A/N - Calm is over and now is the time for fast and dirty action, blood, bodies, pieces of them and buildings might be flying as Fury and Loki are rather unhappy and want blood, this arc as a whole will be dark and going into extremely dark at times. There are several important things in the really long Author's Notes at the bottom, if you want to understand what is going on and what will be happening read them. Yes, they are long, but hopefully they will explain a lot of things and make things easier for me later on. Read and review.
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Beta - eri1551
o-0-o
Heimdall was watching the universe when his gaze was drawn to Midgard, he was subconsciously watching the youngest Prince of Asgard and now he was gone. His all-seeing sight focused on Midgard and his eyes widened when he didn't find him and the last spot where he was seen was the smoking wreck of a car. There was not a single trace of the Prince's body and it made him worried.
He grabbed a beautifully carved horn hanging on his belt, placed it in front of his lips and played three long signals. Each of them rattling bones and awaking sleeping people. It was the sound of the horn named Gjallarhorn, a horn played only in the times of great danger to Asgard.
o-0-o
Fury snarled as he jumped down onto the ground from his helicopter, someone fucked up their job and now the youngest Prince of Asgard was missing. He looked around and immediately spotted a car wreck and pieces of it strewn around. He glanced towards the road and saw a truck hanging on the posts and the lane closed so that forensics could safely work.
"What had happened here?!" he asked looking at the nearest agent. She was a short, blonde and blue-eyed woman, and her name was Karrin Murphy.
"We don't know, sir," she said. "The most probable chain of events is that the truck pushed the car sideways," she said, indicating at the truck. "But how the hell the car ended here is a different question altogether."
"What about the victims?" he asked as they walked to the wreck.
"That's a good question," she said and indicated one spot in the soft soil, a human shape visible in it. "Someone was laying here, but when we arrived they pulled the victim out of the wreck and he couldn't have been in two places."
He nodded and looked at her. "I think that you have an idea."
"Yes," she said. "Assuming that there were two victims and it is the most probable scenario, one of them probably freed himself from the wreck, but if I'm honest, a human would be unable to do it. They said that it was a miracle the first victim survived."
He nodded and once again looked at the scene, trying to place everything in his mind and imagine the way it had happened. He paused when he saw a part of a door that was ripped away from the wreck. He walked to it and touched it with the tip of his boot. "Agent Murphy, I think that you can assume that someone got out of the car," he said indicating the piece of wreckage.
"How?" She asked, her eyes wide. "I saw a lot of weird things, but even when working with Dresden I never saw something like that."
"Because it was not a human being," Fury said and smiled. "It was a half-blood Æsir, a son of Thor to be exact, a very important being to SHIELD."
She looked at him and paled.
"Yes," Fury quietly said. "I think that we both know what truly happened here."
"What, sir?
"He was kidnapped," Fury said and indicated to the truck. "Check the plates, driver, his friends, family and try to learn as much as you can about him." Then his gaze moved to the ground around the wreck. "Look for every single piece of evidence you can find and I want it done yesterday. I have a feeling we will need all of our luck to survive this. If need be dig the ground a yard or two deep, but find everything."
"Yes, sir," she said and walked away. He nodded and walked to the helicopter waiting for him.
Why didn't you warn us about the whole thing, Fury thought as he strapped into the seat and the helicopter took off, why didn't you do it and who else is their target. He paused and looked out of the window. Only she can be their target, but she is at the Institute.
His eye widened as he realized something, he pulled out his phone and called Hawkeye. "Get to Carol Danvers and guard her until any reinforcements get to you. You can expect everything Weapon X has in store."
o-0-o
Hawkeye stopped his car in front of the house occupied by the Danvers family, got out of it and walked to the door, preparing his ID on the way. He knocked once and the doors opened in his face. "Who are you?" The male who opened the doors greeted him.
"Agent Clint Barton of SHIELD," Hawkeye said, showing his ID. "I was asked by Director Fury to ensure that your daughter is safe."
"She is safe and you have no right to intrude into my house," man snarled.
Hawkeye smiled and looked at the man. "I can get back here in a minute with a search warrant and I will rip your house apart, or you will let me see her as there is a high chance that she is in danger."
"Fine."
He nodded and pushing past the unwelcoming man Hawkeye walked inside, his eyes looking for trouble. "Where?"
"Second door on the right."
Hawkeye smiled and followed the man, who opened the door and stuck his head inside. "Carol, there is someone here to see you."
There was a moment of silence after which Carol emerged from the room and he breathed out in relief. "Carol, Director Fury sent me to make sure that you are safe as someone almost killed Warren III and Harry is missing."
Her eyes widened and she looked at him. "What?"
"I'm not joking," he said quietly. "We think that they might make a move against you, so it would be the best if you could get to the Institute now."
Carol's father tried to protest, but stopped when Hawkeye's gaze pinned him. "Of course, she can."
Carol nodded and disappeared into her room and moments later reappeared with a bag over her shoulder. "I'm ready."
He nodded and they walked to his car, she threw her bag onto the back seat and took the front seat. He got in and activating the lights and a siren, joined the traffic, most of the cars moving to the sides and allowing him to pass.
He looked at Carol and saw that under her calm mask she was scared of everything. "Carol, they should be fine and once you are at the Institute you will be safe too."
She nodded and didn't say a word, he nodded back and focused on driving as fast as safely possible.
o-0-o
Loki stormed from Asgard and appeared in Fury's office, without any introductions he summoned magic and slammed Fury against the wall of his own office. "Where is he?!" Loki hissed as he walked to Fury and pulled out a wicked knife. "Where is he?"
