CHAPTER 16
Sorry for the delay, again… Life suddenly got busy and then my beta fell ill… But I'm here now. So, Have fun ^^
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except my own. The characters belong to MARVEL.
Potential for mild spoilers for WandaVision.
CHAPTER 16 ARSENAL
After their little meeting and talking through everything they had found out, the others had quickly split their tasks between them. Who needed to work on what? What might abilities or equipment might be helpful? Hel felt a knot release as she just leaned back and watched the bustling around her. And to think, I could have had it this easy from the beginning, had I approached this differently.
She noted the growing curiosity especially Wanda and Peter expressed into her own person. "How long have you had Millie?" Peter asked, the cat happily purring away on his lap. She had taken to the teenager with a ferocity, even Bucky seemed surprised by.
"Uhm," Hel reached out and scratched the cat behind an ear. "I can't remember really. She came sometime after Bucky, although I suppose that might not be how this all works? Millie turned into a Flerken along the way because of her prolonged stay here. Usually, most souls fall asleep after some time and pass on to the deeper parts of my kingdom. Millie however was a stubborn one."
As if on cue, the cat swatted half-heartedly at Hel's fingers. The goddess retracted her hand with a fond smile. "She's a good one. I'm glad Millie stuck around. With time she developed good skills as a therapy-cat too."
"Therapy-cat?" Peter tilted his head, which made him look very close to a confused puppy.
Hel chuckled. "Therapy-cat. Someone had to help me and mine to keep our cool." The smile faded from her face at the memory of Bucky curled in the corner of his room in Helheim, shaking and crying after HYDRA had forced the Winter Soldier to kill. "She helped a lot." I'm just glad, he allowed me back in after he pushed me away. And to think that was only because he met Steven again. His best friend I kept safe right alongside him, but who refused to wake in my realm. I really should have meddled more in the ranks of HYDRA than I did. Those monsters.
The temperature around the goddess dropped. Her eyes burned as images kept flashing in front of her mind's eye. Her brave soldier before her throne, afraid but unwilling to defend himself. Crammed into an alcove, asking her to stop him from killing more innocents. Strolling back into her throne room after just enough time for her to believe he had forgotten her in her own spell work.
Something soft brushed against her hands. Unthinkingly, Hel buried her hand in it, held on tight. Slowly, she noted her quick breathing. Someone was talking to her. It sounded far away, the purring of a cat overpowering the other noises.
Blinking rapidly, Hel returned to the present. She came face to face with a very worried looking Peter. For the moment he seemed to have caught on that she didn't exactly hear him and just looked at her, offering his presence. Hel kept her sights on him. He was evidence that everything was still kind of going according to plan in her fight to protect her Golden Hearts.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, hand mechanically stroking Millie. "That hasn't happened in a long time."
"Don't worry, I understand," Peter offered a small smile, "I get overwhelmed sometimes too. Just take your time."
They sat in perfect silence with Millie purring a mile an hour for some time. Eventually, Hel softly pushed the cat off her lap. "I think, I need to go see Sergeant Barnes." She got to her feet, brushing imagined lint off her clothes to hide her trembling hands.
"Would you like me to accompany you?"
She looked over at the teenager. He didn't seem to expect her to say yes. Which allowed her to take that liberty. "Sure," she took a steadying breath, "Sure, come along. I suspect he's going to be with Shuri anyway and I know the two of you get on like wildfire."
That earned her another light chuckle as Peter got up to follow alongside her towards the labs. And although Hel was aware of the occasional glance in her direction, she didn't feel as bothered by it as with some other souls she had collected over the years. He's just trying to be nice and care for me. Although I picked him out of his life and wasn't exactly cordial at the start. That boy is something special.
Hel's power slowly reached out towards Peter. As soon as it made contact with his skin, he startled. "What was that?"
Hastily, Hel reigned her power back in. "What do you mean?" she asked more out of curiosity how he would describe the experience.
Peter rubbed at the spot, frowning. "Something touched me. It felt kind of strange? Like a breeze or something? But more?" He looked back at Hel. "That probably doesn't make much sense."
"A lot of things make sense, even though you might not understand them." Hel let her magic curl around her fingers. "I'm afraid I was to blame for that. Although mortals usually don't notice my power close to them until they've been exposed to it for a long time. If they ever notice." She offered her hand out, green power licking at her fingers.
