A/N - Part thirty-eight, which means that in twelve more chapters we will have Hogwarts upon us as few more chapters will be taken by moping up and fallout of this mess and some more by holidays and stuff happening on Asgard.

o-0-o

Beta - eri1551

o-0-o

Freyr cut open a passage into Durmstrang and stepped through it. When he stepped through it, the coldness and winter of the Nevernever was replaced with a strong odor of necromancy and Dark Arts. He held the portal open long enough for the last warrior to pass and once every single one of them was in Durmstrang he closed the way.

Securing the runic knife in a scabbard on his belt, he scanned the place where they had stepped into real world. He saw dark corridors, and high ceiling and Gothic windows with stained glass. "Split into twenty teams," he said, looking at his warriors. "One team will stay with me, I will put a powerful sleeping spell around us and knock out everybody."

The warriors nodded, their faces hidden behind masks and helmets, they moved away from him, forming a wide circle. He focused on his magic, calling the vast amounts of power available to him as a Prince of Vanaheim. It came to him like a green-gold river of power, answering his call and allowing him to use it. He said the incantation in his mind and green mist started to pour out from his body. It washed over his warriors, not affecting them and moved forward.

"Go, keep your masks on and it won't affect you," he said and saw them nod.

The warriors split into groups and disappeared into the castle, each group carrying with themselves shackles and chains to tie every single Durmstrang student and staff member. They were suspects and nobody would have mercy for them, at least not now. He watched them for a moment, but soon joined, helping to get the job done.

o-0-o

Natasha held her sniper rifle in a comfortable position, her right eye pressed against the telescopic sight as her eyes swept the grounds around the castle. She heard several explosions, one following the other. They didn't sound like a single explosion, but more like a chain of them, as if the previous one triggered the next.

However she knew that they were independent explosions, those exploding were the anti-aircraft systems placed around the castle and the radar stations that could supply them with targets. When she saw the goons look around in shock and fear, she activated her microphone and whispered into it. "Take them down."

She squeezed the trigger, gun lurched against her shoulder, the recoil kicking her as the bullet left the barrel and flew through the air towards its target. She saw it slam into the target and she saw the goon drop onto the ground, dead. She moved the rifle to her next target and squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew through the air and killed the enemy. She did this two more times before all of the targets in her assigned zone were dead.

She left the rifle on the ground and rising she picked up an H&K G36 assault rifle, she released the safety and quickly ran towards the castle. She had over six hundred meters to run and it was a long distance, even for her, especially through the forest and with enemy grunts lurking around. She spotted one and without aiming carefully, fied a three round burst in his direction, he dropped onto the ground and she kept running. If he was alive, one of the soldiers following her would deal with him.

o-0-o

Gambit smiled when he felt and heard the explosions around the castle, he glanced at the watch on his hand and nodded. Fury was always on time and this time he was as precise as usual. A couple of grunts ran past his position and pulling out and extending his Bo staff he slammed it into the closest one. The first strike made him bent over and the next one slamming into his skull most likely killed him.

"What are you doing?" one of grunts asked, aiming his AK-47 at him.

"Helping my employer," Gambit said before he slammed the staff into the one that asked him and with the next strike knocked out the third one. "You three won't."

He stepped over their corpses and walked towards the cells. On his way there he closed and locked the armored blast doors whose purpose was to stop mutants from escaping, but in this case could also be used to prevent the grunts from getting inside. When they slammed shut he charged and threw a couple of his cards at its lock. They blew up and destroyed the lock, effectively cutting them off and preventing the opening of those doors which meant that goons would be unable to get inside.

Now he just needed to find if there were any grunts hiding in the corners, after that he could release the mutants and get them out of this hellhole and to freedom. As he walked he saw several specks of dust and small pieces of concrete fell from the roof. It meant that above them a furious battle raged or that just something heavy landed directly above him.

Swirling his staff lazily he walked forwards and casually, even carefree, slammed it into the grunt that hadn't seen him coming. He heard the sound of a neck snapping and saw a grunt fall onto the floor, his head bent in an unnatural angle.

o-0-o

Rhodes almost lost control of his jaw when he saw how massive the castle in front of them was. It was huge and he had trouble believing something like that could exist. He blinked a few times and diverting his gaze from the building in front of him, glanced at his staff. "Keep the course and start attacking the assigned targets."

"You want to test her," Banshee asked. "Or just show Stark that you have a better toy than he has?"

"Both," Rhodes said, keeping his eyes on the display in front of him.

o-0-o

When the command to fire was given, the railguns placed in the belly of Valiant swivelled in their mounts, their barrels following directions from the computer targeting systems and once they were pointing in the correct direction, they fired. From each barrel a single shell was launched, they flew through the aid and slammed into their targets.

Once the accuracy of those shots was confirmed, the guns were switched to the automatic mode of firing and long, golden trails of shells left the barrels and flew towards the ground. Impacting it they struck their targets, throwing up chunks of rock, concrete and dirt into the air, adding even more chaos and confusion to that already existing.

