2. THE ARRIVAL.
Loki Laufeyson surveyed the gathering in the great council chamber of Utgard, and nodded satisfiedly. Almost everyone was here. The frost giants of Jotunheim, assembled under their king, Utgard-Loki (who really, he thought, ought to change his name to something less likely to provoke confusion between the two of them); of course, since
Utgard was their chief stronghold, it was inevitable that they would be there. Several trollish chieftains, under Geirrodur, their king. And the various leading earls and lords among the dark elves of Svartalfheim, as well. There were a few faces not present here, admittedly, such as the fire demons of Muspelheim, the Fenris-wolf, and Jormungand the
Midgard-Serpent, but no matter. He could find some means of rectifying that later.
In the meantime, he now cleared his throat, and addressed them.
"I suppose that you are all wondering why I asked you here," he said. In an aside tone of voice, he added, "I always wanted to say that at the start of a council."
"Aye, that we have, Laufeyson," said King Geirrodur. "State your purpose, and be done with it!"
"Patience, my friend, patience," said Loki calmly. "Just sit back and listen, while I unfold my stratagem.
"Now then, as you all know, we share a common foe: Asgard, and its inhabitants, the Aesir. How often, my friends, have you desired to breach Asgard's walls, seize its wealth, and topple that insufferable Odin All-Father from his throne? How often? A great many times, more than can be numbered, I imagine. Is that not so, my friends?"
"Aye, that is so," said Utgard-Loki, speaking in a low growl. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to wipe those pestilential Aesir clean from the nine worlds, and annex their lands." There was a great deal of nodding and murmured agreement from the rest of the frost giants, not to mention the trolls and the dark elves.
"As I expected," said Loki. "But so far, Odin has withstood every assault directed against his kingdom - until now. But the time has come for this to change."
"And exactly how will it change, Loki?" asked one of the dark elf earls. "Tell us!"
"It is a simple matter of intelligent strategy and tactics," said Loki. He considered for a moment making some clever remark about how a number of the assembled folk in the council chamber, especially the trolls, would have found such skills far beyond their capabilities, but then decided against it. It was tempting, but even the slowest-witted troll present would have recognized it as an insult, and taken offense, which would certainly have been counter-productive to his purposes. "Before now, all of you have fought the Aesir on your own, without allies or assistance. And on all of those occasions, they put you to rout. But consider this, all of you. Supposing that we were to join all our forces together, forming a solemn alliance and league, to hurl all of our might against Asgard in one great army? With such a stratagem, we could be nothing but victorious. The Aesir would fall before us, and we would have it all!"
He waited for the cheering and applause to come, hailing him for his bold and cunning plan. But there was almost complete silence. A few of the smaller trolls grunted enthusiastically, but then stopped as the larger trolls glowered at them. Loki frowned thoughtfully. This was not the response that he had been expecting. "Is anything wrong?" he asked puzzledly. "You seem - not especially eager to adopt this plan."
"And for good reason," said Utgard-Loki. "Surely you, Loki Laufeyson, as a dweller in Asgard, should know why. It is because of Thor! Yes, Thor! Think of how many of our kind he has already dispatched to Hel's kingdom with his accursed hammer!"
The other frost giants began to murmur in agreement, their voices swelling in the background.
"He slew Thiassi and tossed his eyes up into the sky as stars."
"He slew Hrungnir at Grjotungardar."
"He smote down Thrym and all his household."
"He threw a red-hot iron bar at me, when he visited my castle," said King Geirrodur of the Trolls, shuddering at the memory. "I barely survived."
"You know what Thor is capable of against us as well as I do," said Utgard-Loki, a note of near-apprehensiveness creeping into his voice. "You were there when he visited my castle, Loki. Surely you recall his amazing feats of strength there. Were it not for my illusions, who knows what more he might have done."
Loki nodded, listening, then held up his hands. "Well-spoken, my friends," he said. "And I quite sympathize with your concerns regarding the Thunderer. But you need not fear for yourselves this time. He will not be able to defend Asgard against you again."
"And what do you mean by that?" asked Utgard-Loki, leaning forward and staring Loki straight in the face, frowning.
"Then you have not heard the latest tidings, I take it?" asked Loki, a gleeful look upon his face. "Thor has been banished from Asgard, by Odin himself."