"That's what I would like to know as well," Fury said and gulped. "I know that Weapon X did it, the rest is unknown, Hawkeye is securing another that could be their target, but the rest is unknown."
Loki looked at him and released Fury. "You speak the truth, so I won't kill you, but my brother might be less restrained."
Fury breathed deeply a couple of times and nodded. "I know," he said. "That's why I'm trying to keep it as secret and quiet as possible."
"I will ensure that my brother controls his temper," Loki said and looked around the office. "I will help you as much as I can, but I need to know everything you know."
Fury nodded and walked to his desk, he typed several things on the keyboard and images appeared on the glass wall of the office. Loki looked at them and walked closer to get a better look. "You have a mole inside of that thing, it will help us, but for now he is useless," he said, walking past the first one. "You suspect that it was done in some part by wizards and it helps as we know who could do it, also the way the kidnapping was done says a lot."
"They lack people that are strong enough to stop an enraged Æsir," Fury said. "So they used a couple of explosives and a car crash to daze and damage him, so that they could strike him in the head and knock him out."
Loki nodded and looked at Fury. "Plans of Hogwarts and Durmstrang will help a lot since I think that an assault on them will be beneficial. However I would suggest you start with Hogwarts as I'm almost certain that there are agents of Weapon X inside, agents that are young and relatively harmless, but can tell us a lot."
"And the fact that they are young means they are easier to break,"
Loki smiled dangerously and nodded. "Among other things, but more importantly they won't be able hide information as good as you or I can. So if you strike fast, they should be completely surprised by the fact that there is an attack coming and if you do it at night they won't be able to organize a structured resistance."
For the first time in a long time a smile appeared on Fury's face. "And once everybody is accounted for and safely cuffed they can be interrogated for any information they have."
"Exactly," Loki nodded and walked along the wall. "Assuming that the attack would happen tomorrow night or on the night after it and the interrogation would take maybe a week's time. You should be able to learn about the exact location of their base in, let's say, ten days, after that maybe a few days of moving agents around and in three weeks you should be able to attack it."
"Could Asgard provide us with some assistance?"
Loki slowly shook his head and Fury looked at him. "Normally we would have gladly done so, but interstellar politics are in a very precarious state and we are gathering forces for a war we hadn't seen for the last two centuries. We need every unit we can get on the future frontline or close to it, so excluding a small unit of Rangers nothing will get deployed to Midgard."
"What about intelligence data? Images, names, anything that I could have some use for?"
Loki considered Fury's words and nodded with a dangerous smile. "That, I will gladly provide, tell me just what you need or want and it will be given. But everything else is beyond our capabilities, at least for the time being."
"I understand," Fury said and looked around the office. "I will get things going and in ten or twelve hours I will have a list of requests for you."
"Understood," Loki said and with a wave of his hand a portal to Asgard opened . He stepped through it and was gone from Midgard.
o-0-o
Harry groaned as he opened his eyes, he felt like shit and as if all of his bones were broken and put back together. He looked around and saw that he was laying on a concrete or stone floor and that he was naked and that a metal band was on his wrist. The first thing that hit him was the cold, followed by a feeling of uneasiness.
"Where am I?" He weakly croaked.
"In hell," someone at his side said. "A place where they keep those like you and me."
Harry sat up weakly, all of his joints creaking and protesting against the movement, and looked at his companion, he was a tall, lean, slightly muscular person with a mop of brown hair on his head and brown eyes with a dull light of amusement inside. He was maybe thirteen or fourteen, Harry had trouble telling his age. "You're a mutant?"
"Yes," his companion said and smiled faintly. "As is everybody kept here, dress yourself."
Harry blushed a bit as he finally realized he was naked, he looked around and saw on an unoccupied cot simple gray clothes, a pair of underwear, shorts and a shirt. He put on only the underwear and the shorts since his wings made putting on a shirt a troublesome task and it would limit the range of his movements which he wanted to avoid at all costs.
Having done that he looked around the room and found that it had heavy iron doors, thick walls and a miniscule window placed in the ceiling. There were two cots with blankets too thin to be called something more than a piece of cloth and in the corner a simple toilet and sink, so that they could at least stay clean.
"Who are you?" Harry asked as he sat down on his cot and looked at his companion.
"Robert Drake," he said. "And I've been here for about two months. So who are you?"
"Harald Thorson," Harry said with a weak smile. "Son of Thor and a Prince of Asgard."
Robert laughed mirthlessly. "Here you will be just another chain of letters and numbers."
"What?!" Harry growled as he started to shake. "What will I be?!"
"They treat us as disposable things," Robert said and looked at him. "Calm down or you will be the next one."
"Next one for what?" Harry asked confused.
"The Pit and after that, experiments," Robert said quietly. "That's how they punish us."
Harry was too shocked to say a word and only looked at Robert, a question in his eyes if this was some sort of a poor joke.
"No, I'm not joking," Robert said. "You will see it on your own."
Harry growled, his elongated canines flashing in the sparse light of the room. "They won't dare."
"They will, they do it to all of us."
Harry was about to say something when the doors of their cell opened and a person with auburn hair entered through them, he had red eyes and a staff in hand. For Harry he looked like a devil or a demon. He pointed his finger at Harry. "You, come with me."
Harry glowered at him and pulled his lips into a feral snarl, revealing his long canines.
