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"Why is he doing this!" growled Doctor Volkh, scowling and tapping tobacco into his pipe irritably. "The Air Force doesn't matter, indeed, we've repurposed most of it's support staff and officers for other tasks. Why is he targeting of them, when he could just as easily be taught targeting other things?"
"I don't know!" Said Samantha, scowling at the man. "Why in the hall are you even here asking me these questions?"
"Because he is a magic user like you," Volkh said, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Don't bother denying it, I know that this crystal has nothing to do with science, it is all your power, all magical. Does he know something we do not? Are those bases somehow important to you? Or, or is it that he is in a position to break your spell. With that Afrikaner mutant freak Storm on his side, perhaps he could dissipate the cloud cover quickly enough to get the allies air power into play?"
"That is an idea perhaps, but he has shown no sign of being able to break our spell before this. Indeed, I thought the reason we had been not been seeing him in the field was because he was leading the opposition." Samantha replied, shocked at how bluntly the Russian equivalent of Reed Richards had spoken to prevaricate overmuch in her own response. I've worried about what he knows about us for a while now, is this the sign he knows even more than I fear?
"And it didn't occur to you to warn us! That you felt him pulling back from…"
"Magic doesn't work like that," Samantha growled, shaking her head as she interrupted Volkh's building accusation. "I can't feel when a specific opponent is removing himself from the battle like that, as if it was a physical battle, one wrestler trying to pull away from another perhaps. All I can tell you is the amount of pressure we are exerting against one another. That hasn't diminished, so either he has coerced another magic user to step in and help them, one of equal power, or something else is changed."
The idea of another magic user equal to Harry's power taking his place like that was quite frightening to Samantha. It was only because of their ability to work together, to send power through the crystal that allowed her race to battle on an even footing with the human mages. One such as Harry Potter could have defeated thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of her people alone, but he was facing billions, all of them tied into this spell. That was how important the Ocetite they had discovered here on earth was to their race.
With an entirely new source of Ocetite, they could renew their own resources, maybe even discover enough such crystals that they would be able to start to think about taking back their ancestral home from the Skrull. They would soon learn that magic always triumph over science in the end then, she thought grimly, almost losing herself in that pleasant fantasy and not for the first time.
She came back to the hear and now with a shake of her head. "If something else has occurred, I'm afraid I can't tell you what it could be. The magic, that is the magic system used here on earth is entirely different from my own at anything but the most basic level. Our attack spells are somewhat similar, but in this kind of contest, it's more about mental strength and ingenuity, and I'm afraid to say that Harry Potter has both of those in abundance."
Volkh grunted knowledge of that point, thinking furiously. "We will act on the assumption that he has such a means," he said at last. "Forewarned is forearmed after all."
Unfortunately for the Russians coming to that conclusion and then organizing a dispersal of their remaining Air Force assets were two very different things. The first took little to no time at all, the second required several hours of transmitted orders, and far more time to organize and get moving. Entire bases simply could not up and split into smaller units that easily, there was a lot of logistical minutiae to work over, what units would go where, transportation of the jets, would they be able to fly at all? Indeed, did they even have the assets available to do any of this.
It was an oft forgotten or overlooked aspect of warfare, but transportation and logistics it was a vastly important one. The Germans had neglected their logistics to their cost numerous times in both World War I and World War II. Tactically, they had magnificent commanders, but as more than one American General had put it, the Germans could not find their ass with both hands and a map in terms of logistics. Even Rommel, for all his vaunted tactical skill and personal charisma, was not good at all at logistics.
And the Russians, while better at it, did not have the resources that the Americans had. For all its size, the Russian economy was not nearly as flexible or as abundant in nature as the American, or even the British for that matter. For all of its small size, Britain actually had one of the best economies in the world, thanks in no small part to its extremely good relations with its former colonies, and the fact that it's empire in all but name still consisted of multiple well-placed islands the world over, something which, given the fact that the Falklands and Malta sent between them a hundred and sixty representatives to the House of Commons and ten to the House of Lords, the islands were somewhat happy about that, and well represented. In comparison Russia was a sprawling moribund monster.
So Harry was able to destroy another five Air Force bases, before the Russians just started to order their evacuation. And it was no coincidence that these two bases were two of the closest to the Caucuses front. That wasn't to say he didn't run into opposition of course. This opposition came mostly in the form of rockets and fighters, but on the fifth base that changed, somewhat.
Of the two mecha-robot units Russia could field, the Crimson Dynamo was the only one who could truly be said to be airworthy. The Titanium Man could travel in the air, but he was too ungainly and slow to really fight in the air. So it was a sole Crimson Dynamo who responded to the third attack Harry launched, this time attacking an air force base near the city of Nizhny Novgorod.
As he was finishing the shield spell around the base Harry blinked as rockets flared past them. They were tiny little things, but he had seen such before. Turning in the direction they'd come from, he spotted a Crimson Dynamo flying up through the air towards them, rockets flaring out from his shoulders even as he put his hands together and began to fire out beams of power, beams which somewhat resembled Havoc's mutant power in form if not in color.
In response Harry conjured up a shield, blocking them, then allowed the Crimson Dynamo to close, even as large fins appeared on its legs, spinning rapidly as they were ejected from the armor. These flashed towards Harry like remote-controlled frisbees.
Hitting one of them with a cutting spell Harry was not surprised to see they exploded. He then gestured with his other hand, using a simple Accio to grab control of them pulling them towards him first, then reversing the spell.
They flashed back towards the Crimson Dynamo who dodged wildly, even as his eyes opened up with energy beams, forcing Harry to block them again. "You will die wizard, die for mother Russia." the man shouted, his voice coming out like a blare of sound from his mouthpiece.
