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With that, Harry teleported back to the meeting area where they had all gathered outside of the Institute, before flying up out and above it. With security on high he was seen, but that didn't matter as he covered himself with a shield against the heavy flak cannons, which pushed themselves out of the ground here and there throughout the area. So protected, he spread out his hands to encompass the Institute from one end to another. Then Harry intoned the same spell he'd used earlier. A brief second later there were cries and screams from below as the aliens were revealed.
Yet again, if they had reacted appropriately and shouted something like 'what has happened to us', or attempted to put the blame on the sudden aerial intruder and his obvious attack they could have turned the battle around, though it probably would not have held up for long. But, none of them thought of that idea quickly enough, and more than a few of them turned on their former fellows shouting, "We've been revealed, we must eliminate the witnesses!"
The battle within had begun when alarms from the basement had gone off and Garm and Morph had attacked in the security room. But another superpower individual, this one being a pure power type, had broken into the room, engaging Garm in a wrestling match to the death, forcing Morph to face the rest of the now-aware security forces alone. He had retreated into the security room with Neophyte pulling him out into a separate room from where he attacked the security forces as best he could. Since most of them were trying desperately to stop Garm from tearing the strong guy. whose name was Svyatogor, apart, the two of them did this maneuver several dozen times.
now, with Harry's spell in action, the battle soon became general. The Russians and the aliens now fought one another as much as the invaders, magic on the one side, weaponry and a few more in terms of numbers on the other. Observing this as he moved around the place and saw the chaos ever escalating, Harry nodded. "I Think my job is done here." With that he teleported himself back to the underground laboratory.
There Hela holding back the two security guards by the back of their shirts literally holding them up off the ground as they attempted to attack the doctor who had apparently betrayed not only his country, but humanity as a whole in a mad delusion of power. Even as she did so, Hela asked "If you understood the goals of the Dire Wraiths as you call them, how are they at all compatible with your dream of becoming a dictator of a new communist Russia. And be as detailed as possible if you please."
"The aliens have a weakness," the man said calmly. "One I do not know if they even know about. They are highly sugar dependent. They need the equivalent of four times a human's sugar intake with every meal or they get the shakes and are unable to perform any cognitive functions. Cut them off from that, or poison them through their sugar intake, and they are easily enough to handle. I had plans already in place. Further, each of the aliens in this Institute were fitted with so-called security cards, much like my countrymen. But since I had long discovered a scientific means of detecting them, I was able to place within their security cards small explosive devices. I also had contacted many of our generals, who agreed with my scheme."
That shut the two Russian security guards up, and they hung limply in Hela's hands until she set them down. "I want to be clear on this," one of them said. "This war was not a battle against the imperialism of the West, or to regain our lost glory. It was simply a war of conquest? One made in relation with the Dire Wraith's goals of this new mineral?"
"Yes," the doctor said simply. "We would make Russia great again."
"We were already great!" shouted the other guard.
"Incorrect," said calmly, and Harry frowned looking over at Hela quizzically but holding up a hand when she made to open her mouth. "Emma, I know you're monitoring us, pass over to Hela that the Veritaserum is affecting the doctor oddly, but in the way I've seen before. This is something he wants to get on off his chest, he wants to share his accomplishments."
"Like most megalomaniacs, he does seem to like the sound of his voice," Emma said in reply while she used Harry's senses to listen in at the same time she passed on that information to Hela.
The three of them listened as the doctor began to explain about how the economy of Russia was slowly becoming stagnant, that they just didn't have enough infrastructure to grow their economy as much as they should. That despite the size of the country, their economy actually wasn't very good producer-type economy. They needed their satellite countries back in order to pump both resources and food into their economy. The only exceptions were Finland and Kazakhstan which have nothing to offer anyone he said dryly. "But the Mole Man and the Dire Wraiths wanted them, and it a small price to pay for their aid."
"How many of your generals do you know for a fact are aliens in disguise?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Very few," the man replied honestly. But he also stopped a little too quickly.
So warned Harry asked the next obvious question, that of how many officers throughout the military did he know were Dire Wraiths.
"Very few," Volkh said again.
"How many do you have suspicions about being Dire Wraiths? How many do you have evidence that might point to that?" Hela asked irritably.
The man stayed silent, fighting the impulse to reply, but eventually he was forced to speak. "We believe two out of every six colonels, one out of every 15 majors. Much of the Russian central command structure, the Field Marshalls, are inundated with possible Dire Wraith infiltrators."
"What about on the other side of things? How many politicians and political leaders?" one of the Russians asked in growing horror.
Again the man tried to fight it. Deep down underneath the truth serum Volkh knew that he personally had lost. In all honesty he was now trying to fight a scorched earth campaign in order to force Harry and the others to fight for every question they asked.
It didn't work. Volkh wasn't a magical, and while he was very disciplined individual, he had no defense against the potion's effects. He could possibly have fought off a telepath, given the large metal neckline of his suit which was no doubt lined with some kind of technological defense, but not the power of the potion. Eventually, they got out that the Russian president, four of the security council, and several dozen federation council members along with hundreds of state duma representatives were aliens. At the lower town and city-level their infiltration efforts began to subside, except around areas like the one the Institute was currently in, where they had interests.
Shaking his head, Harry doused the man with another two drops of Veritaserum and turned him entirely over to the two security guards. "Just don't kill them, you'll need him as a witness."
