The Thralls Of Asgard || Reunion of Sorts

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

The trio pursues the third Frost Giant - and find the X-Men in the process.



This world lacked the magical strength he was accustomed to, but he could feel the leylines pulsing. They weren't particularly close, but he could draw from them, nonetheless. So he did. The frost giant pulled magic to himself, flicking bits and pieces of it at the humans who got in his way as he moved toward a more defensible position. Down. He needed a location that he could control and humans, they feared the dark. But he'd learned, he'd seen what the strange Asgardian children had done with the light and shadow, witnessed the shades that suffocated his compatriot, so he knew underground would be best, but he needed light.

Humans froze when his flecks of ice magic hit them and he found a suitable building, frost spreading in fractals from the imprints his feet left behind him. A basement freezer in a restaurant called to him, it would require less magic to adjust its temperature and make it suitable.

The thing about bad guys was generally the more powerful they thought they were (and usually were), the more reckless they got. All they had to be was sneaky and they probably wouldn't be found. But this frost giant wasn't, which was good for Molly, Ty, and Tandy.

Molly frowned at the cop-cicle that the Frost Giant had left in his wake. He had his gun drawn but didn't get to do much more than that. They reminded her of Mr. Freeze, except a lot more savage. In the comic books, people frozen by Mr. Freeze lived. But here, here it didn't work like that. This man was dead. She could tell by the way his skin was cracking underneath the ice from the difference in temperature inside and outside. If he'd been partially frozen he might have lived.

"He went this way," she said solemnly, passing by the frozen police officer as she followed the frost giant's footsteps. They had to work fast because footprints would melt in the Las Vegas heat before too long despite the late hour.

The X-Men had been making their way out of the casino when they came across the frozen landscape, the scene almost looked peaceful. And it would have been until you noticed those weren't ice statues outside but people who had been caught in the rampage. "I guess we still have work to do," Scott noted with quiet determination as he took in the sight of the three survivors meandering their way through the wreckage. "We need to get them to safety and catch up with whoever did this."

"Scott," Clarice put a hand on his arm as she squinted and held a hand up to her eyes as they adjusted to the darkness outside. "Check out their armor. They're wearing it. Old style," she'd seen it before, but she was too far away to figure out where.

None of this made sense to Rogue. In fact, the more she thought about it, the harder it was to grasp anything.

Leaning over to Angel, she whispered, "So we're still seein' the same things, right? Frozen has thrown up on Vegas, and over yonder is Elsa, Anna and Olaf?"

"Someone needs to tell whoever this is to let it go," Angel deadpanned before kicking off into the air, wanting an aerial view of the current tundra and see if she could find anything. "Er... how many ice giants does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

"So we have some Frozen cosplayers and," Scott cocked his head, "and one ice giant to screw in that light bulb. I really hope those cosplayers don't don't run into the ice giant." He shook his head as he looked at Clarice. That would be entirely too much meta for him to take right now. "We need to get over there and then you can get them to safety while we track down and distract big and icy."

Tandy ran passed another frozen person but something caught her eye as someone flew into the sky. She slid to a stop on the ice and looked up. "Up in the sky! It's a bird... it's a plane... it's... Angel? Holy Flying Person, Batman! Mols! Ty! I think that's Angel." Tandy choked up, maybe they hadn't all died when the Dark Bird came.

Ty skidded to halt, eyes on the sky. He felt his chest tighten in recognition. A flash of light triggered another memory, Clarice. His whole body felt slack with shock. Then he hefted his ax again. "Reunion later, we've got a job to do," he said.

It took Angel a moment to zero in on the tiny figures on the ground before her. A moment longer to connect it in her head. "Are you joking?!" She dropped back down to the ground to report in. "Those aren't cosplayers, those are ours. Or my eyes are totally going."

"It's not you," Clarice agreed, gathering the X-Men in various portals and then blinking them all closer. This wasn't something to be yelling about back and forth. "I think....more frankenberrycat?"

Molly kept an eye on the frost giant's tracks, but the X-People decided they were going to get closer, cause they were X-People and they fought bad things, just like she and Ty and Tandy did now. Once Mr. Summers, Rogue, Angel, and Clarice came out of the portal, Molly waved. She remembered that Sif said time in Midgard moved differently than in Asgard. Not much had passed for her.

"Hey! So, we're back! Long story...we were in Asgard, and this is a Frost Giant. And he's got magic. And we were sent here to stop him. You guys can totally help, though."