It was also a signal for the attack planes to dive from above the cover of the clouds and attack their targets. Some targeted the remaining, still intact, bunkers, while the rest targeted very precisely chosen spots on the ground around the school. According to intelligence data those spots were spots where the net of tunnels was the weakest and the easiest to collapse. Those holes in the ground, punched by heavy bunker buster bombs and railgun shells would open access into the base for the strike teams and would make defending it even harder. However one part of the base was completely ignored during bombing, the part where the mutants were kept. Their lives were too precious and they were to be rescued, not killed.

o-0-o

Hawkeye holstered a pistol and grabbed his bow as the Blackhawk that was carrying them entered into hover mode above one of the holes in the ground. Ropes were thrown down and they used them to descend into the hole. The moment his feet touched the ground he dropped into a crouch and scanned the darkness behind and ahead of him.

He heard the ten agents of his squad land behind him, their heavy boots impacting the floor, they checked their weapons and when he saw that they were ready he started to move forward. His eyes scanning the darkness ahead of them and piercing it, looking for any traps, enemies, anything that could kill them, but also for any mutants that could be outside their holding cells.

He felt something heavy and large approach them from up ahead and he raised his hand to stop the whole team. "Something is coming," he said. "Reports indicate that they might have Giants or large mutants."

The thing that charged at them was massive, it was over eight feet tall, was a mountain of flesh and wore some kind of armor. It looked like a behemoth straight out of hell. It stopped for a moment and charged at them.

"Stop it," he barked as he drew his bow, launched the first arrow and saw it bounce off the armor. "Aim for the joints and weak spots ," he added.

He heard acknowledgements from his team and soon it was followed by the characteristic sound of rifles being fired. Bullets flew through the air and slammed into their target, not even making a dent in the armor.

"Retreat," Hawkeye commanded. "Keep firing and retreating."

Four agents nodded and stopped firing, they ran back towards the hole and found cover, once there they started to fire their weapons. Hawkeye and the rest of his group did the same and ran back, that thing still on their tail. He knew that it needed to be stopped or they were going to be get killed, but the issue was that their guns were doing nothing to it.

He crouched behind a piece of debri, notched onto his bow an armor piercing arrow and waited. The thing got closer to him and when he saw it get directly in front of him, he aimed it for its knee. The arrow pierced the armor and cut into the flesh and bone below, the thing let out a shrill cry, so pitched that it made his teeth rattle and made him realize that it couldn't be older than fifteen.

"Should be stopped for good now," he said looking at his agents.

"Or not," one of them said and indicated at the rising mountain of flesh. It growled and crawled towards them. "It seems to be alive."

"And furious," Hawkeye added as he moved away from it.

He was about to notch another arrow onto his bow when he felt a wave of coldness and death wash over them. He looked around, unsure of what or who was the reason for it, however he was not the only one affected by it and he saw that the thing coming towards them froze in fear.

Then a crack in the fabric of reality opened and out if it walked several of the ugliest creatures he had ever seen, they were roughly humanoid in shape with spikes growing from their arms, legs, heads and backs. If that was not enough to make someone afraid, then the rest of their look would. They were covered in an armor that created a shell over their bodies and under it was unhealthy pale skin. As he looked at the faces of those things, he realized they were dead, their eye sockets were empty and the flesh was visibly rotten in several places. They carried a wide assortment of weapons and shields with themselves which they used with ease.

He was about to fire an arrow at the nearest one when he saw a woman walk out of the portal, she was a tall and a graceful person, but her physical appearance made her even more interesting. She had hair as dark as night, skin as pale as milk, eyes a sickly shade of green and her body was that of a warrior. She wore a skimpy armor that consisted of a minimalistic chest plate that revealed her belly and a skirt made out of armor that ended above her knees. A diadem was on her head and a spiked whip was in her hand, while two scabbards of wicked knives were attached to her belt.

"Be at ease, mighty Hawkeye," she said. "My mistress sent me and some of her guards to capture the one responsible for her cousin's suffering."

"Who are you?" Hawkeye asked, lowering his bow, looking at those things and then at her.

"Leah," she said with a smirk. "Handmaiden and servant of Hela, my mistress asked me to drag that thing." She indicated the thing "To her realm as she has a fitting punishment for him in mind and she wants to do it personally."

"If you manage to catch him, he is yours," Hawkeye said and looked at his agents. "Hold fire and stay away."

The agents nodded and Leah smirked. She snapped her whip, walked towards the thing that had attacked them and conjured some chains made out of something black with her other hand. They ended with thin wicked spikes and without mercy she threw them at the thing and they lodged between armor plates. When Hawkeye was able to take a better look at them, he realized they also ended with loops that allowed for the easy transport what was captured.

The thing roared in pain each time the spike buried in its flesh, but Leah ignored its protests, instead walking around him and ensuring that they were properly secured. When she was content with that, she snapped something at the zombies that came with her and they walked forward to grab those chains and drag it with them back to their realm.