With that done, Hela and Harry turned their attention to the unconscious Dire Wraiths. Unfortunately, all of their prisoners turned out to be low-level functionaries, a security guard for the true scientists in the room, none of whom had survived their assault alive, or even whole. That irritated Harry, but they were at least able to tell him the name of the species they were dealing with, and the fact that the vast majority of their species had been donating much of their magical energies to the spell, several billion of them in point of fact. This was the vast majority of their planet's population, and the Dire Wraiths only had the one planet before this. They had drained several dozen other planets, but feared to stand out for fear of discovery by the Skrull.
Harry question them closely on that aspect, and it turned out that the Skrull and Dire Wraiths had once been the same species. But there had become a war between the female led magic users and the male-led scientist caste, which shattered their race's unity. the tech side won out, wiping out most of the Dire Wraiths and forcing the remainder to flee with an experimental hyper drive unit which deposited them in a then-distant part of space. Since the Skrull had expanded after that, so much, that was no longer the case however.
Given that the prisoner thought the Skrull saw the Dire Wraiths as primordial bogeymen who should be killed on sight, Harry couldn't argue with the fact they did have genuine legitimate reasons to hide themselves. After all, when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon decided earth wasn't big enough for both of them, well, we know what happened there.
But they are all still connected to this crystal?" Harry asked, smiling somewhat evilly now as he moved over the past Kitty.
She had been quickly scrawling down some notes and on the runic sigils visible on the crystal. They looked utterly fascinating but without a dictionary, trying to figure out which did what could only be done by a process of elimination. She was about to speak up and ask if they could keep the crystal around, but Harry held up a hand. "Yes, we'll take the crystal with us, but before that, I think the Dire Wraiths, as a race, need to be taught to leave Earth alone."
With that, he put a hand on the crystal, and within an instant could feel his mutant power activating, draining the magical energy of the crystal.
Back on their home world, the Dire Wraiths there were still fumbling around, trying to work through the fugue of their spell having been shattered. Unlike those directly around the crystal on earth, that snapping of the spell hadn't knocked them out of the coven array: they were still tied to it, still pouring power into the crystal, despite the spell upon it creating a cold front having snapped. Now their inability to pull back from that cost them.
Harry's mutant power started to drain the crystal, and through it, nearly the entirety of the Dire Wraith race connected into it. Dire Wraiths began to fall unconscious, their magic drained utterly out of them, one after another, the speed of which depended on the strength that each individual had in the realm of magic. Dozens fell, then hundreds, the cascade growing with each successive second.
Back on earth, Harry gasped, grinning evilly. There was even more power here than he had taken during his battle with Cyttorak although not quite as much as when he had taken control of the other gem from the same pantheon, the one belonging to Balthakk. It filled him to brimming, his skin beginning to crackle with the lights of every color of the rainbow and some that even the rainbow wouldn't have recognized as his body, which had honestly speaking been running on willpower and Pepper-Up potions despite a day's rest, began to shimmer with magic. He could feel his body changing, shifting, ascending. And he rejected it.
I'll take the long life, I'll take the power. But I am no God, I'm not going to cross that line. I don't want to be worshiped, I don't want to be tied down by the rules gods need to follow. I want a family, I want to love, I want to lead as a man would. I in me, Harry Potter, take it or leave it.
With a will forged of steel, Harry shunted a goodly portion of the magic into the Ley lines, further aiding Gaia and storm in undoing the damage to the weather patterns of the earth. But it still left him practically sizzling with power. And I know just how to use it Harry thought coldly.
He looked over at Hela, smirking at her. "Hela, if you could contact the others, I think it's time for all of you to fade out. I," he said gesturing down at his vary-colored hands, "I am going to use this power of mine."
"Is the change in power a permanent one do you think?" Hela asked, biting her lip to keep from licking them as she stared avidly at Harry, feeling the power within him. He had been strong before, but now, now he was mighty indeed. Might enough to challenge even Old One eye on the field of battle, if not enough to challenge him in his hall of power.
Harry nodded. "To a certain extent. I certainly felt my magical reserves expand," he said dryly looking her in the eye.
Hela looked back, then, reached forward tenderly and took his hand, bringing it up to her lips and kissing his palm. "I know the decision you were once faced with Harry Potter. I do not feel think any less of you for to aside from the path to godhood," she said, in a small voice so it did not carry. "Now go, and end the threat to our Firebird once and for all."
Harry nodded, and disappeared once again, teleporting back to the place they had all gathered initially, before once again flying into the sky. Then he was south and west, heading towards the distant Genosha. As he did, he relayed orders to Emma. Emma, tell Mr. Richards that the aliens have been revealed. He is good to go with his idea to re-purpose Ravens with his scanning device. But we'll need to still wait for Russia to actually ask for our help before the EDF can really come in to hammer them.
Before leaving Russia behind Harry made a brief stopover at the Russian strategic command Center, hovering above it and hovered there, once more disdaining the heavy antiaircraft fire. he even ignored a lone pair of jet fighters that came in from one side, unleashing their rockets towards him, before closing with the Gatling gun mounted in their noses. The constant tremor caused by the Gatling gun was more annoying than anything else, and didn't stop Harry from once more using his alien revealing spell on the building below.
From this high up he couldn't hear the sounds of consternation, shock or fear, but he knew they were there. With that any ability for the Russians to try to organize their various fronts goes out the door. It won't have much of an impact right away on the front lines, but if the war continues after today or perhaps tomorrow, then it surely will have a major impact on how the Russians dealt with being pressed on the defensive on all fronts.
And now for Sinister Harry thought, with a certain amount of vicious anticipation.
