress ways that I'd heard about."

"I have, I have! I am not here to pick a fight with you, Potter, most decidedly not!" Amora hastened to reply, backing away almost to the point where her rear hit the ship's guard rail over the prow. Harry Potter had been stronger magically speaking than she had been when Amora had interviewed him on live TV. He was far stronger now, and Amora had no desire to fight him. "I am merely here with these two because this elderly… gentleman… has something to say to you."

"You couldn't have made an appointment?" Harry asked warily as he glanced at the other two intruders, who looked to be an old man and the young girl. The young girl was obviously a mutant with her appearance and seemed exhausted, shaking her head as she stared around them, making no move to get to her feet.

The old man, on the other hand, had already stood up and was looking back at Harry with a certain amount of dignity, far more than one would expect from someone who had just been teleported into midair and then saved through no art of his own. Yet Harry's thoughts juddered to a halt as he stared at the old man, then over at Hela and back at Amora. "I think I recognize that elderly… gentleman… as you put it. Is he what I think he is?"

Hela nodded slowly, staring hard at the old man. "For a given value, yes. Hail, Lord Odin."

The girl gasped, stared at the old man, then shook her head. "That's who you are?! Really? You would think the chief god of the Vikings could have dressed better."

Harry barked a laugh while the old man looked a little annoyed, mock-glaring at the girl before turning his one-eyed gaze on Harry. But before he could answer, Hela did it for him. "Historically, Lord Odin liked to go about in disguise, the better to get a feel for his worshipers and see how they would act in unusual circumstances. In this fashion, he would judge them in both normal times and the battlefield, the better to get a feel for the true worth of the jarls and warriors who looked to him for his favor."

"Lord Odin also likes to be talked to rather than about when in his presence!" Oden announced irritably before stepping forward from his two companions and then, to the surprise of Hela and Amora, bowed from the waist towards Harry. He didn't hold it for very long, but doing so at all was significant. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes! In the name of myself, as representative of myself, the king of Asgard, I do come before you, Harry Potter, to ask for your assistance in freeing our people. We have struck back, but we have reaped the whirlwind in doing so. The Ragnarök comes, and if we cannot get some external help, I am afraid that it will sweep us all away."

OOOOOOO

It was a very grim group of dragon slayers who started their way back up Yggdrasil from where they left the corpse of Níðhöggr among its roots. They did not carry Volstagg's body with them, which under normal circumstances they would have returned for a warrior's burial at sea. But this honor was denied Volstagg, for his body had decomposed to naught but bits of wood and blood matter, leaving nothing behind. Even his clothing had turned to dust.

Nothing had remained, save a small cairn they put up to remember their friend. Whatever purpose he had been created for, why he had been hiding Thor's gauntlets, none of that mattered. Volstagg had been their friend. That was the most important thing.

Beasts waylaid them twice on the way, but neither assault was all that difficult to beat off. Better, Skadi now led them back the way they came correctly, even though something kept on trying to ensnare them in illusion. The Shadows had used illusions and mental assaults to try and trick them before, but though Skadi had no idea where the attacks were coming from, her senses could no longer be so easily confused. They were still tricked occasionally, but Skadi saw through them fast enough that their progress heading up was far better than climbing down.

One night as they sat around the fire, Skadi reflected on the continuing attempts to charm them from afar. "I confess, it has me confused. It is not in the world tree's nature to do this. If one is trapped in an illusion, that illusion must be created by someone's mind and for a reason. Going down, I had thought that somehow Níðhöggr had created such spells."

"Do you believe it to be targeted against us, or traps long since laid out for anyone passing by?" Sif inquired of the Huntress as she and Fandral replaced the dressing on Tyr's shoulder and chest. "Perhaps even something made to keep the dread wyrm from escaping?"

But it wasn't Skadi who answered. It was Thor, and all eyes turned toward where he stood, glaring out into the darkness around them. "It was directed against us. And by the same people who… who…created friend Volstagg to hide my gauntlets of power. But their artifice failed them. They created life and forgot that in life, there is always chaos and free will. These pieces of seal offal are still out there, and they will feel my fury!" The thunder God growled.

Even from where she kneeled beside Tyr, Sif could hear his grip on Mjolnir clenching, causing the wood to creak and again, Sif suppressed a shiver. But not of fear. No, hearing Thor speak like that called to something equally as base but equally as unwelcome. Stop that, girl! You haven't fought all your life for recognition as a warrior despite being a Vanir to go all girly and giggly now over Thor of all people!

The two remaining warriors of the Warriors Three had been the most subdued of the party since their friend's death. But now, Hogun spoke up from where he had been cooking their last meager supplies over a small fire. "Think you they are one and the same then? But who would have the power to lay a trap so long in the making? Surely ensnaring all of us in illusions is no easy feat, to say nothing of… of creating life as they did in brave Volstagg. And for why did they create a person to hide your gauntlets within in the first place?"

Catching Thor's darkening features, Hogun went on calmly. "I do not gainsay you, Thor. Truly having two sets of enemies so well versed in magic would be the stuff of nightmares. But we durst not have enough information to even guess their goals, let alone their identities."

"Could it be the Sorceress? Or perhaps the Dark Elves? Malekith certainly has the magic to do it," Tyr interjected, grimacing a bit as work on dressing his wounds continued. Although Asgardians healed quickly, they had all taken a thrashing from Níðhöggr.

"Nay. For all of her magical power, the sorceress cannot truly create life like this," Thor demurred. "Nor can I think of any reason why Amora would. Well know that I am not the most forward-thinking of fellows myself…" he paused as everyone there laughed or jeered at the comment, which was all too true. "And if anyone else here can tell me why she would do it, I would listen. But I still maintain that it would not be her. "

Sif's eyes narrowed, but Skadi did it for her before she could ask. "Why?"

"Because Amora is still on Midgard, and Midgard is cut off from us," Thor reminded them all, surprising everyone. But they all realized it was true. Amora had, in effect, been banished after the fact by Lord Odin. The realms mystically separated so that she could not return.

That made Sif breathe a sigh of relief, although why she felt relief, she did not know, while the others nodded and then turned their attention to the idea that it might have been the dark elves. Some long thought-out plot to infiltrate Asgard gone awry because they had created a personality too well, perhaps?

"But then again, why would they hide Thor's gauntlet within their creation?" Tyr reposted. "That is what we come back to every time. Why that manner of concealment? Further, how did they even have the gauntlets in the first place?"

Everyone there nodded, but Thor had no answer, staring down at his gauntlets, clenching and unclenching them in thought. "Truly, I cannot even remember when I lost them, friends. Who knows how long they have been missing?"

Skadi cut through the debate with the same skill she wielded a hunting dagger. "Who and how long matters not unless we can track them down. None of us have magic to do that, not even I. I examined Níðhöggr on the belief that he could have been involved or touched by the magic of these other enemies. But I could not find any trail that I could follow. So unless they reveal themselves now that their plot has been foiled, we have no means to strike at them."

"Agreed," Thor answered reluctantly. "Whichever the case, conjecture at this point serves no one. We have a long day's trek ahead of us tomorrow. Bed down all of you, I will take first watch. We can take this matter before Lord Odin when we return. Surely Father will know what to do."

To that, no one had an answer, and everyone bedded down quickly.

OOOOOOO

The instant Hela, Harry and their new guests exited the runic doorway in Camelot, Blink gasped, her eyes going wide as her body stiffened, her hands going to her stomach. "OOOH, wha… what the heck is… ugh!"

Blink, or Clare as she had given her name, tumbled to one side of the runic doorway. Whatever she had been eating in the past few days came up, followed by the woman collapsing to one side, her eyes wide and unseeing. "Wh… what the hell, where is, where is everything!?" Blink wailed. To Blink, it was as if she was in the center of a wide gray zone, floating in nothing like nothing existed beyond herself and the other people she could see nearby. And as a teleporter, that was as if someone had gotten her blind drunk.

"Ahh, the Fidelius spell seems to be having an effect on you. That's an extreme reaction, but Nightcrawler went through something similar. Sorry, I had forgotten," Harry used magic to banish Blink's sick and then conjured up a pen and paper before writing out the secret quickly. "Here, read this."

Usually, using the runic doorways bypassed the Fidelius. But to Teleporters, the impact on their spatial sense remained until they were read into the secret. Nightcrawler hadn't been sick when he came through to Camelot, but Kurt had been thrown off-balance and panicky before Harry read him into the secret.

Gulping, Blink read the note and began to look better, although still sick and in pain. "Ugh, that helps, but oh boy, what wasn't fun at all!"

She clung to Harry's helping hand as the others came through after them, Hela following behind Amora and the Wanderer, and then all of them left the room devoted to the runic doorways, heading out into the hallway beyond. Heading up into the adult levels of the castle, the group was nearly run over by Trickster, who was carrying several of the kids as if he was a living bus. Illyana had obviously used the Engorgio charm on him as she had during Harry's lesson with her a few days ago.

Behind them, Rahne raced, shouting, "Get back here, ya boggetts! Ya'll not try yer pranks on me and get awa' without a proper canning!" The fact her shirt had been turned white with sparkly dots around it and that she looked as if she had been hit by water balloons and glitter gave reason for her anger.

With a somewhat embarrassed groan, Harry hit the charging giant otter with a Finite Incantatum, returning him to normal size and tossing the kids into the air. A Leviosa spell caught the few who looked like they would have a bruising landing, and Harry scowled at the kids. "Do we have to have another talk about playful pranks, hurtful pranks and the difference between them?"

The children looked rebellious, and Rahne glared at them. "Ach, aye, ya do Laird Potter. I didnae do anything to…"

"Don't lie!" Illyana spoke up quickly, turning her attention from the pink-skinned girl next to her magic teacher to glare at Rahne. "You said I was evil! You said Mister Potter and the others were living in sin!"

Rahne winced as Harry looked back at her. "I tried ta talk ta Anechka and a few of the others about faith. I… I mighta accidentally mentioned some opinions about magic and er… living in debauchery that I shouldn't have, but I prefaced all o' that by saying that was what the Catholic faith believed, not me. I'll apologize for it, but Anechka and the other Russians were raised in…"

Harry held up a hand, forestalling any more discussion. "I don't have time to sit down and mete out punishments. Therefore, I am ordering you to go directly to Father Garnoff. You are to all take whatever punishment he assigns." He looked specifically at Illyana and Rahne while the other kids winced. "All of you. While I know your heart might be in the right place, Rahne, it is not your job to see to the souls or our young flock here. Understood?"