"Thank you for your assistance," she said before stepping through the portal which closed with a snap behind her.

Hawkeye nodded and shaking his head, looked around, it was scary and terrifying at the same time. However he was an agent and he had seen far worse than this, while he was not used to it, he knew how to get over it. He notched an arrow onto his bow and walked forward, focusing on his task and trying not to notice the smears of blood on the floor.

o-0-o

Fury stood in the command center of the first helicarrier and frowned, the operation was going as planned and his agents had secured the entrances into the maze, but he was worried. Russia and her games were a bloody mystery, for the time being they lay low, but the Bear was an unpredictable player and could attack whenever it wished to. He watched the map for a few more moments before nodding. "Start sending planes with support and prepare for landing."

"Sir, is it wise?" the executive officer asked.

"Wise?" He asked and shook his head. "No, but it is necessary as otherwise we will have problems later on. Besides, we need to evacuate the mutants and getting them here is the best choice, at least until we have a better place and a lot more equipment."

The executive officer nodded and started to give commands which brought her onto a lower altitude and towards the ground, at the same time shedding her speed and preparing for landing. As she was changing altitude and preparing to make a touchdown, a signal was passed to the dozens of C-130 that were waiting above Hungary, loaded up with medical supplies and medics, but also more special forces to help with searching the complex.

Fury walked back to his chair and activated a display which showed a very detailed map of Europe with the positions of their every unit marked in blue and Russians supposed units in red. It looked like a line running from the North Pole to the Black Sea, there were over a million soldiers deployed and dozens of thousands of pieces of equipment, waiting for a single order to launch an attack. Looking at this map he could tell that the tension were higher than at the hottest moment of the Cold War and it was only a matter of time before one side snapped. The only question was if the snap would take the form of attacking, no matter the cost or it could be a retreat, the future would only show.

o-0-o

Natasha jumped into the hole and was almost immediately forced to jump behind and take cover as a heavy gun rattled at the other end of the corridor and cut down the agent that came after her. She aimed her gun in its direction and squeezed the trigger, three round burst left the gun and slammed in the person holding that rifle.

The moment she heard a cry of pain she charged into the darkness and when she got to the downed goon, she brought her heel onto his throat, he would die soon and was a danger to those following her. She heard the sound of a fist flying through the air and barely moved out of the way as it came crashing upon her, and sent her own back.

Her enemy was certainly better than an average goon as he was able to stop a strike that worked on everybody that wasn't Russian trained. She blocked a couple of his strikes and sent a couple of her own before she was able to find a hole in his defense. Her strike slammed into his jugular and crushed it.

His body landed on the floor and she was able to take a better look at him, he was wearing a different uniform to that of the rest goons. If that was not enough, a bat shaped badge on his shoulder was more than enough to confirm whom he was. He was a member of Spetsnaz GRU, the deadliest part of Russia's special forces and it meant that Russia would protect this place, or at least pretend to do something.

o-0-o

Gambit stopped at the intersection and looked around, listening and looking for any goons, he heard a couple of cries, followed by a couple of shots and feminine cries of protest. He growled and his red eyes flashed dangerously for a moment. He broke into a run, his cloak flapping behind him as he charged through the corridor. He saw a pair of goons leave a cell, they stopped when they saw him.

"What did you do?" He asked coldly, an edge of steel coating his voice. "What did you do in that cell?"

"What we should have done long ago," one of them said and spat onto the floor. "Rid the world of two of those filthy things."

He growled and without a single warning his staff shot forward and slammed into the first one's belly, with his next move it crashed against the back of his head and in one fluid motion crashed into the side of the other one. When both of them were on the ground, just to be sure, he quickly tied their hands behind their backs.

The cries for help that he had heard were getting louder and more desperate, so he left them there and charged towards the place there. He charged into the cell and it didn't take him long to figure out what was going on, especially since the girl that was in it looked as if she was ready to rip his throat open with her teeth. The guard that had tried to get closer to her, told him the rest. Not thinking much, he slammed his staff against the back of the idiot's head and viciously stomped onto his neck.

"Are you alright?" He asked gently, looking at the girl.

"Yes," she said weakly. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm going to free you out of here," he said to her honestly and picked up an access card from the corpse. "Can you free the rest? I'm going on a hunt," he said and paused for a moment, then it hit him and he threw a small key at her. "It will disable those bracelets that block your powers."

She caught the key and the card from him and smiled viciously, he left her and went on a hunt for any remaining and still alive guards. Those things needed to be culled before they could cause too much damage.

o-0-o

Rhodes stood on Valiant'sbridgeand looked at the radar display. He could see a large trail of cargo planes preparing for landing and while he could see the reason behind this, something else was more worrying for him. A couple dozen of unidentified contacts that ignored his attempts at communication and didn't seem to slow down.

"Target them," he said as he glanced at his executive officer. "They will retreat or we will shot them down."