OOOOOOO
While Harry was dealing out chaos and death in unequal measure deeper into Russia, the forces of the allies had gone on a major offensive down south. They had left the borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan behind, pressing forward into Russia, with the constant hammering over flies of squadrons of jet fighters, capturing the shattered remains of a forward tank depot, where the engineers quickly went to work, pulling the tank carcasses aside or out of the way so that incoming helicopters could land and refuel there. The SAS and other Special Forces groups had been dumped deeper into Russia in various ways, and were now targeting bridges, fuel depots and other strategic targets, including communications grids.
It wasn't a quick operation obviously given the jumbled makeup of the forces involved let alone the terrain, which was equally nasty. It would have been slow in normal conditions, now it was quickly becoming muddy given the conditions. But the Russians were now completely on the ropes on that front, entire divisions, even an army group, scattered to the winds, fighting in small division sized or even smaller redoubts here and there. These would be slowly marked out, encircled and then destroyed, but the doing would be tough and slow. Still, the outcome there was no longer in doubt, with none of the Special Powered units having been assigned to that front.
But further away from the southern front the various Russian army groups had time to prepare their anti-air defenses. And those armies were huge, with quite a lot of anti-air defenses built-in. So when the fighters of Germany, France, Greece, and the United Kingdom started to get in on the act, they immediately ran into massive resistance. This in turn, allowed those Russian forces to retreat in good order. But they did retreat in most theaters. With Dr. Doom and his army having been fully converted (somehow, Tony and Reed were both flummoxed about How) to hover technology, the allies started to assault the Russian armies still in the Ukraine with a speed and strength the Russians couldn't face any longer, causing them to fall back in disarray.
The forces facing Finland also started to fall back, but they had strong defensive positions deeper into Russian territory around the city of Stalingrad to the south. Although to the northeast, that was not the case and that was where the counter-attack concentrated on that front. Then again, that territory had been taken from Finland in the Winter War, and its resumption several years later. So it's loss really did not matter overmuch to the Russians, considering how denuded of human life it was.. Further, they well knew that the Finnish people were not an offensive force. They had no desire whatsoever to conquer territory, as they simply wanted to remain free, and even with the X-Men there, there was only so much headway the Finnish people could make against a numerically superior opponent dug in defensively.
In Poland and the smaller fronts between Poland and Finland there was at first no big offensive. Those fronts lacked the hover technology in enough amounts, and lacked the truly overwhelming air superiority America's Navy had brought to bare in the south. Finland did as well, but there the Finns were already as mobile as they could be in that kind of terrain, and had the X-men available for an extremely mobile but quite heavy hammer.
So in most theaters the retreat of the Russians would quickly become a thing of weeks, slow slogging through the mud and rain that had within hours replaced winter. Both sides would have to retool themselves to a certain extent to fight in a normal winter rather than the debilitating horrifyingly cold version that they had been facing. The American Canadian and European forces however no longer had to be so highly retrained to fight in this weather, and more and more of them would come forward along with Australian and South American forces for the southern front.
Yet all that was in the future, a future in which the EDF would also get involved once the Russian military realized how badly subverted their officer corps was with alien infiltrators. But the day that would be called Winter's End, there was one chance in Poland for the Russians to break the momentum of the allies. Because that day, as Steve and Harry had supposed, the Russians decided that the best way to break the morale of the allies was to kill the man who had become a symbol for all of them, the star-spangled Captain America.
Steve was leading from the front that day as was his usual. He was waiting for the weather to break like everyone else all around, staring up at the sky and wondering which would get there first, the Polish helicopters, which were based only about 7 miles behind him but which didn't have any warning that they would be needed, or the German fighters from Germany and the Polish fighters which had been removed from the front and transported further west which did. Bit of a tossup really, although honestly speaking I hope it's the Poles. They've held the line so bravely and fought back so hard I think they deserve the first punch in so to speak.
Speaking his thoughts aloud, he turned to Nikolai, or rather Vanguard considering he was uniform, cocking an eyebrow. "What do you think?"
Vanguard smiled slightly. "I think, personally that I've should be the polls as well Steve, although I think it will be the helicopters who do it not their fighters. I've looked at the Polish jet fighters and they are rather old and clunky in comparison to modern equipment. Their helicopters on the other hand are ultra-modern American loaned helicopters, very good tank killers and fire support platforms."
Steve nodded, turning his attention back to over the front lines, to where he could see the large makeshift position that the Russians facing him here had created in the past few days. With the number of hover tanks that he and his team had taken out in the past few weeks, the war of maneuver that the Russians and allies had been fighting had slowly ground to a halt, the snow hampering the movement of the heavier vehicles.
And that's going to get worse before it gets better, he thought, this breath fogging in the air in front of him. It'll be an infantry fight for the most part, and a nasty one too. Still, we'll have the advantage of surprise at least when the ball drops, and aerial support, whereas what support they'll get will be sporadic at best.
He was about to say something else aloud to the young Russian man who he had bonded with over the past few weeks when to one side E looked up abruptly from where he had been communing with several satellites, via his built-in wireless. "It's begun," the android said crisply. "The temperature has risen around us by an appreciable amount in the last hour."
"Are you sure?" Steve asked in before nodding to Nikolai quickly got on his controller, contacting the rest of Steve's team here in Poland. If it was indeed happening, Steve wanted his own air assets ready to go, and the Custodes warned too.
"I am," E answered. "In fact, the rise of heat is exponential. I predict within a few hours, we will be back into normal winter temperatures, rather than the near South Pole temperatures we've had to deal with."
