If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
Gladiator blinked in shock at that, then took a blow to the head form the Thing. "How's about some of your own medicine bastard!" But the blow barely caused Gladiator any pain and he grabbed the Thing's arm to hold him still as he hammered two quick blows into the rock-shaped monstrosity. The Thing, not wearing any armor to add to his durability, grunted in agony, each blow reminding him of his fights with the Hulk, they were so powerful.
The Thing was saved by Hela and the Human Torch and Harry arriving, having left Storm behind slightly, the weather witch unable to fly as fast through space as the three of them. Hela struck first, her spells barely formed magical power, roiling black and purple spears that shut towards the alien.
Gladiator grunted, as those energy attacks actually hurt, one of them actually burning off portions of his uniform and a portion of skin before dissipating. The attacks of the other cloak wearing one were not even an issue. "You are not the only one who has energy attacks!" With that, his eyes blazed with energy and he shot out a beam of power from his eyes that was near white it was so hot.
Hela gasped but raised a magical shield that absorbed the energy, holding it as Gladiator continued his assault until Harry launched his own attack. "Drill of Light!"
Thousands, literally more drills of lightning, cutting and light-based magic than any of the fighters could easily count lashed out towards Gladiator. He first thought to just take the attack, not having yet learned to be wary of Guardian's energy attacks. He learned it now when he raised a hand to bat aside one of the drills only to lose a finger to the buzzing spinning mass of magic. Then he started to dodge, wincing in pain even as his healing factor went to work, slowly re-growing the shredded finger. What energy is that human using that is so, so malleable? That is the fifth attack he's used, and each has been different in form and function.
This brought him towards Hela who backed away, lashing out with her own spell, a sound-based spell, following up on Harry's vibration type spell. "GRAAA!" the spell essentially flashed out a thin beam of power that was supposed to encase Gladiator's head. But he dodged it somehow, and the spell only hit one ear rather than spreading over his head to both. It still worked, however, causing the noise of a massive explosion to go off inside that ear.
As she had expected, Gladiator did have enhanced hearing as he did strength and speed. HE howled in real agony lashing out with a breath attack to one side towards Harry before aiming another heat blast towards Hela. "Damn you both that hurt!"
Hela once more shielded herself, While Harry simply dodged to one side, the breath attack visible like a cone of cold in space. Okay, so my first spell didn't matter much although my Drill of Light did get through his durability. The Torch has been hitting him all along with his flame attacks and they haven't done anything. But this guy's strength is just too much, we need to pare things down. "Torch, Storm, get The Thing and Colossus out of here! E, retreat until your nanites can create something bigger that might be able to hurt him." E was even slower than Storm and had yet to catch up to them but better safe than sorry. "Hela and I will hold him!"
"You'll deal with me!? What hubris human!" Gladiator roared pushing his pain to one side, even as his healing factor went to work on his ruptured eardrum. He flung himself forward even faster than before, crossing the distance to Harry.
Oh shit! Harry shunted a bit more of his magical power into his Magia Erebea and met the attack head-on using hands and feet to block Gladiator's furious assault. With his speed and strength so enhanced he was able to keep up with the purple-skinned humanoid which shocked the attacker so much he didn't think to use his eye or breath attacks at first. Indeed, it shocked even Harry. With only about fifteen percent of his magic rerouted to empower his physical abilities, he was keeping up with this monstrous alien. And it was becoming easier as time went on as harry analyzed Gladiator's combat style. Damn, how much stronger has my core become!? I'd estimate this guy is at least on the Hulk's level, if not Thanos in terms of brute strength.
When Gladiator used his eye beams, Harry dodged, then hammered out a punch that broke through his enemy's defenses to smash into his face. Gladiator bounced back though kicking out and catching Harry in the thigh then jabbing out hard with an elbow that smashed Harry in the solar plexus, but which didn't double him over thanks to his armor and durability.
During this Gladiator was beginning to feel astonished. This human was matching his strength and speed and seemed to be getting used to Gladiator's style as the battle went on. How?! How is this possible!? I thought his power was energy manipulation of some type.