"Sir?" she asked, surprised by his decision.

"We have cargo planes preparing to land and a few dozens of other easy targets," he said and indicated to the trail of incoming planes. "Those things are probably from Russia or one of their allies, and think that they can get close and take a few shots or scare us without any reaction. So if they see that they are targeted, they should retreat."

She nodded and walked away to get the defense systems activated, while he walked to the window and looked outside. It was still dark, but at least the rain was gone and they could see more than just a wave of rain that obscured everything. He looked towards the flat stretch of land marked with several burning flares and he could see the forms of the cargo planes getting closer and closer, cargo planes were the most vulnerable, especially now.

If they are reasonable they will back off when the radars target them, he thought, if they are fanatics we will have trouble and probably a war. Also Russians love to tickle the line and check how far they can push before their hand is bitten off.

He shook his head and looked at the deck where he saw a F/A-18 ASH being prepared, he watched for a moment as the engines flared up and the catapult threw it into the air where it turned east and joined a flight of more F/A-18. Rhodes walked to the display and watched it, musing silently.

o-0-o

The first C-130 slowed down and its landing gear slammed onto the hard ground, its propellers spinning slower and slower as it moved down the temporary runway and turned right towards a spot marked with flares, freeing the landing strip for the next one. When it came to a complete halt, the cargo ramp lowered and allowed for the plane to be unloaded, it carried over a hundred soldiers and their equipment.

Many more were in the air and preparing for landing, they carried not just deadly equipment and soldiers, but also a lot of medical equipment and medics that knew how to use it. Nobody knew how good the state of the captives of Weapon X was, which meant that they needed to assume the most pessimistic option and be prepared for a large number of them, starved and needing immediate medical attention. Which forced them to drag equipment and medics there, so that they could get medical attention and, once sure that they wouldn't drop dead, could be send to the USA.

o-0-o

Freyr's lips curled up into a smile when he saw a giant column of flames charge towards him, it seemed that some of the Durmstrang inhabitants wanted to have a fight. He snapped his fingers and moisture from the air changed into water and formed a roaring boar, a wave of his hand and the boar charged at the column of flames.

The wizard that cast the spell looked at him in shock as the boar ate the flames as if they didn't exist. "How is it possible?" He managed to mutter before the boar slammed into him and threw him into the wall.

"I'm Prince of Vanaheim," Freyr said before snapping his fingers and summoning chains to tie and immobilize the wizard. "Whilst you are a mortal, so you don't stand a chance."

He walked forward and was forced to summon an actual shield when he felt magic being gathered, a roar of flames mixed in with several other explosions, and the moment he formed a shield in front of himself the magic slammed into it. His eyes widened when miniscule cracks appeared in its surface, no wizard should be able to do it, it was a weak shield, but still beyond what any wizard could destroy.

He watched magic create multi-colored splotches of energy on the shield before he pushed his hand forward and fired his own spell. If the wizards were going to fight as successfully as those, the whole operation would take a lot more to finish.

o-0-o

Robby Jackson sipped his coffee as he tried to remain focused on the map of Europe with marked positions of theirs and Russia's forces, it was now a matter of waiting, hoping that nobody would fire a single shot and that everything would be solved peacefully.

"Do you think they will attack?" Jack asked.

"They know as well as we do that we outnumber and outmatch them in every field, they also know that if we go for nukes we will send ourselves to the stone age."

"Fury thinks that they might do something weird and unpredictable."

"There is a reason why we do what we do," Jack pointed out. "Now we need to wait and see if they make a mistake."

"Or if they lose their nerves and do something incredibly and insanely stupid," Robby added and looked at the map. "They will probably try to tickle the line with a raid or two of their bombers."

"We have time they don't really have," Jack pointed out. "By the way, how is your niece doing?"

"Pissed off and angry, she is a lot like her grandmother."

Jack shuddered and looked at Robby. "She gave me most of my gray hair and that is before this took care of the rest of them. "

Robby smiled and looked at the map, this was going to be a couple of the longest hours in his life. Sure he had served in various conflicts, but none of them could be so dangerous as this one. Here one wrong decision and the whole world could be turned into a radioactive wasteland, thus killing everybody and everything, making it inhospitable for the next few centuries or so.

o-0-o

Natasha crouched behind a wall and reloaded her gun. She never expected it to be so hard and bloody, she lost count of fired magazines and the amount of enemies she had already killed. She only knew that there were a lot of them and that they didn't stop coming. While their number was more of an annoyance, their abilities and training were huge problems.

The rattling sound of firing a heavy machine gun broke the silence and she saw a trail of bullets cut through the space of the corridor, throwing up dust and chipped off pieces of concrete. It was keeping them effectively suppressed and unable to stick their heads from behind the cover as one hit would kill them, or at least make they die in the immediate future.

She wondered how to deal it when she heard the roar of a working rocket engine and saw a shape charge through the corridor towards the machine gun. It disappeared and slammed into it, where it exploded.