"Someone is going to die for Russia today, that is certain. Though whether your deaths serve your country or simply some faction within is up for debate." Harry shook his head, unwilling to bandy words further with this man. Between one second and the next disappeared from where he had been flying. Before the Crimson Dynamo could even realize he was there, Harry had touched his suit from behind.
A simple lightning spell, Fulgur, lashed out point blank, overloading the armor's systems, and sending him crashing to the earth. The man within the suit was almost able to flip the circuit breakers, which would've shunted the electricity into his weapons, but Harry shot a Bombarda at the man's back, and unable to dodge spell struck the man in the chest. His suit exploded, finishing the man off easily.
Harry watched as the Crimson Dynamo crashed to the ground, then actually saluted the man. It had been stupid to challenge Harry alone like that, but brave too. It served to remind Harry that whatever he might think, or even his allies, the Russian people at least believed in their cause just as much as the allies did and there are own, whatever the reason behind it.
Unfortunately, that doesn't really change what I am going to have to do to end this war. With that grim thought Harry turned back to his work. Within seconds another air force base was seared to ash, and he moved on, glancing back at the Crimson Dynamo, who had crashed just to one side of the base. "How in the world did they build so many of those anyway?" Harry mused aloud, before jetting upwards. Could the Mole Man be supplying them with that kind of thing? Or could the aliens? If they are able to aid the Russians materially, that's something we need to figure out quickly and how to stop it, if it doesn't stop on its own after we shatter their spell.
Speaking of which he thought as he broke atmosphere, heading towards High Note as he cast a bubbleheaded charm over himself. Activating his communicator he spoke into it asking, "Ororo, are you in position my love?"
OOOOOOO
Storm smiled as she too flew down through the gray and near impenetrable exceedingly cold fog that was the norm these days the world over above three hundred feet. She wondered idly if the Russians understood how badly transportation had been affected by this, not so much goods, since most goods still traveled in bulk by ship, but of people. Doctors, sick patients, the elderly. I suppose though we could put that down to the unintended consequence, rather than an intended consequence. With a shake of her head, she dispelled such thoughts, and smiled. "I'm nearly there now, Harry. Give me fifteen minutes, and I will contact Gaia directly."
Moments later, Storm came out of the fog at just above sea level, and tapped her communicator. "Ahoy US ass Ulysses, this is Custodes Mundi members Storm, come in please."
"Who is this? How did you get on this frequency!?" Shouted a young, shocked voice on the other end.
"I repeat Storm," said with a faint smile, now hovering above the ship, unseen by any below. "This is Storm of the Custodes Mundi. I am here to take part in Operation Whirlwind."
"God damn it, this is a secure…"
That voice was quickly interrupted by another voice, who though calm, went on to fillet the first man for being far too by the book and tone deaf as Storm listened in, somewhat amused by the lack of curse words in use at present.
"We were told that Storm would be joining us, you young idiot," that voice said, before calmly informing Storm she would be transferred over to the captain in a moment, with the admiral in attendance."
This was proven true a bare second later as a new, older sounding voice intoned, "This is the captain of Ulysses, Ms. Storm. I'm afraid we don't have visual on you."
"Make certain that no one is about to shoot me once you do then, and I will reveal myself." She replied.
"And that isn't supposed to be scary at all," the man muttered, shaking his head. "Wait one miss." Not three minutes later, the man was back. "All right, I have warned the deck monkeys to expect you, just don't get within arms' reach of any of them and then appear like a ghost or something similar, and we'll be fine."
"Perish the thought." Storm said with a faint smile. "If you want pranks of that nature, you would be best served talking to Guardian, not myself."
With that, she canceled her magical cloaking screen, and slowly descended through the gray cloudy sky until she alighted on the front of the super carrier. Several work crew had been hard at work making certain that no ice had built up on the fighters, which while not a big issue here in the Mediterranean Sea, should never have even been a consideration this close to the equator. Truly, the aliens have much to answer for. Their disdain for the natural order and this distortion of Earth's weather system is an affront to both the natural forces and my own sensibilities Storm thought to herself, as more and more men turned to star at her as she strolled along the main thoroughfare of the ship.
She was met by a junior lieutenant about fifty feet after she landed who ran up to him, saluting crisply even with his face showing the exertion of having run to meet her. That, and the fact he wasn't dressed nearly as warmly as he should be was also a clue. "Ma'am, the captain sent me to meet you. If you'll come with me, I'll escort you to the flag bridge."
Nodding acquiescence, Storm followed the younger man, although part of her noted that he wasn't actually all that young. I'm only twenty-seven now, but he seems so much younger to me. I suppose it is true what they say, is not the age but the mileage.
She was soon brought into the flag room of the super carrier, where an elderly gentleman turned, crisply nodded towards her, and gestured down at the large map on the computer screen that made up the top of the table in the center of the room. This was the USS Ulysses, a super carrier designed from the hull out as a fleet flagship. No expense had been spared in making certain that it would perform that activity as well as it possibly could. "Ma'am, I am Adm. Rothwell, I take it you're the young mutant that is going to do something about this blasted weather?" He asked drolly, as if there was anyone in the world by this point that had access to a television or radio that would not know who this regal a black woman was. Beyond that, there was the sheer regal aura that she gave off, even just walking through his ship Ororo had turned heads, and more than one man had found himself tipping his hat or saluting to her as if she was a superior officer.
"I am yes," Storm said with a faint smile acknowledging the unspoken words without bringing any attention to them. "Might I ask admiral, how long will it take you to ready your planes for launch?"
