Helloo! Hope you enjoy!

Shout Outs!:

WeAreNumberOne

They met a few times.
Here and there but its not an overly drastic thing.
Next chapter deals with that more but we will have to wait and see :)

SmolAvidReader

Some things are unfortunately a constant, at least in this timeline. I wasn't a fan of Civil War either and that was one of my main thoughts, that and how un-Tony like Tony was acting and not it was character growth nor good writing. Also it irked me he was so hateful against Bucky when Clint killed how many people under Loki's mind control? Personal pet peeves of the movie and don't worry, it will have major rewrites of it even happens at all. Yeah, you did. Well, it's not a great idea. I am so excited to write the Ragnarok chapter and bring Hela back.

CHSHiccstrid

Poor Loki, guy really got the short end of the stick. Yeah, Nuff took it a bit hard.

Journal 2, Entry 24: "Secret Wars"

Hiccup set aside the small tool he was using to calibrate the new Ygg-Hop, pushing a small bit of his magic into the device. He heard it whir and the magics mix, the one magic long since connected to Yggdrasil and the other thrumming around the new teleportation runes. He watched and felt the device closely as the magics mixed before finally settling.

He grinned and judiciously inspected both rune sequences for new flaws. Finding none, he readied the device so the magics were working in tandem but did not fully activate it. There was a tiny hiccup where the magics hesitated to fully integrate with each other but with a push from his Æsir, they accepted each other.

Loki glared at the device, taking it from his Chosen and inspecting the analog design, common for first generation magical devices on New Berk. "I have approved of many of your inventions in the past as well as discouraged a few, but must you tamper with Yggdrasil so?"

Hiccup sighed and took the Ygg-Hop back. "I'm not pushing Yggdrasil to do anything it doesn't already do. I'm pushing my magic to do so…praying they play nicely together." He inspected the carved runes, eyes narrowed. "The initial connection is a tiny problem I need to fix, so long as it actually works."

Loki scowled at Hiccup but deflated in defeat. He knew arguing with Hiccup about his inventions was a losing battle. "But why can you not be happy with a device to teleport and another to travel Yggdrasil? It makes me unbelievably nervous when you play around with these sorts of magics."

Hiccup experimentally turned the dials to put in coordinates. "We're never going to grow if we don't push boundaries. And I am careful! Besides, having two devices to keep track of in a battle's foolish. It's hard enough with one—though it's been better once I got the Thought Runes implemented." Hiccup set the Ygg-Hop down, shoulders falling as he turned to Loki. "Also, in the last Hydra raid, the base blew up with one of our own stuck down there. The Ygg-Hop couldn't get her out because there wasn't a branch to open."

Loki took a breath and gently laid a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "That wasn't your fault."

Hiccup scowled at the far wall. "I okayed the raid, I allowed those without magic to participate…I should have seen this being a problem sooner."

Loki fought the urge to grind his teeth and grabbed the device, inputting new coordinates. "Good thing my mother is on Midgard in case you've done something incredibly stupid."

Hiccup beamed. "Well let's not give her and Ivana patients to practice on."

Loki sighed long-sufferingly and held onto Hiccup as he prompted the magic to initiate. The world flashed around them before they impacted with a branch which dragged them along until it roughly deposited them on a peak in Antarctica. He groaned and pushed Hiccup off his stomach. "Your device could use some work on its landing."

Hiccup moaned weakly. "Uh-huh…I don't think Yggdrasil appreciated the odd entry."

Loki managed to sit up, propped up on his arms. "You don't say."

Hiccup glared at him before looking down at the device and grinning. He swiped it and started looking it over, beaming that it was still functional, though it would still need improvement, he noted.

Loki rolled his eyes and stood, picking Hiccup up by his collar, who stumbled to keep up with his patron while still trying to fiddle with the Ygg-Hop. Loki sighed and shook his head, taking the device and casting it away to his 'pocket'.

"Loki!" Hiccup protested while staring pitifully at said god.

Loki shot him an unamused glance and he dropped the act with a huff. He continued to drag Hiccup until they reached the peak of the mountain, both long since having turned blue and completely unaffected by the sub-zero wind. "Come now, Liten Listig, I do believe your uncles would like to see you without forcibly drawing your attention away from your invention."

Hiccup shot him a look. "Isn't that what you just did?"

Loki stretched out his hand and opened the branch, both carefully walking along it to Jötunheim. "I pocketed it. They would freeze it in a block of ice."

Hiccup growled and looked away at the reminder. It was a nightmare last time trying to thaw the ice without frying the touchy electronics within. That had been the first time Býleistr and Helblindi truly saw the retribution of a trickster, a few mild heating charms coupled with sicking every Dýrsvell on them to 'play tag' and both were equally wary of inciting it again—though they would if he ignored them yet again.

They entered bleak Jötunheim and took the minor branch to the 'summer palace' as Helblindi had mockingly named it after hearing some tales of the Midgardian royalties. It was truthfully an abandoned outpost from Jötunheim's glory days that the princes had reconstituted to be a suitable fortitude filled with those loyal to the princes and not the king, though that was done tactfully so Laufey was none the wiser, believing it to be a practice ground for them. There was quite a bit of time to kill in the realm since their means of conquering others was stolen from them.

A few servants saw them and ran to find either of the princes while Loki and Hiccup made themselves comfortable further in the palace. Hiccup idly began informing Loki of the newest Hydra raids, growing silent after telling him of yet another failure to find the Super Soldier. "We were so close too, files show he was there just a few weeks before but he was sent out on a mission…he wasn't scheduled to come back to that base. They're on to us, at least enough to not keep him in one place for long."