All of the kids assumed hangdog expressions, but Harry was unmoved. Illyana and her coterie were too quick to prank and had definitely gone too far here, even if Rahne had backslid for some reason. And she was doing so well too. I hope Garnoff knows to keep an eye on her from now on.

Finally, Melody, the group's conscience, reached out and took Illyana's hands. Illyana looked at her, sighed and nodded. "Yes, Master." She patted her familiar on the head, gathering the others up with a wave of her hand. "Come on, guys. Trickster can sniff the priest out right now, and we can get this over with."

For a moment after the herd had moved off, the trio of newcomers was silent while Hela and Harry exchanged amused looks. It was never dull around Camelot, that was for certain.

After recovering from the surprise of the children's appearance, Amora opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Blink spoke up, giggling as she looked from the retreating herd to the Wanderer. "Wait a sec, was that otter named Trickster? Heheheheheh…ooooh, it hurts to laugh…"

Shaking his head, Harry took Blink's arm once more, leading her away. "Come on, young Miss. You have a date with our nurse."

Leaving Blink to be looked over by Una, Harry led Amora and the aspect of Odin to a waiting room. He then very deliberately closed the door, saying blandly, "Now, ask for a house-elf if you want anything. They should reply to you since you're magicals. But for now, please excuse me as I go gather my people. We'll send for you when we begin to talk about your request for help, Wanderer."

Huffing, the aspect of Odin marched over to a sofa, laying out on it before Amora could sit down. Seeing her look of revulsion, Harry asked if she wanted to have her own room and was answered by an immediate yes. "Tsk, it is as if you do not enjoy my company, Enchantress," Odin taunted.

"I don't. How is that even a question, meddler?" Amora shot back tartly. Then she followed Harry out the room as the Wanderer began to ask for mead and food.

"Is he trying to be annoying?" Harry asked.

He meant it to be a joke, but both Amora and Hela answered in the affirmative, with Hela going on. "Part of this personality is meant to be both helpful, wise, and yes, annoying. The better to test those he meets. A jarl who loses his temper to some old man's lack of manners or provocations is not worth Lord Odin's favor."

"Huh, I don't seem to recall asking for his favor," Harry mused before leading Amora to another sitting area, this one an adult version of the sitting-room he had just stuck the aspect of Odin in. "Here. Drinks are in that cabinet over there. I would only ask that if you finish one of the bottles, have the courtesy to ask for a house-elf to come and replace it."

"As much as I rather would like to get drunk, I rather doubt now is the proper time for it. After, perhaps," Amora murmured, then looked over at Hela. "Lady Hela."

"Enchantress," Hela answered, nodding her head as something weird and feminine passed between them. Acknowledgment maybe?

"I think Amora's a bit jealous of Hela, love," Jean answered mentally, walking towards them, moving slowly but surely. Beside her, Garm stalked, returning to his mistress's side now that she had returned from their aborted date. "Remember she was interested in Doom, but he wanted a woman who was interested in being part of a dynasty, so to speak. Amora's not."

"So like our own Emma then?" Harry replied in the same fashion, putting his arms around Jean lightly, caressing her stomach before looking over at Hela, who was looking back the way they had come. She had a pensive look on her face as she briefly touched Garm's nose. "I'm not going to ask if you're alright, Hela. But what are you thinking?"

"I… I do not know. I know that a part of me should be ecstatic about this. Another aspect is terrified if facing Those Who Watch Above in Shadow. They have held all of the realms of Yggdrasil hostage for so long, including me, that the idea of challenging them is hard to contemplate. The other aspect is that of the Ragnarök. The very name concerns me. It is supposed to be the end of everything, after all. Perhaps I feel the Shadow of past such restarts, but it fills me with formless dread."

"Don't worry, love. We are going to beat them. We're going to send the Shadows running no matter what they throw at us." With that, Harry and Jean moved to hug Hela, giving her wordless assurance before her sense of propriety, and Garm's smirk, drove her to push them away. Although she was smiling as she did it and did not reject Jean's hand as it clasped hers.

It took a while to pull Harry's various officers and advisors together, but eventually, they all convened in the Room of Requirement, Harry feeling that they might need the room's special properties. There, Harry laid out what had happened, and Hela and Ororo filled in everyone who wasn't already in the know about the Shadows and their machinations before opening the floor to questions.

"What I want to know is, why did they appear in the Savage Land, and what are the circumstances behind young Blink traveling with this… Odin. And is it really Odin? I would've thought that… well, I saw a glimpse of him when you arrived, and I had thought Odin would be much more impressive in person," Piotr admitted.

"Agreed. While that old man's one-eyed stare was disconcerting, even to someone who's dealt with Nick Fury, I didn't get the sense of power from him I would've expected. Not like I get from you when you're not being careful, Hela," Steve stated, nodding his head towards her. He had arrived early and gone to meet the Wanderer for himself.

"Blink has no past as far as Dennis, and I have been able to tell," Sage answered. "She's either fifteen or sixteen, judging by the report from Una."

"She's Argentinian, and their birth records are appalling the best of times. I was able to find a few snippets of recorded video someone matching her description being seen on the sites of a few random break-ins, but that's about it. And thanks to her age, the big book of students is no help whatsoever. I checked," Dennis finished shaking his head. "ON the other hand, that gang's gone belly up, and there have been no actual

"I stopped in to speak to her when Emma told me this Wanderer used a mutant to travel. Her mutant power is somewhat like Nightcrawler's, only longer-range and more versatile. She's even been experimenting with some kind of weaponized version," Cyclops answered before his lips quirked. "Blink also looked interested in Una's Three-dimensional chess set. I think she's just a young girl caught up in things she didn't know much about. I also think that Professor Xavier and myself will be more than happy to put her up in the mansion after this. She'll fit in with Bobby and the other second-team very well."

"And before anyone asks about Amora, she's clearly involved in all of this quite against her better judgment. I wouldn't say she is being forced. But convinced to act against what she wants to do is certainly a valid summary of her feelings." Jean shook her head.

Hela nodded. "According to Amora, the other two just showed up in her apartment in Venice out of the blue, completely bypassing the wards and defenses she'd put up."

That was interesting, and Harry made a note of it as Piotr asked, "And how did they show up in the Savage Land of all places?"

"When it comes to the Savage Land, we've always relied on being insanely hard to get to, and it being hidden underground. Beyond a few wards designed predominantly to hide the place further from magical senses, I didn't think of adding specific wards to block teleportation. And even I would hesitate to try to use the Fidelius on the Savage Land, which is the spell which seems to have thrown Blink off," Harry's lips quirked. "As for why the trio just showed up out of the blue so dramatically? Because it was dramatic."

There was a chorus of groans from around the table, and Steve, after facepalming, turned his attention towards Hela. "Is that normal? And you didn't answer Piotr's question. Is that old man really Odin?"

When Hela spoke, her voice was dust dry. "Yes, it is very in keeping with the Wanderer aspect. When it is time to reveal his presence, Odin has about as much subtlety as a hammer to the nether regions. And I use the word aspect with aforethought. The Wanderer is not Odin, not really. He is rather an aspect of Odin, a part of his personality broken away to act on its own volition while giving only vague goals. It is a sign of divinity that one can do so, and how often you can do so depends upon how many aspects you can contain."

"I have heard of this from Gaea, but I also noted that doing so comes with an extreme amount of risk," Ororo mused, while the others looked at one another in some shock at the idea. "If the aspect of the divinity in question is destroyed, then the power devoted to that aspect is also lost, as well as that character of the aspect. I realize that Odin has both power and knowledge to spare, but that doesn't mean this is any less of a gamble."

"I'm curious to know what happened on the Asgardian end that made the wanderer, who has been on earth for more than a few months now, finally come and find us," Harry agreed. "Now, unless anyone has any question about the background of events here, I'll ask the Wanderer to join us."

Questions flew at that point, mostly based on what had happened to Harry and Emma when they were attacked mentally by the Shadows. The two of them fielded those, with Hela admitting reluctantly that she would have been overcome by the assault on her if not for Emma's aid. "But between us, Betsy, Jean, and I should be able to defend those around us from mental assaults like that. Mental attacks lose some of their power when they are sent at a group rather than individuals."

"Steven also suggested coming up with a ward scheme to defend against such. I've put down a basic concept but finishing it, testing it, and mass production will take a bit. But we're not going to run into this without a lot of prior planning," Harry ended firmly.

Jean suggested asking Charles to come with them. "When it comes to telepaths, Charles and Xian could be a big help. There's also Father Garnoff, too."

"We'd have to make certain they are protected at all times, but that could work," Scott agreed. "Xian will come along if we ask, although it might take some convincing to get Charles to agree she's up for it."

Sage spoke up now, her voice tart as she interrupted the conversation. "I realize this won't be popular with you lot, but why in the world are you all talking like it's a foregone conclusion we will stick our collective noses into this? From what you all explained, there's only a small chance that even in the event of the Asgardians losing and this restart happening that it would affect Hela or even this Amora woman."

Sighing, Dennis nodded, while Steve and Scott both looked angry at the very idea the Custodes wouldn't become involved. "I agree with Sage. As much as I feel for the Asgardians and their plight, we cannot just go haring off on the latest quest, like Cervantes with his windmills. You, Lord Potter, are an Emperor now, with a quickly growing empire to run."

Reluctantly, John Proudstar raised his hand in agreement. "You all got away with it with Galactus and the Shi'ar since both represented threats that had to be investigated. This time, there's no threat since the Shadows can't reach Earth. While a part of me wants to jump into this, the rest has to ask, what's in it for us?"

Sage nodded his way, then looked at Harry and the people sitting around him. "You're not just a single citizen fighting the good fight anymore, Harry. You can't continue to think like one."

Harry stared back at her, while Steve began to argue that doing the right thing was its own reward and Ororo and Jean spoke up in favor of helping just because of the slim chance of a threat to Hela, who was glaring at the table in front of her, unwilling to speak up given her obvious bias. Emma reluctantly came in on the other side of the argument, siting their lack of information, the size of the challenge, and the fact that Harry and the other magicals would be the only ones to really be able to fight the Shadows, and that would leave them vulnerable.

Yet Harry heard none of it. No, as he stared back at Sage's cool, calculating expression, all he heard was his daughter's voice, Melody telling him about how his song was still that of a hero. Whatever else, that wouldn't change. Harry wouldn't let it change.

"No, I am not just a hero, but that does not mean that I cannot make this decision as one. Even if no one else wanted to go, I would want to. As Steve said, it is the right thing to do, and that part of my motivation will never change, no matter how inconvenient it might be for my empire building," Harry announced, his calm voice cutting through the tumult. "That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of the opportunity later to bring the Asgardians into an alliance with Earth, but even without that, I am still going to get involved here. I won't demand any of you follow me into this, though."