Rothwell turned to a few of his aides, who went into a huddle quickly, calling up various ship captains, among the carriers and three super carriers that had been brought together here. "About 45 minutes across the fleet, the Admiral finally replied as one of his men relayed that data to him. "Will that suffice?" Since they'd been busy preparing for this for three hours, that wasn't too shabby, though he was still unhappy about the amount of time it had taken to connect all the dots as it were.
Ororo smiled a little wider at that and nodded again. "In that case I will be out on your deck by the prow of the ship. When the skies clear, I expect that you'll know what to do."
The Admiral flashed a grin at her, but there was nothing humorous about the expression. It was more like the grin a shark would have when told yes, you can eat that Caribou that wandered stupidly into the water. "Ma'am, I have enough airpower here to wipe out whole militaries or even entire cities, you're darn tooting I'll know what to do with it."
Storm nodded her head for a third time, then left without another word, stalking back through the ship until she was by where she had sent down. There, she closed her eyes, and raised her hands as if in benediction to the sky. "Great mother, I believe now would be the time to release your fury."
"You know you don't have to be so formal when you pray my child?" said the mother Goddess in her mind, the image of her appearing there, a warm smile on her face.
"As Hela would say, some forms of respect should be maintained at all times," Storm replied drolly, as she sent out her power into the air around her. At the same time, she felt more than saw the mother Goddess unleashing the heat and power that she had been slowly accumulating sent through the runic doorway from the sun. And while the aliens might have somehow been able to fight Harry and the other earthborn magic users, whatever spell they were powering with could not stand up against the heat of the sun suddenly unleashed through the veins of the earth. Storm's magical senses jangled, as the aliens spell was stretched like a web suddenly trying to hold back several dozen watermelons where before it had been supporting a bare few. Then it shattered, unable to sustain itself.
Here in the Mediterranean, the effect was felt about 10 minutes later. The cold in the air slowly dissipated, replaced by the area's normal temperature just as slowly as Storm adroitly controlled the powers unleashed, making certain that there was no further damage one way or the other. Moments later, she watched out of the corner of her eye as more and more people raced towards their fighters.
A few minutes after the sky had begun to clear, a man ran up to her. He was middle-aged, seemingly of Hispanic origin, although he spoke in a crisp Mideast accent, with a hint of New Yorker added in for good measure. "Ma'am, I am the commander air group for this fleet, the name is Mattix."
"Commander? Is that the correct term to use or do I call you CAG?"
"Either is good ma'am," he replied with a smile although he was looking at her oddly almost disdainfully, and she sighed internally.
Another man who believes that a women has no place in the Butterfield, or someone who doesn't like mutants? Looking at his face, she couldn't quite determine which was going on here, but honestly it didn't matter.
"Are you going to be able to do anything with the crosswinds?" The man asked brusquely. "And how far does this visibility go?"
"I am leaving much of the overcast sky where it is for the moment. Once we cross the front lines between the Russian forces and the allied units, then I will dissipate it entirely. Until then consider it a smokescreen. She looked at the man closely putting on an air of worried concern. "I trust after that point you won't have to have your hand held?" He stiffened noticeably, and she smirked back at him, telling him without actually bringing attention to it that she had seen his attitude.
"No ma'am," he said through gritted teeth. "At that point, I believe that me in mind will do our duty."
"Very good. Now if you'll excuse me, this does actually take some concentration." Turning aside slightly, she once more reached out with her mutant power into the weather around her, her eyes going white, and then beginning to crackle with energy as she did. The sight unnerved the man quite a bit, and he backed away rapidly.
Not 15 minutes later, right on time the weather around the entire fleet was good enough to launch fighters, and she rose in the air, streaking upward then around coming back in with the wind behind her. "Launch fighters," she said calmly. "It is time."
She zoomed over the fleet, and as she hit the upper air in front of them heading towards the shores of Georgia the American fighters behind her launched, entire squadrons flashing into the air one after another. It took many of the fighter pilots aback when they saw that Storm was ahead of them as they raced towards Azerbaijan and Georgia, spreading out to the point where they could barely see each other's squadrons, despite the fact that the good weather went with them, the clouds ahead of them slowly being becoming distorted as Storm led the way, her call the front of weather coming with her.
With her headdress's built in communications gear she was able to not only connect to the CAG, but to every squadron commander in turn, and slowly began to outline what the front had looked like the day before from the Falcon's perspective. Since he was a military man he described it in those terms, for which all of the fighter pilots were grateful, and the CAG quickly put his animosity towards Storm to one side, taking in what she was telling him about the various targets, assigning squadrons, and making certain that the attack helicopters that they had also launched were following up behind them to give more directed air support.
The fighter pilots had a few different goals: first the scattered bunkers that had been emplaced by the Russians as command centers and defense for their artillery rockets, second the logistics depots nearest the front lines. These places would have ammunition, parts and gasoline for the various tanks and mechanized infantry units. Third would be any anti-air units. Since the Russians hadn't actually needed those very much on this front, they were scattered badly across the entire front line mostly reprogrammed as best they could be, to take on people like Polaris or the Falcon who could fly nape of the earth style. None of them would be pointed upwards as they had to be to target fighters on the prowl. But they would have to be taken out quickly, before follow-up attacks could be assigned. Given the sheer number of fighters racing behind Storm, even the fighter's fourth priority was going to get a pasting today.
And of course, there would be the tank parks. Even here in the Caucuses, it was the Russian tanks, not only their quality, but the quantity of them that had been making a lot of trouble for the defenders. There just weren't enough tanks in Azerbaijan, Georgia or even all of Turkey (a large portion of which were still struggling to get to the front lines) to stem the tide of the tanks for very long, except by using the terrain against them. Doing more than that had become the main job of those Custodes Mundi who had been sent in there.