Loki frowned and leaned back in the ice chair. "Do you and the others have a plan?"

Hiccup's forehead furrowed, eyes distant. "They're going to keep raiding bases but they're cutting back a bit, working on getting more plants into Hydra. The Guild and Chiefs agree that if we can execute one large strike against several bases at once then it should shock the remaining bases enough for us to find and eradicate them—or at least hold them down for a while longer. But for finding that Soldier…they don't have much of an idea."

Loki noted Hiccup's hands clutch his pants tighter and he fought back an annoyed breath. "But you have an idea…and I suspect it is not one I will necessarily approve of."

Hiccup smiled apologetically at Loki and glanced at the door, feeling Býleistr's magic draw near. "You know me, I'm always the one making those stupid, crazy plans."

Loki groaned and rubbed his eyes. "I hate those."

Hiccup chuckled sympathetically before yelping as someone grabbed him and threw him out the window into the thick snowbank. He sputtered as he dug himself out and glared at the laughing Býleistr, Loki was also laughing merrily at his Chosen's disheveled state.

Býleistr leaned out the window and offered Hiccup a hand who took it, letting his uncle pull up and through the window like he was a doll. "You really ought to pay more attention."

Hiccup brushed the snow out of his hair and flicked it at the Jötunn. "I knew you were there. I just didn't expect you to throw me out the window."

Býleistr ignored the comment and turned to his youngest brother. "Loki, it is a pleasant surprise to see you here again."

Loki smiled up at him. "Well it has been some time since our last visit and my Chosen, in all his wisdom, is tampering with Yggdrasill."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, saying with exasperation, "Nothing went wrong!"

Loki ignored him and Býleistr played along with his brother. "Of course not, Liten Listig, that's why we were thrown out with enough force to make Thor dizzy."

Hiccup's face turned a deeper shade of blue. "So it needs a few tweaks. Nothing's ever perfect on the first try."

Loki looked pointedly at Býleistr. "So I made the executive decision to come here and practice our Jötunn magic more."

Býleistr grinned. "I am glad to be of service." He turned to Hiccup while also asking Loki. "So how are your ice shiftings coming?"

Hiccup crossed his arms and smirked at Loki. "Well, I'm getting pretty good at going from a dagger to a sword and back again or changing it to a shield and back."

Loki's nose flared at Hiccup and said quieter. "I'm perfectly fine adding more ice to create things—I… am struggling a bit with retracting it."

Býleistr laughed at the pair, mostly at his brother who glared at him. "Then we will have to work on that."

Hakon chuckled as Tony opened the front door, face black—mostly from grease but also engine exhaust. Tony beamed upon seeing his uncle and drew the greying man in for a hug. "Uncle H, you're early!"

Hakon broke away from Tony but kept an arm around his shoulders. "Yeah, well, I figured it was your first birthday without Jarvis so I should spend a little more time with my godson."

A sad smile fell upon Tony's lips as he led him deeper into his New York home, a black dog tore through the door and almost tackled Tony. "Hey, Tor—good boy." He scratched him under the chin so he collapsed into bliss. He chuckled and turned to Hakon and became more somber. "Thanks…it's been kinda lonely. Though it gave me a new idea. It's not one for the public but I'm working on an AI."

Hakon stood at the kitchen counter while the younger man poured two cups of coffee. "Like DUM-E and U? I thought you regretted building those, for how often I hear you swearing to sell them to the local colleges."

Tony laughed, nearly snorting in his coffee. "Don't ever tell them I won't do it."

Hakon smirked and took a sip of his beverage. "Sure, kiddo. Oh, before I forget."

He reached into his leather vest that Tony rarely saw him without. "Yeah, better give me your gift before you become senile."

"Really, is that how you're going to play it?" Hakon asked, abandoning the gift to grab Tony and wrangle him into a headlock.

Tony squeaked and pat Hakon's arm. "You may be going senile but you are not weak!"

Hakon released him and fixed him with a firm warning look but a mischievous twinkle laid in his eyes. "And you best not forget it. Senile I may be, but I can still bat on par with you."

Tony huffed. "Think you can help me with the AI then?"

"Love to." Hakon beamed.

Several hours passed and they happily chatted about the new AI, what was being developed at SI, and other random bits of news from their respective parts of the world. Tony took a break from coding the AI to spend a bit of time building the computer for the program with Hakon.

At some point, Tor joined them and took up his customary bed by the window while Hakon soldered a few wires and a transistor. He looked up when he heard Tony scrounge through his tool bench, complaining about not being able to find his tools then accusing DUM-E of stealing them. DUM-E whirred, piston's whining in objection before clicking and beeping angrily. He chuckled and called out to his godson, tossing him a cloth wrapped package.

Tony caught it and opened it curiously. "A… knife? Thanks?"

Hakon smiled amusedly. "I'd advise you always keep it on you. It's handy to have around. Gotten me out of more than a few scraps—with Schmidt or just a testy wire."

Tony chuckled and tried to image his aging godfather attacking the super solider leader of the Nazi science group with a small dagger. Oddly enough, the image fit. He carefully cut the plastic sheath off of the wire and soldered it down before looking more closely at the knife his uncle just gifted him.

He twisted it around and felt the weight before it dawned on him and stared at Hakon in shock. "How? This is—it was all used up in Steve's shield!"

Hakon smirked and leaned back in his seat. "I told the SSR I used it all. I didn't say I used it all in Steve's shield."