Hela foolishly tried to close, thinking Harry unable to concentrate enough to cast a spell, which was the case, although he was in no danger of being overwhelmed. She stabbed her blade down towards the top of Gladiator's head, adding her magic to the blade's edge.
Feeling it coming Gladiator jerked to one side, breaking away from Harry with a kick that got through his defenses to slam into his thigh, nearly breaking the bone. But Hela's sword thrust from above still sliced into his and along his pectoral, blood spurting out into space in little drops that flew away even as his regeneration went to work. "GAH, how did a mere primitive sword do that!?" Gladiator howled even as his hand flashed forward faster than Hela could dodge.
He tugged Hela in close and a jab to the side of her head nearly laid her out, shattering her jaw and nearly breaking her mask as she was flung away. Hela was not one of the more physically powerful Asgardians, whereas Gladiator could have stood toe to toe with Thor or perhaps even Odin in pure physical power. That power was based on confidence. Not faith, but confidence in himself and his cause. As long as Gladiator believed himself invincible, believed himself fighting for a cause he believed in, that was precisely what he was.
However, that confidence was starting to take a bit of a battering because his durability had never been tested before like this. Not in all his centuries of life. This was proven an instant later as when he tried to finish off Hela, Harry launched a lighting attack right in his face from where he had been flung a second ago. "Latinium Malleus!"
The green and gold lightning hammer appeared from his outstretched hand flashing forward faster than Gladiator could dodge and was soon joined by the returned Storm who lashed out with her own fury eager to make her mark in the battle. One hand lashed out with a concentrated blast of solar wind that she shaped into a spear of cutting power, while the other blasted out a magical attack of her own, a coruscating beam of blue and pink energy. And to Gladiator's frank astonishment he felt it, indeed he screamed in pain, hurling the black-clad human away from him as he reeled away, twitching spasmodically. How, how!? That first was simple lightning no matter that it was voice-activated for some reason. How was it able to get through my durability!? And the attacks of the other one, how did it get through my durability!?
He tried to shake that off as Harry righted himself and came back in. Now, however, Harry had seen the pattern and smiled. I don't think this bastard has the magical resistance Thanos had! He's been dodging and moving so fast we haven't really been able to hit him with a powerful pure magical spell all that often, and when we tag him with one though he feels it. Element attacks don't work so well, but pure magic will.
With that thought, a plan emerged instantly. "Jean, Emma, I'm going to give you an opening, let's see what we can do on the mental plane. If you can distract him for just a brief moment in turn, then we can take him down."
"Hela, mentis!" He shouted.
Mentis was the Latin word for Mental, and Hela knew it. Still reeling from the punch that she'd taken, she gathered her energies, shooting out a spell wordlessly while Storm dodged a blow from Gladiator ducking down and flying away from him.
The spell hit, and Gladiator grunted, as he could feel some of his mental defenses slowly start to erode. I have to end this quickly, before whatever attack that is gets through. Gladiator new his mental defenses were not as strong as he could wish. One the mental plane there was a limit to how strong he could make them, as his people were psychically blank.
But that brief second of weakness was enough for Emma and Jean to launch their dual attack. Jean provided the raw, monstrous power, her telekinetic and telepathic power having actually grown since she'd become pregnant as if being a bearer of new life had given her a greater connection to the Phoenix Force had buoyed her powers even as her control was shot to hell. Emma provided the skill. She took that energy from her lover and crafted it into a scalpel that jabbed deep into Gladiator's mind.
He howled aloud, backing away from the physical fight as he threw Harry and Hela away, grabbing at his head with one hand as he ground his teeth down and tried to concentrate, to throw them out of his mind. But splitting his attention like that had caused his belief to waiver, and magic had already proven to be able to get through his physical durability somewhat.
Now Harry broke out a powerful cutting spell, one he had come up with recently based on Snape's Dark Cutting spell but taken to an entirely different level. "Serratus Aspera Speculum Milia (Jagged Glass Thousand Cuts)!" the spell shot out in a single pulse of brown and glowing black energy before exploding, each piece lashing across Gladiator's face and chest opening up hundreds of cuts.