"Well, it can be done that way," she said as she emerged from behind the wall and charged down the corridor. She easily spotted the place where the machine gun used to be, now it was a twisted piece of metal and besides it were the remains of those firing it. Ripped into pieces and impossible to recognize who they were in the past.

She stepped over their corpses and kicked open the doors on the other end of the corridor. When she stepped inside, her nostrils were almost immediately assaulted by the strong stench of antiseptics. The decor had changed as well, gone were the bare concrete walls with pipes and wires running over them, instead it looked like she was inside of some lab or hospital.

"I've found something that looks like a lab," she whispered into her radio. "Be careful with weapon fire, we don't know what or who is here."

She heard an acknowledgement and looked around. She saw tables and cupboards scattered across the whole room, hundreds of pieces of lab equipment were placed on them, many vials with various things in them, some looked like blood and every single one of them was marked and signed. She walked past them and into the next room, inside she found even more equipment and vials.

It was set up a long time ago, she thought, it looks too professional to be done overnight and God only knows how many people were killed thanks to this. Question is where is Harry, Demon said that he was not in the cells and was taken from there.

She felt a ball of ice form in her stomach as she realized where he could be, if it was true then it was rather obvious where they had taken him. She shook her head, went through the training she was taught and walked to the doors on the other side of the room. When she pushed them open, the same smell of antiseptics slammed into her, but also mixed with the stench of blood. She quickly saw the medical equipment in the room and a group of surgeons focused on an object placed on the table in the middle. She was able to take a quick look and easily spotted a pair of black wings and a mop of a black hair, it was impossible to miss that combination of traits.

She carefully aimed and squeezed the trigger, her gun barked and the bullet almost immediately slammed into the head of the one holding the scalpel. His body was thrown sideways and backwards and immediately gone limp, releasing the blade, which clattered on the floor. She didn't give the rest of them any chance to react and killed all of them, watching not to hit any of the equipment, it could be keeping Harry alive and killing the one they were supposed to rescue would be a very fast and abrupt end for her career.

"Send medics here, ASAP," she said into her radio.

The reply that came made her growl. "It's too dangerous for them."

"I have our target and he is injured, heavily," she snarled. "So if he dies, you will explain yourself to his father and he will probably kill you."

This time she didn't get any reply, but she knew that they were on their way here and probably with a lot of nasty guards with them. Just in case there was a large fight on their way. She walked around the room, looking for any entrances which could be used by enemies to get in and saw only the one she used. As she circled it, she also looked at Harry and saw a couple of cuts on his chest and a couple of fresh scars done by a surgical tool. She didn't want to think about what they had done to him or how bad of a state he was in.

o-0-o

Hawkeye fired an arrow and ducked behind to cover as a trail of bullets almost cut him down. The opposition was getting tougher and more determined with each secured hallway. He didn't know how many of them were still left and how many more of his agents would be killed, but it looked like if both of those numbers would be high even extremely so.

"How many more?" He asked as he saw more enemies join the already sizeable group.

"God only knows," someone said and fired his gun. "But I have dealt with a larger amount of them in Ireland."

Hawkeye looked to the side and saw Banshee. "What news do you bring other than that comment?"

"Widow has found their labs and Black Eagle, she secured both and called for medics to get him out of that mess," Banshee said and paused. "Valiant and her air group are dealing with a curious flight of Russian planes that wandered too close. Fury is getting more troops on the ground, so we should be happy."

"How many more?"

"Something like two thousand of them and a lot of supplies, so you can shoot as much ammo as you want to and you will have more coming to you."

Hawkeye nodded and looked backwards where were the bodies of a couple injured ones and a corpse or two laid. "I have a feeling that we will run out of men sooner, than they will."

"We shouldn't," Banshee said and moved forward, firing his gun as he walked. "We can't let them catch a breath and we need to push them so that they are distracted and unable to mount any resistance."

Hawkeye nodded and grabbing a fresh quiver from an operative that ran to him started to fire them towards the enemies, forcing them to keep their heads hidden, thus making firing any weapon an impossible task, or at least diminished accuracy to a point where it was blind luck.

o-0-o

Rhodes thumbed his fingers on the armrest of his chair as he looked at the display which showed a flight of planes that kept flying towards his helicarrier, even with the targeting systems following their every move. It was either total bravery or stupidity, there was a third possibility that it was a mix of them and actually there was a highly unlikely mix of bravery and stupidity that could work.

"Should we fire at them?" his executive officer asked, she was a tall, stocky woman that knew her job and didn't ask stupid questions.

He looked at her, later at the display and sighed. "In an ideal world, I would order shooting them down, but here, with Russia being primed for a war, I don't fancy being named the one that started the third world war."

"So what are they hoping to achieve?"

"Scare us and make us retreat from the castle," he said and frowned. "Or to just show that Russia cares about its allies, but is too weak to help them."

"It doesn't make any sense, if I were honest sir, I would have called it the most insane game I have ever seen."