Tony stared at the knife again, mouth open in amazement. "There's no way they just let you keep it."

Hakon shrugged. "Howard knew. He figured that if I could keep the Tesseract safe then I was responsible enough to handle what was left of the known Vibranium."

Tony smiled gratefully at Hakon and attacked the sheath to his belt and beamed. "And it matches!"

Hakon laughed, pointing at it with the solder. "Tried to make the sheath so it would match with pretty much any tux you wear." Along with a few spells so people won't notice it to begin with.

Tony sighed and wheeled over to his computer to work on the coding. "You do know the war's over, right? Both WWII and the Cold War?"

He missed Hakon's shoulders stiffen before he forced himself to lighten up before Tony could notice. "Yeah, but there's always psychos out there. Not to mention you are making a name for yourself as being the top weapons designer there is…"

Tony hummed and relented. "Alright, you win."

Hakon smirked but a doorbell cut off his response.

Tony looked confused before his eyes widened. "Forgot Obi was coming over for dinner and to discuss some work stuff."

Hakon frowned. "He's still around?"

Tony sighed and walked out of the lab, Hakon following with Tor stretching out on the bed. "He was my dad's business partner and he's helped me a lot with the business after the crash."

Hakon's nose wrinkled and kept his comment to, "Something about that man just doesn't sit right with me."

Tony patted his godfather's back sympathetically and opened the door, hugging his other pseudo father and taking the pizza from him. Obadiah entered and blinked in surprise at Hakon's presence but greeted him warmly. Hakon smiled politely and returned the handshake but Tor steered clear of the businessman the entire evening, lips curling upwards the one time Obadiah tried to pet him. Tony gawked at Tor, never having seen him take offence to anyone before. Obadiah waved off the incident, claiming it must be the scent of his cat, and no more fuss was made but it only scored another negative point in Hakon's book.

Several men in scientific uniforms encircled a patch of earth deep within the Black Forest of Germany. Scanners and hundreds of other devices were constantly monitoring the energy congealed between several trees. A man wrote something down from a loudly beeping device, then reset it before returning to a large tent within a sea of tents. He handed the sheet of readings to a fellow scientist who was compiling all of the information and asked, "Any clue what this is yet?"

The second man briefly looked over the newest readings and shook his head. "Not yet. However, I can confidently say that it is not one large energy fluctuation like we first believed. It's not even fluctuating but there are two of them, whatever they are. They're only a few feet apart but their energies resonate just differently enough…"

The computers started beeping and new data started spewing out. One of the anomalies was fluctuating. They ran outside, the second holding a portable reader. It only lasted a few seconds before it fell silent and the fluctuation flashed. An auburn haired woman now stood where the anomaly rested silently again, but what was more terrifying than her sudden appearance was the white and black spotted thing that stood beside her.

Men poured out of the camp and around the woman. A hundred guns were cocked and aimed at her chest and the thing's head but she wasn't concerned by their presence. The scientists took a step closer as flood lights flicked on and focused on her, illuminating her odd armor that looked a few centuries too old to be of any practical use.

She looked over the encircling soldiers, eyes lingering on the scientists and a few officers. Finally, she spoke with an accent identical to Hyse's but the question sounded patronizing. "You are Hydra, yes?"

The scientists exchanged nervous glances, but the general in charge of the expedition lowered his gun enough to see her more clearly but still kept it trained on her chest. "And how would you know that?"

She smiled like she was about to share a secret and the senior science officer gasped and took several steps back, muttering nervously—only a few caught his words but it spread through the uneasy ranks with trepidation. "Hyse's daughter."

Her eyes locked onto his, as if she'd heard what he said and normally the other scientists would have said it was impossible—but the rumors flew through Hydra about Hyse. She nodded and placed a hand on the beast's head. It purred under her touch but its eyes remained slits trained on the soldiers. "How did you find this branch?"

The general growled but signaled for his men to start closing in around her. "We picked up the signal back during the war after Johann Schmidt attainted the Tesseract."

She sighed, looking a tad dismayed, and said a few things in a tongue they did not understand.

The general took a few steps closer with his men. "Surrender, Hyse."

A helmet snapped up over her head but the glare was prominent even through the mask. "I don't think we will."

The general was about to say something back but the remark caught him off guard, we? She raised her arm with a fist above her head and a heart stopping roar surrounded them. It didn't come from her beast. It couldn't have come from any one creature because buried deep within the guttural roar was a distinctly human tone—animalistic though it may be. The roar cut off suddenly and all eyes remained fixed on the woman despite the men looking through their peripherals for the source of the terrifying battle call.

Her arm fell, hand pointing to the general. "Berserkers-!"

Instinctually, he fired and with the crack of his pistol, all the others fired as well. They watched in amazement as a transparent red wall enveloped the beast and not a bullet touched it. However, to their even greater shock, every bullet hit true on her chest but they all bounced to the ground with hollow tangs associated with metal hitting Vibranium.

The general's stomach plummeted as the beast smiled at him and she said in a loud but calm voice, "Sœkja."

The trees erupted with howling Vikings on the backs of even stranger beasts and their world lit up in dozens of different colored flames. Despite the screams that filled the woods of that night, not a soul outside of them was aware of the bloody battle taking place within.

*O*

Screens flickered and flashed as his detached mind sifted through hundreds of SHIELD and Hydra files again, searching every one of them for a singular anomaly: Hakon Hyse. Screens shifted though videos, images and reports—some as old as the war—grainy and full of static but still clearly showing the oddly armored people infiltrating the original Hydra bases before they fell to the Captain. Though no eyes viewed the screens, he was hard at work deciphering the mystery of the man.