"Excellent," Steve said with a nod and then the world exploded around them.
A beam of coruscating energy lashed out from nowhere, slamming into the readout to one side, and nearly bisected Enterprise as well as several dozen Polish troopers behind him and the foxholes they had created. Enterprise was able to duck away, grabbing one of the nearby men and hurling himself forward. But the others were immolated by the blast, which was followed quickly by several more concussive energy blasts, something of the sort of Cyclops or Havoc's attacks, only somewhat wider, and a little less powerful in their diffuse form.
From out from behind some kind of cloaking technology or power came a massive assault that hadn't been there an instant before. Most of it was composed of Russian infantry who moved rapidly into the breach of the allied line, moving with all the skill and coordination of experienced, very well-trained soldiers, laying down a blistering hail of fire with sub machine guns, and scattered energy weapons. Those weapons were not as strong as the plasma rifles that Harry and Magical Minds had loaned out to the various military forces, but they were strong enough.
The other attackers were a very much mixed bag, all of them having the appearance of superheroes and super villains.
There were two Crimson Dynamos among them, both of their suits looking like more highly advanced versions of the type that Captain America and his fellows had seen before this. It was much more streamlined, the shoulders smaller, the bracers on the forearms a little bulkier, and the legs thinner, but with the same overall design and of course paint scheme. They were both flying, shifting to either side as they flew over the sides of the blasted-out hole in the line, laying down fire and killing dozens of men. This fire consisted of electric and laser blasters from one hand, smaller versions of the Tesla cannons that many of the Russian tanks had been showing. Their other hand had two small rotary cannons, Gatling guns in point of fact, shooting down extremely small bullets, but at an incredibly high rate of speed chewing up anyone and anything they hit.
Another two armored forms stood behind the assault, but these were different like night and day. One of them had on a large bulky suit that looked as if it was made of lead, larger and wider than either of the Crimson Dynamo's, or the Titanium Man standing to one side. It was also very simplistic, looking more like rad suit than a mechanized uniform. It even had the mark of a radioactive device on its chest, and a slit visor that glowed with the same green energy that had blasted apart the allied position. Its head was small, almost squished on top of its wide shoulder, with a large built up neck area.
Next to him was another Titanium Man, much like the ones that the world guard had faced in the spoiling attack on China. This one's suit was a little smaller in terms of height, but just as wide, and had odd small apertures going down its chest in a row, along with an underslung massive Gatling gun on one arm and a heavily built up forearm on his other.
Among the others charging forward was a figure that both Nikolai and Steve knew very well: a Red Guardian, although his uniform wasn't entirely red with the Soviet mark on his chest as would've been the case in years past. It was still mostly red of course, but the mark on its chest had been replaced by the Russian flag, and his shield was a little smaller, whereas in his other arm, he wore a massive gauntlet, easily as large as one of the titanium man's armored forearms.
There was also someone in the sky above, the look of which made to Nikolai's jaw clench, even as he ducked aside from a blast of rifle fire. "They dare!?"
"Dare what?" Steve shouted over the tumult of the battle, the gunfire and screams of the wounded. He used his shield to block several bullets, ducking under and around the fire from energy rifle equipped soldiers. All around them the allies started to fire back at their attackers, but the damage had already been done and the enemy tanks had taken out numerous anti-tank and tank positions along their lines and were now rumbling forward.
"They replaced my sister! That's her old uniform. It's like they tried to erase us!" Nikolai scoffed killing two men quickly then lining up a shot with his gauss rifle on an enemy tank, killing it even as he kept up his diatribe. "Or were we just two of many such they were training? How in the world were they able to find someone else with anything near to Darkstar's powers in the first place?"
"Probably more of the second than the first there, given how many Crimson Dynamos and Titanium Men we've seen or heard about," Steve said, even as Falcon flashed across from one side, followed by Cannonball coming in from the other side. The Falcon fired at one of the Crimson Dynamo's, large strobe flares going off from one of his own semi-armored forearms.
Then he twisted away and flew straight upwards, showing a responsiveness that the Crimson Dynamo couldn't track as he tried to turn his fire towards the African American paratrooper. Let's hear it for the Vulture's design Sam thought, as he twisted and moved around in the air, far more adroitly than he'd ever been able to do before this.
He then banked away suddenly, coming almost to a complete stop then flipping himself around and firing down at the Crimson Dynamo who had attempted to come up his tail. But as he did so, Sam was able to spot something else coming out from behind whatever cloaking device or whatever had been used to get the enemy troops this close. With an odd jaw movement he activated his mask's built in communicator and began to shout into it, splitting his attention from the aerial duel he was currently engaged in. "We have incoming! The Russians are pushing forward from their own lines to reinforce this attack all across the front! And there's something else there, something..."
A blast of white and blue light lashed out from the area previously covered by the rapidly disappearing illusion, and Sam barely dodged to one side. In doing so Sam was nicked from below by one of the Crimson Dynamo's electric blasts, causing him to fall through the sky with a cry of pain. He barely righted himself before he could crash and wouldn't have without his specialized jet pack, flaring his wings out at the last instant to skim across the ground firing as he came barreling through a series of Russian troopers.