While Sage and the other nay-sayers subsided, this won a round of negatives and mutters that showed the majority of Harry's officers were just as infected by the People Saving Thing disease as he was. And Harry wouldn't have it any other way.

Eventually, the questions ended, and after a few remarks about what a Fire Jotun's response to being frozen or what their modern guns would do against them, Harry left, coming back with the aspect in tow. Standing in front of the room, he began without any preamble. "As Lord Potter and my niece know, we Asgardians made a deal with Evil to survive the coming of the Christian missionaries and the erosion of our power. Since then, we have been under the control of the Shadows. Used, manipulated, made to act out the various plays they wished to see us partake of, all the while our powers emotions and souls were feeding them."

"However, since Jarl Potter's first interaction with Hela and Thor, I have been plotting against them. When you first interacted with Hela, so too did you free me to act. At that moment, Odin freed the wanderer aspect of myself to act in his place on Earth and eventually to perhaps get into contact with you."

"That was an extremely confusing summary and explained nothing," John Proudstar murmured, causing Cyclops and his brother to both nod in agreement.

"When you freed Hela, I set in motion Thor and several of his companions to seek out and kill one of the other tethers connecting the Shadows to our realms, the dread Níðhöggr. They succeeded a little over five days ago, further weakening the hold the Shadows have over my people, and as such, my full self was able to update my orders, so to speak. Since then, I have no doubt that the Shadows will have pressed even harder to keep my greater-self docile while also releasing the legions of Surtur. The time is ripe to free us, destroy the other tethers, and cut off my people from the Shadows, but it is a time of great danger to all of Asgard."

"That is easier said than done. We know that two of the other tethers will be Jörmungandr and Surtur himself. Neither are easy targets, to say the least. Which is to say nothing about my father who might be another given how he was used by them and is who knows where since falling off the Bifrost bridge!" Hela answered tartly.

Stephen Strange shook his head. "Actually, from what I have studied of divinity, its agreements, and the impact to the divine in question if something interferes, freeing more than half of the tethers should allow us to cut off the majority of the Shadow's power. That would make them in turn susceptible to direct assault."

"Or rather indirect, considering we wouldn't be able to touch them with physical-type spellwork," Clea demurred from where she sat next to him. They had been called in for advice on this score, and given her background, Clea would prove an invaluable addition to their magical corps.

"Going from our past encounters, that could well be enough. But again, I'm not going in blind. I need to know everything you can tell me about the Shadows, their abilities, and most importantly, can they really be killed? Will they just reform from even a single tether? In which case, this whole Ragnarök might be a trap."

Storm nodded, agreeing with Harry's points before adding, "And exactly what aid do you require of us beyond combating the Shadows? Odin is supposed to be powerful, wise and clever. The Asgardians are a powerful people. What aid would you require of us? For I believe there are two different campaigns planned out here if not three."

Hela and Harry looked at Ororo, and she shrugged. "Shadows, tethers, and the Jotun."

"Along with a hunt," Dani answered from where she sat on the ground, leaning against Garm, where he lay next to Hela. There were more than enough chairs for her to have one, but Dani preferred to sit this way, even if it hid her somewhat from many of the other people in the room. "From what I remember, Tyr was supposed to lose his hand to Fenrir, and then Fenrir would eat Odin during Ragnarök, right? So we need to hunt him down and free him of whatever control the Shadows might have over him."

Hela winced at that. While she had no love for Jörmangandr, she did hold some sisterly affection towards Fenrir. "That would be most helpful indeed. If the Shadows are perchance constrained to act within the limits of their own chosen scenario, then naught but my younger brother will be able, or perhaps the term should be allowed, to harm Lord Odin."

"Indeed, there are three campaigns to be fought. But even more importantly than severing the remaining tethers, we must stop the fire Jotun invasion. If we do not, my people will continue to suffer and die, and even if we can then drive off the Shadows, it will not bring them back. Who knows how many hundreds of my people have already died, waiting for aid to arrive. That aspect will be further exasperated by the fact that the night elves. They might not be billing dupes of the Shadows like Surtur, but the night elves certainly hate my people and will no doubt join in the war."

The Wanderer spread his arms wide, a bright, eager grin appearing through his beard. "Next to that, we slay the other tethers on hand, Surtur and Jörmangandr. And we must take the fight to the Shadows themselves however we may. Truly, it is a feat worthy of the gods!"

Rolling his eyes at this dramatic display, Harry crossed his arms, staring at the Wanderer. "That's all well and good, but I'm not going to agree to help you or put any of my people in danger without fully understanding the Those Who Watch Above in Shadows and their abilities. Not even if it makes you uncomfortable."

Wincing as that shot hit home, the Wanderer reluctantly agreed. Truly, the initial agreement with Those Who Watch Above in Shadow did not paint Odin in a good light. He had been practically duped in the end, despite his brother Loki speaking against the agreement. And his own attempt to protect himself against betrayal had not worked at all until recently, when he had been able to split off this aspect without the Shadows knowing.

In contrast, Loki's own attempts to free his wife had worked… for a given value. The woman's soul, and thus the key to breaking Loki free, was still missing, but the Wanderer knew that her body had been recovered by Harry Potter and his coterie. He could even sense her body somewhere in this very castle. In stasis but protected instead of hidden.

Actually, Sigyn's soul had also been found, hiding within Danielle. However, freeing it and returning it to its body was an entirely different matter. And since the Wanderer aspect was not a part of Odin's personality that had much to do with magical theory, no one had bothered talking to him about it.

"Furthermore, and not to put a damper on this heroic nonsense, but how are we even going to get into Asgard? The last time, Harry could use his connection to Yggdrasil and that trinket that you dropped off for him to cross the dimensional divide. But since then, the Shadows have cut off all access to Asgard and its surrounding pocket dimensions," Emma drawled.

The Wanderer scowled, not liking the pocket dimension crack, unwilling to admit that Asgard and indeed all aspects of Yggdrasil were but a side dimension to the real realm where Earth resided. But he still had an answer for her. "The girl I brought with me, Blink. Her ability can practically ignore magical defenses, at least the magic of this dimension." She could not teleport herself to this place, or up to your asteroid fortress, despite the existence of both being public knowledge. But she will be able to help us cross the dimensions and get past the Shadows defenses."

Harry had informed the world about Camelot, Babylon, and High Note. But the Fidelius kept information about their specific locations hidden to those he hadn't told.

Harry frowned, thinking. "In conjunction with the teleportation array that we created to do the jobs before, that's certainly possible." Then his eyes narrowed. "And now, for the tale of the Shadows, their abilities and everything else you can tell me about them and the anchors."

That took some time, and really, when it came to the Shadow's abilities, didn't tell Harry anything that he, Emma and Hela hadn't already deduced from their initial run-in with them. The Shadows worked best through the mind, through illusion and trickery. They had some spells to attack the soul, to siphon energy off them and to change a person's personality if the individual's soul was weakened, but oddly, if a person didn't have magic, they couldn't use that method, as it was the individual's own magic used to power it. They had powers of teleportation and space that made Blink or Nightcrawler look limited by comparison.

And they had power over the cycle they had stuck the Asgardians in. Hence why the Wanderer was concerned that his people's time might soon come to an end. If that happened, the power the Shadows took from the Asgardian's deaths would be enough to recreate their tethers and return all the Asgardians mentally to a time of their own choosing. "This will include Hela and Amora, even if they both remain here on Earth."

Worse even than that horrible thought was that thanks to Surtur having willingly become their tool, they could use aspects of the never-ending cycle of rebirth and Ragnarök to keep the numbers of the fire Jotun at a set total. That would make the war against them extremely difficult. The fact the other Jotun would no doubt join in for the hell of it was also quite annoying.

"We might need to ask for volunteers among the orbital drop troopers. Battles as large as the ones that could be occurring even now are too large for just the Custodes and the X-Men to deal with," Ororo murmured mentally, to Harry's rueful agreement.

However, the knowledge that the Wanderer aspect had been given in the infodump that had sent him into action was much more welcome. Harry was pleased to hear that Thor had found his gauntlets and Níðhöggr was dead…until the Shadows won and the cycle ended anyway. Still, this removed a target from the board and added to the Asgardian's potential strength.

But it also raised another question that Clea voiced. "Why in the world did the Shadows allow that kind of conflict to even occur? Their strength is an illusion in mind games. Surely Thor and his band would've been extremely susceptible to it."

"They would have, if not for the power of Faith from the Asatru empowering Thor and Skadi. Obviously, I do not know the full tale, but I know that empowered by the Faith of those Asatru who ask for their aid, my people become far stronger mentally and physically. If empowered by that, one such as Skadi would not be fooled by illusions. Not forever, at any rate," the Wanderer answered, giving a vague answer, although that was not his fault. This aspect of the Sky Father did not have much to do with magic and so lacked Odin's mastery of its mysteries and its impact on divinity in general.

While Dani blinked, wondering if her own prayers to Skadi had helped her in some fashion, Hela stared, her face showing incredulity below her half-mask. "Why does that connection still exist? Helheim and I are completely cut off from the realms of Yggdrasil, and I know full well I have gained power from the Asatru of Earth. But the power of belief should not have been able to get through the Shadow's attempt to interdict the dimensional wall between Midgard and Asgard."

"I can answer that, I think," Gaea said, appearing suddenly among them.

Harry and the others all stood, bowing their heads towards her in acknowledgment, which she took with a smile, as the Wanderer looked on at her with a smile under his beard. "Lady Gaea, you still are as gorgeous as ever."

"And you are both older and still a shameless flirt. Sad," Gaea answered tartly, shaking her head before looking back at Harry and the others. "The connection there is due to Thor and me. You see, Thor is my son. Odin and I had come to an agreement at one point that we needed to create a stronger God who could perhaps aid Odin and the other Sky Fathers in protecting Earth against the Celestials."

Ororo and several others winced at how clinical Gaea was speaking about having a child, while Harry scowled in annoyance at the mention of the Celestials. Even now, he could all-too-easily remember his run-in with one in the Negative Zone. That run-in led to Harry using a Bloody Insane spell and then fleeing the scene, hoping he'd killed the creature, which he hadn't had a name for at the time.

Harry could also remember how they had been behind the creation of Dementors in this universe, and therefore the deaths of all the wizards. It was in discovering that Harry learned there was a whole race of the bastards. The Celestials had called the wizards a failed experiment and had moved to liquidate them.

"That connection creates a permanent link between Earth and Thor. Because of that, the power of belief was still able to flow into his direct vicinity, even though the Shadows were able to cut off Hela and Niflheim from the rest," Gaea went on, not reacting to the sudden flash of annoyance or shock in her audience as she locked gazes with Hela.