"Welcome to the world of politics mixing with military," he said with a smile. "That's how it happens, especially in Russia, they don't like someone, they use their two sticks oil or army. But this time none of them will work."

He looked at the display, made some math and brought up a holographic plot. He looked at their position and later at the position of the flying formation, smiled and looked towards where the helm was. "Helm, take us fifteen degrees to the starboard and plot a course to intercept those planes. Weapons bring online all of our point defense armament and Communication get our escort to follow us."

His orders caused a burst of activity among the crew of the bridge and he could actually feel the engines of the ship work and propel her forward. From hidden positions below the deck turrets with point defense systems in them emerged, they swiveled and pointed in the direction of the incoming flight.

Seconds ticked slowly on a clock as he watched them get closer to those planes' fight, it didn't take long however for them to be heard. A dull, droning noise that got through everything and even the soundproof walls couldn't stop it from getting inside. It was also a noise which was unmistakable and hard to forget once heard.

He walked to one of the windows and looked towards the east, even with the cover of the clouds below them and a dark sky above, he was able to spot the reason for this noise. A flight of Tu-95 Bear, their turboprops pushing them forward and causing an unearthly noise, a noise that shook everything and everybody. He also spotted a couple of smaller planes around the flight of those bombers, but they were far less dangerous and far less important.

If one Bear had a chance to fire at them, the mission would be a failure. If a whole flight of them did, it would be a disaster and if just their escorts did, it would be a minor and very shallow cut. He stood there for a long moment that seemed to be an eternity before walking back to his chair and sitting down. "Pass them a message to change course, if they ignore fire from the railguns in front of them. They will understand the meaning of it well enough."

"Sir?" Exec asked.

"They need to be reminded of their place and the fact that there are some rules that are widely understood and accepted in certain circles. If they behave like thugs, they need a pointed lesson on how far they can push," he said and waited.

The lead Bear turned, changing the course and was soon followed by the rest of its flight and their escorts. He watched them fly away for a couple of long moments. When he was finally sure that they were true about backing off, he breathed out in relief. Whoever was there in command was reasonable and didn't want a battle that would start a war.

o-0-o

Gambit slammed his staff into the last grunt that was on his path and looked around, trying to see if more of them were coming out of their hiding spots. He folded his staff and walked down the corridor, unlocking cells as he passed them by, he would have done it sooner, but it was too dangerous for them, while now there were no goons and nobody would pose a threat.

He saw mutants emerge from their cells, many looking scared and afraid of what was going on, but he was not surprised. If he was in their place, he would have been as scared as they were, if not more. Only one person was as calm as she used to be, but that surprised him even less as he knew who she was and her personality was, to put it bluntly, destroyed, her name was Laura Kinney or better known as X-23.

"You are free," he said. "Weapon X is no more and SHIELD is storming the place."

"Why should we trust you?" A teen with unsettling gray eyes and brown hair asked. "You worked with them, didn't you?"

"I did that because I was forced to," Gambit nodded. "I could have run away easily enough, but SHIELD asked me to be a mole and help get the organisation destroyed. So trust me and you can get out of here alive and in one piece."

The mutants looked between each other, then looked at him and they nodded.

"Good," he said and smirked. "Can any of you control the ground as other than through the ceiling we won't get out of here easily."

"I can," the same teen said and moved hand with a bracelet on it. "But this bracelet locks my ability."

"Open it," Gambit said, throwing him a key.

The teen nodded and unlocked the bracelet. Once it was off his hand he looked around and walked towards a clear part of the corridor. He spread his hands in front of himself and the whole ceiling shook, sending dust and pieces of concrete flying through the room. He did that once more and it crashed into the room, revealing the sky above them.

It was still a halfway solution, since they still needed to get onto the surface and now it was hard, though impossible would be a better word. Gambit glanced at the person that made the hole. "Can you make a ramp or something?"

He closed his eyes for a second and a ramp that connected with the ceiling rose. Gambit stepped onto it and testing its hardness nodded approvingly. He looked at the mutants and indicated the ramp, most of them charged up the ramp and onto the surface. The rest did it with a more dignified pace and more calmly.

o-0-o

Natasha breathed in relief when she saw a large group of soldiers approach her with a couple medics following them. "He is inside," she said, pointing behind. "They tried to do some kind of surgery on him before I killed all of them."

The medics nodded and she joined them. They walked inside and she saw them look around the labs, she could see looks of shock, barely hidden disgust and several other emotions on their faces. As if they couldn't believe that something like that could happen. However that was nothing compared to the looks and gasps of shock when they entered the room Harry was.

"He needs to have those incisions closed and needs to get checked for every single thing they could have used on him," one of medics said and looked at her. "Do you have contact with Director Fury?"

"Yes."

"Good," Medic said and took a moment to look at Harry. "He needs to be delivered to the hospital as soon as possible and I don't mean the medical bay on the Helicarrier, but an actual one. We can patch up his wounds, but God only knows what they did to him and if they were good, it is hidden inside his body."