Behind him as the last of the illusion faded a large figure rose out from where it had been crouching, or perhaps even going along on all fours with the rest of this forward attack echelon. It was twice as large as even the Titanium Man and the other armored figure, and just as wide. It looked almost something like a devil, with wide bat like wings flaring out from its shoulders, a horned head, and massive black armor covering it from head to toe. On the chest of its armor, it had what looked like another face, the eyes and mouth of which glowed red, matching the visage of the thing's actual head. On its forearms, which looked almost unarmored, as if the armor of the creature molded seamlessly with its black flesh. it wore heavy gold bands there, and along its back were what looks like test tubes stabbed into its back here and there, feeding some kind of black fluid into it, or perhaps draining it out.
Yet even as that being whatever it was, lashed out with a blue and white that seemed to suck the life out of several soldiers both Russian and allies, Steve remained calm. He remained calm even as the Red Guardian launched himself forward, slamming his shield into Steve's. They strained against one another, and the Russian looked at Captain America grimly, his face heavily armored and lip curling to reveal pointed teeth. It was evident that whatever Super Soldier serum the man had been given was not perfect. "For the good of mother Russia you will die this day Captain America. The honor of my nation demands it." the man shouted, his voice slurred but understandable for all of that.
The honor of a conqueror, who launched an on warranted war across the world? I don't think we're reading from the same dictionary," Steve said simply, before dodging to one side, his fist lashing out faster than most would've followed. The other man boat, smacking it aside with his shield and then twisting around to bring his foot up in a kick.
Steve blocked it with his own shield and then Nikolai was there, slamming his own shield into the man's side and hurling him backwards. "I'll take him captain," the younger Russian said coldly.
"The traitor!" The Russian said as he hopped to his feet. "It will be a delight to it remove such a blight on the honor of mother Russia.
"Good grief, we really have gone back to the time of the USSR, haven't we? Thank god my sister isn't here, that would not be fun for anyone," Nikolai groused, even as the other man swung at him. Nikolai didn't activate his power yet though, dodging around the blow, and returning with his own. Soon the two of them were embroiled in their own personal war, going back and forth across the rapidly melting and churned up snow behind the ally's foxholes as around them the rest of the battle continued, barely impinging on their own fight such was the skill of those involved.
That left Steve able to raise a hand to is side of his mask, clicking on the communications device there. It didn't work, and he grimaced before thinking hard, trying to almost project the thought out though of course since he wasn't a telepath that was nearly impossible. "To whoever's out there listening, the attacks begun! We need the Custodes down here now!"
Emma's voice responded, cool and almost soothing. "Don't worry Steve, I was monitoring the communications on the front lines, watching for something like this. The world guard are dropping now."
"I hope they get here soon, because were being overrun!" Steve shouted mentally through the link Emma had just so easily forged, before dodging through several rockets fired from one of the Crimson Dynamos above.
Emma's response came in someone shouting Russian from above, as Colossus fell rapidly towards the large black creature at the back of the attackers. at the same time Magma's voice rang out over the battlefield. "World guard, in and at them!"
Magma landed nearby Steve, lashing out with both hands and sending bolts of tectonic energy straight through several dozen troopers in front of her who had accidentally bunched up as they tried to clear one of the makeshift berms of the ally's defensive formation. nearby Captain Britain slammed bodily into one of the Crimson Dynamo hurling him down into the ground, before grunting and taking a shot full bore on the chest from one of the other armor-clad fellows which sent him staggering in the air.
Elsewhere, Ghigau went to work. Danielle's mobility along the rapidly disappearing footing underneath them proved to be incredibly effective against the regular troops and she zoomed around making them all look slow and stupid. Then she reached out with her powers of empathic illusion, and suddenly the battlefield changed.
Danielle Moonstar's ability to communicate with animals was based around an empathic telepathic skill, but that was more of an offshoot than her main power. That was the ability to and to create three-dimensional images pulled from the minds around her and the empathic sense of a place. She could then replay events in an area if those events had left behind a significant enough psi-sense. But she could also create a full illusion, pulling the fears of those around her out into the open in a similar manner.
This she did now, reaching into the minds of the Russian soldiers. And, perhaps not so surprising given the giant demonic creature they had allied with, those fears were far more primal than most would have assumed from soldiers in combat. A wave of power washed out from her, and then there were creatures of dark myth and horror there seemingly tearing into the Russian assault. Massive red and horned bears, wolves with two heads, crows with the heads of men and dozens of other images that even Dani would have been hard pressed to recognize from Russian mythology.
Faced with these creatures from the past the Russian soldiers balked, fear overcoming their training. many turned and ran, a few even throwing their weapons down as they did. A few though stood and fired at the images, and began to notice their bullets going right through them, and that allowed them to get a handle on their fears long enough to start rallying the other troops around them. Then the creature and the two Dynamos took the beasts under fire, turning from their own fights to do so. The blasts of blue-white power from the creature dissipating the illusions and forcing Ghigau to retreat, skating into the cover of a foxhole.
But it actually didn't matter that her illusions had been dissipated. That brief moment of confusion had been enough for Steve and Amara to start rallying the troops.
Paige had actually been sleeping farther back from the front when the attack began. She had been on patrol half the night, responding to reports of someone else out there with a metallic appearance being seen by some of the guards on patrol. Now she rushed toward the fight tearing at her skin to reveal the metal under layer, battering through several of the attacking Russians who had pushed deep into the allied defenses, while the Black Widow, who had also been sleeping off a long night, raced along the lines away from her, rallying the allies.
In particular Natasha started to shout out orders for the tanks, which were also a little further back from the front, to not fire into the mass directly in front of the defensive line but at the attacking Russian army behind it. "We don't want any blue on blue, right!" She shouted.
For her part Husk was almost to the fight when she looked up as Polaris flew by overhead, having done her job of dropping off the world guard considering no one else had been in a position to do it. "Polaris!"