Zola scanned recent uploads to the memory banks and compared them to the older files. Ever since the war, Hydra bases had been raided and razed. It wasn't all that concerning initially. It was only to be expected when Hydra fell—even continuing on for a few years. It was necessary to establish and maintain the illusion that Hydra had well and truly fallen. But too many had fallen and continued to be pillaged for that to still be true.

It worried the no longer human Zola. Initially he feared SHIELD had seen through his façade but when the few survivors of the bases finally made their way back to Hydra and made reports, he realized it was something far worse than SHIELD. It was Hyse and his people.

Hydra knew very little overall, the scattered and fearfully mumbled reports of the survivors were useless beyond identifying the attacker's as Hakon's people. It wasn't until they developed cameras to a live satellite network that they finally had visual data of the attacks to learn more about their opponents.

It still didn't help very much other than learning that every base had a mole in it. The video feed showed every time that a base was raided a mole would download data after silencing the alarms and shutting down whatever shields the base might have. While worrisome, it was nowhere near as troubling as the latest, and last, video feed of their base in the Himalayas. The main base currently housing the Asset, his greatest accomplishment.

He observed the footage from the first Asset attacked base. It was troubling as he tracked the mole through the base until he came to the Winter Soldier's reprogramming chamber. He silently watched as the Asset removed the mole from his path as he left. He'd witnessed the Winter Soldier in enough training sessions to know that the mole should have been dead—but he stood up a moment later with only a shake of his head and rolled his shoulders.

Had he still had his human body, Zola would have felt dread creeping into his stomach. Little had survived from the second time Schmidt captured Hakon, but a few reports and rumors had crept through the ranks—including that of the three doses it had taken to subdue Hakon.

It made sense after, when he and the other scientists started trying to recreate the Super Soldier Serum only to run into the stabilization snag. Out of frustration, they turned to examining Hakon's blood that Schmidt managed to get out of the base and found the odd similarity in it as Steve's, only more proliferant, before finally connecting the dots. But that meant that Hakon's people already created the serum or were naturally enhanced…and they were onto Hydra.

His admittedly outdated computers whirred as he processed the data and came up with a game plan. Starting with better vetting of their agents and further security measures on any bases cleared to house the Asset.

The bomb door opened and a camera turned and whirred. Recognizing the pale haired man, Zola flicked a screen to life. "Welcome, Director Pierce. You are back so soon. Have you captured a mole?"

Peirce grunted in frustration and inserted a floppy disc to the new attachment. "No. Two more bases were raided—both were cleared to house the Asset. As well as the research task force sent out to the Black Forest."

Zola's image frowned and filtered the newly imputed information. "This is most troubling. We have managed to keep ahead of them thus far but we do not even truly know who we are fighting against, let alone how to infiltrate their ranks and bring them down."

Pierce growled and started pacing. "I know. And what's worse is that Hyse still strong arms the Tesseract's guard. I can't even get an agent on the premise as the garbage man, let alone anything important."

If Zola was still human he would have snorted. "He has always been suspicious of me. I suspect he might even know of you."

After glancing through the raided bases, he accessed the files to review the tape of the lone survivor from the expedition sent to observe the abnormality in the Black Forest. He was a quivering mess and what was worse, he was barely qualified to clean the Mess so any information that might have been gathered he would not have been privy to. He only kept driveling on about beasts and a ghost and haunted grounds.

Pierce paused his pacing and tried to contain his horror, turning to the screen showing Zola's digitalized face. "Have I been compromised? My identity isn't on any file, digital, paper or otherwise. How could he know? I understand his distrust of you but-"

"Hakon's people are the ones razing the bases," Zola said flatly and showed the video of the first attack on a base cleared for Winter Soldier care. Pierce watched with a leaden stomach. "Analysis confirms; non-enhanced would have died from impact. And the few intelligible words the most recent survivor managed to spit out actually align with a few more exaggerated accounts of Hakon's escapes."

Pierce's upper lip twitched. "Then order a strike against Hyse. He's the head of whoever has been attacking us? Or at least in the heart of their inner circle."

Zola wiped the repeating video from his screen to replace it with videos from the war and even some street surveillance from when he went into the heart of New York or DC with either SHIELD members or Tony before erasing them and showing many of the designs they confiscated from the beginning of the war—still mostly un-deciphered. "Negative. His mind is far too great to lose. Schmidt was correct about this point. If action must be taken against him it should be to bring him in."

Peirce glared at the screens. "And he's always too public when he hasn't vanished off the face of the Earth."

Zola's computers whirred, sounding oddly annoyed for a computer. "The best option would be to wait until the next raid, focus entirely on retrieving one assailant. Even if they do not talk, Hakon will not sit silent if he is truly connected."

Peirce sighed and nodded, retrieving the floppy disc. "Very well. Your advice will be implemented."

"I would also suggest requiring blood samples from every agent. In the brief report Schmidt wrote about Hakon's detainment, he noted that Hakon's skin was toughened. And given what the latest report shows on the attack on the Asset's main base, it would be a safe bet his is as well."

Pierce grunted and turned, leaving Zola in the dark and silence again to further analyze and process the information to create attack plans on how to take down their unknown enemy. This suited the computerized human just fine.