"I know," she said and added with a hint of disgust. "I worked for the Red Room in the past and if nothing changed, they are as bad as they used to be." She activated her radio. "They say he needs to be taken to the hospital, ASAP."

"One of Hercules' is on standby," came the reply from Fury. "The pilot knows that they might be ordered to start at a moments notice and he is ready."

"You heard him," she said and reloaded her gun, ejecting the clip and slamming a fresh one in its place.

The medics didn't say a word. Instead they quickly dressed the incisions on Harry's torso and placed him onto the stretchers they had brought with them. When she saw that they were ready she waved her hand at the operatives and they formed a protective circle around the stretchers. They almost ran through the complex and when they got onto the surface she easily saw a cargo plane waiting, its propellers slowly turning. She watched medics load the stretchers on board and two of them stayed with them. Once the cargo ramp was closed the plane moved towards the temporary runway and started to accelerate, starting the couple of hours journey to USA.

o-0-o

Gambit winced when he felt the strong light of a searchlight hit him straight in the face, even if he disliked it, he knew why SHIELD was so careful, they couldn't risk making a mistake. As soon as it appeared it moved away and a group of agents walked towards them.

"Remy LeBeau?" one of them asked.

"Yes," he said and indicated to mutants around him. "Those are all of the mutants that were in the facility."

"There is a lot of them," one agent noticed. "Director Fury said that we can expect many, but not that many."

"We can talk later," Gambit said. "Now they need medical attention and something warm to eat, I wouldn't mind a meal as well."

The agents looked between each other, Gambit saw that the mutants visibly relaxed the moment their weapons were pointed at the ground and they stopped looking so dangerous. They followed their guides towards the helicarrier around which a small collection of smaller and bigger tents was growing. They were ushered into one of them where they were met by medics who would have a difficult task of fixing all of the things Weapon X had done.

o-0-o

Fury smiled when he saw the mutants emerge from the ground, one more problem was out of the way and now he could unleash all the fury he wanted to. Previously he had restrained himself as he didn't want to injure them, but now he had none of those restrains. Now it was just a matter of getting the job done. The complex cleared and completely and utterly destroyed so that nobody would be able to recreate what was done here.

"Agent Psylocke, take every agent and operative you need and enter the base through the entryway created by the mutants," he said as he turned and looked at Psylocke.

She nodded and walked out of the room without a word, leaving him to his own musings and thoughts about the future.

o-0-o

Umbridge smiled when she read a report about MI-13, it seemed that it was focused on some issue in the Muggle world and didn't have a single agent in the UK. She opened one of the drawers and pulled out a thick stack of rolls of parchment. She unrolled the first one and smiled when she read High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, it would give the Ministry a measure of control over the school. Other acts she had ready would only increase the purity of the Ministry and the society, by banning every kind of half-breeds from having any power in it and would make life for wizards not of pure blood a difficult challenge.

She picked up all of those rolls of parchment and walked to Fudge's office to get them passed and accepted as a new law before MI-13 had a chance to react and make any attempt to stop them. Not that any of those attempts would succeed.

o-0-o

Freyr walked into the entry hall of Durmstrang and saw every single student and staff member of the school tied and chained with each other, making their escape almost impossible. All of their wands were away from them and no other weapon was close enough for them to use. Besides, along each row of them, a row of his own warriors stood. Warriors that didn't have a single issue with stopping any attempt of rebellion.

"Everything is done, Your Highness," one of the commanders said, approaching him. "We have caught everybody and double-checked to ensure that we didn't miss a single person, there are thirteen thousand of them."

"Thank you," he said and pulled out his runic knife and slashed fabric of space in front of himself. "Get them through the gate and once everybody is in the Nevernever I will join you."

The commander nodded and started to give orders to the warriors who nudged their captives to walk. Freyr stood by the gate and watched as everybody, one by one, disappeared inside of it. He waited for the last row to get inside before he did so after them and the gate snapped shut behind him. Now it was a long trek for them through the Nevernever and into the realm of Asgard, where it would be decided if they were innocent or guilty of the crimes against the Realm.

o-0-o

A/N:

Russia's behavior part two, as I said earlier they need to flex their muscles and show that they are important, also if possible save Weapon X, they have forces on the border, but an offensive would be a very, very bad idea. One, if they do it everybody will label them as aggressors and that is bad for international relations. Two, NATO has their own forces ready and expects an attack, so if they attack, they run into an enemy that had time to dug in, prepare positions and just waits for someone to attack, which is bad as surprise is a very important factor. Three, Russia lacks resources and manpower for a longer war, not to mention that uses mostly equipment that remembers times of the USSR, which means that it looks bleak compared to what an average NATO country has. So their only hope would be to make a quick rush, catch as much as possible, preferably get to Vistula or Oder River and then negotiate. Which with prepared and ready NATO is nearly impossible, sure, they would probably get to Oder, but they would also most likely land in a trap - powerful thrust from Slovakia, along Vistula, while blowing up bridges and assault from the sea, which would leave them surrounded in a very unfriendly territory, with enemy behind, in front and to the sides, while at the same time having very unhappy and angry locals that will happily explain what they think about presence of those troops, not to mention that their logistics would be in shreds. Food isn't a problem, but spare parts, ammunition or reinforcements and new weaponry? Good luck with trying to deliver them with enemy air patrols hunting for even the slightest sign of activity and bridges blown up. This is an assumption with not taking airforce into equation, taking it, well, Russian armored columns would be smoking columns of wrecks.