But those same tanks would now become just so many targets. The tank brigades and resting areas would be targeted by the fighters, and then would come of the attack helicopters, the natural enemy of tanks. The American naval forces had four frigates that were dedicated to launching helicopters, but they had been held in reserve up to this point, not because they couldn't fly low enough to be of use, but because no one had wanted to send them out alone unaided. But now those attack helicopters were being joined by Turkish forces, who had finally agreed to send them forward, and what few attack helicopters existed in Georgia or Azerbaijan and the first few Indian helicopters to reach the front.
They would hit a bare two hours after the fighters had broken off their own attack, but they would be deadly for all of that.
Soon enough Storm could see the front ahead of them, and she smirked, imagining the consternation and the growing fear as the clouds suddenly began to dissipate, along with the weather slowly returning to normal. Casting a spell on her eyes for a moment, she could even see ahead of them as troops on the allied front tore off their winter clothing shouting and joy from behind their various defensive positions. In contrast the Russians were dismayed, and only reluctantly did the same.
But then she was over the front, streaking past well above where the enemies anti-air weapons, mostly the Tesla variety rather than the more traditional rockets, could currently reach. As she did, she opened communications to all of the fighters behind her. "I know it's rather cliché and all too dramatic, but someone has to say it. Ladies and gentlemen of the Mediterranean Fleet, bring down the sky!"
With that, she too lashed out downwards, flinging bolts of lightning the size of buildings, tornado winds condensed into the size of spears which ripped and shredded into their targets. And then she was away, screaming her joy to the sky as behind her, the fighters of nearly the entire US Navy roared in, bringing the thunder with them. And it was indeed as if the sky was falling for the Russians.
OOOOOOO
The power of winter over Eastern Europe and the Caucuses ended with a near physical wrench, or so it seemed on the immaterial plane of magic. The spell broke as it was overcome, despite the over four billion Dire Wraiths powering the spell from back on their home world. No matter how powerful the spell, no matter how many minds it took to have created the spell in the first place in order to bring about the death of a planet's weather system and its inherent magical personification the enchantment just couldn't withstand the heat of the sun released against the spell.
And the stronger the enchantment, the worse it was for those who were empowering it when it was broken. For those Dire Wraiths connected to the spell it was like having a red-hot poker slammed into your brain, and they couldn't break away, their minds were too broken to create the effort needed to disconnect themselves from the coven spell that bound them through thousands of corresponding stones scattered around their planet to the primary stone on earth.
"I have them," Dr. Strange said almost instantly as the spell shattered. He looked up at the screen facing the magic users and the infiltration team, placing his fingers above and around the eye on his broach clasping his cloak around his neck. "Let the All-seeing Eye of Agamoto burn through the fog blinding it at last and find our enemies!" At his words a thin beam lanced out from the eye up into the image.
About 10 minutes later, Hela was on the ground, with her team moving into the center of the town where the epicenter of this magical assault on Earth had begun. It was a town near Stalingrad dominated by soldiers and intellectuals in turns. There were signs everywhere for different research institutes, different training centers, and of course, numerous bars and brothels for off-duty soldiers.
Even though they were currently wearing the guise of civilian if not for the fact that Hela was cloaking them all from the interest of those around them, they would be standing out like sore thumbs. "First things first," she said crisply as she led them down a street, staring all around them. "Morph, I believe a regular trooper for now will do. One who is very visibly off-duty. Psylocke, you will help find a more appropriate target to give us another avenue for our inquiries. Garm, shrink to the size of a regular dog and go with him. Your nose should discern one who has been near the aliens we are hunting. Young Kitty and I and Neophyte will search for a hiding place for ourselves"
Garm whimpered. "Mistress, have I offended you in some way of late? To stick me with the odious mouthy one is a little cruel, is it not?"
"Be about it my wolf, and none of your lip," Hela said, stroking the giant wolf's jaw line tenderly. "Go. And remember what we are hunting here, the souls of a most foul species to bring such evil magics to this planet, our chosen home."
"I will find them mistress," Garm replied, all business now as he let his fangs show.
"Can't you see where to go magically?" Betsy asked as she looked around, wondering where to start her own search. "I thought Dr. Strange's spell would be able to pinpoint our target better than that."
"No, there is a separate obfuscation spell around the entire area, blocking magical insight. It's a wonder that Strange was able to narrow it down to this town in the first place. That Eye of Agamoto is a most puissant item." Hela replied ruefully having indeed hoped that would be the case and rather irritated to have to rely on the senses of others for this part of their mission.
"There don't seem to be many women around, that's odd," Kitty muttered, a comment that was answered by nods of agreement even as Morph and Garm broke off, the morphing man heading for the nearest bar disguised as a random trooper underneath Hela's spell as Garm padded beside him.
"I think we're in the wrong part of town for the scientists, and as far as I know there's only what, one woman for every few thousand men in military service?" Betsy asked. "Not certain about the exact numbers. Now come on, let's find ourselves a hotel room or something to hide out in. I presume Garm will be able to lead Morph back to us Lady Hela?"
"Of course," Hela said with a snort. "My wolf's nose is many times stronger than any mortal dog's. If I believe he won't be fooled by this alien shapeshifters, why do you think he would be unable to find me, his mistress? And I do believe I spot a sign there saying apartment for rent. That will do us nicely I think."
Using her telepathy, Betsy was able to discover which apartment was empty at the moment. It turned out to be a tiny thing, barely five yards by five yards including the kitchen area, but it would do for now. They were there for about forty minutes before Betsy, who had been searching for interesting thoughts or minds among the populace around them, blinked staring off to the side. "I think I found an officer, he's very worried, broadcasting his thoughts, I can feel them from here without even concentrating on them."