Zola brought up the report of the attacked research group and scanned it carefully before opening the very brief scans done of the area during the war then drawing up Hakon's designs, filing through them until he landed on the one tentatively labeled 'Hyse's Transportation Device?' There was no way the two were unrelated. Hydra had little to gain or lose in the area except whatever the anomaly was and the task force was kept completely off the books for everyone except Peirce, Zola and those assigned to the mission. So Hyse's people must have some connection to the anomaly.

He'd let it sit for a little while before attempting to learn more about it; they needed to upgrade their equipment as well so information could not be lost in the event of another, very likely attack.

Hiccup walked beside Loki through the New Berk's still frozen forest to the branch where Helblindi and Býleistr waited for them and frowned at the seriousness of the full Jötunnar. He turned to his patron, confused and worried. "What's going on? Did something happen to affect the plan, whatever it was?"

Loki smiled sympathetically down at him. "No, Liten Listig. We came to inform you of it."

Hiccup sighed in relief. One, because if something did happen to make the plan moot then Loki was going to be irritable and testy for days and it was never fun trying to drag him out of that funk. Secondly, because they'd been keeping him out of the loop despite using the New Archipelago as their sanctioned meeting place for planning talk since it was out of sight from any prying eyes. Loki always claimed it was because Midgard had no place in the plan thus he had no need to know of it but he always suspected it had more to do with the fact that Loki didn't want him trying to weasel into the plan and 'endanger' himself..

"So what's changed?" Hiccup asked coolly.

Loki's face pinched and looked to his brothers, who held their hands up and backed away, Býleistr saying, "He's your son."

Loki rolled his eyes at their response. "Well, partially, I will have more limited contact with you for the next few years as Thor's coronation and Odin's impending Sleep approaches. Many details and facets must be made ready for that, as well as our plan."

Hiccup looked at the three Jötunnar impassively. "I knew that, believe me I know that." He turned away from them and started walking through the woods again. "You have no idea how unbearable Jör's been because of the mere idea of it. I swear the other Bewilderbeasts are about ready to freeze his hide into a glacier for the next century."

Loki winced. He had felt Jörmungandr's growing ire. He pushed that aside and grasped Hiccup's shoulder, halting their pace. "Liten Listig, it is imperative now because of what will happen should it fail."

Hiccup looked up at Loki, eyes uncertain. "I thought that's what the century's worth of planning was for."

Loki laughed dryly and pulled Hiccup close as they resumed their trek over the crunch of frozen grass. "You of all people should know there's always a chance that a plan will fail."

Hiccup's shoulders fell and leaned into Loki. "Just promise me nothing will go wrong."

Loki smiled and held him tightly. "That is the plan."

They discussed the plan for several hours and while Hiccup wasn't overly thrilled with it, it held its validity—he was still worried about its reception however. Soon enough, the normal Frost Giants left and Loki decided to pay the descendants of his original followers a visit while he still had a little time to squander—not that he wouldn't make sure to sequester a little time to visit his Chosen.

Which left Hiccup with some time to tinker with shielding cloth he'd thought up during his stay with the SSR. With the natural addition of the Gronkle Iron-Vibranium woven through the material, it was already bullet proof but it struggled to properly keep up with things such as plasma or any energy based weapons from traveling across the metal, hence the shielding device.

He fiddled with a wire coated in crushed Fireworm scales, having found that they made an excellent insulator, but it was quite the trick—and no small help from his title—to get them to molt in a particular area so they could collect the scales.

A soft rapt on his door garnered his attention but he didn't dare look away as he connected the wire and sautered in place. "Yeah?"

A sandy blonde woman entered, face tight. "Chief Hiccup, Coulson called in. He said that Skrulls and a possible Kree have landed on the planet."

Hiccup's eyes widened and he abandoned his project, taking the folder she held out for him of Coulson's hasty report as well as all satellite information—including a note from Wakanda about their space department being in disarray because of a large explosion in near space last night that knocked out three satellites.

They walked back out and down several corridors. "Have the other Changewings been alerted to this?"

She nodded. "Yes. They're tracking the possible Kree along with Nicholas Fury who has been the SHIELD agent assigned to the case. There's also a Skrull in autopsy."

Hiccup winced and closed the sparse folder. "Okay, get the Skrull to Wakanda so he can at least have his burial done by his own people. I need to check in with the station, then see about arranging some kind of meeting provided we can get in contact with these new Skrulls."

She left with a hurried nod while he made his way out to the branch and jumped over to Berk where Astrid was running some of the greenhorn Berk Guards, as well as many Berserkers, through stealth training. Halfway there, his communicator pinged.

He looked down at the Gronkle Glass—it was clear like normal glass but the Gronkle would ingest sandstone and something about the digestive process tempered the glass and made it nearly strong as Deathsong amber—it was Folke Thorston, or Phillip Coulson as he was currently going by.

He immediately answered but kept his voice low out of habit for the spy. "Phil, why are you calling on a mission? I've gotten the reports, I'm going to check on our neighbors now."

Phil's voice was hushed, likely not far from whoever he was with. ~I know. But I'm at the SHIELD archives. The Kree and Fury were going through the Project PEGASUS files before they escaped…well, before I let them. I heard them mention Louisiana but given that Hakon Hyse is listed as Lawson's partner on the project, they might come looking for you too. I don't know why yet—the others are still scouring but we've all come up empty on that part.~

Hiccup sighed and slowed his walk to the branch. "Got it, thanks Phil. I'll take Toothless and head out to 'my address' soon."

~Stay safe and please take some others as back up. This Kree isn't like the others…I'm pretty sure she's the pilot that went missing but she's still a Kree.~

Hiccup groaned quietly and rubbed his forehead. "Wonderful. Will do then."