"Come or I will force you to come with me."
Harry looked at Robert who nodded, defeated he got up from the cot and walked to the stranger with the staff.
o-0-o
A black SUV followed by a limousine entered onto the grounds of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, they rolled in last and stopped in front of the entrance into the main building. From the lead car bodyguards in implacable black suits exited, armed with assault guns. Their eyes swept the grounds, looking for any threats to their employer. Once they found none, one of them rushed to the doors of the limo, opened them and out of the car stepped out Warren Worthington II.
He was wearing an implacable suit and looked as composed as the CEO of a multi-billion corporation should, but keen observers would spot hundreds of faint lines adorning his face. The moment he was seen a wave of reporters and journalists that was waiting at the gates of the hospital rushed towards him trying to learn anything about the events that had happened just two days ago.
"Mr Worthington, can we ask for a comment about the events of the past few days?"
"Mr Worthington, can we get a statement from you?"
"Mr Worthington, can you tell us who did it?"
He ignored these questions and many others that were hurled at him and instead quickly walked forward, his bodyguards keeping the reporters away from him, his own bodyguards were soon joined by the US Marines that stood on guard outside of the hospital. Most of the media circus was stopped by a line of Marines and allowed his bodyguards to rush him inside and into the safety of the building as there was still a high chance there were assassins lurking around and waiting for an opportunity to kill him.
The moment he got into the hospital and the doors of the lobby closed behind him, the wave of questions died down and now was just a constant loud hum from outside. Seeing who he was and a stormy expression on his face, he was immediately directed towards one of the many elevators.
As he rode the elevator Warren mulled over the events of the day of the accident, he was briefed by Director Fury about what had happened and who could have done it. When he had heard the true details about the accident, those that would be kept secret from the press for the foreseeable future, his stomach had wanted to twist.
When he heard a soft chime, announcing that they had arrived and the doors opened, he let his bodyguards step out of it first and check if they were happy with the security level. They nodded and allowed him to leave the elevator. Outside of it a medium height female doctor with keen brown eyes and dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail was waiting for him.
"Mr Worthington," she said. "I'm Doctor Lam and I am responsible for your son, so I thought that it would be best if you could learn about his state from me."
"Of course, Doctor," he nodded. "I received information about his state, but Director Fury couldn't provide up to date information."
She nodded. "I will take you to the room where he is and on the way there I will explain his state."
"Of course."
His bodyguards formed a loose circle around them and they started to walk.
She looked at him, waiting for a permission to speak and he lightly nodded in her direction. "I will be blunt with you, Mr Worthington, a normal human would be dead long before your son was transported to the hospital. He has both legs broken in multiple places, a ruptured lung, two broken ribs, several cracked ones, his left hand took the brunt of the impact and almost everything inside of it is broken. He also has a concussion, several deep lacerations from pieces of metal that impacted him and shrapnels that slammed into his back."
"How is it that he is alive?" One of the guards asked and Warren's glare focused on him. "Pardon me, sir, but I have seen people with half of those injuries and they usually bled out or died very slowly."
"We have a theory," Doctor Lam said quietly and they looked at her. "We did tests on his blood and it seems to be capable of regeneration and recreation of destroyed tissue. So we suspect that this ability saved him and is still helping with his recovery, but it will be a very long time before he will be allowed to leave the hospital."
Warren nodded and looked at a pair of guards with battle rifles and dressed in full body armor. "Director Fury sent them?"
"Yes," she said as they passed them. "Mr Worthington, we will do everything possible in our power to ensure that your son is released as soon as possible, but even the most optimistic estimates say that he will spend here weeks, if not months. In the last forty-eight hours we performed several surgeries and there are a few more to be performed this week."
"I understand," Warren said and looked towards door with another pair of guards just outside of it. "He is inside?" Warren asked, indicating door.
"Yes," she said. "He is in a coma and under life support, so I would strongly advise that the amount of time spent inside be maximally limited."
"I understand," Warren said and opening the door stepped into the room.
When he entered the room almost instantly he was greeted by the noise of the life support machinery that surrounded his son's bed in a wide circle. As he looked at his son, he had trouble recognizing him, he was almost wholly covered in bandages, some of them slowly soaking with blood. Warren III looked as if he came out of hell and fought with a beast, when Warren II had heard Doctor Lam list his son's injuries, he had trouble believing it. But now it was too true and too real to be anything else than harsh reality.
"Get well, son," he softly said, before walking out of the room and closing doors behind himself. He looked at Doctor Lam. "Doctor, at first I couldn't believe you, but now I certainly do."
She nodded and smiled weakly. "That's the reaction of almost every family member when they are being told about the extent of the injuries of someone they hold dear."
He nodded sadly. "I saw him with broken wings and broken bones, but not all of this," Warren said, his voice strained with emotion. "This is something new, his old wounds were collected in fair conditions, this was an attempt to murder him."
"We will do everything in our power to save him and ensure that he will fully recuperate," she said. "We have the best equipment and the best staff, sir, you can be sure that he will get the best treatment available."
Warren nodded and looked at his guards who formed a circle around him as they started to walk to the elevators. As he walked there he thought about what he had seen and what he knew from Fury, it seemed that someone wanted to see what a woken up lion can do when it is angry. He knew that on his own he wouldn't get much beyond what Fury knew, but he was a member of the Hellfire Club and an attack against one of them could be treated as an attack against the whole club.
o-0-o
Fury followed by Banshee entered the command center of the Triskelion and looked around, inside it the highest ranking members of SHIELD, representatives from various branches of United States Armed Forces, various intelligence and law enforcement agencies as well as people from the Department of State were gathered.