Asgard...Scott wasn't sure what was going on but for sure this wasn't the weirdest thing they'd seen this month. Not even close. What the Asgardian had to do with their students he didn't know but well there were ice giants rampaging through Las Vegas so why not? Raising a hand to knead his forehead to try and counter the headache he felt incoming, Scott nodded at the trail of destruction leading away from them, "Firestar, Rogue, follow that trail and see where it ends. We need to know what we're dealing with here," he told his team before turning back to the trio of missing students. "And it's nice to see you too, now could you please tell us what on earth, or possibly, some other plane, is going on here?"

It was clear that these weren't random people., that much was true. For the millionth time, she cursed her brain. "On it, Cyclops," she stated, annoyed that she was going to miss the explanation, but orders were order. Maybe the flight would sober her up.

Once in the air, she was able to see a path but no ice giant. If it was anything like the other one,it wouldn't be able to hide easily. "It's gotta be hidin'", she muttered to Angel, as they both followed the trail.

"How many places in Vegas can an ice giant hide?" Angel asked, semi-rhetorically. She needed to focus on this rather than three more people back from the dead. "Come out come out wherever you are Marshmallow Man..."

"Wait...NO!" Tandy called out but it was too late. She started to swear in another language. "Ask us. We have been fighting these things." She looked at Scott. "We don't have time to explain. That Frost Giant isn't like the other ones. He can easily pluck two mutants out of the air. Look!" She turned to look at the destruction around her, "He did all of this. By himself." Tandy turned to Molly, whom she regraded as the team leader at the moment.

"She's right," Molly said as she walked up to Mr. Summers...Cyclops. They were in a battle and needed to use codenames, right? "He'll wanna go somewhere cold. They don't do well in heat. And he can do all this when he's weakened. Once he gets somewhere cold and gets his strength back? Thousands are gonna die. And I'm pretty sure he's already there, getting colder and stronger the longer we have to explain. Tandy's right. Ask us. Listen to us. We know what we're doing, sir. We've done this before. So if you wanna help, let's work together, okay?"

Scott arched an eyebrow at the blonde girls, "I wasn't aware I was doing anything else," he pointed out, "I did ask you to tell us what was going on while I sent the most likely to survive members of my team ahead to locate the enemy who did all this damage so that we know where to go and have an idea of the terrain we'd be engaging him on. We have done this kind of thing before," he noted dryly.

Ty pulled the shadows from their weapons. "But it's our sworn duty," he said. "And we're wasting time, if you have a plan, make us part of it."

Scott's eyes flicked over the medieval weapons the...students had unveiled. Then his eyes flicked back to Ty's face, sworn duty? He didn't think he'd ever heard of anything like that before. He opened his mouth to answer when --

The screaming began. The magic user's eyes half-closed as he found the employees of the restaurant he'd commandeered hiding in a room off the kitchen. His ice had spread from the freezer where he'd initially taken refuge, long stalactites growing from the ceiling, meeting the stalagmites and forming pillars throughout the room. He picked up one screaming human, his skin already pale in places from fear, red from the cold in others, and flicked the fingers of his free hand at the people trapped in the room before him.

They froze instantly, horror and fear writ large on their faces, before the frost giant shook the human in his grasp. The man had fallen silent, his eyes wide, mouth gaping in terror.

Molly's head turned toward the chaos, brows furrowing. She looked back to Cyclops, a deep frown settling on her face. It didn't look right on someone usually so bright and happy. She shook her head.

"Sorry! No more time," she said, then nodded toward Ty and Tandy. It wasn't like he could ground them anymore. This was bigger than them right now.

"Let's go," she said without allowing another word, then sprinted away toward the sounds of the screaming and the restaurant.



The trio goes after the last Frost Giant and finds itself outmatched. The X-Men step in to assist.



"Ty, scope out the exits. Get people out who haven't ran already. Then block the doors. Make sure he can't get out anywhere, kay? Tan, look for the fuse box or the electrical system, use your hot knives to cut the power. We can't let him get any colder. And me?" Molly said, pulling out her heated sword.

"I'm gonna distract him. Once you guys get done with your stuff then come find me. The X-People are probably gonna try to take over...we need to see what we can do before that happens." She knew they'd be in big trouble with the X-People but this was bigger than them. It wasn't like they were going to stay long on Midgard anyway.

Tandy turned as well, they had stalled way too long. She looked one last time at the two X-Men and bolted after Molly. Hearing orders from Molly, she nodded, "You got it." She separated from the group and looked up to see where the electrical lines were coming from. She rounded a corner and came to a stop as she saw the lines enter the building.

The back door was opened as a few survivors managed to make their way out. Catching it before it closed again, she entered the back room and already she could see her breath from the drop in temperature. Tandy walked over to the next door to reveal the office with the fuse box. "Perfect..." She opened the fuse box and bit her lower lip as she started to flip everything off. Right away all the lights started to turn off and the ac in the freezer was also cut - that should be to their advantage.