"Banished?" asked Utgard-Loki, astonished. "Is this true, Loki? For if you are deceiving us - and you are renowned as a liar and trickster, do not forget - then must you beware our wrath."
"It is entirely true," Loki answered. "Odin sent his son to Midgard, in exile, to teach him humility and obedience. He stripped him of his very godhood, and imprisoned him in the body of a human, and a lame one at that. He'll not be returning any time soon. His hammer has been sent away as well, and his chariot is already beginning to gather dust and cobwebs in Bilskirnir. We are finally rid of him. And with Thor gone, the rest of the Aesir will be unable to withstand our gathered might. We shall fall upon them, and conquer Asgard at last. So, are you with me?"
There was a moment's silence, as the assembled giants, trolls, and dark elves pondered Loki's words. Then, they eagerly nodded. "Yes!" they cried. "Yes! Asgard is ours!"
"Gather your forces together," said Loki. "We march as one army upon Odin's domain, and the Aesir shall fall before us. Victory shall be ours!"
There was suddenly a disturbance at the window, and then a great eagle flew in, alighting on the table. All eyes turned towards it. It was Loki who spoke first.
"Ah, greetings, Hraesvelgir," he said. "I had not expected you to honor us with your presence at this council, but you are welcome here, all the same. What tidings have you for us?"
The eagle spoke, in a shrill voice, like the cry of a normal eagle but shaped into words. "Something is stirring in the forest, to the east of here. A gateway took shape, for a time, and then vanished."
"A gateway?" asked Loki, sounding interested. "Fascinating. What were you able to learn regarding it?"
"Very little," said Hraesvelgir. "It closed before I could reach it. But I could see through it, into another world, if but for a brief time. I saw a place of strange machinery, surpassing even the craftings of the dwarves. And there were men of Midgard there, as well - and a strange beast with blue fur. But I saw no more of them than a glimpse."
"A portal to Midgard has formed?" asked Utgard-Loki, frowning. "I like this not, Loki. Did you not say that it was to there that Thor was exiled?"
"Indeed I did," said Loki. "But I doubt that we have anything to fear. Odin would
not recall him so soon - especially since he cannot even know of our council as yet. And if he had come back through the portal, Hraesvelgir here would surely have seen it."
"Still, the very fact that this gateway exists does not bode well," said the King of Jotunheim. "Who knows what may emerge from it, should it appear again?"
"A cogent point, my friend," said Loki. "I do not think that Thor will take advantage of it, of course; he has been stripped not only of his hammer and his prowess, but even of his memories; he has forgotten his heritage, and believes himself mortal-born now, of Ask and Embla's race. So even if he were to behold that portal, he would not think to use it. However, it does indeed demand investigating. I should certainly like to know what caused it, in any case."
"Then go there, and find out," said Utgard-Loki.
"Of course," said Loki, nodding. He glanced over at a few of the knights and housecarls among the dark elves. "You would not mind accompanying me, noble sirs?" he asked them. "An escort of honor to this place would not be amiss."
The dark elf knights conferred among themselves, then nodded. Loki turned to Hraesvelgir. "Lead the way to this place where you saw the gateway," he said. "I shall examine it when we arrive."
The eagle nodded, and flew out the window. Loki and the dark elves left the council chamber.
* * *
Eight shapes landed in the snow with some loud ooofs. It was more than
eight shapes that arose from it, rubbing themselves painfully and brushing themselves off, thanks to Jamie's multiplying powers having been activated by his impacting the ground.
"What is this place, anyway?" asked Jubilee, looking about and shivering. "And how'd we get here?"
"It must have been Forge's machine," said Roberto. "It dumped us all
here. This is probably another one of those other dimensions that he likes to experiment with."
"Whatever it is, it's cold," Jubilee replied. "If I'd known that we were
going to have a one-way ticket to this place, I'd have put on my coat first."
"Well, we wouldn't even be here in this place," said Amara, looking sharply at Bobby, "if a certain mutant hadn't decided to meddle about with something best left alone."
"Hey!" shouted Bobby. "It was that fireball of yours that caused all the problems, you know! If you hadn't thrown it at me, we wouldn't be here at all!"