"Welcome," Fury said walking to a podium placed in front of a large display. "We all know what happened two days ago and we are all aware of who was almost murdered in this attempt and who was kidnapped. He needs to be retrieved as soon as possible as well as any other mutants that are held captive by Weapon X. Agent Cassidy will present a plan of the Operation Adamantium Will."
He walked away from the podium and to one of the last few seats open in the first row and allowed Cassidy to present the plan.
Sean Cassidy walked to the podium and looked at the gathered people. "Operation Adamantium Will has two goals in mind, first is freeing Harald Thorson and every other mutant kidnapped by Weapon X and second is to completely destroy Weapon X and everything that works with or for them," he said and on a screen behind him a photo of the accident site appeared. "He was kidnapped from upstate New York two days ago, while his cousin Warren Worthington III was almost murdered." Photos of Warren and Harry appeared on screen. "Based on the intelligence we have gathered and the information provided to us by our allies from Asgard and various European countries we know two things."
He paused for a moment and raised his right hand. "One, that they have wizards and are willing to use them when they think they will gain something from that." He straightened one finger. "Two, they have agents and possibly bases in two wizarding schools of magic, places where there are innocent children." He straightened a second finger.
He allowed those words to sink in before continuing. "Our first target is the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it is the closest one and we have exact blueprints of the building so storming it and arresting everybody will be easy. The name of this part of the operation is Operation Adamantium Shield, its target is to secure Hogwarts."
There was a small pause made by Sean to allow everybody to gather their thoughts. "It is based around Task Force 60 and the helicarrier Valiant," he said and explained. "A pair of Lancers will destroy the wards system around Hogwarts and once it is down, we will move the troops using helicopters from Ford and Valiant, whichwill land in a lake close to the castle. Everything is based around secrecy so it will be done at night, when nobody can see our preparations and the strike needs to be done with no witnesses. Hogwarts is located in the northern part of Scotland and by the sea so not many people should be able to spot our movements."
"How are we going to achieve it?" Asked one of the USAF officers sitting at the back of the room. "From what you have said, Agent Cassidy, Hogwarts is located in Scotland and if I remember correctly there are many air corridors passing over it, bored passengers of planes in the middle of the night will easily see two aircraft carriers launching planes."
"Officially they will take part in large exercise with the Royal Navy and many other NATO navies under the name of Neptune's Spear and the airspace over the whole area will be closed," Sean explained and on a screen behind him a map of Scotland and the seas around it appeared. "If we do it correctly we will be able to achieve our goals in two to three hours."
Sean paused for a moment and looked over the hall. "At the same time as Operation Adamantium Shield we will launch Operation Adamantium Dagger. Hunter-killer teams of Delta, SEALs and STRIKE will be inserted into the forests around here," he said and a high resolution radar photo of Durmstrang appeared on the screen.
"This is the Durmstrang Institute of Magic and if our intelligence is right, it is also the main base of Weapon X and as you can see on the photo it is heavily fortified." He pointed with the laser marker at the anti-aircraft guns and missile emplacements, the radar stations and the bunkers. "Those places need to be found and, before our attack, neutralized. Hunter-killer teams and groups of normal Special Forces will carry it out. For now they need to find and neutralize them, the order to strike will be passed right before the attack. Any questions?"
There was a moment of silence as people looked at their notes and later at the materials they were given. Sean saw a raised hand and nodded in its direction.
"Agent Cassidy, according to the materials we were given Durmstrang is on the border of Romania and Ukraine. Will the governments of those countries be notified about our operations?"
"No," Sean said. "We spoke about it at length with Director Fury and Director Wisdom and we have agreed that they can be notified the moment we are attacking as we don't know where agents of Weapon X are and we can't risk any leaks."
Sean looked in Fury's direction and nodded. Fury stood up and joined him at the podium. "This is everything for this briefing, you will be briefed about the details of the next part of the operation once this stage is over. The operation will launch in thirty minutes from now. Thank you for your attendance."
o-0-o
Harry walked out of the cell and quickly looked around. It was a narrow, dark corridor with sparse light and bare concrete walls covered in various stains and by the looks of it some blood. He glanced at the teen with the staff. "Go," the teen simply said, indicating to the end of the corridor.
Harry looked at him and saw that he was not joking. Shrugging it off he walked down the corridor, the teen following him half a step behind, staff in hand. They walked for a long moment and ended in front of large metal doors. The teen pulled out a card and moved it against the reader set in the wall.
The doors creaked open and revealed a large arena, Harry was about to ask about it when he received a kick to his back and was thrown onto the sand covering the arena. His training kicked in and he immediately entered into a roll, coming out of it he was crouching on the sand, hands placed in front of him. His eyes swept over the arena and stopped on a person or a thing on the other side of it. It was hidden by the shadows, so he couldn't see the details, but even the little he could see made tendrils of cold run down his spine.
That person was massive, over eight feet tall and looked like a mountain with masses of muscles and fat covering its body and making it look like a giant ball with two legs, two hands and a head attached to it. As Harry looked at it, it reminded him about Thurs, one of the most savage and dangerous tribe of Giants that lived on Utgard, a tribe so dangerous and aggressive that it was treated like animals by the other races of the Nine Realms and its population was kept under control.