Surprisingly the pain of that allowed him to thrust out the telepathic assault, using the pain to shore up his telepathic defenses. But, it also shook him, and Harry grinned, as Hela lashed out with another barely form battering ram of magic from one side. He dodged most of it, returning a blast of his heat ray that caused her to scream and fall back clutching her chest, but again the attack battered into his side, and his dodging opened him up for another spell from Storm. This spell took the form of a flash of white and yellow energy barely shaped in the form of a spear.
Caught out of position, all Gladiator could do to block this attack was to use his heat ray to intercept it. This worked and he tried to take the initiative back by launching himself forward toward Storm who was a distance away from the others. Yet even as he closed with her with his hands outstretched as if to grasp her neck, Harry struck. "Diosca Gearradh Trom!" A spinning, swirling blaze of cutting magic flashed out, one of the spells which had been able to wound the mad Titan months back.
Only, Gladiator had no inbuilt magical resistance.
The attack flashed in from the side, impacting Gladiator's outstretched arms at the wrist and cut through both wrists like a hot knife through butter, sending Gladiator's hands drifting away through space. Gladiator gaped, as his forward momentum took him forward and his hands, cauterized wrists first, smacked into his chest before tumbling away. He stumbled flipping end over end as he gaped at them.
Harry used a simple "Accio hands!" to grab them, pulling them away from Gladiator until they were rotating around him in a macabre dance, somewhat astonished at how easy that had been and how little of his strength had ebbed with that spell. "Well, that was rather anticlimactic. What was that about being completely invulnerable?"
Gladiator gaped at him, then down at his stumps and began to babble "I… I…" If the spell hadn't cauterized the wounds even as it made them, Gladiator would well have bled out.
As it was, the last thing he saw was a blast of furious red energy coming for his head, as Storm used a massively overpowered Stupefy spell on the back of his head, it was a very low-level spell, and watching Harry was honestly surprised it worked, even with the guy's mental fortitude broken. But it worked, and Gladiator fell blessedly unconscious.
With that done, Harry moved over to Hela, watching Ororo heal her face and chest. "Are you all right sister?"
"I am much better now that I have seen what price our Seidr Man here extracted from that buffoon for attacking me so. He was most puissant in a physical sense," she mused, touching her face gingerly, then taking Ororo's hand in hers and bringing it up to her now healed lips to kiss.
Ororo chuckled at that, then looked over at the alien. "Agreed. He tossed off my nonmagical attacks like they were nothing! Even my most powerful, condensed solar wind or lightning assault barely caused him to blink."
"Whereas magical attacks did get through, vaguely at first then more as the battle went on. Strange. But he's been dealt with for now." Harry reached over, tenderly touching Hela's cheek as she smiled at him before he shook himself and looked over to where Johnny and the others were coming towards them. "Strap some magical shackles to him, loves. I have to contact Admiral Powers."
While Hela and Ororo were conjuring magical bindings around the prisoner and making certain his hands weren't regenerating as most of his earlier hands had Harry reached through Jean and Emma to the admiral. "Powers, we've dealt with the superpowered aspect of this threat. I want that ship intact, and most of its crew alive to answer questions. Beyond that, it's your show."
OOOOOOO
The captain of the Shi'ar Empire Pinion scowled, crossing his arms in his command chair as he continued to dance his ship this way and that around the various attempts being made to encircle him. About as soon as Gladiator had been too far away to get back here fast enough to interfere, several more ships had appeared out of the gas giant's rings, along with one more out past the blue-colored gas giant. Four frigates and five more cruisers. The ship out past the blue giant was a battlecruiser for the Majestor's sake!
Luckily it wasn't moving very quickly, and seemed more to want to block any attempt to get out system, but still… These must be Kree! An odd assortment of ships, but all of them are of Kree design. Although, there are those smaller ships. Could they be starfighters? If so, this planet might have something more than this Fantastic Four group for us to appropriate.
His ship had been playing tag with the humans for a while now going on 10 minutes now, and it was a stalemate. For now. Unfortunately, the captain had fought against other empires before. He knew how this story went. If I had a few more ships with me, Hells, if I had at least two other ships, a full strike-wing of cruisers, I could make them beg for forgiveness, Kree or human. But as it is, dammit! "Helm hard turn thirty degrees down, fifteen degrees sunward then one hundred and twenty degrees out-system from the new heading. Then, a three-second burst, twisted around to ninety degrees. Full power for two minutes afterward, let's see if we can get clear of that one cruiser's firing lines."