For Hela's shock had more than just how Gaea was being so detached about the process of having a child behind it. "Does Queen Freya know of the affair? If not… well, it honestly might not matter overmuch now, but in the future, it could matter a great deal in Asgard."

The Wanderer looked a little shifty, but Gaea answered in the affirmative, causing him to stare at her. "Yes, Freya does know, although she was being called Frigga at the time. She and I even met to discuss the possibility. I knew Freya would know the instant her husband betrayed her, much like Hera did when that philanderer was still active. But unlike Hera, Freya would react by ending their marriage entire, which would have resulted in the resumption of war between the Aesir and Vanir."

Gaea sighed, remembering that meeting ages ago as she shook her head. "Freya is an extremely sharp woman, do not make the mistake of underestimating her because she is known both as a goddess of love and war. Once I made it clear I was not interested in usurping her position among the Aesir and Vanir, Freya was understanding of the need. So long as I agreed that Freya could rear the child without interference on my part, which at the time was a bitter decision. But given what we were asking, allowing her husband to step outside of their vows, it seemed to fair trade."

She looked over at the Wanderer, sneering a little. Of all the facets of Odin's personality, the Wanderer aspect was the one Gaea disliked the most. "I see you're shocked. Did you honestly think I would take you at your word on something like that? You were a good king, an excellent leader, and a fine warrior. But as a man, you did not think of your wife as often as you should have when making plans for the future."

Harry and the others were somewhat amused by that minor dressing down, while the Wanderer looked quite affronted before Harry tapped the table, grabbing everyone's attention. "I think there are still some aspects we need to talk about, for example, while an aspect of my personality is more than willing to throw myself into this, and I'm certain that many of my Custodes would do so as well, I'm not willing to lead soldiers into something like this without a payoff in the future. Are you able to make agreements that will be binding to your call your greater self?"

"No." The Wanderer still looked a little put-out but answered readily enough. "I can only request for help. You will have to make any agreements or treaties with my greater self."

That caused many of Harry's 'non-hero type' advisors to narrow their eyes, but Harry looking around, saw most of those gathered were still in favor of intervening. Steve and Piotr, in particular, looked determined, and Harry exchanged nods with the two men before turning back to the Wanderer aspect.

"Very well. We will look to be doing that in the future, but for now, more information about what we might find on the ground, so to speak. The numbers of the fire Jotun, the other Jotun, the night elves and their abilities. Have you had time to study modern weaponry? And if so, can you tell us what can and will not work on them? I fought the fire Jotun, so I know their capabilities to a certain degree. What about the others? What can you tell us about the terrain? And what do you think we will find when we transport in, in terms of your greater self's response to the Shadows assault?"

The Wanderer narrowed his eyes at all that, but while he was not the Warlord, the Wanderer had enough knowledge of tactics and terrain to understand the importance of what Harry was asking. So he simply nodded and then began to speak, asking politely if someone would be able to enchant a map to match his words. Then the real planning session began.

Much like his refusal to go into the campaign blind, Harry refused to go into this campaign without prior preparation. Given the size of the disaster that the Wanderer aspect hinted they might be facing, an all-out war that could be scattered across a realm the size of France, that was only common sense.

While Steve and Scott were moving through the interactive map the Wanderer and the Asgardian ladies had put together, asking the aspect questions, Harry began to prepare that aspect of the mission by asking Ororo, Kitty and Steven to work on the transportation aspect with Blink. Since they were working on a pre-existing array that had worked previously, they had a good foundation to work with.

"While I would not gainsay any aspect of Odin when it comes to guileful plans, Blink's powers are a relative unknown, something we need to see to," Hela announced, standing up as well. "Between myself, Amora, you, and the Wanderer, we should be able to create the anchor we need, but we are placing actually using that anchor on Clare's rather thin shoulders. I would rather like to make certain we know what we are doing there."

"Agreed. Scott, could you call in Nightcrawler?" Harry called, getting the X-men field commander's attention, causing him to look up from where he had been pointing out something to Scott in the map. "We could need his expertise."

Scott nodded, then warned, "I'm fully behind getting involved in this conflict Harry, but I want to leave a small team under either John or someone else just in case of trouble with the anti-mutant terrorists in America." his lips twisted under his red-tinted glasses as he shook his head. "Or the opposite. We're still seeing a lot of recruitment for pro-mutant groups, smaller and less organized than the opposition, but we don't want either extreme to cause trouble, so it's best to have a team ready to act at all times."

Harry thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Agreed. You've trained up Bobby, Warren, Jubilee and the one code-named Boom Boom, right?" When Scott nodded, Harry went on. "In that case, ask Laynia to work with the team while we're gone. And we'll have James step up to the leadership role."

Not only would Warpath add a strongman to the team, but like his older brother, James had some decent leadership abilities. Although he hadn't previously been given any dependent command like Thunderbird had in Genosha. This would be a good opportunity to see how well he did, and he would have Sage and Pinoptes to call on if need be.

"Good thinking," Piotr agreed, not at all annoyed to be passed over for the leadership role. It meant, after all, that he would be involved in the real action this time, not left behind as he had for the mission to fight Galactus. Then he gestured to the map. "I also think even with both teams aboard for this, we might be looking at being spread too thin if you think we're going to be fighting these fire Jotun as Wander-Odin believes."

Looking at the pained grimace on Wander-Odin's face, Harry instantly decided he liked the term before gesturing down to the small laptop he had been using to take notes during the discussion with the being so named. "I already made an appointment to talk with the Falcon. I'm going to be asking for volunteers among his cadre of Orbital Drop Marines. But whatever happens there, we're not going to be going in with enough numbers to fight an outright war if that's what's going on. But we can deal with that when and if it arises."

For a moment, Wander-Odin looked askance at the term Orbital Drop, possibly not understanding it, but he seems to nod in approval. "Marines, those are troops trained for ship boarding action, yes?"

"Originally. Since then, the term marine has been used to indicate troops trained for point defense and assault. They don't have the staying power of the Army, but they have a bigger individual punch which is magnified by the ODMs' training and gear," Harry explained.

"I'll be sure to mention that you don't think Marines have staying power to any one of them I meet," Scott said dryly, causing Steve to snort and Harry to roll his eyes.

Before meeting with Sam, Harry went to see Dr. Richards and the FF. More firepower was always a good thing, after all. But Reed had no interest in joining this operation and said so, interrupting Harry's explanation by shaking his head firmly. "I need to spend time with my son and my wife, Harry. In fact, with your permission, we'll probably move into your castle for a time. Franklin's powers are beginning to show up more often, and Madame Harkness is having trouble coping, even with that magnificent house-elf you asked to work with her helping."

Susan nodded, looking a little harried. "Without that little lass, we'd have all been run ragged. Franklin knows he can do things somehow but hasn't learned enough to realize when he shouldn't use it or anything else."

"I'm certain the house elves will love to have a toddler around the place. And I did agree to train Franklin in his powers in Camelot when it became time to do so," Harry agreed, remembering idly that he hadn't actually read any of the Fantastic Four into the secrets of Camelot. They could come and go through the runic arrays or someone else teleporting them but had no more idea where Camelot was than what the environment outside the castle could tell them.

"Bah, just because Stretcho wants to have some family time don't mean we won't join you, Harry," Benjamin said. Beside him, Johnny and Thundra nodded in firm agreement.

But the young woman sitting next to Johnny was a surprise. Harry vaguely recognized her as one of the Inhumans. Indeed, she was the one he, Scott, Jean and the FF had rescued from some kind of demon summoner more than half a year ago. She was young, with honey-colored hair tied up with wide ribbons, wearing a yellow and black striped outfit. "And you, Miss? I'm sorry, but I'm pants with names at the best of times, although I know we've met a few times before and that you're an Inhuman. Something that begins with C, yes?"

"Er, yes, Mr., er, that is, Lord Potter, my name is Crystal," Crystal stammered, wondering how to address the young man barely a few years older than herself and Johnny but who had become such an important leader of both heroes and men. "Um, I, I would have to ask, but as my King, Lord Blackbolt, has agreed to open discussions with you, at last, I think I will be allowed. At the moment, Lord Blackbolt and his advisors are still debating what we will ask for and are willing to do in return. But we've all agreed that eventually, the dimensional wall protecting us from the outside world will need to come down, and we will need to interact with the universe at large."

While internally doing backflips in delight at having yet another group to ally with, Harry outwardly kept calm, responding to this bombshell with a slight tilt of the head. "If you all wish to keep your nation's location a secret, that is fine. I won't pry into your internal matters. I do want to make an agreement with you Inhumans, a mutual defense treaty, as well as a trade and research agreement."

Crystal nodded but only said blandly that she didn't have any authority to agree to that but that she would put in her report after this current mission was over.

Harry's meeting with the Falcon also went well, except when they talked about material needs. "I'm more than happy to let you ask for volunteers, Harry, but if you want us to be effective, we're gonna need more suits, boots and guns. "I've got four companies of Orbital Drop Marines training up, with three more regiments of volunteers or transferees, whatever the term ya want to use."

Watching Sam wave one hand almost manically, Harry looked around the man's office, smirking slightly at the amount of paperwork scattered around the place. I must remember to get him a secretary. "The ones waiting are Russian Naval Infantry, French Foreign Legion and so forth. But we don't have enough material or a large enough training zone on Fortress Mars to train more right now."

"I'll sit down with General Murphy and devote some of the construction droids to mining out a larger area. Sorry, I didn't realize that you were running into that issue. Did you pass on a report about it?" Sam's silence was telling, and Harry chuckled. "Yes, I think you need a secretary. For now, I will order Forge 2 to start building up your munitions and gear. But first, let me make my appeal for volunteers, yeah?"

Sam rolled his eyes but agreed. As if any of this lot will ever say no if Potter asks them to do something. Harry really doesn't know how popular he is among the common troopers, does he? Regardless of his personal feelings, though, Sam sent out an order for his ODM troopers to report to the atrium for an announcement.

About twenty minutes later, Harry stared across the crowd, scattered around the atrium. This was the same atrium that Harry had shown the delegates from Earth several months ago, and while it wasn't full by any means, it was still fuller than it had been then when only one of the atrium's many platforms had been in use. But we created it for a reason, and the acoustics plus a little magic should mean that everyone hears me well enough. Whether or not they like what I say, that's up to them.

"Gentlemen and ladies," Harry said, drawing the attention of the crowd of would-be Orbital Drop Marines to him. Not all of them were male. There were a few dozen women among the crowd.