Polaris stopped, and Husk held up her hands and shouted, "Throw me!"
With an eye roll Polaris reached down with her metallic powers lifting Paige into the air. "Where am I aiming you?" The green haired girl asked dryly. While she really didn't want to take part in a more fighting, transportation could be stretched to include this kind of moment. As Husk flew Polaris saluted, then flew out of the combat zone , her part in the combat done.
A second later from his position well out from where the rest of the fighting was occurring, Colossus blinked as Paige slammed into the large demonic looking creature he had been exchanging blows with backing away rapidly to get out of her way as she slammed into the creature like an out of the way cannonball. She pounded the beast even as they tumbled through the snow and churned up mind, raising her fist and punching it hard in the face.
It rolled with the blow though, grabbing her around one metal arm and then slamming a fist into her own metal face, the blow so strong it stunned her. Seeing that, Colossus quickly shook off his own surprise, and grabbed the things arm, pulling it backwards. But they were both being overwhelmed by the thing's share strength. "I thought," Paige growled, "that guardian did something to block demons from appearing on earth any longer!"
"Fool girl!" The thing shouted. Grabbing still with her in its paragraph as it tightened, the metal of Paige's form slowly beginning to buckle. "I am no demon, I am the God Chernobog, bringer of night and chaos!"
"That sounds more demonic than godly to me," Colossus said, his tone dry. "Of course, my faith has spent centuries stamping out the faith you seem to come from, so you will forgive me for my differing viewpoint."
The thing twisted its head to stare at him, scowling angrily. "You are Russian? Why would a Russian, even one of the weak Christian faith, you fight against your nation?!"
"I fight for what I believe is right," Colossus said, before pulling back his head, then headbutting the creature as hard as he could ending the so-called conversation for a moment.
Taking a brief moment to pop up onto one of the berms, Magma looked all around her, taking in the fight in trying to figure out what she could do to fully turn the tide. The Black Widow had also appeared, rushing over from another defensive position further to the north. the older woman was rapidly taking command of the regular troops, pulling them back to a secondary defensive position, while leaving a few troopers in position on either side of the assault from the winter guard. Those individuals were now calling down artillery fire from much further back, and the Greek girl could see where those blasts were landing in among the advancing Russian army.
But the main danger was from Chernobog, and the unknown armored person, who she had correctly identified as the source of the massive beam of power that cut through a large portion of the front line. It seemed to need some kind of recharge time. Or so she thought until it opened up on her. She ducked underneath the berm, then rolled away quickly, using her tectonic powers to encase herself in earth for a second as the berm around her and the ground beyond disintegrated. Some kind of disintegration beam? Or something related to why it's wearing a radioactive symbol on its chest?
Nearby, Steve had seen the same thing, and broke off his assault on one of the Crimson Dynamo's which Sam and knocked to the ground. This let the armored Russian get back into the air, but Steve had greater things to worry about considering that Cannonball was also up there, zooming around and smashing into the Crimson Dynamos the instant they tried to lay down fire. E can you get a reading on that energy beam?"
E had been crouched behind another makeshift defensive position, taking fire from several Russian infantrymen, along with a few dozen Allied troopers while using his nanites to create shields for them while he concentrated on aiding one of the wounded, ironically a medical corpsman who had lost his leg. But at Steve's question, enterprise quickly began to analyze things, frowning as he did so. "That was a beam of condensed radioactive energy, some kind of odd isotope that disintegrates matter."
Steve frowned, thinking hard for a moment, finding a brief respite from being under fire to poke his head out, staring across the battlefield from his position as he watched the two steel clad figures of the world guard fighting it out with the black clad demon creature. Above, the sound of whirring helicopters was soon heard, as the skies began to clear enough for helicopters to take to the air, racing forward. Almost Steve could imagine the roar of fighter engines from further behind though of course that was impossible just yet.
Quickly contacting the helicopters, Stephen ordered them to do what they did best, take out the incoming enemy tanks, letting loose the artillery on the larger infantry groups within their range, a few of them made to wait to engage any rocket launchers or other artillery pieces they saw.
But anti-air cannons immediately also began to open up on the other side. They hadn't been attacking cannonball or the Falcon for this, simply because they were hard to aim at human sized targets, but helicopters and jet fighters were their normal opponents. Soon helicopters started to be knocked out the sky, but they were knocking out tanks and anti-air batteries in turn, and there were more on the way.
A beam nearly grazed Steve's head, and he ducked aside with a wince as one of the Crimson Dynamos and the titanium man landed nearby, having leaped forward. At the same time, the other armor clad being blasted out another wave of power, disintegrating a large portion of the allies remaining defensive works and several hundred infantrymen who had been firing into the side of the original angle of the winter guard's attack. They died so quickly very few of them had time to even scream before they were literally disintegrated.
Magma stared in shock, then looked around thinking furiously. "Vanguard, do you think you could block that?"
Vanguard rolled over, kicking upwards and sending his opponent flying over his head as he flipped himself to his feet. Before he could move into a sweep kick that would have taken the man in the head, he was forced to bring up his shield to block several bullets the man fired from a small handgun that the Red Guardian suddenly pulled out from behind him at the small of his back. "I am a little busy right now."
a second later Carol appeared next to Vanguard, her rifle up and firing. The red guardian barely got his own shield up in time to block, but didn't block the spinning hell kick that took the shield out of position, or the next kick that went low, taking his feet out from under him. He did dodge the next blow which would've caved in his head, rolling away desperately, even as he shouted imprecations. "Now you're not," Carol said grimly. "Keep your eyes on the bigger battle."