So they made a gamble, take a shot with Bears and hope that they can launch missiles and cause damage before fleeing the hell away, helicarriers are easy to make worthless, you don't need much, destroy part of deck, one engine or bridge and it's over for the ship. If they show that they tried to do something, it is enough for their allies, if they achieved it would be perfect, but trying is equally good, sure they could have done more, but any open support and they get accused of supporting a dangerous group. Which gives SHIELD blessing to deal with them however they wish and that is just a thing for which Fury is waiting, also it would be a political suicide, not many are willing to speak with a criminal, especially if one of bigger players is labeled as criminal it is bad. Every single second league country will be more than happy to replace it and there is a lot of such countries in our world.

Game played by the USA, for those that know international relations and how they work, it is an obvious one, but for those that don't, here is an explanation. They want this whole thing done, as soon as possible and with as little noise possible, preferably without causing an international scandal. They also don't want Russia doing what Soviet Union wanted that is to conquer Europe so they move troops to Europe behind the veil of exercises, which is a lie and everybody knows it, yet cannot prove it, and wait. If Russia attacks, blame is on Russia, but if it doesn't attack, everybody is happy and there is a lot of awards to be given.

There is also Asgard meddling in the whole affair, but its goals are simple, get their Prince for the lowest price and earn as much as possible, so they will happy get slaves, loot and so on, but unless forced to won't take part in battles. Sure, they have means of doing it, but there is no point in it, their gain would be a much smaller one, besides, if you have an ally, why would you waste your resources.

Why thirteen thousand? Rowling stated that Hogwarts is supposed to have circa thousand students, which gives roughly 150-160 students per year in the UK, but there is also small amount of homeschooled and those that are unable to attend the school. So we can safely assume that the number of children born per year is closer to two hundred in a country that has something like eighty million people, now we take that for former Warsaw Pact, the Balkans and Scandinavia and get a lot of people (143 millions + 45 millions + 39 millions + 20 millions + 11 millions + 10 millions + 10 millions + 10 millions + 9 millions + 7 millions + 6 millions + 6 millions + 6 millions + 6 millions + 4 millions + 4 millions + 4 millions + 3 millions + 3 millions + 2 millions + 2 millions + 2 millions + 1 million = 353 millions for Europe only and for those that don't remembered when Soviet Union fell, it created a dozen or so countries in Asia - 31 millions + 18 millions + 10 millions + 9 millions + 6 millions + 5 millions + 4 millions + 3 millions = 86 millions, which gives 439 millions people which is a lot).

In the UK we have roughly eighty million people, so out of 439 millions we get around eleven hundred children per year, but that is assuming sane birthrate as in the UK which is a wrong assumption. Excluding nordic countries, everywhere else common is large family with a lot of children, so we get closer to seventeen if not eighteen hundred children. So eighteen multiplied by seven gives us 13600.

What Asgard did is the best move from their point of view as in one fell swoop they achieved few goals:

Population of wizards in a better chunk of a world is under some form of control as even if small percentage of those caught is guilty, it still hurts and it can be fixed with time, but not immediately so for a generation or two there will be a smaller amount of wizards.

Fear, shock and terror, three things any decent ruler doesn't mind, you want your enemies to respect and fear you and your wrath as there is a smaller chance they will do something crazy. So by showing that there are no limits, they show that they will play seriously in a very crude manner which is also blunt and direct which works for a lot of people.

Economic gain, there is no such thing as too many workers or slaves, more workers or slaves means more production and that means growth of economy which means more taxes and more taxes mean more money to spend. You get it. They could go and raid some other place, but economically wise, it would be a lot worse than Durmstrang as here they have relatively young workers that can work for a really long time, are almost defenseless and can be easily caught as seriously, an average human doesn't stand a chance against an Æsir when it comes to physical activities.

Happy SHIELD, Durmstrang taken care of means a lot less bodies that can get into the way and a lot less time spent destroying the whole thing. Granted, SHIELD has almost all of the aces, but Durmstrang is the size of a small town and it would be a nightmare to conquer. Sure, they don't lack bodies, but lack time and want it done silently and quickly. Regular siege is neither silent nor fast, they would spend days, if not weeks dealing with the thing. And it gives Russia a lot of time to make its moves and that is even worse as it could force some kind of ceasefire and nothing would be gained.