When it moved it felt as if the whole arena was shaking, as it emerged from the shadows Harry was able to spot two small protrusions from its back that looked like wings or a very underdeveloped form of them. Even if it shocked him as wings were an extremely rare inherent mutation, but the thing that froze the blood in his veins was the face of the person. Large, round with dark, cold hazel eyes and a crop of blond hair on its head.
Harry looked at the face and his eyes narrowed as familiar shapes were brought to the surface of his mind. It reminded him of Dudley. "Dudley?" He tentatively asked.
"Yes," the beast roared. "But now my name is Blob and you will die."
It charged at him and Harry's wings unfolded as he took off into the air, he let Dudley pass under him and roar in disappointment before folding wings and diving. Harry slammed into Dudley and pushed his older cousin forward, but it didn't cause any damage.
Dudley whipped around with too much grace for his size and grabbed Harry by his legs. "We will explain our relations to each other, Freak," Dudley spat before punching Harry and throwing him into the wall.
Harry managed to avoid crashing into the wall and slowed down by opening his wings, his feet made two long lines in the sand as he decelerated himself. When he came to a stop he slowly backed away from Dudley and towards the wall. He knew that having a wall behind usually helped in batle and the wall was useful when it came to bashing your opponent into it. Normally he would pound Dudley into the ground, but here it was impossible as he lacked his strength and Dudley had got an upgrade.
It seemed that he was in for the fight of his life and at least his health and more probably life was at stake.
o-0-o
The moment the signal to start the operation was passed several things happened at the same time. Three B-1B Lancer strategic bombers took off from Ellsworth, each of them carrying two of the new Ward Busters, they ascended into the sky, swiftly reaching an altitude of fifteen kilometers, once there they started the long trip to Europe with a planned air-refueling above the Atlantic Ocean.
At the same time USS Gerald R Ford and her task force accelerated to their full speed and started to sail towards the coast of Scotland. There they were supposed to meet up with the SHIELD helicarrier Valiant which would be joining them for the mission to come. She was the newest aircraft carrier of the US Navy and so far was untested in engagement, for the last two years she had been passing her trials and bringing her crew up to speed.
In a few places across the USA, transport planes were loaded up with soldiers and their equipment, they were carrying the forces necessary for launching Operation Adamantium Dagger. Their next stop would be the bases located in Italy and Germany where planes would be changed. Massive and loud strategic airlifters would be changed for smaller tactical ones that had VTOL capabilities and were stealthier.
Those were advances made by the United States Armed Forces, however there were also moves done by other groups. Actions very important for the operation to come. The crucial one was done by SHIELD, their second helicarrier, Valiant, flew towards the coast of Scotland to meet with Gerald R Ford and her group.
Several Quinjet departed from undisclosed locations scattered around London and flew towards the Atlantic Ocean to meet up with Gerald R Ford. Aboard them were the people crucial to the success of the whole mission.
The clock was ticking and now it was only a matter of time before the first bomb would explode. Pieces were on their way to proper locations on a chessboard and once there, the strike would begin.
o-0-o
Harry winced as he felt his cousin's massive fist slam into him, it hurt like hell and even all of his previous experience and training in martial arts didn't help him as he was used to blocking strikes, instead of dodging. While blocking worked fine when you had a comparable amount of strength, when you were at a physical disadvantage it failed badly.
He rolled out of the way and unfolding his wings he flew into the air, each move bringing him away from his opponent. When he was almost touching the domed roof of the arena, he dived towards Dudley, legs extended and aimed for head. Harry's legs crashed into Dudley's head, in a normal fight, his opponent would be missing a good chunk of his head with two feet sized holes in it, Dudley only roared and caught Harry by his legs and proceeded to slam him into the ground over and over again.
Harry was barely conscious when he heard someone shout "Crucio!" and his cousin yelled in pain before releasing him. His sight was blurred, but he could see someone walking to him and point a wand in his direction. "Stupefy!" And the next thing he saw was complete and utter blackness.
o-0-o
Loki almost gulped as he entered the study of his father on Asgard, he had never ever seen Odin so furious. Now his father was glowing with barely contained magic and the immense power of a Skyfather, a sign of his control being strained and if that was not enough to suggest that the Skyfather was in bad mood, than the furious snowstorm raging outside of the Citadel was more than enough. At first Loki thought that it was Thor's doing, but Thor was away and the storm was in place. The storm was so vicious that even his Jotun genes didn't protect him from the cold and he was unable to get rid of it.
Loki bowed his head to Odin, took a seat in the only free chair in the study and poured himself some wine before speaking. "Father, what a fine weather outside, do you know who is responsible for it?"
Odin growled and Loki felt an increase in the pressure inside of the room. "Do not test my patience, we both have heard the sound of the Horn and you rushed out of Asgard the moment it was heard. Tell me what was the reason of you being in such a hurry?"
Loki sipped his wine, he didn't feel its excellent taste and flavor, it tasted like the worst kind of cheap vinegar. "Your grandson has been kidnapped," Loki finally said, almost whispered. "His cousin was almost murdered and we cannot track Harald down, it is as if Heimdall's vision was obscured."
Odin's eye glowed with a golden light, a light so powerful that Loki was forced to shield his own eyes. "Find every single one that was even connected with this deed and ensure that they are punished accordingly, how you do it, I don't care. Don't have mercy for them."
"Execution?"
"No," Odin said and Loki looked at him. "Death would be too merciful for them, they need to suffer. Slavery will be more fitting, several hundred years of hard physical labours and servitude will be a fitting punishment for them. Nobody is allowed to raise their hands against Asgard and my family without punishment."