"Sir, there's something wrong here," his second in command sent from his own position at the weapons controls. "Why are they trying so hard to get into our blind spots? They're not even trying to shoot at us most the time, just line up that perfect shot. That's completely against Kree doctrine and even common tactical sense for space combat."
"I don't know why," the captain admitted. "Your thoughts?"
His second-in-command frowned, then shook his head. "I don't…I think perhaps they could be trying to capture us?" he hazarded as if he didn't quite believe what he was saying.
"With Gladiator here? Do you think they that stupid?"
"They might not know Gladiator, he might be forced to make some examples before the humans are brought to heel."
"As he did already," the captain muttered, shaking his head. He still was not happy about the fact that they hadn't answered the hail before Gladiator attacked. He fully understood and supported Gladiator's position, but he would have preferred to at least try a little bit harder to not force the humans into a corner or bearing their bellies so obviously. Better to use honey when dealing with a beast, rather than just stick after all. Keep the stick there, obviously, else the animal might get ideas. But to use just the stick was…
Shaking that thought off, he barked out further orders, and his ship stood up on its tail, twisting in a spiral heading up from their former course so that the fire from one of the cruisers around went past below them. Some of the beams still struck, but the ship rode through them with ease,
His first officer gasped, suddenly realizing what was bothering him. "That's just it Sir. That should have been enough. But it wasn't. Why? What race would keep fighting if they saw Gladiator destroy a portion of their fleet without taking injury?"
At that point, something new was re-added to the combat spear. "Sir, incoming fighters. By the royal line, where did they come from!?" The fighters had seemingly come out of nowhere. There hadn't even been any flash of energy or anything to signify a hyperspace jump if such small vessels could produce such in the first place.
Unlike the Badoon, the Shi'ar Empire knew what fighters were. They didn't see them as offensive weapons though, simply because they couldn't miniaturize their offensive weapons to the point where a single starfighter could use them. But these were not real starfighters as the Shi'ar Empire understood the term. Ravens were the PT boats of space as Harry had put it. But still, despite the fact that they didn't really understand what they were dealing with, they knew those little ships could be dangerous. "Bring us about! Target those…"
"Sir! One of the cruisers is behind us!" the ship had put on a sudden burst of speed, shedding its previously ungainly movement.
At that, the captain realized his mistake. The shock of those fighters having appeared on the scene had grabbed his attention and he had concentrated his ship's movement on evading the new threat, forgetting the old. That, coupled with the crew of that vessel suddenly finding a new level of skill and the enemy ship had been able to
Shots slammed into his ship's shields over their engines which began to flicker, but he rode through it, twisting around his ship this way and that. But, then more of those little ships appeared, and then they began to fire.
Blue beams of energy flashed out in long core skating beams, slamming into his shields, with more force than even the weapons on the cruisers had. "What in the world!? Get me a reading on…"
Once more one of his crew interrupted the captain with a report. "Shields are down!"
Before the captain could order anything the ship was already diving away, trying desperately to protect its aft section, while the first officers lined up another shot on one of the other enemy cruisers with their own guns. That shot went home, but that cruiser didn't seem to feel it at first. The scanners showed the real tale though. Shi'ar ships had more weapons pointed in a single firing arc than Kree ships, and they could overwhelm their enemy's shielding given time. That ship's shields had been hammered nearly back to the hull. Another shot and they would fail completely.
Before they could take that shot there was a sound almost like that of a welding torch multiplied a hundredfold, and the lights went out. The emergency lights quickly came on, but the gravity was still out, and as he floated in his chair, hung there by his safety harness, he shook his head. "Those fools!"
"Sir, engines are down, we are spinning out of control through space, and our secondary generators have also been hit. They have us dead to rights. I really don't think they are fools. If anything we are fools for walking into their trap," his first said, his voice high and strained.
The captain nodded. "Exactly. they've killed members of our race! Do you think Gladiator is going to stand for that?"