The connection went dead. He roared into the cloud studded sky then waited by the branch, Toothless landed a few minutes later, bond pulsing with curiosity. He rubbed his best friend's snout and opened the branch to Berk with a small nod to the workers who kept it traffic free, mostly—there were always those days.

Finding Astrid wasn't hard: follow the shouting that put Colonel Phillips on a bad day to shame. Almost a hundred Berkians, New Berkians, Berserkers and a few Outcasts flew near the Academy so he and Toothless relaxed on the cliff overlooking the ancient establishment.

He and Toothless chatted about unimportant things as they waited for the lesson to finish before he nearly jumped out of his skin as a hand clamped around his shoulder and pulled him backwards. With his undignified yelp of terror came an irritating laugh of amusement.

Hiccup shoved himself away from his captor and glared at him. "Really? Are you that bored already? I thought you were supposed to be out terrorizing the villages?"

Loki chuckled. "We did, and I must say I think we did a marvelous job of repainting the dragons."

Hiccup shot Loki a look before rolling his eyes. "At least I won't have to be there to deal with the fallout. Thank the gods I'm not chief anymore. That got to be a real headache trying to explain everything away instead of innocently disappearing into the forge or something."

Loki laughed and sat by his Chosen. "I heard of Folke's report. I am coming with."

Hiccup sighed and looked through the corner of his eye. "I'm going to assume any argument is moot—especially since one of them is Kree?"

Loki smiled proudly but deviously at him. "You have finally learned that lesson."

Hiccup's shoulders fell but his lips quirked. "Nah. I'm just looking forward to seeing what you're going to look like being older than Odin."

Loki's brows drew together in puzzlement.

Hiccup grinned. "I'm already taking on the appearance of a seventy year old man, okay, admittedly like sixty, but you gotta be at least twenty years older than me if you wanna pass off as my dad. And as far as SHIELD knows, you're still kicking around."

Loki sighed and glared at his impish Chosen before giving in and looking away with a slightly put off scowl. "Then there are times I have no doubts that the right brother Chose you."

Hiccup beamed then leaned into his side as they waited.

*O*

Talos stared at the empty space in utter disbelief and despair.

Carol frowned and swiped her holographic display again to decloak the ship but it merely gave a trill signaling there was nothing to decloak.

Talos snarled in anguish, the laboratory was gone! He turned to Carol, the human turned Kree turned defector, struggling to keep his voice from snarling as he asked, "Do you remember if the Kree found the lab when they found Mar-Vell and picked you up?"

She frowned in thought before shaking her head. "No, and if they did—I would think the Kree would have light speed engines. We don't. We still have engines that rely on jump points."

Talos pounded his fist against the crates near them, leaving a large dent in his frustration. "Where is it then!? Are you sure you have the coordinates tight?"

Carol glared at him for doubting her, her memory may be shoddy at the moment but she could calculate simple coordinates. From that fickle memory, something sparked, an older face often smiling around Lawson and pointing at the PEGASUS—helping to design and build it. "Wait, wait. There was someone else, someone who helped Lawson design the PEGASUS. I can't think of who though…"

Fury's face lit up and jerked forward, startling Goose who hissed at him, to which he quickly apologized and the tabby seemed to accept it with a purr. Talos stared uncertainly and most certainly unhappy with the Flerken Fury was holding all too contently but ignored it as the human spoke. "Hyse! I saw him mentioned in the brief glance I took of the file but he was often working with other scientists and with this energy core you're looking for—it fits something he worked with back in the Second World War, as well as studied briefly with Stark shortly after he recovered it. He's always had full security control over it and being as he helped found SHIELD, no one argued with him about it—but if Lawson wanted it, she would have had to go through him to get access."

Talos sighed and sat back down. "I don't suppose you happen to have an address."

"On memory?" Fury replied snarkily at the alien who impersonated his boss. "No. But it's on file. Shoot, I can call Coulson and he can find it in five minutes."

Carol looked back at Talos and he groaned. "Fine. But he had better know—I can't have spent this long looking for it for it to be for nothing…" His voice dropped almost to a whisper and he looked nearly defeated.

Carol nodded back to Fury and Maria handed him a satellite phone kept in the Quinjet. He makes the call and within five minutes, Coulson gives them the location—a house not far outside of a town in Norway called Tønsberg.

The flight there was silent and tense but their landing thankfully attracted no attention despite the lifting haze of the late morning sun. As they disembarked, Goose jumped out of Fury's arms and beelined for the cozy house sitting just inside the forest. From the house, a deep bark greeted the Goose's mewing's and a massive black dog ran out and circled the cat, sniffing behind his ears and giving Goose a dainty kiss.

Fury watched with amusement. He vaguely recalled the scientist always having a dog which, apparently, became the bane of Hydra and all snackers in the labs if he remembered the personnel report correctly.

They stayed at the edge of what looked to be the yard compared to the lane up, until an older man came out with a woman by his side and an even older man behind him. Carol felt her skin crawl as the eldest man looked her over carefully but remained silently behind the younger.

"Goose," The first man cried with a bright smile. "Oh, it has been a few years, hasn't it? Come 'ere."

Talos whined uncomfortably as the man picked up the Flerken and cradled it like it was harmless past its claws. Carol shook her head while Fury smirked at the yellow-green alien.

The man looked up and stared at Carol for a moment before smiling softly. "Well, I'm glad that at least one bit about the reports was false, though I must ask, where have you been for six years?"