Hela nodded, and told her to get in touch with Morph and direct him to the man in question. Soon Morph entered the apartment along with Garm, shifted through the walls by Neophyte and Kitty. Morph looked like an off-duty sergeant, while behind him Neophyte came along, pulling the man's victim through the walls.
"Do we have time to be gentle about this?" Betsy asked staring at the man. "If we don't wake him, I'll have to brute force it rather than use subtlety."
"That's easily solved and a rather silly concern Betsy," Hela said tartly. With that she leaned down slapping the man hard across the face. He jerked awake, and then Betsy was on him, grabbing his head with both of her hands and staring into his eyes.
The man didn't even have time to cry in pain before he stiffened as Betsy grabbed control of his mind, rifling through his memories. She slowly pulled out information to give morph enough of a background to play the man, as well as a direction to go. "It's called the Institute of parallel thought, although that's not exactly a good translation, essentially it means to be thinking outside the box, I guess. Or off-the-cuff solutions maybe? I'm missing some of the nuance there. But I've got enough for us to work on I think."
She looked over at the others. "The woman we want is named Samantha Orlanova. She is the head of what is called Project General Winter."
"These Russians seem to be obsessed with the idea that winter is on their side," Hela groused. "Still, that does sound like the project we're here to discover."
Neophyte nodded, and then with Kitty beside him, disappeared down into the ground for a moment, reappearing in the sewer system, where they moved forward, Betsy's voice in their heads directing them forward while the others waited. But when they neared their target to their surprise they had to stop. Ahead of them was what looked like a cage of electrical currents set into the ground around the target Institute.
Returning to the others they shook their heads. "Someone seems to have figured out phasing power," Kitty reported sourly. "We can't get through."
"Morph, it's up to you now then." Hela said, turning to the mouthy one.
Morph saluted. "Yes ma'am," he said in his best Russian accent, causing everyone around them to wince.
Betsy quickly stripped off the bracelet she had been wearing, which allowed her to translate Russian into English, tossing it to the man. "Use that, put it underneath your clothing, and remember don't ham it up too much."
"I'm wounded you would think there was even a possibility I would do such a thing," morph said with a chuckle, looking over to Neophyte, who he knew better than Kitty. At the same time, his body began to shift into the body of the man now currently tied up and mumbling to himself in the corner. "Get me to someplace near the Institute, I'll do the rest."
And I'll be riding your mind all the way," Betsy said both aloud and telepathically straight into Morph's mind.
"No, that's not creepy at all, freaking telepaths," the shape changer muttered, shaking his head.
As the two men moved off, Hela looked over to Betsy. "Did you get anything more about the security we're dealing with?"
Quite a bit, I'll be able to direct him once he's inside easily. But I think we're not going to have an easy time of it. This Samantha woman, she's devised a lot of additions to the security of the place that sound kind of like wards to me. There's also a super-powered group called the Bogyatiri or something that the man's interacted with. He doesn't know all their powers, but they are definitely a super-powered team."
Hela smiled grimly. "And here I was worried this might be boring." She touched the hilt of a sword that Betsy hadn't noticed she'd been wearing at her waist before this. "I have much to teach these fools, yes indeed."
The group moved forward, with Kitty scouting around, they were able to find a small, out of the way rooftop set directly near the Institute. It was within sight of several snipers on the roof to the complex they were targeting, but it was beyond the security of the wards Hela could sense woven around the place. With Hela's spells still around each of them they waited while morph infiltrated the place.
For his part Morph moved up to the troopers on guard duty, crumbling somewhat in irritation while exchanging a few words with the man on duty, as Betsy closed her eyes, giving morph as much as she could in terms of aid, like names and other things as well as how the man should act after coming back from what should have been a conjugal visit with his mistress, which had not come off due to feminine issues. After bitching about it for a bit he saluted the two men on duty, then moved inside out of sight of those on the roof.
"He's in," Betsy said unnecessarily. "Moving up to the second story, heading towards the security rooms."
Inside the Institute, morph saluted several higher ranked officers as he passed them by, fighting the urge to actually click his heels together. Wait was that a Russian thing or German thing? Hmm, German I think, at least that's what it was in the movies. Heh, then I suppose performing the full goose-stepping Hail Hitler move would give the game away for certain. Although, given the age of that last officer maybe I could've killed him with a heart attack. That'd be funny at least.
He was soon inside the security room of the institute. This was a large complex, about 30 feet to aside lined with different consoles and twenty other men on duty. Perhaps we didn't think this through so well. He exchanged a salute with one officer in command of several other men, his cover's habitual position, and then moved over to salute another man, saying in Russian, "I relieve you."
The man nodded, saluted back. "I stand relieved."
As he sat down, morph leaned over to one of the others. "What happened while I was off duty? They're all running around outside like seals from an orca."
The man glanced over at him, then back to the officer in charge of the room who sat on a small dais in the center behind them. Then he leaned in, whispering "something seems to have gone wrong with the Crystal of Ever Winter. Dr. Samantha and more than a few of the others who were observing it seem to have been afflicted by some kind of fit, even a few of the soldiers down there, both on duty and off! No one knows what it was, they're too busy screaming to tell us. Volkh is down there with them trying to get something out of them, but you couldn't pay me to go down there for love or money. It sounds like they were being tortured or something."
"Maybe that thing really is radioactive then, and it's effected their minds," morph said slowly, as Betsy fed him the line. Apparently, it was as a concern of many of the lower ranked soldiers that made up the security team here. "I think you're right, I'll do my best to stay up here from now on yes? And so should everyone else".
"Oh, I think you can take it as a given that will be obeying that particular order even more than before."
