Chapter 9 Castle Wulfcraft

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

[A/N This story should be taking place in 2003, so according to the timeline I am setting up, September 11 would have occurred around the beginning of season 2]

Tuesday morning, Switzerland

9:00 am. Two hours before the beginning of a second Holocaust. Two hours before his plans would begin. The Red Skull sat in the throne in the throne room of the castle, and breathed in deeply. Life was good. And to think that a mere three weeks before, he had been in stasis again. The last time he had been brought out had been right after September 11, for two weeks. He had used the time to get acquainted with the internet. He had managed to lead everyone on for a whole two weeks before they realized that he did not have any information on Osama bin Laden. During the 1990s, bin Laden had been reported to have discussed possible biological weapons plans with Baron Zemo, and as the Red Skull had been a friend of the Baron's father, it was assumed that he might have some information that would have been useful. He didn't, though, other than discovering the Baron's screen name in an internet chat room, information that he managed to keep from himself and to disguise even from the most powerful telepaths.

Now what to do about his granddaughter?

The Red Skull sighed. She was a mutant, and potentially a very powerful one. But she was half Gypsy, and honestly that was way too much. He didn't want to kill her, because he knew that that would alienate his son. But maybe he could prevent her from having kids and further polluting the gene pool.

He looked out of the window. A snow-white eagle was flying overhead. This struck the Red Skull as rather odd, but he wasn't certain if such eagles were native to this area or not. Ornithology had never interested him.

Looking out toward the road, the Red Skull noticed that Herr Grappenhaur was returning rather early from the banking and shopping he had been doing for the opccupants of the castle. He had only been sent out five minutes ago. Oh well, maybe he needed something.

Another servant of Baron Zemo opened the door for Herr Grappenhaur. "Guten mornen."

"Guten mornen." Herr Grappenhaur entered briskly, and looked around. "{I forgot a slip that I am going to need at the bank.}"

"Ah."

Herr Grappenhaur walked up to his room, looking all around as he did so. ON his way back, he tipped his head at the doorman, and left.

Logan watched from behind the snowbank as Herr Grappenhaur came around and morphed into Mystique.

"Okay," she said, "I didn't get a good look, that would arouse suspicion, but I did see that Zemo's lab is exactly where Mr. Grappenhaur told us it would be."

"Of course," said Gambit. "Monsieur Gropin' hair wouldn't lie to moi, now would he?" He held the real Herr Grappenhaur with his left hand while brushing his chin with a charged card. "Not when 'e knows d' consequences o' de decep-see-on."

The snow-white eagle also landed, morphing into Snowbird. "Aerial reconnaissance suggests that the least guarded area is right here." She pointed to a small area on a diagram of the castle. "If we go in there, we might be able to get a few people in before he notices. Then we'll be able to subdue him more easily."

"Why?" asked Cain. "I can just go in and pound him. Don't need no subtlety."

"Do you plan on getting Kurt, and maybe the Witch and Elfling killed, Jughead?" asked Logan. "The Red Skull can't stop you, but he can slow you down. Which means that he will have time to set plans in motion that could hurt a lot of other people."

"So," said Slab. "What's the plan?"

"Snowbird and I will enter the castle from above," answered Mystique. "Logan, Remy, Erik, and Adrian will enter from the side entrance. I'll disguise myself, and everyone else can take on people as they come. But try to avoid it until we're all there."

"Can't Anne disguise herself, too?" asked Slab.

"I can only shapeshift into animals," replied Snowbird.

"First we will find and rescue Kurt, and if they are there in the castle, Wanda and Talia as well. You and Slab," Mystique looked at Juggernaut, "will come through the front door as soon as we give you the signal."

"Talk to us via walkie-talkie. Got it." Juggernaut saluted in a slightly teasing manner.

So a half hour later, Gambit was picking the lock on the back door to the castle. It opened after about a minute, and he, Magneto, Wolverine, and Agent Zmoloka walked inside.

Meanwhile, two eagles, one brown and one white descended on an outdoor porch of the castle. One transformed into a snake, the other into a white arctic rat of some sort. They moved inside as fast as they could, using various holes in the castle's structure.

Finding Wanda and Talia was easy for Snowbird, as was finding Kurt for Mystique. Wanda and Talia were in a dungeon, Kurt in a sumptuous bedroom guarded by Valkyrie. Both Mystique and Snowbird had small communicators (Snowbird's device enabling her to leave Canada could shrink when it needed to due to her transformations). Each one relayed to Kris and Cain that their time would come soon, but to wait until Logan and company had managed to free Wanda and Talia to come in.

Logan quickly made his way up to Wanda's cell. The guard was a normal wild-type human, and easily knocked out. Then he used his claws to destroy the big metal door and to get into the dungeon. Wanda and Talia were both drugged so as to decrease their mutant powers in case their necklaces failed, and so they were too groggy to help Loagna much, and he flung them over his shoulders to take them out of there.

As they approached Baron Zemo's lab, the seven people (Snowbird, Wolverine, Magneto, Agent Zmoloka, Gambit, Wanda, and Talia) began discussing with Mystique whether or not Slab and Juggernaut should be called in before or after taking the lab.

"Secure the lab first, but after that, I think we can," observed Mystique. Or rather, a snake with Mystique's head. "Only Valkyrie is guarding him, so you can attack her and secure Kurt's safety right after they break in. We can alert the Red Skull to our presence."

Zemo was working diligently on getting the virus activated and adjusted so as to only affect Jews. As Jews were somewhat ethnically diverse, it was difficult to get a proper marker to launch onto, but Zemo figured that at least 95% of Ashkenazis and 75% of other groups would be affected.