"Good afternoon. For those of you who haven't met me personally, I'm Harry Potter." There was a chorus of laughter from the crowd, even the Russians, and Harry smiled wanly. Harry didn't let himself think about that often, but he knew that he was possibly the most famous person in the world right now and was only happy that it was because of Magical Minds and the Custodes had done, rather than, as it had been in his home dimension, something his parents had done which he had gotten the accolades for.

"Yes, I know that's a sad way of starting this conversation, but for an icebreaker, it works," Harry drawled, causing another small chuckle to move around the atrium. "However, it's time to be a little serious. When I signed off on this unit, I mandated in its charter that the Oh Damns would not be used to settle terrestrial conflicts, only to fight extraterrestrial threats which made it to Earth. That is still the case. However, a crisis has arisen on a… different battlefield, so to speak. Let me tell you about the Asgardians."

He waited for a tic, then went on. "You might have seen Hela around or remember Thor and Balder from months back. Or you might have heard of the Viking God. Or perhaps, you know someone who follows the Asatru faith. But regardless of if you have heard of them before, the Asgardian gods are real. And they are under attack."

From there, Harry outlined what they knew about Those Who Watch Above in Shadow and what Wander-Odin had passed on about what might be occurring: the start of Ragnarök, the invasion of the Fire Jotun and the destruction of Asgard. Of the thousands of people reborn there, facing death once more along with their leaders.

"That's why I'm going." Harry flashed a wry smile. "I'm a hero. I have a people-saving thing. It's sort of par for the course. However, given the size of this war, the Custodes will need help. So I am asking for volunteers. Volunteers to help me take the fight to the Fire Jotun and their other tools. That is why I am here today. But hark, I hear you ask, what's in it for Earth? Why should we be involved? Well, for that, I have to turn to my lovely assistant Polaris."

Polaris waved at the crowd from nearby, holding up a sword in her other hand. "She'll be going from one platform to another. Anyone who wants to test out that sword is welcome to on the granite and metal blocks you'll find prepared for you. But suffice it to say that the Asgardians have some interesting metallurgical abilities, and we had a trade agreement with them before the Shadows shut down our dimensional border. That kind of thing could be very interesting to add to your battle rattle, wouldn't it?" Harry quipped. "To say nothing of the rest of what that kind of metal could mean."

He fell silent as dozens of men did take up the challenge. Harry heard the interest rise as the men tried out the sword against the prepared targets as he waited. Watching it punch through concrete or granite and slice into Kree battle steel was impressive, to say the least.

When the men settled down once more, Harry continued. "I am not ordering you into this battle. I am asking for volunteers. If you don't, there will be no onus on you. There will be no recrimination. Not officially, and not unofficially. I will come down like the hammer of doom on anyone who tries to push someone into this fight when they don't believe it's in their own best interest or the interest of Earth. Volunteers, I said, and willing ones. But we need to start tooling up for this, so I will need that list of volunteers by the end of the day. Talk it over amongst yourselves. If you have them call your wives, your husbands," he apologized, glancing towards a few of the women who rolled her eyes. "Think it through. Don't make a hasty decision, one way or the other. Thank you for listening. And as always, thank you for your service."

"And speaking of service," Harry said a moment later as he exited the atrium, already having heard the sounds of loud discussions within from the various platforms. "Are you sure you want to come along? It's been a while since you've seen actual combat, Lorna."

"I'll be training with Shiang Chi in Camelot for as long as I can until we leave, but yeah, I want to join this mission. I like Hela, and the idea that if the Asgardians lose, something could happen to her even if she's here on Earth just because she's one of them that's a little horrifying. I don't understand the whole mystical magic mumbo-jumbo, but I understand that it least."

Lorna continued talking quietly to Harry for a few moments before several people came out. Harry recognized them as the unit commanders. He even recognized a few before they became Orbital Drop Marines, Including Sean. Each of them held out a data slate to Harry, and Harry read off the names, his eyes widening in surprise.

That surprise was genuine, Lorna thought with a bit of amused exasperation. Harry really hadn't thought that many people would sign up. He didn't honestly understand how popular he personally was among the troops or among military men in general.

After a moment, Harry shook his head and thanked Sean and the others before doing something on the slates and handing them back. "I just authorized a wage hike to five times the normal amount for the duration of this operation. You all just volunteered to be heroes instead of soldiers, and I think you should be paid like them."

"Why didn't you mention that before!?" Sean squawked in shock. While money wasn't really important to him, he knew his men had been very pleased with the wages they received during training already. But this? it would make them all very rich indeed.

"If I had to buy your service, you wouldn't be worth the price. The pay is necessary, but it can't be your motivation. Not in this," Harry answered, slapping Sean on the shoulder before turning away.

From there, Harry moved to talk to General Murphy. He spoke about the need for more training zones for the ODMs and then spoke about the campaign to come, asking for advice. The General's opinion came quickly and vociferously.

"You haven't allowed for logistics enough!" Murphy barked, banging on his desk. "We're getting well ahead of the curve here on Fortress Mars, but the ODMs are new and just don't have enough material built up. "You'll need more rounds, more guns, more parts, more everything. You're envisioning this as what, a single sharp battle?"

"We have no idea," Harry said with a shrug. "Wander-Odin thinks we'll be arriving during a long campaign, but how long it lasts after we arrive will be up to how many Jotun they can field at any one time and how effective our forces are against them. Only myself, Helen, Garm and Emma have fought Jotun before. They're tough to kill, magically resistant, massively strong, immensely durable. But they can be killed."

In fact, Harry knew Jean was running tests in the Room of Requirement on what weapons worked best against the Fire Jotun. Garm was helping her, and it was hoped they would have some results in the next few days.

"Did you tell the men what they're getting into?" Murphy questioned, frowning. "I heard the trainees were called into the atrium for something."

Harry nodded. "I have. The majority volunteered."

"Good. You've got perhaps the best reputation among fighting men that any government leader has ever had, Harry, even if we go back to ancient times. Don't waste it. Now, let's see what we can do to fix your fucked up logistics train. First, we need to turn over more of our construction droids to prepare these weapons. And could we use those weird time enhancement chambers? That could really help speed things up, pun intended."

Setting up the logistics side of things took the better part of the day, and Harry left Jean and Carol in charge of that aspect once Jean's experiments were done. Thankfully, Falcon and Carol had already put together a pair of armor styles for the Orbital Drop Marines. They just had to put it into production with the changes Jean would recommend when her study was done.

The next day, Harry went back to the Savage Land, not, alas, to troll the local council of Prefects but to talk to Logan. Eventually, he and his daughter agreed to join the massed might of the Custodes.

Laura was eager for another adventure. She had spent most of the time since Harry had conquered the Savage Land there. It was fun, and she was nowhere near done exploring. But there was a difference between exploring and going to war. This sounded like something she could really sink her claws into. Having been to war before, Logan was more reluctant and hoped this wouldn't turn into a real, drag-out war.

The next one Harry called in was Forge, followed by Tony. As much as he and Tony had clashing personalities, Harry knew Tony could be a major aid on the logistical side of things.

To his surprise, Tony volunteered easily and even went further. "I want in on the actually going into Asgard too."

"I thought you were only reluctantly Iron Man," Harry answered with a faint smile. "Or is this the adrenaline junkie in you?"

"Probably a bit of both, frankly," Tony admitted. "But let's face facts. You're going to go into a primitive environment, and you're going to need an armory and a factory set up on the ground to deal with any repairs to the Oh Damns. You might be bringing in loads of parts and guns, but there's a big difference between that and having someone there on the ground in place to see to all of your needs. And my Iron Man suit is still leagues better than even your Ghigau and Coyote suits, let alone any mass-produced model."

Harry sighed but nodded. "All right. You'll be involved in the main war against the fire Jotun. And you'll be answering to Falcon and Steve for the most part. No offense Tony, but I don't want you in a position of command outside of the logistics side of things."

"Fine, fine," Tony answered breezily. "I never wanted to be in charge of any of your teams anyway. Far too much like work, in my opinion. Tell me, old boy, are you losing any hair yet? With all the balls you've got in the air, you're going to go bald before your time."

Rolling his eyes, Harry didn't respond to Tony's taunt, not seeing the point, and hung up. Knowing that the logistics side of things was now in good hands, he headed down to help one the magical side of things. After all, the array that would help them get to Asgard, or rather Yggdrasil, wasn't the only magical aid they would need. "Cory."

There was a pop, and Cory, Harry's house elf aide-de-camp, appeared beside him. The little creature ran beside Harry to keep up before Harry slowed down to let him walk instead. "Master calls for Cory?"

"Hmm. If you could find Dr. Druid for me? And have him join me up in High Note? He and I will be working on a little project in the time capsule, and I was hoping you would come with us to bring along supplies. Specifically, we need a sand table and food."

"Yes, Master, Cory will be pleased to serve," Cory responded instantly, and Harry smiled, already thinking about the task ahead.

OOOOOOO

Despite Thor's fury at Volstagg's fate and the sadness of his death, Thor and his companions were not people who routinely stayed sad or angry for long. As the days' hard travel up Yggdrasil continued, Hogun was the only one to remain grim-faced. Soon Tyr, Thor and Fandral joking and laughing, delighting in the fact they had succeeded in such a momentous quest. Even the death of their companion was a small price to pay for such a magnificent adventure as they had. Níðhöggr was such an opponent that it would not have been surprising if they had lost far more than just one of their companions.

Soon they reached the limb where they had originally landed within Yggdrasil's boughs. But seeing as they had basically floated down, the group spent the rest of that day climbing higher up the World Tree. When they finally found a bough both long enough and high enough to let them make the leap between the dimensions, the Asgardians ate the last of their supplies, rested for a time and then, with Thor leading them, marched out towards the edge of the branch.

Thor led the way, leaping across the dimensional gap from the bough that overlooked the mountains of Asgard closest to where the two dimensions met. For a moment, he was in freefall, nothing but blackness around him, then he smashed through the bubble of air around Asgard.

A moment later, he landed lightly on his feet, grimacing slightly at the effort of the leap, then blinked as he saw several spears of fire of black metal and stone being hurled his way. "What manner of ill luck!?" He bellowed, using his hammer to smash the spears aside, the swing creating a hurricane of force that shattered the spears. "Or perhaps foul design, as I do see Fire Jotun here along with the Stone Jotun. Regardless, all of you will feel Mjolnir's wrath!"

The Jotun had created a perfect ambush point around the area where travel between Asgard and Yggdrasil was possible. A dozen stone Jotun were hidden in small carved out holes in the stone using their magic to mold such and were now firing towards Thor. At least ten Fire Jotun were hidden behind primitive wooden walls, hurling spears. Still more just charged forward, eagerly bellowing their war cries.