Morph chuckled and nodded. "See that you do."
About an hour passed as morph looked around him, taking in the activity, as well as monitoring his own workstation, where he was ostensibly watching over nearby radio traffic, looking for any anomalies that could indicate something was wrong in the area. He was looking around for the controls to the security grid that was blocking out the two shifters, when Betsy got in contact with him.
"Don't bother. Harry just showed up, it looks as if the idea of going in quietly at first is out the window. I told them that the aliens were still all down with the screams, and he seems to think that that means we can brute force it now." she said mentally. "Just get ready, because we're coming in."
OOOOOOO
That was indeed what Harry and Hela both thought. With the aliens, the only magic users ostensibly on the Russian side, down for the count, that left magic to get them all in, and once Harry removed the wards they did so easily and with far less fanfare than Betsy had supposed. The Dire Wraiths were, after all, keeping the fact they were magical secret from most of the Russians around them, and hadn't, as far as the officer Betsy had interrogated knew, linked their wards into the non-magical defenses, if they even could. Mixing technology and magic was a very difficult thing after all. the fact they didn't trust the Russians with knowledge of their magic was also a deciding factor.
Once the wards were down between Harry and Hela it was the work of but a few seconds to cover the small group with spells enough to bamboozle even most magicals. And then they were moving forward, walking straight up to the front gate of the Institute and inside without anyone the wiser or even trying to stop them.
Are we going to play like this all the way?" Betsy asked, somewhat amused by the experience. Yeah, we really shouldn't point out how easy magic makes sneaking around. There're too many professional paranoiacs out there who hate the boss and us as it is.
"Doubtful," Harry said grimly. "We underestimated the time it would take to actually pinpoint this place once the spell was broken, and I doubt we have more much more time before the Dire Wraiths recover. When that happens, I'll want us in as advantageous a position as possible. Garm, if I can convince you to leave Lady Hela's side for a brief moment, I think that morph could use your help in the security center. Neophyte, go with them, you'll be their emergency out, unless you think you can do what kitty can and stick people into things?"
"Probably not," Neophyte admitted. "That sounds a little too permanent to me if I'm honest."
"You're telling me," kitty muttered. "Still, right now I'd do it to the lot of them for what the winter cold did to people. Do you know how many people have died from exposure the world over from that? it's not just the military that suffered, that's for sure, despite Jean's efforts."
"Lady Hela, Betsy, Kitty, with me please, the lab we're after is in the basement, and I think we need to get a move on," Harry urged, actually breaking out into a light jog, endangering the spells keeping everyone around them from seeing him, but thankfully they were able to get to and into the elevator that would take them down to the super-secret laboratory. Opening that elevator was but the work of a moment for Kitty, who just phased through the door and opened the elevator from the other side.
The elevator came out into the middle of a small, semi-circular room with security guards stationed behind glass, but with the rest of the lab abutting directly into the security section. The lab spread out from there, almost as wide as a track field, with large banks of computers, dozens of scattered glass containers and other smaller lab stations scattered around.
But the main attraction was the central-most dais, visible from the elevator through the four guards stationed behind their glass shield. Set onto that dais was a large crystal of a deep, dark blue color, which seemed to pulse with a chill inner light. feeding into and out of the dais were dozens of large cables set along the floor, and the crystal itself was hooked up to monitoring devices.
Harry however doubted those computers were actually reporting on the crystal itself because he, Kitty and Hela instantly knew the truth of what they were seeing here. This thing, this crystal, was a creation of magic, not science. It practically blazed to their senses, a frozen bonfire. And there was no way these unprotected computers could be telling anyone anything about it.
The group had just all made it out of the elevator when their good luck ended: the group of alien scientists had finally begun to recover from the shock of their enchantment breaking. One of them looked blearily out past the guard position toward the elevator, and spotted Hela and Harry coming somehow through their spells. The man's eyes widened and he shouted, "Alarm! Intruders. It's the potter and someone else. They wreak of magic!"
The fact that the man who shouted this was a regular military officer, who should've had no business knowing about magic was immaterial at present, as was Harry's castigating himself for not remembering that the alien which had been the one to spot him and Piotr skulking around the Russian Super-soldier base. All of the people within the lab turned in the direction of the two magic users, and putting his self-recrimination aside, Harry shrugged while Shadowcat faded back into the wall of the elevator and Hela and Psylocke spread out, rushing towards the guards around the security wall. "It looks as if the jig is up!"
"Then it behooves us to get a move on." With that, Hela lashed out with one hand, sending a blast of black and green energy at the door separating the area around the elevator from the rest of the laboratory. The laboratory door didn't so much explode as simply disappear under the impact, which continued into the area, blasting apart two guards, and forcing others, including one man who stretched to get out of the way almost like Reed Richards, into dodging away wildly.
Four others however spread further to the side of her assault remained in position. They opened fire instantly, but Harry blocked them with two shields to either side, letting Psylocke follow on Hela's heels. Kitty just ignored their fire, moving through the wall and into their faces, flashing through them and then once behind turning solid just long enough to drop a shock rune at the feet of two of the guard's feet. then she was gone, racing further into the lab to cause chaos.
Then Harry was in among the survivors of the guard detail with Betsy and Hela following.
Disdaining their disguises, the aliens among the scientists and soldiers showed themselves by quickly bringing their hands up, and started to shoot out spells towards Harry and Hela. These seemed a mix of explosive and cutting type spells, but they were little to no threat to the main two attackers.
Hela dodged this way and that, lashing out with her own magics, with beams of destruction that disintegrated everything they touched, lashings of fire that set people alight. Harry did much the same, although his spells were cutting spells, and he didn't concentrate on the aliens. Rather he turned his attention on to the Mr. fantastic look-alike first. "And you would be?"