The movement of the kids running into the building caught Angel's eye, and she twisted around to watch them. "What the hell?" What was it about this universe that turned kids into vigilantes? "Rogue!" She called, getting her friend's attention before dropping back down to join Scott and Clarice. "What's going on?"

"They're going after the frost giant...thing!" Clarice shouted back, figuring that Rogue knew they were some of the missing kids from the school. Missing presumed dead, but apparently not. No time for that now. "We gotta help them, Cyke!" she added, heading towards the impending fray.

"No," Scott shook his head, "We can't go rushing in without having some idea what's going on and what their plan is," he told Clarice. If we just charge into them like the kids then we'll just end up stumbling over one another and getting into one another's way. Lets give it a second to see what they do then we'll see how we can step in." It was never a bad idea to have cavalry in the wings, nothing ever went as you expected it to.

Ty used his ax to bash through the ice over another rear exit to the restaurant. He yanked the door open and caught the woman who stumbled out. He set her to rights and raised his voice. "Go to the hottest,lightest place you can find," he instructed. Once they were cleared, he went in to find any more survivors.

Meanwhile Molly had already headed inside. She noticed the temperature was already super cold but it could be colder. Breath misting, she headed down further, away from the lights, from the heat, down where it could be deep and dark and cold. She wasn't surprised when she saw the frozen cooks and bus boys. One got caught on the stairwell trying to run up the stairs. She gave him a look of sympathy as she passed. Reaching the basement, she stayed quiet as she pulled the shield hanging from her back off and positioned it in front of her.

She grabbed a couple of canned goods, hiding them behind the shield while she kept her distance.

"In the name of the All Father I demand you stand down and come with me willingly."

It was worth a try. Futile, but worth it.

The frost giant knew that they were coming for him when the lights in the room he'd chosen flickered and went out. The ice around him sent echoes and vibrations to him, letting him know someone small approached even before the tiny female bellowed nonsense at him about the All-Father. He chuckled, the sound low and grating, before he responded, "I think not, little mouse. But in the name Laufey, King of Jotun, I will give you the chance to run, daughter of Asgard."

Scott and the X-Men's approach to the situation was rather more cautious, watching the three students run on ahead and start pulling out survivors Scott had focused on helping them get clear of the area pointing them towards safety. Even so they were close enough to the three to observe them approach the ice giant. "Lets make sure everyone's made it to safety and wait and see how they want to handle this," he told his team as Molly and the Ice giant postured at one another.

"Transport, boss?" Clarice confirmed, getting into a position where she could do that most effectively. That meant higher ground. There was no high spot per se in a basement, but the top of table would do well enough for this. She couldn't teleport the ice giant. Even in pieces, it was much too big.

Staring down the frost giant, Molly did not move. "I am Molly, daughter of Hayes, thrall of Lady Sif," she proclaimed. "I don't run. This isn't your world, frost mage. We have far more allies than you. You're outnumbered. If you come with us we will not--"

"Mols!" Tandy jumped the last few stairs and let loose the daggers to distract the Frost Giant, including saying pretty mean things to him in his own tongue. "We need to divide his attention...Odin's beard it is still cold in here."

Molly blinked, slowly putting down the large can of beans she had been holding. "Uh...guys? I was trying to negotiate here!" she said with a sigh. Son of a half-troll.

Ty looked between Molly and the giant, doubtful eyebrows raised. "I don't think he's in the mood, Molly-lady, but you're in charge." He stood on his toes, awaiting orders.

With a negligent flick of his hand, the frost giant threw up another wall of debris-filled ice to block the shards of light coming toward him, simultaneously pushing his free hand into the ground and forward, toward the darkling child full of shadows. Daggers of ice shot forward, ten then twenty, multiplying as the frost giant wrapped them in magic that filled them with light. They shredded the shadows, embedding themselves in the walls and floor as they narrowly missed hitting the tiny Asgardian.

There was a third, somewhere, a third little person bent on causing him trouble this day. He prepared to find her, sending a pulse of magic outward, lightning arcing through the ice in his makeshift cavern - only he found more than the third little person he sought.

Scott's eye's widened as he spotted the giant sending lightning arcing through the cave before turning his head to face the X-men, "It looks like he spotted us," he noted wryly sending an optical blast out at the giant's head. "It looks like they were trying to use some kind of heated weapons to cut through his armour," he added musingly, "Firestar, head down and give Dagger a hand, you guys need to open up his armor. Rogue, once they do that I need you and Mo...the one who likes hats to get in there and lay into him to weaken him up. Blink you and I are gonna play support for them to get the job done." Scott ordered quietly efficiently dispatching his team.