Loki smiled viciously and nodded. "It will be done, Your Majesty, they will feel the wrath of Asgard."
Odin nodded and Loki took it as a cue to leave the room, he had data to gather and pass onto SHIELD. As well as find those that did that and kidnapped his nephew. The rest of their lives was going to be hell, long and painful hell. Their punishment and suffering would be a signal to those that would try to do the same thing in the future.
o-0-o
Rhodey felt pride as he stood on the bridge of Valiant and looking to the side he could see the imposing shape of USS Gerald R Ford sail to her side. Both of them kept the same speed as they sailed towards Scotland, at first he had doubts that his ship would be able to do the task, but she did it and was now steadily sailing forward.
He walked onto the balcony, run around the bridge and looked at the sky, he could see a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornet pass above, flying combat patrol above the group and to keep passenger planes away from them. As his gaze moved onto the deck of his command he could see dozens of helicopters and tiltrotors being prepared for the task that awaited them.
He met Harry Potter at the Avengers Tower and now wanted to murder those that kidnapped the teen, while he didn't get to know him that closely, he met him and learned a couple of things about him. He looked for one last time at the stormy sea, which seemed to read his mood quite well, walked inside and crossing the room walked to his command chair.
o-0-o
Loki walked out of the portal in Furry's office and smiled as he walked to the Director, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. No, it was a smile that would make even the bravest consider getting out of his way.
"What news do you bring?" Fury asked, diverting his gaze from a display showing the movement of his forces. "If they are good ones, you can stay, if they are bad, the cells below the Triskelion are empty."
"Good," Loki said and smirked. "Depends for whom, for us really good, for some people not so."
Fury looked at him and smiled. "Go on, my people discovered a few things and it seems that it pissed off Warren Worthington II as I received a lot of data from anonymous sources. Sources that know a lot and are willing to share."
Loki's eyes narrowed for a moment and then he looked at Fury. "The Hellfire Club decided to stand together and treat this attack as an attack on the whole club?"
"I think so," Fury said standing up and walking towards him. "Also there is a weird increase in hacker attacks on Russian and other Soviet bloc countries, hacker attacks that require infrastructure and resources not many have."
"Well, well, well," Loki whistled. "That makes matters interesting and will help us a lot as it will keep the major players looking for things they cannot spot and will give us a lot, I mean a lot of leeway."
"Exactly," Fury agreed and Loki could feel his gaze trying to look into his soul. "So what news do you bring from Asgard? I see this smirk on your face only when you have a plan that will make some poor soul suffer and cry out in pain."
Loki only smirked and looked at Fury. "I don't make people suffer unless they cross one of few lines, attack my home, injure or kidnap members of my family, plot against Asgard and are a threat to the universe."
"And they kidnapped Harry."
"Exactly," Loki confirmed in a voice lacking any emotion. "So they will suffer, suffer a lot as the Allfather decided their fate and I'm his messenger. I also have data and information for you that should help you, but first and foremost I'm his messenger."
"Start from the message then," Fury said and Loki nodded.
"Their fate is simple, slavery on Asgard," Loki said and saw Fury look at him. "While I'm aware that here it is banned, according to our law it is considered as harsh a punishment as death or maybe even harsher, especially in the most brutal version. According to my father and I agree with him, they deserve it."
Fury was silent for a moment, trying to digest these piece information. "Officially I cannot approve it, unofficially I will put it that way, I don't want to deal with them. If you want to have probably several thousands of people to take care of, be my guest."
Loki smiled and looked at Fury. "Their base is under the Durmstrang Institute, isn't it?"
"It is," Fury said with a wince. "And I have a very good reason to believe that at least some of its students helped Weapon X one way or another. So for safety's sake you will be allowed to take all of their students and staff and sift through them, those that are innocent will be returned here and spread out across other schools of magic with a supervisor assigned to them, while the guilty ones..."
"Will be ours," Loki finished. "It is a deal we can accept and your superiors will be happy as Durmstrang was always a pain. Before I go over what I have learned, what do you plan to do about Durmstrang?"
"Destroy it and make sure that it stays that way," Fury grimly said. "They are too much of a pain in the ass, as you said. If they were somewhere out of the way I would have ordered nuking them, but they are in the middle of Europe and hence the nukes are problematic."
Loki nodded and scratched his chin. "From what I remember you have powerful conventional explosives, what about doing traditional demolishing, also moving heavy equipment shouldn't be that hard and it should do quick work of the castle. The bigger issue will be those tunnels below, they will need to be collapsed and that is hard."
"It is," Fury said and paused to look out of the window. "We will worry about it at a later date, now can I get the data from you?"
"Of course," Loki said with a smile. "From what I have gathered the one that attacked Harry and Warren was Sabertooth and some hired mercenaries, they still have some goons left in the USA, but Banshee scared them with Alkali Lake and most of them are in Europe. Watch whom you trust as I'm almost certain that there are some people in your military that support Weapon X."
Fury growled. "I will fry them over a fire and later feed to tigers, little bit at a time."
"It would be an amusing sight to watch, but for now it will be enough if they are out of the way and under watch," Loki said and paused. "Do you know that you have moles in your own agency?"
"I know, I just need to find and catch them. After that, life imprisonment or execution and they are dealt with."