Magma nodded, slamming her hands down to the ground creating a fissure in the ground reaching towards where Colossus and Paige were fighting. They leaped away at the appropriate time, and Chernobog fell into it, only to grab at the sides and try he himself upwards. "Richter! Do you think..."
Nearby avalanche, nodded, and then his own earthquake powers into the mix, dumping several thousand scattered Russians, before rushing forward. He caught the titanium man by surprise, one of his fists lashing out and catching the man in the armored side of his knee. With the armor he was currently wearing, which heightened his vibration-based energies, Richter's blow shattered the armor there, dumping the titanium man onto his side.
at the same time the titanium man fired rockets from his chest, and various control bands lashed out from one arm, snagging The Black Widow and falcon, who had been flying directly above him. Both of them screamed as electrical currents flashed through them, their armor no defense against the power of it, dumping the falcon once more out of the sky, crashing to the ground while the black widow cried out in agony, collapsing onto her face, her body spasming.
Nikolai raced forward, leaping over the remains of one of Richter's makeshift walls, landing in among a series of Russian troopers. He smashed them to either side with hands fists and shield before he was out in the clear, racing towards the squat armored form 200 yards distant.
That worthy turned to him and as Nikolai had hoped his attack flared out, its central radioactive sign glowing brighter before the energy beam lashed out. He quickly raised his shield and pulled forth his mutant power, creating the shield that would protect him from any impact. The beam blasted into him and around him, disintegrating several yards of ground to either side, but most of the energy was reflected back into the armored man. he screamed, and then seemed to implode on itself, the armor, which might have been some kind of container field for the energy within, overloaded exploding. this sent a green tinged shock wave in every direction.
There was a lull in the battle that, but Sam interrupted it, pulling himself up off of the ground pushing his small plasma pistols into the downed titanium man's face, blasting it into slag.
Elsewhere cannonball had finished demolishing one of the Crimson Dynamos. None of its weaponry had been able to get through his shield. As long as he was moving, cannonball was practically invulnerable, much like Nikolai only he had no apparent upper limit. Nikolai did and was down now, his body seared from top to bottom from the radiation of the attack. A second later he disappeared, his suits emergency portkey system activating due to the severity of his wounds.
Magma grimaced in pain at that. But she had no time to waste on worrying about her friend's well-being. "Danielle go!"
Danielle raced across the battlefield, having been trying to keep away from the snarl of infantry combat that had almost overwhelmed the front line as she tried to get close to the armored form that Nikolai had just taken out at the expense of taking himself out. Now she changed targets, moving towards the one greatest remaining threat on the battlefield, Chernobog. Steve too had recognized that the fight was turning against the winter guard now, even as the one remaining Crimson Dynamo and the red guardian attempted to finish off the black widow and Carol. He sent E to help them, as he too raced forward pushing through the shell-shocked and scattered remains of the rest of the Russian attack. Ahead of them, the Russian army began to retreat, pulling back from his assault positions, while its anti-air cannons sent up a welter of fire against the first wave of allied fighters.
Roaring out, "Their metal might protect them from my wrath human, but you have no such defense. Chernobog turned towards Steve, lashing out with his odd blue and white power beam.
Steve however raised his shield in front of him, taking the blast full on and held his ground, plowing through it as he raced forward towards the creature.
This astonished Chernobog and he shouted, "how! How can you do this."
Having my shield enchanted against the magic seems to have been a damn good idea Steve muttered to himself, making a mental note to thank Harry for that later on. Right now though, he had an apparent dark God to banish. He closed quickly, as did Danielle, even as Chernobog turned its head in her direction. From his eyes and mouth up both eyes and mouth, came a scream accompanied by another blue white beam.
She stopped twisted to one side, and underneath the beam, the beam itself blocking Dani from the creature's view as she lined up a shot with her bow and arrow. The arrow was an energy arrow, created by her own limited TK powers, something like Betsy's telekinetic blades. It was a relatively new addition to our arsenal, and it did absolutely nothing to the demon thing, even though her shot impacted into one of its mouth's. But by the time the creature actually realized she was still alive, she was close in, Sigyn's Gift changing into a blade in her hand, and slicing into its side.
Before this, nothing the two armor clad world guard had been able to do against this creature had actually injured it. Even getting stuck in the earth thanks to magma hadn't. But Dani's shapeshifting weapon was a gift from a goddess, who while not as physically powerful as this Russian deity of chaos and night, should not be underestimated because of that.
Chernobog squawked and outrage in shock as one huge hand went to its side, where its armor, or hide it was still tough to tell which, had been pierced. "You hurt me!"
"I wanted to do a lot more than that," Danielle replied, as she zoomed past. She was nearly hit in the helmet by one of the things large wings as it whipped out, and it did take her in the shoulder, hurling her away.
By that point, Steve was on it, and slamming his shield into it side, then bouncing up onto its arm, and kicking out hard at its head.
Chernobog rocked with the hit, but didn't seem phased, grabbing at him, but Steve ducked underneath, bringing his shield around and down again on to his arm, then into its face. "Annoying that! Die!"
Before it could try to down Steve again, Colossus rammed into its back, and lifting it up in a bearhug from behind. He held the larger Chernobog in the air for a second before suplexing Chernobog into the ground.