Carol stepped forward, Kree training kicking in with the personal question and she attempted to question him to dissuade that topic but the other two with him pressed closer to him and glared at her. She paused, startled by their reaction—not the typical response to a Kree.

Fury carefully grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out of her ready stance. "Hakon Hyse, I presume?"

Hakon grinned knowingly and shifted Goose to his shoulders so he could curl up around his neck. "Nicholas Fury, Carol Danvers, Maria Rambeau and—from the recordings I've seen—Talos?"

Talos gaped at him in shock while Fury stared at Hakon then Talos in confusion. "How can you tell the difference between these ugly bastards?"

Talos glared venomously at him while Hakon smirked, one hand still petting Goose's head while the other scratched Torbjörg's ears. "The same way you tell any human from another ethnicity apart: a little experience and spending time with them. Come on, the rest of this conversation shouldn't be held out in the open."

They made themselves comfortable in the living room while Hakon pulled out either tea or mead—both of which were lost to Talos so Hakon suggested the tea. Goose laid down on Tor's back as he trailed after Hakon until he settled and introduced the other two. "This is my wife Astrid and my father Lars. So, why do you want to find Mar-Vell's laboratory?"

Carol stared distrustfully at Hakon for a long minute before Talos answered for them, explaining the situation and much to her consternation—her problem as well. No one missed the sympathetic winces from Hakon and Lars which piqued Fury's curiosity but he didn't mention it.

Hakon listened closely and nodded along, Astrid and Lars sitting silently beside him—both sporting deepening frowns upon hearing about Yon-Rogg and the others already, undoubtedly, on Earth. Hakon took a deep breath, shoulders rising as he did so. "I'll give you the decloaker for the lab and program the coordinates into your jet, but you're gonna have to get out of Earth space quick. Once you fire up those engines, with their proximity, they're gonna come like a moth to a flame."

Carol frowned. "Can't you just give us the coordinates? I also have full access to Kree ships. I can decloak it myself."

Hakon smiled mischievously but sadly shook his head. "You didn't think I'd leave those codes active after Mar-Vell's assassination, did you?"

Carol scowled at him but it was more the thought than him while Fury hung his head.

Hakon stood and turned into the kitchen, rifling through a drawer—unnecessary as it was because it was in his magical pocket, but he had to make it look real. He returned to the sitting room and handed it to Fury who stared at Hakon. "You kept it in the junk drawer?"

Hakon beamed. "Who'd look there? Besides, it's kinda like a garage door remote."

Fury took the silver-black rectangle and leaned back on the couch. "You know, all those crazy things in you personnel file? I'm starting to believe them. I had thought a few were a bit farfetched but I don't think so anymore. Especially since you so casually greet an alien and bring him into your house for afternoon tea."

Astrid side eyed Hakon knowingly, like she had dealt with some of those situations personally and Fury felt for what she must have put up with before. Lars too looked at Hakon but his was far more as a companion of crime.

Hakon shrugged. "I met Mar-Vell years ago. I've long since gotten over that particular shock."

He started walking out and gestured for them to follow. Tor stood and Goose slid from his back then climbed up Hakon's leg until he rested in the slightly greying man's arms.

Talos grunted in frustration, eyes narrowing in dismay at the Flerken, making Hakon pause as he refused to budge. "Do we have to keep toting that thing around?!"

"Of course!" Hakon beamed. "He loves visiting the lab, huh, Goose? Unlike Tor here."

Torbjörg growled lowly and slunk to the corner, hackles raised, while Goose purred—eyes lighting excitedly.

Maria just shook her head at the tabby before looking over at Talos. "It's just a cat…are cat's on your planet poisonous or something?"

"It's a Flerken!" Talos defended, turning to Carol for help but she simply shrugged—agreeing with the other humans.

Hakon and Lars laughed before the former disappeared into the kitchen again while the older man leaned against the wall and waited for the show. Astrid watched with interest, having never seen the Flerken's signature feature but heard some humorous stories about Goose stealing tools and eating them until Wendy or Hakon gave him proper pampering attention before regurgitating them.

Hakon returned a moment later with a large salmon cut in half. He tossed the head to Tor who caught it like a normal, over eager dog. It was Goose who stunned and frightened the group as he opened his mouth and snatched the fish with tentacles spurting from his mouth.

Fury drew back slowly and stared warily at the definitely-not-a-cat in confusion and fear, Carol and Maria weren't much better, while Talos looked triumphant but still terrified.

Goose licked his lips then purred, rubbing against Hakon's who picked him up without fear. "So, you ready to go now?"

Fury looked uncertainly at the Flerken before glancing over at Talos' smug face, which settled his internal debate. "The cat still comes."

Talos sputtered and gestured to the Flerken, while Fury carefully took Goose from Hakon who was struggling to contain his giggles. "My point still stands. As long as he continues to freak you out like that, well, I am going to keep giving him all the loves and hugs that he needs."

Lars held a fisted hand to his mouth to hide his snicke. Fury glared at him as the agent carefully cradled the cat like a baby. It reminded him of Thor whenever he found a snake…admittedly, that one might have started when he learned to shapeshift and often turned into a snake to hide from his brother.

Hakon followed them onto the Quinjet and took the left pilot's seat, fiddling and typing commands into the computer.

Carol frowned as she watched Hakon input commands. "Why couldn't you just tell us the coordinates?"

Hakon looked over at his shoulder with a sly smile. "Do you know how the Vikings sailed the seas and wrote coordinates?"