"Sir, that's just it," a new voice interjected causing both officers to turn to the communications officer. He had actually been attempting to get his attention for the last several minutes but with the battle going on neither officer had heard him.
"What is it?" the captain asked calmly. The worst after all had already occurred. His ship was helpless in the water, and would no doubt be boarded or destroyed. he idly wondered which, as he looked at his communications specialist.
"Sir, we, we have lost all contact with Gladiator. Even the wrist-com monitoring his vitals isn't sending out any more data!" the man said, fear on his face
At that, the captain's façade of self-control cracked, and his eyes widened in shock and growing fear as he realized that the worst was far worse than he had ever realized it could be. Gl, Gladiator beaten? And, and my own ship a veritable prisoner already. These humans are no primitives! What in the darkest night have we stumbled into here?
OOOOOOO
On Harry's orders, several of the purloined cruisers used their tractor beams to grab at the tumbling Shi'ar vessel. Once it was level, the frigates moved in, destroying the weapons nacelles at the front of the vessel and then the few scattered defensive lasers that were stuck here and there on the rest of the ship. Once that was done, shuttles roared out from the surrounding cruisers. They had been waiting for this for a while, and Sam was not the only trooper to shout out about damn time?
Now, now Marine," Steve said. Russia should practice a little bit of patience.
Yeah, whatever army, just because you're used to sitting on your ass for days doing nothing doesn't mean we are," said one of the Marines nearby, only to blanch as he realized who he'd said it to before Steve let loose a belly laugh.
As he did so though, he took in the marines and their battle rattle. Most of the marines on this mission were from the first batch of first world countries troops that had gone through at least some of the training to prepare them for boarding actions and defensive combat in space. Steve and Sam had worked with several of them, and Hawkeye had also been training with them for a few weeks at his request, though Hawkeye had only officially signed up to join the EDF after the Eurasian War had ended.
The EDF, not the Custodes Mundi. Hawkeye had made it very clear he didn't want to be involved in the superhero world twenty-four seven any longer. He was fine with training up the troops, but not fighting superpowered threats, not with his wife wanting him home more often and his little girl entering the third grade any longer. But unlike his previous employer, Harry was perfectly happy to have him in the training role rather than out in the field.
The battle rattle showed their training and the environment they were going to be entering soon. Their boots were massive, metal monstrosities that went all the way up to just below their knees. They combined Ghigau's hover skate technology with heavy magnets that could be activated either by specific foot movements, or verbal commands via the communicators set into the marine's helmets. The helmets the marines wore were equally large, heavy things that clamped down on their chest plates. Those chest plates were a work in progress at this point, designed to look like Kevlar body armor covered by a partial exoskeleton, heavily built up around the neck to take the weight of the helmet.
Underneath all that the marines wore dark grey camo gear, a few bits of metal armor around their thighs and stomachs, and their weapons. And like the rest of their gear, those guns were high tech, plasma rifles for the most part. No gauss rifles here, not in a boarding action. Nor were there any heavier weapons among the marines. The only exception of that rule was Cyclops. Steve had also seconded Nightcrawler, Uzume (Carol) and Coyote (Wyatt) into this attack along with Falcon. Beyond that, he wanted this to be a test of the training and equipment of the marines. They had to see if their armor would work against the infantry weapons of their enemies after all.
"All right troops," he shouted as he stood up, bending his knees slightly as there was a loud buzzer sounding throughout the shuttle. "We all know our parts. First, Forward!"
"Up!" Sam shouted along with a fireteam of marines.
"Left!" shouted two more fire teams.
"Right," was next with two more.
"spread and cover," came next, with Uzume leading Coyote in joining it. Cyclops and Nightcrawler were on a separate shuttle.
"Good. Remember, this is a hostile environment, keep your helmets on at all times, watch you're assigned areas, everyone six is, and let's do this!"
"Hell yeah," Sam muttered, twitching his hands which were suddenly holding twin machine guns. Or rather they looked like handheld machine guns. But most machine guns didn't fire high-powered plasma bursts, rather than bullets.