"I am Dr. Volkh, the leader of the Bogatyri. And you will never leave here alive Harry Potter!"
"Like I haven't heard that one before," Harry quipped, conjuring up another magical shield to block a blast of power from a tall leggy looking blonde woman. She wore a uniform that really looked more like it should be a bathing suit in his opinion but to his surprise she was a real threat. This was proven when her blast pierced through his magical shield and slammed into him like a kick from the Hulk.
It lifted him off the floor and flung him backwards to crash into the wall behind him, but otherwise didn't hurt thanks to his Magia Erebea and crysis suit. He lifted himself up out of the rubble his fall had created, grabbing some of it with his magic and one hand tossing it in the air, hurling it forward at the woman.
She dodged and ducked, moving almost as lightly on her feet as Black Widow, like a ballet dancer mixed with an assassin. It was almost pretty, if not for the fact that she was trying to kill Harry with photokinetic blasts of energy. The woman turned around, sending out a smaller blast towards Hela, who met it with her sword, cutting through it, but the sword was nearly pushed back into Hela's face, forcing her to back away quickly even as Harry was pinned in place for a brief second.
This created an opening for one of the aliens, who started to cast a spell that entrapped Hela in the ground. Hela however responded with her own spell, sending a blast of kinetic force through her feet which shattered the ground underneath her, letting her fly out of the hole towards the enemy spellcaster.
At that point Harry had no more time to waste on watching Hela's aspect of the fight. Instead, a man wearing a purple and dark blue suit with a large metal protected neck area attacked him from one side along with a dozen troopers. From his head came arcs of dark red energy, flashing out to grab at Harry and throw him away.
Telekinesis, Harry thought with a nod, before simply breaking the attack with a magical assault of his own. He then leaped up, bouncing off of the ceiling and sending a cutting spell down with one hand, while he started to concentrate on another spell directing it with his other hand.
This was an advanced version of the Animagus revealing spell from his home dimension, a more powerful enchantment geared towards forcing transformed individuals back into their base form. It was something that Dr. Strange and Harry had come up with while talking during the battle against the alien's ever-winter spell.
This was the first time Harry would be using it but if it worked, well he would have to see how wide an area the spell could affect quickly. "veritas reveletur (Truth be revealed)!"
The spell was a white and gray mist almost though the mist didn't act like gas should, flaring out faster than it would have under the impact of a hurricane force wind. And it spread out from Harry's house stretched hand to fill the room from one side to the other within seconds. The mist-like quality was odd to Harry and he wondered if he would in fact be able to use it outside at all given that. But regardless of its odd physical component, it certainly worked. Where before there had been seventy Russians in the large laboratory, with about thirty of them sending spells towards Harry and Hela, now were revealed fifty-two alien creatures, outnumbering the humans there.
The aliens were stocky, almost obese creatures with red or brown skin that looked like some mix of skin and scale, neither one nor the other with thick, short tails. Their arms were broad, and had what looked like vestigial wings growing out of them, but hands that more closely resembled pincers and tentacles combined. They had large pupil-less eyes over small beaks out of which a long drill like tongue flicked, the end barbed and opening revealing a funnel within.
the aliens' sheer ugliness took many a Russian nearby aback as the majority of the Russians backed away from the monsters revealed in their midst. The only ones who continued to move were the telekinetic and Volkh. Even the woman who had been blasting away at Harry with her photokinetic beams of power was now looking around her in horror. "W, what did he do to you all?"
Fire from the humans faltered, as they turned their guns on these strange creatures among them in fear, but the aliens too were slow to react. Many of them were simply shocked they had been so revealed, and stared down at their real bodies with horror, and more than one of them shouted "he has revealed us to the humans!"
If they had been smarter, they could've gone with the photo-kinetic user's interpretation. maybe make the others think that it was a spell from Harry that caused it. But there were too many cries like that for Samantha and her fellows to try to pull the wool over the surviving guards' eyes.
Hela took immediate advantage of the distraction, racing forward and stabbing her sword straight through one of the aliens. Her blow lifted it up off of its feet like a bug before she twisted around and tossing the alien aside, bringing her sword around again to cut the head off of another. She then blocking a series of spells with one hand almost negligently, the spells dissipating to reveal she had conjured up a tiny shield to cover her hand, using it to slash through the alien spells.
While she was doing that, Harry was dealing with the two humans in the room who were still intent on fighting him. "So I take it that this revelation was no surprised to the two of you?" he said dryly as he dodged a large rubber fist as it flew by him.
"I do not care what allies we were forced to work with, what they get out of this alliance is immaterial. Russia will prosper, will grow and conquer! The glorious Communist Party will return, with me at its head! Like Stalin and Lenin before me I will remake the world!"
"The truth is revealed once again," Harry said, sending a cutting spell into the man's outstretched fist as he tried to again punch Harry, cutting it from the knuckle of his middle finger down to about the elbow. Rubber was a great thing to have against electrical attacks, or exploding type spells, but cutting spells were another matter entirely.
The man fell back with a cry of agony, and then blinked as most of the Russians around them turned their guns on him. "Traitor!" shouted more than a few of them.
Those men died as the aliens turned their magics on them. Before Harry could intercede four of them were dead, but then the woman with the photo kinetic powers got involved, blasting one of the aliens to ash, before turning her powers on her own fellows shouting, "you knew! You sold us out to the alien! That is no better than making mother Russia a slave, a circus break doing its master's bidding."