"And if you hadn't broken into the laboratory, and gone prying into the
workings of Forge's machine, which you had no business doing, I would not have had any need to do just that," she retorted. "Besides, your ice did just as much damage, if not more."
"It did not!" shouted Bobby. "It's your fault, not mine, 'Hot Stuff'!"
"Repeat that again," said Amara angrily, forming a fresh ball of fire in
her hand.
"Very well, then," said Bobby defiantly. "Hot Stuff, Hot Stuff, Hot
Stuff!"
"That does it!" cried Amara. She shifted from her normal form of a young adolescent girl into that of a fiery humanoid, and hurled the fireball at him.
Bobby coated himself with ice from his feet to his head and shot out an ice shield to block the fireball attack, following it by shooting a fresh spray of ice at Amara. And the next moment, the two of them were hurling one attack after another. Fireballs froze in mid-air and fell to the ground, shattering, while blasts of ice melted under
other fiery attacks and evaporated into steam. The other six New Mutants watched the battle, awe-struck.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" asked Jamie.
"Good idea," said Roberto. "The trouble is, I don't think that we've got
too many volunteers for that job."
"You can say that again," said Jubilee. "Getting in the way in the middle
of a fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth would be a lot safer than that."
"Well, I've something ta say about all this," said Rahne. "Stop this at
once, both o' ye!" she shouted at the two quarreling mutants. "We dinna have time for this! We're lost in a strange forest, probably miles from any shelter, and most probably not even in the same world that we belong in! We should be finding a solution for this problem, not
battlin' one another!"
Iceman and Magma both halted, suspending their attacks upon each other, and turning to face Rahne. "You stay out of this!" both shouted, almost as one. And then both launched their attacks upon her, Bobby letting fly with more ice, Amara with more fire.
Rahne ducked in time, and shifted into her wolf-form almost at once.
Standing her
ground, she growled fiercely at them, more as a warning than an outright challenge.
"Rahne's right," said Sam, quickly moving over to her side before Bobby
and Amara could initiate a second attack. "Come on! We're not going to get anything done if we stand here and fight!"
Silence followed, as the two young mutants stared him in the face. Then both sighed, and reverted to their normal forms.
"You have a point," said Amara. "We should find out where we are, and
how we can get back to the laboratory. Although that won't be easy. I can't even see where we came in."
She turned to Bobby. "So do you agree, then?" she asked. "We call a truce while we're still in this place. No more fighting, and no more arguing over whose fault it was until we get home. And then I'll remind you that you got us into this."
Bobby glowered at her after that last sentence, but then nodded. "All
right," he said. "Truce."
"So what do we do now?" asked Jubilee.
"Find out where we are, for a start," said Amara, surveying the horizon.
There was nothing but forest on all sides of them, and snow-capped mountains in the distance. The only living thing in sight was a great eagle. It circled over their heads briefly, and then flew off. "And that won't be easy."
* * *
Loki and the dark elf knights halted as Hraesvelgir landed before them. "Well, my friend?" asked Loki. "What have you to report?"
"Folk from Midgard," said the eagle, in its harsh voice. "But strange
ones."
"Nearly all of Midgard's residents are strange these days," said Loki,
nodding in an offhand manner. "I haven't been that way for almost a thousand years, but I understand that their world has changed noticeably during that time. Please be a little more specific."
"There are eight of them, all told," said Hraesvelgir. "And they are
little more than children, arrayed in garments unlike any that I have beheld before - except in that chamber that I saw earlier. But they have powers, powers that I have never beheld the humans of
Midgard wield before."
"Indeed?" asked Loki, interest sounding in his voice. "What sort of
powers?"
"There was a boy who can wield ice and frost as a weapon, as well as any of Ymir's descent," said the great eagle. "And a maiden who can hurl fire, and even transform herself into a being of flame, as though she came from Muspellheim. And there was another maiden who can change into a wolf."
"How fascinating," said Loki. "So these guests from Midgard are young sorcerers. Imagine that."
"So what do we do about them?" asked one of the dark elf knights.
"Seek them out, of course," Loki answered. "They could make useful allies in our war. Or at the least, catapult-fodder."
"And if they have no desire to aid us in our invasion?" the knight inquired.
"Who said that I was going to give them a choice?" Loki said, an evil smile curling his lips.