Curiosity warred with caution on Peter's face. Hel held her hand steadily between them as they kept walking towards the lab. Finally, Peter's eyes hardened in determination and he reached out towards the green magic. It leapt off Hel's fingers towards his own palm.
Startled, Peter pulled his hand back, but the magic followed. It twined around his fingers until it formed a kind of bracelet around his wrist. "This feels strange," Peter mumbled. "Not, not that it's bad. I'm just not used to it." His eyes were wide in wonder as Hel let her magic slither up his arm and down, between his fingers and around his wrist. At last, it leaped into the air, swirling in a small tornado before dissipating.
Peter followed it with wide eyes until the last green flashes disappeared from his view. "That was amazing." He almost bumped into a corner so distracted was he. "Could you always do magic? What else can you do? Is it difficult to learn or exhausting?"
"Those are a lot of questions." Hel laughed to herself. It's been a long time since someone asked me about my powers. I almost forgot that not everyone is as accustomed to magic as the Asgardians. "Let's make a deal. I answer your questions and you answer mine, okay?"
"Deal."
"What did you two just shake on?" Bucky asked. He looked between Peter and Hel with slightly furrowed brows. "Nothing dangerous I hope?"
"Something fun, I hope," Shuri chimed in, popping out from somewhere deeper in the lab.
Pym doesn't seem to be here, Hel noted with some satisfaction as she looked around. Aloud she merely said, "No, nothing dangerous." Her eyes landed back on Bucky. He seems to be doing well. That's good. He's been doing better overall.
Bucky met her eyes across the room. He seemed to catch something of her mood. Without a word, her soldier strode up to her and pulled Hel into his side. Neither of them said a word about how she leaned into him. Shuri and Peter blinked at them for a moment.
"So, why are you here?" Shuri wanted to know, turning back to her workstation to tinker away on whatever she was working on.
Peter glanced at Hel. Then, he walked over to Shuri. "Well, I wanted to see you and see what you're working on. And Hel happened to go in the same direction and then we kinda got talking? Did you know you can feel her magic? That might be useful for our considerations on weapons and armoury. Just in case."
"You felt her magic?" Shuri put her Kimoyo Beads down on the table. "What was it like?" Just as Peter had done before, Shuri rattled off a bunch of questions that Peter answered just as excitedly.
Hel smirked at their enthusiasm.
"So, why are you really here?" Bucky wanted to know quietly. "You rarely accompany anyone anywhere just because."
Hel's smirk vanished. "Would you believe me, if I told you I wanted to see you?"
The arm around her tightened. It was almost all the answer Hel needed. Bucky had to have a hunch of why she was actually here. Together they watched and eventually assisted Shuri and Peter in the creation of their first prototypes of weapons. With Peter's quick thinking and Shuri's prolific knowledge of engineering, they constructed different gadgets with an affinity for recognizing and utilizing magic.
Shuri stepped back, looking at her creations with a tilted head. "Now we just need to find a way to test these." She pursed her lips in thought, her eyes wandered over to Hel. "I mean, I would need to test them out and then make necessary adjustments."
Well, that is an offer you don't get every day. She raised an eyebrow at the young woman. "So, you want me to fight your new technology? Or assist in charging it?" Next to her, Bucky stiffened slightly. Hel shifted her stance until her shoulder brushed against his arm in silent comfort. "I mean, I am hard to kill, in case you need a bit of target practice."
"Target practice?" Peter echoed with wide eyes. "Some of these weapons are meant to destroy Asgardians. That is not something we should practice on you."
"Hm, yes, in that case it might be a bit dangerous to try those things on me personally." Hel ran a hand through her hair. "We could set up something that has similar properties as an Asgardian. Maybe one of my ghostly guards can play the part with a slightly more corporeal form. Some of them were Asgardian before they came into my service." Her nose wrinkled at the thought. I like some of them. They aren't as frightened of me as some of the other warriors I put into my services. But letting them test that? Hm.