Smiling grimly Harry pushed deeper into the lab after Kitty and Psylocke who had kept moving trying to keep to the shadows, with an astonishing amount of success in the British woman's case. As he went harry lashed out with further cutting spells and lightning type spells, because sadly most of the Russians were still firing on him and his team. They also fired on the aliens causing further chaos. At the same time two of the more powerful seeming magic using aliens in the room dueled with Hela, and the telekinetic turned his attention away from Harry since Harry had left him behind dodging through the laboratory join that battle.
this was a mistake since even with a dozen yards and several large computers between them Harry saw this and took advantage of it. He lashed out with a few Bombarda spells, shattering what little defenses the defenders had left, sending both the explosion of those spells and the large amount of debris into the most organized groups of soldiers and scientists he saw, slamming them down and backwards, or simply cutting them to ribbons.
Once the last organized resistance against the four attackers was broken, Harry began laying about him with stupefy and Immobulus spells, seeing no reason to kill the remaining humans among the workers here, despite their being so few in number. "I want one prisoner at least among the aliens!" he shouted in a loud voice.
At the same instant the photokinetic user went down from a punch from the rubber man, and Hela found herself basically enveloped in, as he squeezed.
"Really," she drawled, staring at him in amusement "Really? How droll." Her eyes lighting up with fire, she intoned a single word, "Sjelbran! (Soul fire)"
Instantly the man screamed, releasing her quickly and falling to the ground nearby, shivering and rolling on the floor as he tried to put out the flames. Rubber was somewhat inflammable, but not from fire like that, which burned on the astral level as well as the physical. The next second, her booted foot slammed into his chest, pinning him to into the ground.
Elsewhere alarms were blaring, and Harry could hear the sound of booted feet racing towards the laboratory. But before he could do anything Kitty was by the elevator doors. She had been using her magic to take out scientists here and there, targeting those who seemed to be reaching for communicators or controls of any kind and doing a bang-up job of it too. Now she gestured with both of her hands, conjuring a wall of metal that stretched across the lab's elevator sealing them in.
Of course, with Kitty, me and Hela all here that isn't exactly an issue for us, Harry mused. With the battle now practically over bar a few aliens Betsy was dealing with at that moment and their backs secure, Harry moved over to the unconscious photo-kinetic user, placing his fingers against her throat and sighing sadly as he felt no pulse there. Whatever her offensive powers, it was clear the woman hadn't benefited from any added durability. "Dammit! She could have been an important witness to everything that was going on here behind the scenes of this war."
"This one killed her then?" Hela said, gesturing to her prisoner as she threatened to slice into his throat with her sword. An immobilization spell held him still. Without any other enemy magic user to release him, he was now as stuck as a bug on a pin. The man's utter rage and fury at being so easily handled showed through clearly, which brought a smile to Harry's face.
He moved over to the other down humans, casting similar spells on them. There are perhaps seven other human survivors of the battle, and of them Harry knew that at least two had been among those who turned their weapons on the aliens. Those two, he picked out, and used a few healing spells on before reviving them from their stunned state.
When they reached for their weapons, he held up a hand, his tone so firm and commanding that it halted them in place with no magic needed. "Stop. It is time I believe that we get to the truth of what is been going on here. The young lady over there was correct I think, your mother Russia has been used in this war to serve the ends of the aliens, and I think you at least deserve to know why."
This was the start of a plan that Harry hoped to use to both stop the war sooner than it would otherwise be and also to bring Russia onboard with the EDF. There was a reason after all why invading Russia was such a bad idea: size. The nation was huge, and unless they used the Russian army's hidden tunnels, they would be faced with the massive issue of moving armies over fast amounts of territory with only scattered roads, let alone everything else needed to move a modern army. And even with the alien spell snapped, it was still winter. The winter wouldn't be so very bad any longer, but it would still have to be allowed for.
So if the Russians could somehow be convinced they had been duped, then they might sue for peace. If they at the same time asked for help from the EDF to reveal the aliens in their midst, no one could then deny it, and Harry would gain the gigantic nation's aid in the defense of Earth. In this manner Harry would be saving lives on both sides. It was a long game, and one that might not work until the Russians in command of the country at the moment were removed, but it was worth a shot.
The two security guards looked at one another, then realizing how helpless they were at the moment, nodded. They removed their hands from their weapons, which Harry indicated they could keep to show how little a threat they were to them or Hela. Even Betsy was somewhat bullet proof thanks to her Custodes uniform being lined with tiny Orichalcum scales underneath the exterior lining.
Looking around he spotted Kitty now kneeling by the crystal incubator system, frowning as she felt the magical power of the thing, using a few magical diagnoses spells . "Harry this is it for certain," she reported. "This is the thing they were using the power that Cold spell. But... there's something else here, I think it's connected to others, like those statues you had me look at almost. There's a lot of magic still coming into even now.
Harry nodded her at it, then looked over to the doctor and the other downed aliens, the telekinetic having been ripped to pieces by one of his earlier spells. Before turning to the two security guards. "I will be using a truth potion on that one," he said pointing at the Volkh. "Ask him any questions you wish. He will respond, but be specific as possible and make certain you believe the fact the truth potion is real quickly before moving on to more important questions."
Harry wanted this done by the Russians primarily because that way when they left, these two would be able to spread the story as honestly as possible. To that end, he looked at Hela. "Ask only a few questions yourself please lady, let these two do most of the questioning. But keep an eye on that one, and the alien prisoners." There were four still breathing aliens scattered throughout the room, but they were trussed up in conjured nets, and Betsy was in the process of dragging them together.
"And what will you be doing?" Hela asked.
Gesturing to the ceiling above them through which they could hear the sounds of violence above them, Harry smiled grimly. "That spell I used to reveal the alien worked as advertised. So I'm going to see if I can use it on a wider scale."