Magma followed up on her boyfriend's attack, getting right in the thing's face, and hurling out large tectonic energy balls, which slammed into the God's chest. Paige soon joined them, grabbing one of the things hands and pinning it to the ground, while the others all closed in. The only one that was down for the count was a black widow, who had teleported away due to her injuries,
Having just finished binding the Red Guardian in unbreakable wire, E now reluctantly sent out his Nanites to attack the large creature directly only to stop and stare as they seemingly could not find anything that they could consume. "Magic, of course, so illogical," E muttered. "The hard way it is then." With that, E flew towards the self-professed deity.
Ducking under a blow that would've taken her head off, magma winced as Danielle took it full bore on the side, her armor caving in along with some of her ribs no doubt, before she grunted. "In that case, perhaps we should call in our own magic users?'"
Chernobog laughed. "Do so child, and I will their souls. No magic can work on me."
"Ah," said a voice from above them. "I believe the appropriate response to that would be, challenge accepted."
A vast cage of energy was suddenly crashing down over Chernobog, orange and green it grabbed at the man, holding him still.
Colossus took the moment to grab at the things horns and bent it back, while E and Paige got underneath it, twisting it the other way. The thing tried to open its mouth to send out beams of energy, but found its mouth clamped around by the two steel clad users, "None of that thank you," Paige grumbled, as she clung to the thing's chest, blocking its chest beam with her body.
"Fascinating," Dr. Strange said as he came to a light nearby. He looked around him sadly shaking his head. "So much death and destruction."
"You're telling us," Steve grumbled, wincing as his shoulder ached. Three of his people had been forced to retire via the emergency port keys, and everyone left was battered and bleeding in numerous places, and they still hadn't been able to put Chernobog down.
"Can you help us here?" he asked, gesturing to towards the straining forms of Colossus and Paige, both of whom were looking as if they were going to be overwhelmed soon by the demigods sheer brute strength. E too wasn't having much luck. His blows mattered not at all, and he was currently trying to create a weapon which could hurt the behemoth via his nanites
"It isn't actually a living God, as Lady Hela is. Say rather, that this is the astral form of God, summoned into a person. I can banish it," though it will not be easy," Stephen began. "Simply hold him still for a few moments and let my magic do the rest."
"No, no! You will not banish me, I will not go back to my realm of darkness without the thousands souls promised me."
"Did you get a receipt,' Sam quipped, landing on top of the thing, and opening fire with his twin guns into the things face.
It didn't do any damage, but it certainly infuriated the creature. With a roar it tore Paige off of his chest and hurled her way, kicking out back hard and sending Colossus rolling before charging forward without pause towards Stephen strange.
Without a word between them, magma, Danielle, and Steve all charged forward. Danielle Her gift not as a blade or I air of this time, but as a staff, tripping Chernobog up before he could get up too much steam. Then magma was on him, grabbing at the thing, and sending geothermal energy in the form of heat, a vast amount of heat that was akin to feeling the edge of a volcano perhaps.
The heat was so intense, that even the armored form of Chernobog began to melt under her Tonks, and she hung on grimly. "Let go, curse you" he shouted, blasting her from his chest face, but magma still clung to one of its shoulders with one hand, before bringing her other up to his face, the touch of her searing into his cheek. "Grahhh, let go!"
Steve interposed his shield between the blast from his face and magma, then slammed his shield forward into its face, again and again and again, before twisting upwards, and jabbing the gift which Danielle I just hurled him into the eye of the face set into the thing's chest. It roared in pain and agony, and hurled both of its tormentors away. Too late.
"Be banished and be gone, by the power of two gods of magic. I do abjure and banish thee!" Dr. Strange shouted, the cage around the creature enveloping it from one end to the other.
Chernobog screamed, but with the spell complete couldn't do anything, one moment it was raging and tossing them all around, the next, it was gone, diminishing into the body of a regular human man, who stared around him. "Damn you! Damn you all! You will not succeed. Soon, soon I will redo the ritual all bring him back, and mother Russia will..."
at that point Danielle smashed him one sending him unconscious to the ground. The others looked at her askance and she shrugged her shoulders "what? we don't always have to listen to the villains' diatribes you know."
"Righteous," Sam said with a grin and a thumbs up, before looking around them at the battle still raging in the distance. The Russian army was now in full retreat from its own defensive formations, it's anti-air firepower unable to withstand the sheer number of jets that were now pounding it into submission.
Steve groaned, then cracked his neck this way and that, before picking up his shield from where he had dropped it, strapping it to his arm and flipping the gift over before handing it thankfully to Danielle. Magma nodded at him, and he nodded back before looking around at the others. "Dr. Strange, can you take our prisoner here with you?"
"Certainly, it is my purview to make certain that such as this cannot occur. I have to believe that I would've felt it if I was not connected to the spell keeping the cold at bay."
"Understood," magma said, having a brief grin from Stephen as she gestured around her to the remaining world guard, then towards where the rest of the Allied army were beginning to move forward, under the cover of the still attacking jet fighters and more and more helicopters appearing in the distant behind them. " I just want to make certain that that guy doesn't go through with his threats."
"I will remove whatever he was able to use to summon up Chernobog, although I will admit that I had not thought about dark gods like this being able to transfer to earth from their own small dimensions. Technically speaking those are after all holy dimensions, or what would be termed upper band dimensions in comparison to the lower band dimensions such as which would be used by devil. But however they were able to summon him, I can deal with it."
"Good," Steve said as she moved forward, gratefully hearing his comm bead still operational. "For the rest of us, we've still got work to do."
The war wasn't over, not be a long shot. But perhaps, this was the beginning of the end.