"Yes sir." Angel gave a salute before taking off into the air, dodging around the ice giant to get to where Tandy stood. "What up Donut Friend?" She said casually as she landed.

"Need a hand? Or some fire?"

Meanwhile, Rogue was trying to figure out who loved hats. There was no specification to gender from Scott, but she assumed it was the female. Heading that way, Rogue nodded to Molly. "Order me around, sugah. Ah'm yours!"

"Call me Bruiser," Molly said to Cyclops and, well, everyone else. She'd had some time to think about codenames if she ever came back to Midgard when she was bored in Asgard and decided on one that sounded more adult than Princess Powerful. She still liked that one, but it didn't exactly strike fear in the hearts of evil. And Queen Powerful didn't rhyme. So Bruiser it was.

"Okay!" she said to Rogue, who looked confused for some reason but she didn't have time to think about that. At least they were all working together now instead of separately! That was all she'd wanted in the first place.

"You and me are gonna be the KO. I've got these shackles I can use that will negate his powers, magic and normal popcicle-flavored. We can't get too close right now, though, because he'll freeze us and I don't know if we'll be invulnerable to ice magic and I really don't wanna find out. So we should use my shield, which doesn't freeze, so you can hide behind me when he uses his magic," she said.

She nodded to the rows of canned goods. "I figured we could just distract the crap out of him until Firestar and Dagger heat him up and tire him out. There's a ton of stuff to throw. Then we can knock him out," she said, tossing her a can of rutabagas, which she suddenly decided was one of the best words ever.

"We need him alive by the way! Or we could die too for not doing what we were asked," Molly said. She made a face, waving away the explanation like it was completely normal.

"Y'know, magic stuff..."

Not that she really thought they'd kill him. They were X-People. But just in case that changed. She knew the last time they saw them bad bad things had happened.

"It is heat. If he is too hot he can't use his frost magic. Take high and I will take low. He can't follow us both." Tandy said to Angel with a smirk before taking off to the lower, she muttered a spell and unleashed her daggers.


"Right-o," Angel said, taking a step back and taking off into the air, shooting right at the Frost Giant's torso. She kicked off at the very last second, shooting a fireball right off and hitting the monster point blank.

The frost giant screamed and the frigid temperatures around them plummeted even further as he shook off the excessive heat, singed in places and blistered in other. He continued shooting shards of light-filled ice, but they were slowing and he knew he'd have to resort to something more drastic, if only to get rid of the majority of the irritating humans and the small Asgardians. So he began to build up walls of ice around himself, thickening the ice at his sides until the stalactites and stalagmites formed walls, not simply columns.

Eying the walls that the frost giant had formed, the wheels started to turn in Molly's mind. But they didn't have to turn very hard. It was simple solution. Sif had taught her to anticipate and expect changing circumstances, after all.

She turned to Rogue, dropping the can of food. "Alright, new plan," she said, her eyes glowing brilliant purple as she clenched her fist and charged toward the wall

A heavy thwack pierced the air as Molly's fist struck the ice, causing cracks to radiate outward. Another punch, and a section of ice in the wall shattered like glass. She readied her shield for what followed.

Magic filled the room, pulsing hard to drown the pitiful spark flickering in the light child's mind as the frost giant built up his fortress around himself. The most difficult part of this was simply that there were several of them and only one of him, so juggling awareness of all of them and their movements as well as their attacks was more taxing than it would have been if he could simply freeze them all.

The fiery one kept the temperatures around them high enough that a straight magical freeze wasn't possible, though, and the two who seemed immune to every physical attack he sent toward them kept smashing through the walls he built. He took a step backward to avoid the white-red beam that shot through a hole one of the invulnerable women had made. The shadows kept creeping, he could feel their burgeoning hunger, but he destroyed them before they could gain strength.

Stepping back again, the magic-wielder felt the wall behind him, the cool comforting, and allowed the ice to begin to build outward around him, encasing him so he would have some protection when the pulses of magic reached their crescendo and brought everything above them down upon them.

"No you don't, big guy," Angel called, a fireball forming between her hands - she let it grow almost to the size of the giant's head before firing it off, shattering the ice. "Bruiser whatever you're gonna do to capture this thing, do it quick before it regroups."

Taking that as her cue, Molly reached into one of the sacks on her belt, pulling out a pair of golden shackles with an intricate rune design on them that seemed to radiate energy. She quickly pushed her way past the huge chunks of ice that had been made in Firestar's wake, punching the frost giant in the face before he could lift his hand to freeze her.