There was a jarring impact, and Steve road it like a surfer would a wave, then, the far side of the shuttle burst open, the charges on either side of the drill that had punctured the side of the unknown ship doing their work. Instead of simple explosives though the bombs let out a glue-like substance that covered the ragged edges of the hole, allowing the area to keep its internal pressure, such as it was.
The two shuttles had targeted what looked like a hangar bay where they could spread out a little, so long, that is once they dealt with the defenders. And as everyone had expected the defenders were there in force of course. They had even brought up some metallic bollards to use as a defensive position. But more aliens were still getting into position when the attack began.
Steve didn't let them have that time. He didn't even try to shout for them to surrender. Instead, he simply barreled forward, taking the enemy's fire on his shield then ducked to one side, heaving shield forward int a defender's face then catching it on the rebound to guard another marine who had raced out after him. At the same time Scott blasted out from the other shield and Falcon flashed into the hair of the hanger bay, barking orders as he laid down covering fire. The marines with him targeted the two panels on the surface of the roof that were opening as they boarded the enemy vessel. They exploded, and the marines shifted targets.
The effect of Falcon and Cyclops's attack was a study in contrasts, Steve reflected as he dodged and danced around the defensive fire. The plasma from Sam's gun burned through body armor, point-blank shots, well-aimed fire. Scott wasn't nearly good as at aiming is that, but he didn't need to. His bolt hit in a wave, hurling aside the defenders and shattering the protective bollards they had erected. This meant the defenders were completely unprotected from the incoming marines' fire. Only one bollard near the back of the hangar bay was still upright. "Spread out, lay down a covering fire!"
The marines with Sam and behind the initial three groups did so forcing the remaining defenders I the hanger bay to duck and run for what little cover there was. At the same time, Cyclops aimed at the entrance to the rest of the ship, blasting the doors off their hinges into the faces of several dozen aliens who had been racing to aid their fellows.
Steve used Cyclops' beam as cover, racing along one side of it, then as it cut out leaped forward over the remaining defensive position into the middle of the four defenders. They reacted quickly, all of them twisting their wrists which caused an odd, double-bladed claw to appear.
He took a blow to one shield, then grimacing at the weight of it. These guys were a lot stronger than they appeared. But the man on the other end of the odd wrist daggers looked shocked he hadn't pushed Steve off balance, and Steve's kick took him in the knee. That man fell, groaning in agony and holding his knee. A blow from his shield knocked him out, and Steve tuned into another lunging blow from another alien, twisting around it, catching that alien in the side of the neck with his shield before hopping into the air and kicking out to either side smashing the last two out into the rest of the hanger. Strong, but they can't take a hit, can they? I swear I heard bones breaking there.
Behind him, the last of the defenders were all down, although two of the marines had also been hit. Their emergency portkey arrays though had worked and they were gone, back to Fortress Mars for healing. A few others were wincing and touching at bits of their armor, while, Cyclops was wringing out his leg, having taken a blow from something there.
"Orders," Steve called out. "Cyclops and teams two and three to the engine room. All take teams one and four to the bridge. Nightcrawler, Coyote, Uzume, spread out and cause havoc."
But at that point, the battle was nearly over. For one thing, there weren't nearly as many aliens as they had expected on a ship this size. For another, they had apparently bet on stopping the attackers with that first defensive line, without realizing that left them vulnerable afterward. Attackers ran into small groups of defenders, which slowed them down, especially around the engines, but only twice more did the aliens attempted to put up a truly organized defense.
Once came in the form of a large band who had gathered together in the armory. Nightcrawler found them almost five minutes into the assault though and called in his fellow teleporters. The three of them harried and harassed the aliens until Scott was able to get some of his troops into position from the nearby engine room. The engines were completely slagged, and after Scott was able to destroy some of the controls, this ship wasn't going to be flying again without some serious rebuilt time.
The defenders had put up a pretty decent position here, despite the fact that the teleporters were popping in and out everywhere, including into the armory behind them, but when the Marines rolled into view and Scott began to fire at them from all long-range, they were done for. They went down swinging, but after Cyclops once more shattered their defensive position, the teleporters got behind them, and they were caught in a crossfire that tore them to pieces. "Captain, this is Cyclops, the engine room is dead, the armory is secure, and we have ten unconscious aliens as prisoners too."