Loki Laufeyson surveyed the gathering in the great council chamber of Utgard, and nodded satisfiedly. Almost everyone was here. The frost giants of Jotunheim, assembled under their king, Utgard-Loki (who really, he thought, ought to change his name to something less likely to provoke confusion between the two of them); of course, since
Utgard was their chief stronghold, it was inevitable that they would be there. Several trollish chieftains, under Geirrodur, their king. And the various leading earls and lords among the dark elves of Svartalfheim, as well. There were a few faces not present here, admittedly, such as the fire demons of Muspelheim, the Fenris-wolf, and Jormungand the
Midgard-Serpent, but no matter. He could find some means of rectifying that later.
In the meantime, he now cleared his throat, and addressed them.
"I suppose that you are all wondering why I asked you here," he said. In an aside tone of voice, he added, "I always wanted to say that at the start of a council."
"Aye, that we have, Laufeyson," said King Geirrodur. "State your purpose, and be done with it!"
"Patience, my friend, patience," said Loki calmly. "Just sit back and listen, while I unfold my stratagem.
"Now then, as you all know, we share a common foe: Asgard, and its inhabitants, the Aesir. How often, my friends, have you desired to breach Asgard's walls, seize its wealth, and topple that insufferable Odin All-Father from his throne? How often? A great many times, more than can be numbered, I imagine. Is that not so, my friends?"
"Aye, that is so," said Utgard-Loki, speaking in a low growl. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to wipe those pestilential Aesir clean from the nine worlds, and annex their lands." There was a great deal of nodding and murmured agreement from the rest of the frost giants, not to mention the trolls and the dark elves.
"As I expected," said Loki. "But so far, Odin has withstood every assault directed against his kingdom - until now. But the time has come for this to change."
"And exactly how will it change, Loki?" asked one of the dark elf earls. "Tell us!"
"It is a simple matter of intelligent strategy and tactics," said Loki. He considered for a moment making some clever remark about how a number of the assembled folk in the council chamber, especially the trolls, would have found such skills far beyond their capabilities, but then decided against it. It was tempting, but even the slowest-witted troll present would have recognized it as an insult, and taken offense, which would certainly have been counter-productive to his purposes. "Before now, all of you have fought the Aesir on your own, without allies or assistance. And on all of those occasions, they put you to rout. But consider this, all of you. Supposing that we were to join all our forces together, forming a solemn alliance and league, to hurl all of our might against Asgard in one great army? With such a stratagem, we could be nothing but victorious. The Aesir would fall before us, and we would have it all!"
He waited for the cheering and applause to come, hailing him for his bold and cunning plan. But there was almost complete silence. A few of the smaller trolls grunted enthusiastically, but then stopped as the larger trolls glowered at them. Loki frowned thoughtfully. This was not the response that he had been expecting. "Is anything wrong?" he asked puzzledly. "You seem - not especially eager to adopt this plan."
"And for good reason," said Utgard-Loki. "Surely you, Loki Laufeyson, as a dweller in Asgard, should know why. It is because of Thor! Yes, Thor! Think of how many of our kind he has already dispatched to Hel's kingdom with his accursed hammer!"
The other frost giants began to murmur in agreement, their voices swelling in the background.
"He slew Thiassi and tossed his eyes up into the sky as stars."
"He slew Hrungnir at Grjotungardar."
"He smote down Thrym and all his household."
"He threw a red-hot iron bar at me, when he visited my castle," said King Geirrodur of the Trolls, shuddering at the memory. "I barely survived."
"You know what Thor is capable of against us as well as I do," said Utgard-Loki, a note of near-apprehensiveness creeping into his voice. "You were there when he visited my castle, Loki. Surely you recall his amazing feats of strength there. Were it not for my illusions, who knows what more he might have done."
Loki nodded, listening, then held up his hands. "Well-spoken, my friends," he said. "And I quite sympathize with your concerns regarding the Thunderer. But you need not fear for yourselves this time. He will not be able to defend Asgard against you again."
"And what do you mean by that?" asked Utgard-Loki, leaning forward and staring Loki straight in the face, frowning.
"Then you have not heard the latest tidings, I take it?" asked Loki, a gleeful look upon his face. "Thor has been banished from Asgard, by Odin himself."