"Have at you then!" Thor shouted, charging to meet them. With the power of his gauntlets, no Jotun beyond Surtur could match him in pure strength, and he barreled into the first group of Jotun to try and close with him, knocking them aside like they weighed nothing.

One stone Jotun died to a blow to the head from his hammer, which he then whirled around in an arc to crash into the chest of another, hurling him sideways and off into the air between the dimensions where he was not nearly so lucky as to land among the boughs of the world tree. Not that it would have mattered, as his chest had been caved in like thin tinfoil.

A blow from a fire Jotun caught Thor on the back, searing his clothing, but not knocking him off his feet. Thor's gauntlet of power did not just heighten the strength of his arms but the rest of his body, as well as adding to his already formidable durability. The blow might have scorched his clothing, but that was all.

More serious was the black metal spear thrust to the side, which tore through Thor's already battered armor. But he was already turning, and the spear skittered across his ribs rather than striking dead on, doing no damage. And the spear wielder died an instant later to a kick which ruptured his insides and hurled him backward, magma blood gushing out of his mouth as he spasmed, trying to grip the

Then Sif and Tyr were there, having hurled themselves across the dimensional gap as one. They landed in the space that Thor's charge had won them, swords flashing down and slaying the Jotun he had bulled over. After a second spent getting their bearings, they moved forward, engaging the Jotun, forging a path towards their friend. Behind them came the others, and the Warriors Two hurled themselves into the fight, the name of their fat friend on their lips. "For brave Volstagg!"

With Thor at their head, his friends formed a tight wedge, charging towards the archers. Unlike Thor, they were not almost immune to their enemies' weapons and needed to get in among those archers.

As they did, the Fire Jotun behind the wooden walls lit them on fire. They must have been coated with some alchemical product, perhaps even the Jotun's own magma-like blood, which after it cooled, at which point it left a kind of rubbery, gelatinous muck behind. Very flammable muck.

Whatever the case, the Jotun smashed the walls from behind, sending the burning logs towards the Asgardians. But Thor simply bellowed in laughter, smashing the two closest logs to flinders. "Burning logs!? Truly you think that will stop us!?"

"Speak for yourself, thoughtless one!" Skadi shouted. Though a Vanir, she was not as strong as Thor. Nor were any of the others. The fires truly must have had something added to them though, as they burned both dark red and a toxic-looking green, and Skadi and the others could feel the heat of them, causing them to sweat and even burning Sif and Hogun, both of whom hissed in pain, retreating.

Seeing that, Thor took a step back, letting Hogun and Fandral guard him for a moment. Both took wounds from the archers but could keep the Jotun in front of them at bay. This let Thor twirl Mjolnir above his head, bellowing to the sky as he called upon the storm.

Soon a heavy wet rain fell, causing the fires to dampen, sizzling in the downpour so loudly it almost drowned out the sound of the continuing battle. But this let the Asgardians leap over the still-hot flames, charging forward towards the archers.

Yet the state of their equipment and the lack of shielding began to tell, injuries abounding. Their armor was ruined or lost during the battle against Níðhöggr, more than one of them were wounded by this point, and Tyr and Sif were still nursing wounds from that dread battle.

And yet, Skadi could only stare in shock at the number of dead that was littering the field, watching as Thor, undaunted, continued to swing his hammer, slaying an enemy with each blow, hurling bodies aside as if they were mere chattel. The others were not nearly as deadly, the loss of weapons hampering their progress, and Fandral was limping badly from a long gash in his thigh that went from hip to knee. Despite that, Tyr came close to Thor's lethality, and he and Hogun went about their business in the same grim, professional manner. Their blade and mace might lack the power of Mjolnir, but the two had skill enough to try and close the gap.

"And here is me, without any arrows to my name," Skadi grimaced. She hadn't been able to pull any of her arrowheads from Níðhöggr and had even lost her hunting dagger, lost in the darkness when the wyrm had dislodged it in his death throes.

But Skadi wasn't one to dwell on things lost. Instead, she grabbed up a fallen stone Jotun's spear. She charged forward, her spear tip taking a fire Jotun in the back as he tried to get around Tyr's left flank. Then as magma gushed out of his wound and the Jotun collapsed to his knees, Skadi grabbed the sword from the Jotun's grip, wielding it two-handed whirling like a top to bring it into the thigh of another Jotun, sending it squalling to the ground in agony where Tyr finished it off with a precise sword thrust to the neck. "How many of our foes have gathered to halt our return?"

"Did you think any of us had time to be counting bodies?" Tyr answered tartly, ducking a blow that would've opened his face and still caught his helmet with a ringing blow that sent him stumbling.

"That isn't what I meant, oh serious one," Skadi grumbled but still stepped forward to guard him for a brief moment.

Tyr recovered, thrusting forward hard, knocking aside the next blow before his blade punctured into the chest of the fire Jotun that attacked him. Blood spurted out, and Tyr growled angrily as his sword started to melt. "Then what?"

"I am wondering about the Fire Jotun's involvement most of all," Skadi admitted, even as she parried a blow that nearly put her on her rear.

"Ah, aye, it is something to note, but for later, yes, Huntress? Keep your eyes on the current prize and not hark after the goose in the distance," Tyr warned, smashing an attacking Jotun across the face so hard his weakened blade shattered.

A second later, he grabbed a weapon from their enemy and used it against them. Indeed, only Hogun and Thor hadn't done the same by this point. And As Tyr glanced over his shoulder, he saw Fandral going down, with Hogun moving in to guard him as Sif dragged him behind Hogun.

She had to leave him and rejoin the battle as the archers threw down their bows. Pulling out spears, the ambushers charged forward. Those on the edges attempted to encircle the Asgardians, and Sif, Skadi and Tyr soon found themselves hard-pressed, their wedge forming into a circle, with Fandral guarded in the center, his life's blood pumping out of his thigh wound.

The enemy attempted to encircle them, but Thor was too powerful. He burst out through the encirclement, then turned to one side, whirling his hammer and creating a blast of air so powerful that it knocked a dozen attackers there off their feet, although it also caused Skadi and Tyr to stumble. Then he turned to the other side, and with a few strokes of his hammer, downed enough enemies to give Hogun and Sif the advantage. Meanwhile, Skadi and Tyr had slain many of those knocked off their feet.

The last fire Jotun turned to flee, but Skadi picked up a dagger and raced after him, shouting out, "Open combat might be the calling of you Aesir, but leave the hunt to me!"

A moment later, the final stone Jotun fell, leaving the field to the Asgardians. By that point, both Skadi and her prey were out of sight, but none were overly concerned. If the Huntress ran into something she couldn't handle, she was smart enough to retreat. And they had their own injuries to attend to besides.

"I just finished healing from the wounds caused by the dread wyrm, and now I am injured once again! What will the ladies think of me when I return to the city with my beautiful body covered in scars?" Fandral moaned as Sif and Hogun saw to the wound in his thigh.

"At least you weren't injured in your face. That should be some measure of saving grace, especially considering that few ladies would like to see you below the neck anyway," Sif answered mock-sweetly.

"Your words are as cruel as you are fair," Fandral answered with a laugh. "Still, mayhap you have a point, in that I am lucky to not be injured in the face. I doubt you would like me to recount all my tales of lust and love at this moment in time to refute your other claim, however."

"You are most correct, and indeed, your luck of not being wounded in the face will change very quickly if you try," Sif answered, laughing.

"Enough," Hogun grunted, pushing Fandral's head back down. "You have lost enough blood for one day, my friend, do not do anything that will have you losing more."

Tyr was also hurting, having taken another strike across the ribs, breaking only recently healed fractures and reopening the wounds he had taken from Níðhöggr. Hogun had been burned along one side, although not badly, his clothing having protected him somewhat even though he had been forced to tear off his heavy shirt afterward and was limping slightly, something having broken in one of his legs. Sif had taken a few wounds to the shoulders and head, losing her helmet in the process, the helmet being stepped on near the end of the fight.

Of all of them, Thor was the only one who was uninjured. His armor had been battered and torn so much that it was useless, and he discarded it to one side now while the others saw to their own injuries.

Yet despite his power-up, this had been a near-run thing. The presence of the fire Jotun also worried them all, and they all looked after their wounds and policed the area as best they could, talking quietly on that score while waiting for. Skadi to return. She did so quickly and began to move around the area, finding what arrows she could. "The way is clear ahead of us for a bit down the trail, but I would recommend I scout ahead of us from now on. I do not think any of us are in any condition to fight another battle like this one."

"Aye. And we must report to Lord Odin. If the fire Jotun are about in our realm, that could mean trouble. Especially here in the east, whereas Muspellheim is to the south from Asgard within the boughs of Yggdrasil," Tyr announced, nodding towards Thor.

And it could also mean that the fire Jotun are in league with whoever was attempting to stop us from returning and fighting Níðhöggr in the first place. None of the others seemed to have made that connection, and Tyr didn't speak his concerns aloud for fear of summoning still more trouble. But it was an obvious conclusion to his mind.

Getting out of the mountains caused them some delay, but back on actual earth rather than the boughs of Yggdrasil, Skadi was not only able to scout ahead of the party but also able to hunt. She found food, leaving rabbits and other small animals hung up on tiny ropes for the others to find during the day, along with a few herbs that would hasten the healing process. One particular herb was the most helpful, aiding in removing burns for Hogun and the others.

Yet it was still a very bedraggled group that finally reached the plains below two days after leaving Yggdrasil behind.

From there, travel was far faster, and they stopped in at Hamlet to acquire some horses for themselves. But the news that the karls shared with them was grim. The fire Jotun were indeed on the move, and a massive invasion had begun to the south.

"Word reached us here that Lord Balder was leading a staunch defense but had no means to wholly stop the invasion. If the Bright One has been pushed back too quickly, you may find your way back to Asgard a perilous one, my Lord." The farmer, a warrior spirit who had taken up farming here in Asgard, answered. He was sharing a tankard of ale with Thor and Tyr as the others bartered with his wife for horses, all three sitting on his small wooden porch.

"Bah! Hard or easy, naught will stop the mighty Thor from returning home! Let those who wish to get in my way do so at their peril!"

The man laughed at that, and he and Thor continued to joke and share tales as his neighbors came along to pay their respects to the Asgardians, particularly Thor. Not for nothing was he known as the defender of the common man, and Thor was one of the most beloved of the Asgardians to karls such as these. They respected and gave fealty to Odin, but they loved his sons, Thor and Balder.