She shook her head, eyes narrowing at the word 'Vikings', she tried to dredge up a memory but got nothing. Hakon turned back to the console, finishing up the mental conversions and inputting the commands. "Then trying to explain how that works and then how we convoluted and converted it to fit a three dimensional space would be a nightmare, and take infinitely longer than me just putting it in."

Fury groaned from behind her as he talked about his ancestors, drawing Talos' attention. "Is there something wrong with his coordinate classifications?"

Fury shook his head and took a resigned seat while glaring at Hakon's chair and groused, "Other than it's always in a language nobody understands? Makes replicating anything he makes near impossible."

"Kinda the point." Hakon shot the agent a pleased grin.

"Well it's annoying!" Fury snapped back.

The jet's computer beeped and Hakon nodded to Carol, evacuating the chair and made his way back out of the Quinjet but halted between Fury and Talos. "Uhm…uh, I-I have a confession."

Fury stroked Goose and raised his eyebrows but said nothing otherwise.

Hakon took a breath and his cheeks warmed a bit. "I, sorta, hid the Tesseract in the laboratory."

Fury's head tilts incredulously. "Then what had SHIELD been guarding?"

Hakon's nose twitched. He knew that Fury was slated to take up the position of Director of SHIELD in a year or so, but that fact that SHIELD had the Tesseract should not have been given yet. "A glowing cube of glass. Look, I don't care if you chuck it out into space, Odin knows it's caused Mi-Earth enough troubles b-"

Fury glared at him. "I'm not hucking Earth's best defense out for some other alien to snatch up!"

Hakon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I figured. Just wanted you and Talos to know so you can bring it back or decide if it should stay hidden with them. I'm all for the second option but considering they're refugees already, that would probably draw more attention than they'd like…Earth is a back water enough planet, apparently, that they won't even think about something like the Tesseract being here." Not to mention they'd be wary of Odin's wrath…or Hela's most likely.

Fury growled, but nodded. Hakon bade them farewell and disembarked, standing with his family at the fence line with Tor sitting on his toes. They watched as the jet lifted off the grass then shot into the sky. Hakon took a breath and turned to the others, Lars looked down at him. "I am surprised you did not go with. Do you trust Fury with the Tesseract?"

Hakon sighed, face conflicted but it quickly scrunched at the thought of yet another terrifying space excursion. "Midgard has to be ending before I'm going back into space. And no, not entirely, but he'll turn it back over to SHIELD. He's a stickler like that, so it can go back under the Archipelago's guard…I really don't like having it back on Midgard though. Especially not with Hydra growing in strength and the Kree so willing to encroach on Asgard's territory."

Loki hummed in agreement while he went quiet and Astrid wrapped an arm around his as they watched the jet fly so high it seemed to disappear.

*O*

A week later Hiccup got a message from Fury with a request to meet up at his office, attached was a report of the 'mission' aboard the lab. Hiccup felt his stomach twist at the mention of the Kree tracking them to the lab but it eased up as he read over Carol's defense of the Skrulls, humans and Tesseract. It didn't stop him from beating himself up over the stupid fact that he should have gone as well despite his hatred for space.

Hiccup gathered Toothless the next day and left for the SHIELD headquarters and Fury's office before the man himself. He took up residence in Fury's chair while Tor claimed Goose's bed, despite it being way too small for him and Hakon couldn't help but smile at that.

The door opened not long later and the dark skinned man entered with Goose tucked in his arms and a medical eyepatch over his left eye. Hakon stared at the three scars and wondered what Fury did to make Goose mad.

Fury stalled in the doorway upon spying Hakon. "You got here fast." He quickly recovered and closed the door.

Hakon smiled and leaned back in the reasonably comfortable chair. "Well, I still have my connections and my godson is Tony Stark."

Fury snorted and set Goose down who ran over to Tor and quickly made a nest in his fur.

Hakon stared at Fury, dubiously noting his three fresh scars. "So, what did you need? You sent me the report. What else is there?"

Fury gestured for him to move so he could access his desk. He fiddled with a key for a moment before getting the drawer open and pointing at the glowing cube. "Goose hacked it up the other day. I presume you will be putting it back into proper storage?"

Hakon sighed and grabbed a discarded coat, wrapping the Tesseract up in it to hide its glow. "Yes."

Fury nodded. "Good…What were you thinking, leaving it with those aliens?"

Hakon leveled Fury with a flat look. "Many things, Nicholas, but none of them you are privileged to know."

Fury glared at him but, to be fair, it seemed to be his neutral expression. "It's Fury and you would hide it away while threats like the Kree are out there to threaten us?"

Hakon tied the jacket and Tesseract to his belt and crossed his arms. "Until now, no one knew we had the Tesseract—they were leaving us alone because we were little more than ants to them."

Fury huffed and stood straight again. "Well now they know and we need to prepare to defend ourselves."

Hakon nodded and waved openly. "Sure, go ahead. But you're not using the Tesseract. To use it will only draw attention to Earth quicker and we're no way at all ready for that kind of war. Take my advice, Fury, the Tesseract isn't the answer to all your problems—it only creates them." He bent over and pet Goose before nodding to Fury. "Have a good day."

He and Tor left, making a quick stop at the storage facility to drop the cube off before deciding to visit Tony again.

Fury sat heavily in his chair with a huff and rubbed his forehead. Hyse was a pain.

Well, I hop the bit with Carol is fine. I rewrote it like a dozen times, all with wildly different story lines before I decided to settle with the this. Hope you have a great day!
Sœkja means to attack: advanced, proceed