"Yes, but there is second more important thing for you to know. Russia wants their influence to grow and they are silently funneling funds and manpower for Weapon X," Loki said and started to pace along the wall. "They should have stopped after Harry was kidnapped, but the minds of power hungry people are a mystery and sometimes they don't know when to pull back and let someone kill their proxy."
Fury paled at those words. "If they will be defending Durmstrang we will get an all-out nuclear exchange and wipe out life from the planet," he whispered and then composed himself. "Would it be possible for you to orchestrate something that would make Russia focus on China? So that they are focused on each other and allow us to deal with our mess?"
Loki was silent for a moment, the only sound in the office was one of his boots moving across the floor. "I will cause a distraction to keep them away and allow you to work without any interruptions. I know that you have a rather valuable source of data, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, may I talk with him?"
"You can try," Fury said. "We tried to break him and so far have failed, he answers our questions, but a straight answer is a miracle."
"He will sing," Loki cheerfully said. "He will sing very quickly and will give you everything you will ask him of."
Loki saw Fury nod and with a snap of his fingers he was gone from Fury's office, there was a new toy for him to play with and break to get data out of it.
o-0-o
Maria Hill stood in front of a massive digital wall, mounted with a map of Europe with the positions of SHIELD assets marked in green markers and the enemy's positions in red. She was a bit shocked by the scale of the operation that was underway and the one about to follow it. "Russia is an unpredictable player," she finally said and glanced at Natasha. "How will they behave?"
Natasha was silent for a moment before finally giving an answer. "They dislike anybody mucking around their sphere of influence and even if the Soviet Union fell apart over twenty-seven years ago, they want to be a big player. So they will try to hinder any movements into their zone of influence, no matter how forced by someone else they are."
"So that's why Weapon X forged an agreement with the Red Room and moved to Romania or Ukraine?" Maria asked looking at the map.
Natasha regarded her with a cool gaze. "Yes, when I worked for the Red Room we used the same tactic, find a hideout somewhere out of the way and in a place nobody would attack. So Durmstrang would be a perfect hiding place for them and if those reports are true, it will be a pain to take over."
"Yes," Maria nodded with a wince. "If the reports are correct they have over forty anti-aircraft guns and several missile launchers, not to mention that it is dug into the ground and masked well."
"Yes," Natasha nodded. "May I join those teams that will infiltrate the area of Durmstrang? I know how the Red Room works so I should be able to get them out of the hairiest situations."
"You can."
Natasha nodded and walked out of the room, her boots clicking on the rocks that made up the floor. Maria watched her leave for a moment and then turned her gaze to the map. She needed to prepare for the situation to come. In an hour the attack on Hogwarts should begin.
o-0-o
A/N:
Karrin Murphy - ex-cop, former Knight of the Cross and at the moment focused on protecting Chicago from supernatural nasties, as well as working for SHIELD who only smiled when she was fired. Dangerous character that you don't want mad or you will be murdered, knows aikido, marksman and a very dangerous person.
Slavery, it may sound strange, but slavery is a viable option, even with all of the technology Asgard has, machines are complicated, expensive, and need a trained worker to operate them, sure they are more efficient, but slaves are far cheaper when it comes to upkeep. A normal worker will want decent pay, vacations, good workday and if an accident happens the family might demand compensation. Slaves on the other hand, especially the worst of the worst (murderers, traitors, races that break treaties and ignore warnings) are simply speaking, far cheaper, they need food, a place to sleep, some basic healthcare and can work for up to fourteen hours per day without overworking them and you don't need to pay them any salary. Also there are jobs treated as humiliating or not worthy of a freeborn Æsir, farming, mining, logging, some construction works, some entertainment (brothels, bathhouses) and some servants (mostly menial tasks).
Also slavery comes in a few variations, in short there are two kinds. Those that ended as slaves due to debts and the rest (murderers, traitors, those that raised their hand at the royal family, abusers of magic, races that broke treaties over and over again, war criminals(genocide and there are few more, but genocide is one of those that irk Asgard the most)). There are some laws on slaves and, the main ones are that only the state has the right to sell them and that they should be provided the minimum necessary to live (healthcare, food, not overworking them). Those that ended up slaves due to debts are more in a situation of a worker most of their pay gets taken by the one they owed some money to and it ends the moment they repaid their debts. While those turned into slaves for life have menial tasks and those that no sane person takes.
Important reason is also the fact that imprisonment is an expensive thing and prisons take a lot of place when you want them designed so that escape is almost impossible, on the other hand slaves are too tired to create too much of a problem and are scattered, so even if they cause troubles, it will be a small uprising and even local inhabitants will easily deal with it. Prisoner generates only expenses, while slave is also a source of income as they work, so imprisonment is from economical point of view pointless. And smaller amount of prisoners and prisons means either lower taxes or that money being spent on something else, so from an average citizen point of view it is a good idea as there are hundreds of places where that money can go - new arenas, health care, education and so on - those are things that everybody see and is using, which also makes them happy. So realm as a whole has de facto four gains, huge income from various fees, taxes and hundreds of other things, slaves are a very profitable business, huge group of people that are either willing to serve in the military or work somewhere else where they are more useful for the economy, decrease of expenditures on prisons and prisoners, which makes administration happy, and last, but not least it has money to spend on things that make people happy. Which is important as when you have population happy and glad that it is living in your country you can do a lot of things that are unpopular, but needed and it will be accepted, raise taxes, extend conscription for a larger group of people, introduce whole range of reforms and so on. Sure, you can do it even when society is unhappy, but you risk that they will start to think how to get rid of you and lesser amount of taxes will be flowing into the budget, people will be finding a way to avoid conscription and so on.