The group decided to spend the rest of the day there, purchasing what supplies and clothing they could before hurrying on. But instead of making for Asgard, the group eventually learned where Odin had chosen to muster his host and diverted their journey towards that point. The area was called the fields of Gronulf's Wrath, named after a Jotun Stone Lord that had been slain there in ages past. Unlike their debased cousins, the Stone Lords had power and skills to match those of the Aesir, and the battle between this particular one and Thor had been a thing of legend, although few, even Thor, could now remember either battle or Stone Lord.

But the rest of the news wasn't good. Balder's forces had done their job well, but the fire Jotun force was massive, and all warriors would be needed. Many a human Jarl had already taken his men to the muster, and Odin had brought his Dvergar, Alfar, and light elves, to the battle as well.

The few remaining thoughts of past achievement and glory left in their heads fled the band at that news, and throwing caution and comfort to the winds, they pushed their horses to the briskest pace they could. Thor could well have just flown ahead of the others, but he didn't, instead racing alongside Sif tirelessly. This breakneck pace brought them within the Valkyries' scouting sphere within two days, during which they nearly killed their horses.

A Valkyrie rode off, coming back with more horses for the tired dragon slayers, something they were all pleased about. From then on, they moved at a slightly more sedate pace, and within a few hours, cheers arose from the Asgardian host as Thor led the band through the huge encampment's outer perimeter.

Sitting on a camp chair in front of his tent as if it was as regal a piece of furniture as his throne back in the halls of Valhalla, Lord Odin greeted them boisterously, clapping each of them on the shoulder, before pulling Thor into a hug fit to break even most Asgardian's ribs. "We had heard tell that you had returned, but still to see you here, and with evidence of your victory, gives us all hope on the eve of this war."

"It's well to do so, my Lord, but there is a mystery also to be solved here," Tyr answered for them all. At Tyr's gesture, Thor held up his gauntlets as if he had just remembered their presence.

With the thought of further war ahead of them, Thor had forgotten the mystery about them. Tyr's words reminded him, though, and the memory of Volstagg's odd demise reminded him of it again now his jolly expression turning grim. He relayed what had occurred with a growl and how he had once more acquired his gauntlets of power.

Through the tale, Odin listened silently, his own countenance above his beard becoming colder and colder. When the tail was finished, he looked over at the others, one eyebrow rising in question, demanding that they also tell them what they knew of this incident. But none of the others had much to add to Thor's retelling, save for Fandral who held up the claws and teeth they had taken from Níðhöggr's body.

"Send that bag to my armorer. Such can be made into weapons of dread strength and ability, as you all know. And as for you all, the Enchantress and Malekith do not have the power to kindle the flame of life imperishable. They could perhaps have created an illusion of an individual and indeed ensorcelled a few of our people to believe it. But they could not have fooled my All-Seeing Sight. No, not even Freya or I could create a simulacrum to ape true life. Instead, they would have to take someone already alive and mold them to do so."

Understanding what Odin was saying, Skadi hissed. "You're saying that whoever hid the Gauntlets of Power within Volstagg took someone else and molded the gauntlets into the individual somehow? I did not even think magic could do something so outrageous."

The snarl of disdain and even hatred in her voice for the term magic was not unusual, and Odin didn't take it personally. Few indeed of his folk had any truck with magic, let alone any understanding of it, even among the womenfolk whose purview it rightly was. But wisdom and knowledge are not always pretty or clean.

"Perhaps. But if so, they used a type of magic I knew nothing of. No, that mystery is perhaps larger and more dangerous than we might conjecture at this moment." Odin seemed to shiver from head to toe for a moment, an odd body movement that caught the eye of the others around him, but when he spoke, their attention was diverted to his words.

None noticed that Tyr too shivered. When Tyr stopped, the idea of his speaking to Odin about the fire Jotun being allied with whoever had hidden Thor's gauntlets was gone from Tyr's mind.

"However, such a mystery cannot control our attention at this moment. We have a war to win, an enemy more powerful than the dark elves or stone Jotun to defeat. One whose numbers eclipse our own, and whose strength is beyond most of our warriors one on one."

The hunting band nodded at that, and Odin formally acknowledged their victory and the glory it would heap upon them in the days to come before disbanding them. "Hogun, Fandral, you will join my host. I mean to make you part of our main spear thrust. Skadi, you will join the scouts. The Valkyries have been acting as my eyes and ears, but none can go unseen as you can."

The Vanir goddess nodded formal acknowledgment but asked where Queen Freya was. She was told that Freya would be coming behind the host with others, creating a makeshift hospital for the wounded. That made sense to Skadi, and she excused herself quickly. Skadi would leave the camp within an hour after gaining a few supplies and a new bow, quiver and dagger. She wasn't the strongest of the Aesir or Vanir, but she had endurance to spare and needed no rest now.

"Tyr, you will be given a command of your own. I will place you in charge of a thousand warrior spirits and fifty Asgardians. Sif, I wish for you to join another smaller band for now. While Balder and his warriors have done a magnificent job, the Jotun are marching faster than we could wish and are nearly past the Long Gorge. We will be meeting the enemy in a week at most, and we need to find terrain we can take advantage of. You know what manner of terrain we will seek."

Sif bowed deeply, proud of the important task, and Thor stepped forward. "And what of me, father? What duty would you have me do?"

Odin smiled and told his son to head to the armorer when they were finished before gesturing to have him and his fellows follow. "The dvergar will fit you with a new set of armor. As for your duties, I will be sending you ahead of the army as I did Sif and Skadi. But your job will not be to scout. Rather, it will be to do what you do best."

Thor looked at him, and Odin grinned like a wolf. "Cause carnage. You can fly my son, and it would be a poor general who tied an eagle to the ground."

A few minutes' walk brought them to the area where horses and other animals were kept in paddocks. Here Odin gestured to a chariot while nearby two large rams, their horns covered in steel, nipped at the grass. "And this will take you into the battle. But only when you are ready. Take a bath, take a moment to yourself, and then see the armorer. You have done well, and you can take a brief moment before I require still more of you."

Thor nodded and turned back to the others, saying his farewells to them one at a time as they broke away, heading to other areas of the camp. Soon, only Sif remained, walking beside Thor for a few moments as they made their way into the area where Odin had told them he had set up tents for them all. The silence between them was somewhat awkward, neither knowing what to say the moment but also not willing to part just yet.

This awkward silence ended when they spotted a large sign with three flags. There a Valkyrie trotted up to Sif, gesturing back the way she had come to where the womenfolk had set up a bathing area behind a small wooden palisade.

Sif thanked the Valkyrie, then turned back to Thor, thumping him on the shoulder. "Well, it was fun and harrowing and an adventure we'll be able to boast about for ages. My thanks for choosing me to come with you."

"My thanks for choosing to come. You more than held up your part in the journey, more so than Fandral or even Tyr, although it is dishonest to speak so of friends. But it would have been a much poorer journey without your wit and sword beside me," Thor answered with a wide grin.

That caused Sif to blush slightly, and she looked away. "Well, were it not for your own prowess, the entire trip would have ended in misery and ruin at the paws of Níðhöggr. Dare I say it, but there was a moment there when you actually looked formidable, as astonishing as that thought maybe."

"Hah! Well, unlike Fandral or you, no one has commented on my beauty. Only my strength. So I suppose formidable is the best I can get," Thor guffawed.

Blushing anew at a second inadvertent compliment from Thor, Sif shook her head, thumped hi on the shoulder once more, and waved him on his way. "Go. The journey is over for now, and we can but have the evening to ourselves to prepare for the next challenge. And despite your power, you still stink."

Thor laughed again, turning away and heading towards the men's bathing area nearby, while Sif followed the chortling Valkyrie, growling at her as best Sif could with a blush on her face.

Later, as he prepared to exit the bathing area, Thor started staring at his reflection before shaking his head. The image of himself with a red her, longer than his own, accompanied by a beard disappeared, replaced by his normal this. That was strange, but Thor had no time for such distractions or amusements. There was a battle to fight, after all.

OOOOOOO

Those Who Watched From Above in Shadow looked on, doing their equivalent of gnashing their teeth in a fury. The Ragnarök was on schedule, but more than once, they'd had to step in to keep Tyr and several others from realizing the implications of that and their own adventure. Keeping the pressure on Odin to keep him from acting out was becoming ever more difficult now.

And even with all their attention concentrated on that moment, something had slipped in there. Thankfully, Thor, unlike his father, was quite stupid. If Odin had seen such a vision, they would have had to exert even more force on keeping his mind from becoming aware of their machinations and able to act against them. As it was, Odin's suspicion had been aroused before they could shut it down, and they had to do so with far less subtlety than they would've preferred.

Still, no questions would be asked, and Ragnarök was continuing. The dark elves of Svartalfheim had joined forces with the fire Jotun, and their combined might would be able to slay all of the Asgardians and their followers. Those ritual sacrifices would restart the cycle once more. And when that happened, Every Asgardian, even Odin, would forget everything that happened in this cycle.

The Shadows' hold was weakened. The Shadows could not reform their anchors, nor could they reach Midgard and reclaim Hela and Niflheim. But, if Ragnarök continued, the rest of the Asgardians would be within their control forevermore. Nothing Odin could do or say would halt that. Indeed, his best efforts would merely fuel the Ragnarök, making the destruction all the more total.

Despite several of their pieces moving in ways they had not anticipated, the board and the game itself was still that of the Shadows. All that could be done now was to make certain the pieces kept moving as they should.

OOOOOOO

While Tony and Forge worked on arming the small four company force of Oh Damns, Harry and Dr. Druid created runic arrays that could defend people's minds from illusions and physical assault. This was a difficult process, with two major issues.

The first was simply that protecting the mind from exterior assault was difficult to put into runes, which had never been used like this before in this world or Harry's. Worse, Harry knew that his own technique, hiding his mind via a mental invisibility cloak, didn't work against the Shadows.

Unfortunately, that was basically the best concept they could come up with. Hopefully, that, and Emma, Jean and the other telepaths, would be enough to protect their people from direct, personalized assaults of the sort Harry had faced when he and Emma freed Hela of the Shadows' influence. Beyond stopping that kind of assault, though, Harry put more hope in the telepaths rather than the runic arrays designed to hide an individual's mind.

He put more weight on the work done on creating arrays that would allow the user to notice illusions. So long as the illusions were based on sight or sound, anyway. Harry and Dr. Druid couldn't figure out any that could block a scent-based illusion. They could figure out an array that could tell you if something smelled off, but not if the smell itself was an illusion.