"That's enough from you," she said.

The shackles took a bit of finesse to slip onto the frost giant's wrists. Fun fact: if you touch one it's like dipping your hand in liquid nitrogen. Luckily Molly had on a pair of gloves, which protected her from directly touching his skin. She slipped the shackles on, and a blast of mystical energy flooded the room.

Molly turned to the X-People that were waiting. "Okay. he's down. The shackles negate magic and cold. He's safe to transport now," she said, picking him up by the scruff of his neck as easily as a child would a doll.

"I'm sorry they showed up here. It was...Loki being Loki. He thought he could kill us if he sent us back here because of the deal Ms. Guthrie made with the Valkyrie and Odin so we could live...It's a long story. Okay maybe not that long. Anyway, there are two more frost giants at the hotel. We need to get back there and pick them up before they wake up and hurt anybody else."

She glanced to Clarice. "Can you teleport us there? There's an alley behind the hotel that looked pretty deserted when we were there. It's the Mirage."

Clarice nodded. That was better than saying something to end the world. "No problem," she agreed. "Let's uh. Stop Loki then. And his frost giants."



The Frost Giants have been captured and the trio prepares to go back to Asgard - only to have a wrench thrown in that particular plan.



A cat foraging in the alley trash can went scrambling for cover as Clarice's portal opened, dumping the cadre of mutants and their quarry. The hotel staff and security was more than happy to have themselves rid of their unexpected guests. During the retrieval, Molly, Ty, and Tandy explained the nature of what it meant to serve for Asgard. In order to live, it meant they were still bound. For how long they did not know. But the X-Men vowed to speak to Thor to try to get the matter resolved.

So it was with heavy goodbyes when they made their way out to the middle of the desert. The trio knew that their ride back would draw attention, so they had asked Clarice to take them somewhere less conspicuous. Out in the middle of nowhere seemed like the best place. The ultra hot weather also ensured there would be no problems from their prisoners.

The sun was starting to set as Molly, Ty, and Tandy, stood in wait with the three Frost Giants in tow.

"Heimdall! We are finished with Lady Sif's charge. The prisoners have been captured. Please open the bifrost," she shouted.

She was met at silence at first, as the twinkling stars were gradually replaced with the blush of the sun's rays. But Molly knew to be patient. Her answer came heralded in the form of static electricity that made her hair stand on end before a piercing light erupted from the Heavens, enveloping the group.

A heavy thud was heard, however, as the light disappeared. In its place, an elaborate design was left burned in the cracked desert...as well as three bewildered would-be travelers, knocked to the ground from the force a few yards away.

"I don't understand," Molly said, shaking her head as she climbed to her feet. She peered up at the sky, rushing back over to the seal.

"Heimdall? What's going--"

They did not notice the small box that had been left in the middle of the seal, which reacted to Molly's voice and whirred to life. A hologram, much like something out of Star Wars except far more high tech, projected from the box, that of Lady Sif.

"We thank you for capturing the frost giants. Their information will prove valuable. The trickster Loki has been dispatched by myself and the Warriors Three, and will answer for his crimes. In light of what you have done,the all father and his court has decreed that, due to your brave and faithful actions risking your lives in service to Asgard that you be released from further duty and may be allowed to remain on Earth until your dying day."

A note of softness crossed her voice. "I am sorry that I must impart my message to you this way, Tyrone, son of Johnson, Tandy, daughter of Bowen...and Molly, daughter of Hayes. A matter of urgent importance has come to my attention that I must attend." She smiled.

"It has been an honor to work with you all. Especially you, young Astrid. I have hope that someday we will cross paths again. Go forth and commit great and valiant deeds. Farewell."

The hologram flickered, then suddenly disappeared.

Ty dropped his ax almost to the ground as shock coursed through him. He hoped he didn't look as confused as he felt. They were… Well, free didn't seem at all like the right word. He'd very much enjoyed his service and responsibilities. He shoved aside the sudden feeling of being cut adrift. "Well, hopefully our families won't be too shocked after a couple of years of thinking their kids were dead?" he said hopefully.

"Well thanks Lady Sif." Tandy replied to the hologram and shook her head. "And here Baldr owed me a drink." Looking over at the other three before turning to the X-Men. "Looks like our services to Asgard was cut short. So...surprise we are back!"

Scott's eyes flicked over the three of them before he sighed and turned away heading for the main road and indicating everyone else to follow him, "There isn't enough booze in Las Vegas to make me wanna deal with this right now," he commented tiredly, "let's get back to the mansion and sort all this out." Well that seemed like it for this 'holiday', it seemed like getting a chance to relax just wasn't on the books for him.