"Banished?" asked Utgard-Loki, astonished. "Is this true, Loki? For if you are deceiving us - and you are renowned as a liar and trickster, do not forget - then must you beware our wrath."
"It is entirely true," Loki answered. "Odin sent his son to Midgard, in exile, to teach him humility and obedience. He stripped him of his very godhood, and imprisoned him in the body of a human, and a lame one at that. He'll not be returning any time soon. His hammer has been sent away as well, and his chariot is already beginning to gather dust and cobwebs in Bilskirnir. We are finally rid of him. And with Thor gone, the rest of the Aesir will be unable to withstand our gathered might. We shall fall upon them, and conquer Asgard at last. So, are you with me?"
There was a moment's silence, as the assembled giants, trolls, and dark elves pondered Loki's words. Then, they eagerly nodded. "Yes!" they cried. "Yes! Asgard is ours!"
"Gather your forces together," said Loki. "We march as one army upon Odin's domain, and the Aesir shall fall before us. Victory shall be ours!"
There was suddenly a disturbance at the window, and then a great eagle flew in, alighting on the table. All eyes turned towards it. It was Loki who spoke first.
"Ah, greetings, Hraesvelgir," he said. "I had not expected you to honor us with your presence at this council, but you are welcome here, all the same. What tidings have you for us?"
The eagle spoke, in a shrill voice, like the cry of a normal eagle but shaped into words. "Something is stirring in the forest, to the east of here. A gateway took shape, for a time, and then vanished."
"A gateway?" asked Loki, sounding interested. "Fascinating. What were you able to learn regarding it?"
"Very little," said Hraesvelgir. "It closed before I could reach it. But I could see through it, into another world, if but for a brief time. I saw a place of strange machinery, surpassing even the craftings of the dwarves. And there were men of Midgard there, as well - and a strange beast with blue fur. But I saw no more of them than a glimpse."
"A portal to Midgard has formed?" asked Utgard-Loki, frowning. "I like this not, Loki. Did you not say that it was to there that Thor was exiled?"
"Indeed I did," said Loki. "But I doubt that we have anything to fear. Odin would
not recall him so soon - especially since he cannot even know of our council as yet. And if he had come back through the portal, Hraesvelgir here would surely have seen it."
"Still, the very fact that this gateway exists does not bode well," said the King of Jotunheim. "Who knows what may emerge from it, should it appear again?"
"A cogent point, my friend," said Loki. "I do not think that Thor will take advantage of it, of course; he has been stripped not only of his hammer and his prowess, but even of his memories; he has forgotten his heritage, and believes himself mortal-born now, of Ask and Embla's race. So even if he were to behold that portal, he would not think to use it. However, it does indeed demand investigating. I should certainly like to know what caused it, in any case."
"Then go there, and find out," said Utgard-Loki.
"Of course," said Loki, nodding. He glanced over at a few of the knights and housecarls among the dark elves. "You would not mind accompanying me, noble sirs?" he asked them. "An escort of honor to this place would not be amiss."
The dark elf knights conferred among themselves, then nodded. Loki turned to Hraesvelgir. "Lead the way to this place where you saw the gateway," he said. "I shall examine it when we arrive."
The eagle nodded, and flew out the window. Loki and the dark elves left the council chamber.
* * *
Eight shapes landed in the snow with some loud ooofs. It was more than
eight shapes that arose from it, rubbing themselves painfully and brushing themselves off, thanks to Jamie's multiplying powers having been activated by his impacting the ground.
"What is this place, anyway?" asked Jubilee, looking about and shivering. "And how'd we get here?"
"It must have been Forge's machine," said Roberto. "It dumped us all
here. This is probably another one of those other dimensions that he likes to experiment with."
"Whatever it is, it's cold," Jubilee replied. "If I'd known that we were
going to have a one-way ticket to this place, I'd have put on my coat first."
"Well, we wouldn't even be here in this place," said Amara, looking sharply at Bobby, "if a certain mutant hadn't decided to meddle about with something best left alone."
"Hey!" shouted Bobby. "It was that fireball of yours that caused all the problems, you know! If you hadn't thrown it at me, we wouldn't be here at all!"