A bit later, the four of them assembled at one of the sparring areas Hel had set up for the time being. They chose one of the outdoor ones farthest away from any of the one's others might frequent. Hel felt her spirits rise as the wind ruffled her hair. Shuri and Peter split the weapons between them to try them out. Meanwhile Bucky set up a shooting range further away for them to check the compatibility of their inventions with Hel's magic.
This feels like something we might have to repeat once the weapons are adjusted and whatever else Shuri and Peter need to calibrate to make them work properly. A swish of magic and Hel's clothes changed into leather armour. Let's get this over with. It's been a while since I've had a decent fight. She noted both teens staring at her magic in slight awe, could almost hear the gears turning in their heads as they tried to parse out how they might be able to copy those effects. "Magic is a dangerous thing to play with," Hel offered. "You have to be very sure of what you're doing before even attempting to use it for yourself." Her magic leapt into view in a halo around her feet. "Only a few chosen mortals can harness the power without going mad. And before you ask, Doctor Strange's power is a different flavour and thus follows different rules. He needs his sling ring and other artifacts to harness the power."
"What about Wanda's?" Peter kept his eyes on the flames licking up Hel´s figure in increasing viciousness. "Hers looks similar enough to yours and Loki's."
A small smile tilted Hel's lip. Yes, that one is definitely for my Golden Hearts. Brilliant head and good manners. He'd be most useful in my collection. With a wave of her hand, the flames dissipated just as Bucky stepped up next to her. "Wanda's magic is something I have been trying to get a read on for a while. It is not as innate as my own, yet not taken from the outside as is Doctor Strange's. On the contrary, from what I can sense, the power slumbering inside her might be greater than his by quite a bit." The image of an unleashed Scarlet Witch flashed in her mind's eye. And what a glorious display that might be, if only she had a bit more training.
"So, are we going to test these or are we going to do more history of magic lessons? Because I didn't sign up for that particular Hogwarts' class just yet," Shuri said. "Hel, I'll need you to charge this one. It shoots an energy blast coupled with magic. Or that's the theory of it."
Nodding her head, Hel stepped up and poured magic into the weapon until it glowed a faint blue. "Oh, nice touch," Hel commented as she stepped aside to let Shuri step forward. Without a word, brows furrowed in concentration, Shuri took aim. The weapon, shaped roughly like a panther claw blaster, glowed brighter. Shuri muttered something under her breath.
A beam of pure energy, sparking dangerously, shot from the weapon right towards the first target. A resounding boom echoed around them. All that was left of the target were smoking remains. For a moment, none of them dared to breathe.
Bucky gave a low whistle. "Not bad."
"Not bad?" Shuri broke out into delighted laughter. "Hell yeah, that was amazing!" She was grinning from ear to ear, almost jumping up and down in her excitement. "This is amazing. Imagine bringing this to a fight with Thanos."
"We could have really used that," Peter nodded, eyes wide. He ran a hand through his hair. "Damn, this is amazing."
Scratch keeping him. I'm keeping them both. Those two are geniuses. Hel felt her magic curl around her, cloying the air in green light. As if on cue, the sky seemed to lighten above them. The weapons in Shuri's and Peter's hands charged on their own, gaining a darker glow than their first test.
"Whoa, cool," Peter stared at them in awe. "Can you do that all the time? Or over long distances? That would be so cool to charge them on the battlefield. Can you even feel the discharge at all?"
"Careful, don't overload them," Bucky cautioned with a light chuckle. His metal hand landed on Hel's shoulder. "Would be a shame to waste their work like that." There was a certain undertone in his voice that suggested he had at least an inkling of why the weapons and landscape around them reacted the way they did.
Hel shook her head, returning to the present. "Right, right. A shame, yes." She pulled her power back until it settled comfortably around her shoulders like a cape. Only a single thread she allowed to curl around Bucky's wrist. A small reminder that he was there with her.
Shuri and Peter took turns trying their weapons. Most of them worked as intended. Some would need a calibration to make up for the force behind the blast or arrow powered by magic. Finally, they were down to the last prototype.
"I think, you should take that." Shuri offered the heavy looking thing to Bucky. "I know this might not be what you usually use," she paused, "or that you might have bad memories connected to this type of weapon."
Bucky took the weapon from her hands. "Is that a sniper rifle?"
"Something like that?" Shuri scratched the back of her neck. "It's more a sniper rifle combined with a, uhm, grenade launcher but using energy instead."