Russia and its behavior, Russia wants to be seen as a strong player and has massive issues when their pride gets stomped on, so even if they risk getting obliterated they will try to flex their muscles, also they live in a dream named Soviet Union and think that they can say 'no' and the world will listen. So SHIELD is balancing on a very thin line, one wrong move and they will have ballistic missiles flying both ways and nobody sane wants MAD. Also Russia might be supporting Weapon X, so it will try to protect it and that means facing SHIELD and making calculations as they have two choices, go for a confrontation and end up exchanging nukes and other mass destruction weapons or cut Weapon X loose, while pretending to do something to protect it. International relations are a multidimensional environment with hundreds of major players, each of them trying not to lose and preferably win something. While normally someone would back up Russia, many countries don't mind fall of it as from their point of view it means one less competitor or rival, depending on their relations.
Hellfire Club's behavior, Weapon X was already pushing into their territory so when they kidnapped Harry, Warren didn't have any qualms about saying enough and using his contacts to cause some trouble. Also by not doing a single thing they would be seen as a weak group and someone could make a move against them. Hacker attacks don't seem dangerous, but in modern times everything is run by computers that are in one way or another connected to the net. So one strike and they don't have communication facilities, medical equipment is failing, satellites are out of range, industry has troubles working and whole database of secret files is being published. Issues with equipment or communication can be fixed, satellites, too, but whole database that was made public? No way as once it is on the Internet intelligence communities of almost every country will have a feed frenzy, trying to get as much as possible and use it as soon as possible, while diplomats try to explain that nothing happened and that their country should be trusted.
Asgard's behavior, they have something of a similar scale to a world war coming up so Earth is for them at the bottom of their list of things to worry about, they could have squashed Weapon X with one move, but if they divert resources, they will open their flank and the Chitauri might pounce.
Fury's calculations with Durmstrang, he can simply purge it with Asgard, but it will change nothing as those that don't help Weapon X will desire revenge on SHIELD for what it did to their relatives or friends. So his tactic is designed to achieve as much fear as possible with the smallest cost possible, by obliterating the school, he solves the problem and sends a very powerful messages into the world.
Defenses of Durmstrang, Weapon X knows well that SHIELD can lose their patience sooner or later and may launch a massive air attack, one that would bomb them into the Stone Age, so they prefer to be safe and installed those defenses. They won't stop a very determined attack, but they will cause anything that less than an overwhelming show of force is pointless and by that point Russia would be willing to pounce.
Weapon X generally made SHIELD play as dirty as possible and kid's gloves are off, not many will get a fair trial, most will be simply executed somewhere in the wilderness and their bodies buried in unmarked graves. It will cause a lot of uproar, but SHIELD wants this organization gone and dead.
Why SHIELD asked the USA for help? SHIELD is mostly an intelligence agency, which means that it is great when it comes to dealing with data gathering and analysis, catching spies and in general behind the scenes work. Granted it has STRIKE teams, but there is not much of them, maybe three or four thousand around the world, five if being generous, it also has helicarriers on which there are several thousand agents per each, but 80-90% of their crew isn't prepared for battles and is there to operate complex machinery of a helicarrier. They are expanding their assets when it comes to warfare, but it takes time as they don't need your typical grunt that can be trained in few months, but someone that has training on a similar level to special forces which means years of training. On top of that they are just an agency, agency that de iure answers to the President of the United States of America, it is also being changed, but it isn't at the moment, which means that they cannot simply fly in large numbers into airspace of a foreign country, capture several hundred minors, interrogate them and release those that don't know a single thing.
While the USA and by extension NATO has manpower that can be used, has ships and planes to move it in a timely manner, has proper diplomatic channels to get permissions from other countries and can create a believable cover for all of the mess that is about to happen. Not to mention that it has two crucial things for such an operation - experience and people that know how to carry it out - there are several thousand people, few hundred planes and several dozens of ships to be moved. Someone needs to oversee and control it, ensuring that it works in synchronization and that there are supplies ready for those assets.
There is also issue of equipment and gear, as mentioned earlier SHIELD is an intelligence and security agency with limited assets, so in terms of gear they won't have a single thing that is bigger than a fighter-bomber plane or a tactical cargo plane as in 99+% of cases, it is enough. While military is supposed to be prepared for almost any kind of conflict which means that it has almost every kind of plane and knows how to utilize it.
Reviews:
Gime'SS - yes, she is pushy, but otherwise everything will bounce off Harry as usually you need a large hammer to get into his head and sometimes shouting at someone helps. Also she won't take no for an answer, she is a determined person, but also has softer sides.
WhiteEagle1985 - Orochimaru would be proud of those that caught Harry, Weapon X, probably the most vile group from Marvel.
Otsutsuki no Yami - Harry is the youngest Prince of Asgard which means that anybody that wants power or wants to be known will be tracking him. Also information can be bought, it's just a matter of price and encouragement to share, there is a way to bribe every single person, you just need to find it.
Traitors are everywhere, ones on Asgard are enjoying time in the mines, after all ores won't mine themselves and someone needs to do it, Fury knows that there are moles in SHIELD, but doesn't know where they are or whom they are, wizarding world is full of them, though next few chapters will reduce their number by quite a bit.
Malfoy is tricky, they don't want bystanders caught in the blast, but who said that soon priorities and moods won't change and fury might be unleashed upon him.