"One hour more," he said to the Red Skull next to him. "the treatment has gone on for three hours now, and one more hour before the virus reaches full potency."

Suddenly the door exploded. Gambit stepped in, charged card at the ready.

The Red Skull pressed a button on his belt, and a net fell on Gambit. A jolt of electricity circulated, and Gambit lost his powers. He also became quite woozy.

Logan suddenly barreled in, followed by a huge polar bear. Both were almost caught by a net, but just made it to the Skull. But Zemo hit them with a blast from a ray gun he was holding. They were shot back into the room, and the bear, dazed momentarily, morphed back into Snowbird.

Logan didn't hesitate. He knew they were in for trouble. He alerted Mystique to tell Juggernaut and Slab to attack the castle, now.

Adrian Zmoloka scooted from one side of the door to the other, all the time staying in the hallway, and taking a quick shot at Zemo. Not having time to aim, the shot missed the Baron's head, but grazed his left shoulder.

Magneto stayed back, realizing that the room had shielding that would prevent him form using his power effectively. Logan managed to dodge a few shots and to kick Baron Zemo so that he hit his head on a wall and was knocked out.

Wolverine was then shot by a ray gun by the Red Skull, but fortunately, he was close enough to the device that was modifying the viruses that he was propelled by the blast into the machine, which crashed onto the floor. He lapsed into unconsciousness.

Magneto and Agent Zmoloka had managed to get the net off of Remy, who revived, but without any of his mutant abilities. He still had, however, his other talents. He managed to dodge a shot by the Red Skull and to smash the ray gun out of his hand with his bo staff. Then he plunged the bo into the virus-modifying device, causing it to spark and then to smoke. It had obviously stopped working.

The Red Skull had been using various methods to keep himself young and fit, and he quickly confronted Remy and punched him in the jaw. Remy, his weapon still stuck in the machine, tried to respond, but his strength had still been lessened by his encounter with the net. Two more punches knocked him out entirely.

Zmoloka stuck his head in again, but the Red Skull brought Remy in front of him and used him as a shield while he grabbed the ray gun. Zmoloka fired anyway, hoping that a shot would penetrate Remy and then hit the Red Skull [A/N Zmoloka worked for Doom, think he'd care if he killed Remy in the process?], but instead he hit Remy's body armor, which managed to stop the shot from going too far.

The Skull shot Zmoloka, who was propelled into the wall.

Magneto decided to try to do something, and ran into the room, as Snowbird morphed into a white wolf and charged the Skull. He shot Snowbird, again sending her to the wall, and this time knocking her out, but Erik managed to tackle him and send him to the ground.

As Magneto and the Red Skull rolled around, with Magneto trying to remove the gun from the Skull's grasp, a loud crash was heard.

Down near the front entrance to the castle, Slab and Juggernaut were storming in. Captain Axis suddenly appeared from a bedroom and threw his shield at Slab, who blocked it with an arm. Slab, at his full height [A/N he has the power to adjust his size and mass to some degree], jumped onto Captain Axis and began wrestling.

Unfortunately, it ended quickly, with Captain Axis throwing him into Juggernaut, who toppled over. However, he quickly got up and charged the Captain, who had retrieved his shield.

Juggernaut ran right into Captain Axis, who was crushed against a wall. Nonetheless, the Nazi answer to Captain America kept hitting Cain, unlatching two of the four hooks on his helmet.

Slab got up and was prepared to charge, when Upload confronted him. A quick scan of his brain, and Slab became very dizzy.

Juggernaut managed to beat the tar out of Captain Axis, and to throw his shield into a wall, when Valkyrie, who had been called away from guarding Kurt, attacked him from behind, unlatching the other two hooks and then removing his helmet.

Exchange dropped from a balcony and, grabbing Cain's head, transferred the consciousnesses of Juggernaut and Valkyrie, leaving Cain suddenly to face an enemy using his own strength. He was thrown into a wall by his own body, now inhabited by the German Amazon. He was quickly pummeled into unconsciousness, followed by Slab.

Magneto, meanwhile, had managed to get a hold of the Red Skull's gun and to throw it out of the window. Logan had recovered and was tearing apart the virus-altering machine.

Suddenly a Chinese man walked into the room. He pulled a ray gun out of his sleeve and shot Magneto, who was thrown against a wall. Logan dodged once, but was then hit as well.

Noon, Switzerland.

Logan, Juggernaut (back in his original body), Slab, Magneto, Adrian Zmoloka, Gambit, Snowbird, Wanda, and Talia were all locked away in a dungeon. Zemo and Captain Axis were both still unconscious, as were Slab and Zmoloka. Valkyrie was as good as new, and back to guarding Kurt.

The Red Skull berated the would-be rescuers who were still conscious with his anger for their delaying of his plans.

"The virus isn't ready now! And you destroyed the sample container! I'll have to start the procedure all over again! It'll take at least four days! You will pay for this!"

Back in Kurt's room, he was reading a book on the art of war, while his mother, disguised now as a mouse, watched and waited for a good time to try to free him. She hadn't before because she had realized the room to be locked and that with Kurt' powers apparently suppressed, he couldn't get out of there even without Valkyrie guarding it.

Suddenly the Red Skull walked in. "Come with me." He led Kurt out.

"The time has come," said the Skull. To show you the choices you must make. To toughen you."

"Vhat?"

"You have two choices. Kill Wanda Maximoff or watch me kill Talia."