Hel shifted her stance ever so slightly. That type of weapon combines an unusual energy between Bucky before and after the Winter Soldier and I'm not sure I like it. Then again, if Shuri designed it, she thought it might be useful and helpful in our fight or she wouldn't offer it to him in the first place.
With the practiced ease of someone, who had done this a thousand times over, Bucky positioned the weapon. He took aim. A concentrated ball of energy fired right into the middle of the last remaining target. Without missing a beat, he pulled the bolt. "Yeah, this does bring back memories." He eyed the weapon, turned it over in his hands. "Did you base that off my old sniper rifle from the war?"
A light blush appeared on Shuri's face. "Well, I did do my research and I thought you might feel more comfortable with something that reminded you of Steve by your side? If that´s-" Before she could even finish the sentence, Bucky pulled her into a tight hug.
"I appreciate the gesture, thank you."
"Hey, what's going on here?" Sam called as he and Wanda came jogging closer. "We heard shooting and saw the clouds." They skidded to a halt not far from Peter and Hel. Energy crackled around Wanda's fingers, ready to attack any threats that might present themselves.
"We're testing our new prototypes. Magic and weaponry combined," Peter replied cheerfully. "Shuri had some really great ideas and we worked hard to make them function," his eyes slid to one of the weapons that had disassembled in their trial run, "well, most of them anyway."
Hel stepped closer towards Wanda. "There's no need for that. We have everything under control. Although you might be of help in testing some of Shuri's other inventions." She looked back over her shoulder.
The young inventor was already scouring through the prototypes to find one that might work when charged with Wanda's energy. "Yes, yes, just a moment." She waved at Wanda to come closer.
Sam looked around in mild bewilderment. "So, what. You just decided to blow off some steam and invent a couple new weapons?" His eyes landed on the decimated targets in the distance. His posture shifted in some way Hel could not quite pinpoint.
Bucky turned to his companion with a small grin. "Wanna try one, Wilson?"
"What else are you going to do on an otherwise lazy Wednesday?" Peter chimed in almost at the same time, shrugging. His attention was already more on the weapon Shuri chose. She was just explaining its function to Wanda, who tried to channel her magic into the thing with Shuri's guidelines.
Well, might as well see, if I can help with that and prep another prototype in case Newbie does want to try one of them out. Hel picked up one of the prototypes at random. Carefully Hel settled it across her knees as she knelt down beside Shuri and Wanda.
"Try and pull it from your core," Hel offered. "Allow it to manifest in the palm of your hand that's an easy way to charge them, since we don't know how your magic works with Shuri's invention." She turned her own right hand to present the green energy glowing in her palm.
Wanda watched her attentively. As she called forth her own powers, small sparks trailed along her fingers. "I hope, this works." Carefully, Wanda lowered her hand towards the weapon, magic jumping between her palm and the weapon. It slowly charged, beginning to glow red this time.
"So far so good," Shuri offered. "But I don't think, I should try shooting it, just in case." Her eyes wandered between Wanda and Hel. "No offense, but I kind of build them with Hel's magic in mind. Yours seems to work a bit differently though."
"None taken. You should take any precautions you can," Wanda said. "We need you to perfect these, if we want to use them in our fight against Thanos."
Hel nodded her head, then rose back to her feet. "Soldier mine," she called over her shoulder. Bucky, Sam and Peter came over to them. Bucky paused next to Hel. "We have another one to test for you."
Bucky took one look at the red glow emanating from the weapon and curling around Wanda's hands. He took the weapon from Shuri's hands. "Yeah, that seems like a job for me. I can take it, should anything go wrong."
"Don't get your hopes up," Hel huffed. "I'll make sure we're all safe. And that includes you. Now," she turned to look at Sam, "Do you want to try this one?"
Sam's fingers twitched before he even opened his mouth. "Yeah, I might be kinda curious. How did you get all that together this quickly?" Hel pressed the prototype into his hands.
"Well, I might be a genius, but I had some help," Shuri grinned. "Peter had some really good ideas on how to connect the magic with the tech." She stepped back to allow both Bucky and Sam to take their weapons to the shooting range.
This is turning out more and more interesting by the day, Hel thought to herself.