The second problem was the cost of these arrays on the wearer was huge. While Harry had long since developed a runic sequence that fed the array via the body's natural bio-energy, acting much like exercise would in burning off calories, the energy matrix wasn't efficient at all for this type of array. Harry estimated that even someone well fed and in excellent shape would succumb to exhaustion after ten minutes worth of fighting off a mental assault. It was about forty minutes for the anti-illusion array.

Thankfully, both would only consume energy if activated, IE, when a mental assault began or when some magic-user created an illusion to fool the individual using the array. That was honestly its only saving grace. Adding the arrays into the helmets for the Custodes (even those like Colossus and the Thing got a necklace that would create the mental protection array) and the ODMs took longer.

But eventually, that and the rest of the logistics side of things was done, and nearly ten days after Wander-Odin had appeared so dramatically, Harry and his people were ready to go. However, with so many of them going, the teleportation circle couldn't be created in Camelot. The sheer number of bags, stuff, and men meant even the Great Hall couldn't house them all. So Ororo, Hela and the others wrote out the array at a WW2 military installation in Australia that Harry had purchased months back in preparation for creating an Arc reactor factory. It had originally been governmental land, and the infusion of cash had made the locals very happy with Harry, especially since they would be given the first few

The troops arrived in a slow, steady stream. First to arrive were the team that worked on the array and Harry. This consisted of Blink, Wander-Odin, Amora, Hela, Ororo, Clea, and Kitty. Harry moved over to Blink, smiling at the young elven girl as the others went over their work. Seriously, she almost looks like she could be related to Melody. Strange to think of. "Are you fine with coming with us into what might be a warzone? And do you understand what will be required of you?"

Blink nodded slowly, her eyes glancing over to Ororo and Kitty, where they were going over a portion of the ray several hundred meters away. Kitty felt her looking and looked up, waving at her, which seemed to give Blink some courage. "I am, yeah. Ms. Munroe and Ms. Hela had me test my blinking skill a few times. They and Nightcrawler have been a big help." She looked back at Harry, smiling. "And thanks for agreeing to pay my way through school for this, Mr. Potter. Going to school with Kitty and the others sounds like a lot of fun."

Chuckling, Harry waved away her thanks, saying that it was part of working for him. He had been adamant from the start that whatever their motivations, if someone worked for him, they would be getting paid what Harry felt their job was worth, regardless of what they were doing.

After a few minutes of small talk about what Blink wanted to do in the future, Harry made his way over to Hela. Gently pulling her away from where Wander-Odin had been trying to draw her into a flyting, Harry pulled her into a sideways hug. "I know you've mentioned how you loathe the fact Jörmungandr hid your mother's body, but I want to make certain you're okay with our going after him. You realize if we're right about him being an anchor for the Shadows that we will have to kill him." He watched Hela's eyes and mouth, the rest of her face as always covered by a half-mask. "Are you… alright with that?"

"I am not happy about the need to slay one who shares parentage with me, but really Harry, I am… ambivalent about it, I suppose." Hela scowled, shaking her head. "That might be different if I could but know my oldest memories were my own, but if they are, then Jörmungandr and I never got along when he was small enough to be part of our family in the first place. As it is… no. Most of my memories with him are full of spite, pranks, and threats of eating me. Not the best childhood memories, you could say."

Harry watched as her violet eyes narrowed dangerously. "And yes, his hiding our mother's body like that, his willingness to agree to serve those who would control us with a tyranny so complete it has no equal in human history, that is a travesty, a wrongness that must be answered for. If it is paid for by his death, then so be it. I will not be the one to swing the sword, but neither will I mourn."

She turned to one side as the Custodes arrived, with Dani and Piotr in the lead. Steve had opted to help lead the ODMs. While the company commanders were all experienced men, none had commanded a larger force, and Harry and Steve both felt a calming influence who could take in the whole battle would be a force multiplier.

"I am more concerned about Jean coming along at all, even if she will be well away from the front and with Dani and Garm's part in this operation."

Dani and Garm, along with Betsy, would be split off almost as soon as they arrived in Asgard. Their job would be to hunt down Fenrir and keep him from fulfilling his role in Ragnarök.

"I am concerned you will miss my fang and claw mistress. But you have given me a command, and I will obey," Garm answered hesitantly.

"Finding the trail will be hard, talking Fenrir out of his anger to Odin and the other Asgardians harder. Still, we are going to try our best," Dani answered briskly, still working on braiding her hair before she could put on her suit's helmet.

Beside them, Betsy nodded, moving to scratch Garm behind the ears. But the snarl he released made her think twice about it. "Er, right. Ya, the three of us will find the little wolfy."

Watching Dani and Garm's eyes cross at Fenrir being called a little wolfy caused Betsy to break out in laughter, but Harry had already moved on to greet Ben, Johnny and their girlfriends as they arrived.

Soon the X-men arrived, or those who would be joining them anyway. Scott, Sam Guthrie, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Amelia Vought, who was pushing Charles in his chair forward, walking beside Xian Co Manh, who had agreed to help on this mission despite being the next best thing to a wallflower. Harry nodded to Cyclops and then gestured him to one side as the runic doorway Harry had set up here connected to Fortress Mars glowed blue, and Iron Man came through.

Tony flew into the air and began to circle around the area, while behind him, Polaris came out, moving dozens of large metal crates. Each of them had legs and could move on their own for short spurts of time, but for now, Lorna's power was the best way to transport them. Behind her came several more rows of crates ushed through the runic doorway and lifted out of the way toward where a few magic carpets waited, floating over the ground nearby. Kitty soon appeared, along with Steve, and behind them came the ODMs.

The first to come through was the regular troopers. Their outfits were outfitted with winter camo, but beyond that, they looked much like the suits worn by Coyote and Uzume. However, they were several inches taller and had thicker armor. The suits were bulkier around their back legs and backs, where the thrusters for their jetpacks were. The backpack also contained folded wings, shorter than the Falcon's but still able to give the wearer some control in his flight.

Their helmets fully covered their heads and faces, the front of them a square, almost robotic-looking visor. Most held a new weapon, large-barreled rifles that looked like something straight out of science fiction with how large the barrel was. Jean had called those guns the Boom Sticks, and universal acclaim had taken up the name.

Those rifles were not the guns the ODM would normally use. Jean's experiments had proven that plasma guns would only itch a Jotun, while a rail gun round tested against the Jotun's armor would just bounce away. Maybe with enough force given to the target to knock him over, but that was all. What was needed to kill a Jotun with anything but a headshot was a higher caliber bullet going slower that could do more damage. With Tony's help, Jean had designed a new gun that used small explosive gyro-rocket rounds. While the rifles didn't fire as fast as either Jean or Tony had hoped, they would still be deadly.

They hoped. Tests on Fire Jotun armor the Room of Requirement created based on Harry's memory of the version he had faced said it would. But if they had significantly thicker armor, the effect would be lost.

After the first platoons of regular troops moved to one side, lining up in ranks as Ororo dictated, the first Heavy Gunners came through. These suits were very obviously mini-mechs rather than powered suits. Built off the Hulkbuster chassis that Tony had originally made for SHIELD, they stood as tall as Colossus but looked almost squat given how bulky they were. Their arms were large and long, almost like that of a gorilla, the wearer's arms ending well before the end of their arms.

Their legs were not short but not nearly as powerfully built as their arms. Their backs too were stooped, a large hump visible there holding the large thrusters the Heavy Gunners used to move through the air. But unlike the regular troopers, it was obvious these troops were made to fall like a meteor, not glide like a bird.

This was helped by the heavy Barret-like guns many of them carried. Others had large Gatling Guns slung under their arms, fed by an ammo belt leading to a second hump on their back. Others had large apertures sticking out of their shoulders. The only thing they had in common with the regular troopers was their helmets contained a T-shaped visor in their helmets.

"Sir, Orbital Drop Marines reporting for orders, sir!" Falcon barked, saluting Harry before standing at ease, a wide grin on his face under his goggles. Which also had the same anti-illusion array Harry and Dr. Druid had created.

Harry nodded, then looked across the Oh Damns. "I'm not one for speeches, so I'll just say thank you for coming. I know that you don't feel as strongly about intervening here as I do, and it means a lot to me that all of you signed up to participate in this operation. Get to your places, and we will begin. And don't touch the pink javelins."

Soon the ODMs were separated into platoon and squad-sized teams around the circle's edge. The X-men and the Custodes were mostly intermingled with the troopers in various groups.

In the center of the array were two circles. In one, Blink sat alone. Around her hands was a scintillating pink crystalline structure of some kind, her teleportation power rendered into a solid-state object. Other similar structures in the form of small javelins were stuck throughout the array.

Across from her, Amora and Helen sat together with Wander-Odin. Each of them was also touching a part of the array. While Blink would be coloring the runic enchantment with her power, so to speak, the three of them and Harry would be creating the anchor on the other side.

Harry joined them now, walking carefully through the hundreds of runes covering the ground, pausing to exchange a hug with Ororo and patting Kitty on the head. She, Una, and Amelia would be the three most responsible for setting up a base camp and a medical facility on the other side.

"Remember, we don't know if you'll be teleported into the air or directly onto one of Yggdrasil's branches. You won't be teleported into anything, but you might be in danger the moment you arrive," Harry shouted as he sat down next to Hela, forming a square. Amplified by magic, his voice carried to everyone there. "Keep your fingers on your jump jet buttons or hold on tight to the magic carpets. This is your last chance to turn back."

The replies he received were firm and unyielding. The Marines gave their famous cry of "OORAH!" the sound tinny in their helmets, but still loud. The Custodes shouted wordlessly, and the X-men just thrust their hands into the air, even Charles getting into it.

Seeing everyone was ready, Harry nodded over to Blink, who nodded shyly back, getting whispers of encouragement from the nearby Hela and a backhanded compliment from Amora. Wander-Odin simply growled, "Enough with this false modesty, girl! You know you can do this. Get on with it."

Marveling at perhaps the most arrogant and annoying words of encouragement he had ever heard, Harry leaned forward and began to project his power into the array. At the same time, Blink closed her eyes, calling her power into being around her. that pink-hued energy was then pulled away and into the array.

A moment later, the whole runic array, longer than two passenger planes head to tail, began to glow pink, concentrating in the crystal javelins. There was a loud sound as air rushed into the vacuum left behind as the land forces of the Avalon Empire disappeared from Earth…

End Chapter

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And so this is the beginning of the long-delayed Asgardian Arc. I hope you liked the dichotomy between Harry downtime and the war, because from here on, it's all going to be action for at least two chapters LOL.

This story will not be updated in February. Bhaalson Remodel has not won the patron only poll for so long it's automatic update time has come around, and frankly, February is so short I doubt I could get any other work out in February if I tried to work on ATP.