Steve and his group, pushing towards the bridge, ran into the second example of a prepared defense. This came in the form of a large security area, about the size of a classroom with the aliens at the end of it protected by metal walls that had come out from the edge and floor of the room, coupled with several automated gun blisters set into the roof.
With the marines providing what covering fire they could, Steve drove forward covering the distance faster than the defenders could track, then once more leaped over the defensive shield. He was among the defenders who had crowded the position too much, a common mistake by troops lacking experience. He slammed his shield into faces, sides or joint, battering men and women aside, listening once again to the telltale crack of bones, although he was still battered in turn by a few blows from his enemies. They were extremely strong for their size, but their bladed weapons couldn't penetrate his bodysuit and their entire style seemed to revolve around those weapons.
"Guns are down, go Falcon go!" shouted one of the marines as he blasted the last automated gun to pieces. "Don't let that blasted Army have all the fun."
"Semper fi!" Sam followed quickly, using his jet pack to cross the distance. He was then in with the defenders, switching out his plasma guns for trench knives. They didn't prove as effective as Steve's shield or punches had. He couldn't seem to penetrate their armor material. "What the fuck!?"
Then he punched out hard and heard a crack even though the knuckles on his trench knives didn't penetrate the alien's armor. "What the Flipping fuck!?" He growled as he ducked underneath a blow that would've taken his head off. Another blow landed on his shoulder, and spun him around, grimacing in pain.
An instant later there was a *bamf* of displaced air and Nightcrawler was there. His blades, made of Orichalcum, rather than metal proved able to cut through the enemy's body armor, and he lopped off hands and feet as he went, killing few, but wounding everyone around him.
One alien tried to grab up a gun from the floor and turn on Steve, but Steve dodged. But all of the defenders had turned on the enemies among them, which meant the marines were able to race forward. They fired into the melee from the other side of the defensive walls, and the last of the defenders went down.
"And that, I believe is that," Steve muttered, he looked at the door the actual really separating the rest of the ship from the bridge. "I don't suppose anyone brought blasting powder?" Steve didn't want the teleporters to pop to the other side of the hatch alone, just in case.
"We brought something better, Sir. Me," Cyclops said with a grin as he led his men forward from behind them. A few moments later, it was all over.
About an hour later the ship was brought into orbit over Fortress Mars and the boarding team headed down to rest and debrief. Harry was there, waiting for them in the main hanger. "Hello all, I see you're in a good mood so I'm assuming our casualties were quite low in the assault?" He asked, his tone light, but his eyes and face serious. After the battle with Gladiator he wasn't certain what they were dealing with here, so was worried his men might have gone into a meat grinder.
"Light!? We didn't take a single damn man! Said Sam, gleefully. "Holy shit boss man! You have got to start spreading those emergency teleportation arrays around. Swear to god you will become the patron saint of fighting men everywhere."
"We lost five men in the first few firefights breaking out of the hangar bay," Steve replied more professionally. "All five of them teleported away. We lost two more men among my team after that, both in the initial seconds of the battle to get to the bridge. Scott?"
Scott pulled off his mask, quickly putting his glasses on before he nodded to Steve. "Only one in mine. These aliens seemed to have the playbook right at first, but they lacked the willpower and manpower to fight for the ship from end to end."
"They were strong though," Steve added, shaking his head. "Stronger than they looked. But very fragile."
Harry shrugged. "Those are the kind of questions our doctors will have to answer.. Regardless gentlemen," he said clapping his hands. "Well done. I am going to go down to join Ororo to see to those injured."
Sam joined Steve in saluting, although he was completely serious, whereas Steve did it just to annoy Harry who he knew didn't like it. "I was serious boss, spread those teleportation arrays around, you wouldn't be able to sign troops up fast enough."
"UNderstood Sam, and I might in order to recruit the men for the force I'm going to have you, and a few of my other friends and acquaintances put together soon." Sam cocked his head quizzically, and Harry chuckled. "Let's just say that as a jump specialist you are going to be uniquely suited for it. But that's for later. Right now, get a shower, we need to figure out what the hell was behind this attack, and how we're dealing with it first."