"And if you hadn't broken into the laboratory, and gone prying into the
workings of Forge's machine, which you had no business doing, I would not have had any need to do just that," she retorted. "Besides, your ice did just as much damage, if not more."
"It did not!" shouted Bobby. "It's your fault, not mine, 'Hot Stuff'!"
"Repeat that again," said Amara angrily, forming a fresh ball of fire in
her hand.
"Very well, then," said Bobby defiantly. "Hot Stuff, Hot Stuff, Hot
Stuff!"
"That does it!" cried Amara. She shifted from her normal form of a young adolescent girl into that of a fiery humanoid, and hurled the fireball at him.
Bobby coated himself with ice from his feet to his head and shot out an ice shield to block the fireball attack, following it by shooting a fresh spray of ice at Amara. And the next moment, the two of them were hurling one attack after another. Fireballs froze in mid-air and fell to the ground, shattering, while blasts of ice melted under
other fiery attacks and evaporated into steam. The other six New Mutants watched the battle, awe-struck.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" asked Jamie.
"Good idea," said Roberto. "The trouble is, I don't think that we've got
too many volunteers for that job."
"You can say that again," said Jubilee. "Getting in the way in the middle
of a fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth would be a lot safer than that."
"Well, I've something ta say about all this," said Rahne. "Stop this at
once, both o' ye!" she shouted at the two quarreling mutants. "We dinna have time for this! We're lost in a strange forest, probably miles from any shelter, and most probably not even in the same world that we belong in! We should be finding a solution for this problem, not
battlin' one another!"
Iceman and Magma both halted, suspending their attacks upon each other, and turning to face Rahne. "You stay out of this!" both shouted, almost as one. And then both launched their attacks upon her, Bobby letting fly with more ice, Amara with more fire.
Rahne ducked in time, and shifted into her wolf-form almost at once.
Standing her
ground, she growled fiercely at them, more as a warning than an outright challenge.
"Rahne's right," said Sam, quickly moving over to her side before Bobby
and Amara could initiate a second attack. "Come on! We're not going to get anything done if we stand here and fight!"
Silence followed, as the two young mutants stared him in the face. Then both sighed, and reverted to their normal forms.
"You have a point," said Amara. "We should find out where we are, and
how we can get back to the laboratory. Although that won't be easy. I can't even see where we came in."
She turned to Bobby. "So do you agree, then?" she asked. "We call a truce while we're still in this place. No more fighting, and no more arguing over whose fault it was until we get home. And then I'll remind you that you got us into this."
Bobby glowered at her after that last sentence, but then nodded. "All
right," he said. "Truce."
"So what do we do now?" asked Jubilee.
"Find out where we are, for a start," said Amara, surveying the horizon.
There was nothing but forest on all sides of them, and snow-capped mountains in the distance. The only living thing in sight was a great eagle. It circled over their heads briefly, and then flew off. "And that won't be easy."
* * *
Loki and the dark elf knights halted as Hraesvelgir landed before them. "Well, my friend?" asked Loki. "What have you to report?"
"Folk from Midgard," said the eagle, in its harsh voice. "But strange
ones."
"Nearly all of Midgard's residents are strange these days," said Loki,
nodding in an offhand manner. "I haven't been that way for almost a thousand years, but I understand that their world has changed noticeably during that time. Please be a little more specific."
"There are eight of them, all told," said Hraesvelgir. "And they are
little more than children, arrayed in garments unlike any that I have beheld before - except in that chamber that I saw earlier. But they have powers, powers that I have never beheld the humans of
Midgard wield before."
"Indeed?" asked Loki, interest sounding in his voice. "What sort of
powers?"
"There was a boy who can wield ice and frost as a weapon, as well as any of Ymir's descent," said the great eagle. "And a maiden who can hurl fire, and even transform herself into a being of flame, as though she came from Muspellheim. And there was another maiden who can change into a wolf."
"How fascinating," said Loki. "So these guests from Midgard are young sorcerers. Imagine that."
"So what do we do about them?" asked one of the dark elf knights.
"Seek them out, of course," Loki answered. "They could make useful allies in our war. Or at the least, catapult-fodder."
"And if they have no desire to aid us in our invasion?" the knight inquired.
"Who said that I was going to give them a choice?" Loki said, an evil smile curling his lips.