OOOOOOO
Hours later, while the experts began to go over the ship, their prisoners and the dead, Harry and his allies and a few of his advisors met with Una and Mar'vel. As spokesmen of the pale-skinned Kree who had become a contributing citizen of Latveria when given the opportunity, Harry hoped the two of them could give them some information about this lot. "I know that this Gladiator said he represented the Shi'ar Empire, and we have a bit of information about them from captured Kree computers, their position and the border they share with the Kree and a general idea of the nature of their government. But is there anything else you can tell us? For instance, who is Gladiator? With the kind of power, he wielded, I would assume he's a very big deal."
"A very big deal he says," Mar'vel muttered one hand covering his face as he rubbed at his eyes while Una chuckled somewhat uncomfortably beside him in the loveseat across from Harry and the others. The meeting was happening in High Note, with Pinoptes listening in, but for the moment it was an informal powwow instead of an interrogation. "One of the most powerful beings in the known universe, and you not only take him captive, but disarmed him in a very literal sense, and you just ask if he's a big deal."
"This being spoke of the Imperial Guard," Doom intoned, leaning forward from his own chair. Since the end of the Eurasian War, Doom had devoted himself to his internal issues, bringing to bear his genius and energy to bettering the industry and infrastructure of what was now being called Greater Latveria. The fact some of his former neighbors were making noises about his annexed territories was immaterial at present. "What exactly is he and what exactly is the Imperial Guard? And why do you speak of it in such awe? Surely you Kree have a similar group?"
"We do," Mar'vel said, waving his hand back and forth. "Super soldiers, super troopers, individuals with greater power than normal like Ronan. But the Imperial Guard are far greater in number. And they…"
"They act as… well I've been studying your history, and they are sort of praetorian guard," Una took over quickly as her husband seems to fumble for words. But they're not a pampered elite as that group seems to have always become in human history. They are a real elite troop chosen from thousands of subjugated species, chosen for their dedication, or rather indoctrination, to the Imperial cause."
"Indoctrination?"
I use that word deliberately, because of Gladiator. He is sort of a very dark legend in the universe."
The professional nurse glanced over at her husband who nodded and took up the tail. Gladiator is from a race called the Strontians. They are as you no doubt discovered, extremely powerful. And I say Gladiator is a dark legend with feeling. Because Gladiator helped to kill his entire race."
For a moment there was silence, and when it was broken, it was Paris Lourdes who spoke up. While Harry was uncertain of the reality of their relationship still, Dr. Doom had asked her to be brought in on this meeting and the later, more formal one. He had agreed since she had proven to be not only an incredibly good businesswoman and media mogul but a decent reporter in her own right. Her coverage of the peace talks had not spared anyone, including Harry and Doom, and had been lauded as one of the most impressive pieces of journalism in recent history.
Now faced with Mar'vel's stark announcement that aspect of the woman came out even as the rest of the woman retreated in sheer horror. "What do you mean he killed his entire race? How is such a thing possible? Why did he do it? And what is your source for all this information?"
"My source originally came from a report done by the Kree Intelligence Service. They kept a dossier on all of our possible enemies, and Gladiator has been around for several hundred years. He has a regeneration factor, you might have seen it in your fight with him?" Mar'vel waited for Harry to nod before continuing. "Because of that, he ages extremely slowly. And the event I speak of happened so long ago it stopped being a secret and started to become history, and so was spread beyond the intelligence service."
Paris frowned, but eventually nodded, understanding how that could come to pass easily enough. After all, time routinely changed things from secrets to common knowledge in human history. She didn't like having so little information not go on for such an extreme accusation and said so, but fell silent then, gesturing Mar'vel to continue.
"More than a hundred years ago the young Gladiator was part of the first batch of inductees into the Shi'ar military on his planet. Generally speaking, the Strontians were not happy about being part of the Shi'ar Empire. But, Gladiator was so thoroughly enamored of the Shi'ar Empire and the Majestor himself at the time that when told his people were thinking of rebelling, the Majestor sent Gladiator personally to deal with it. He did so, facing his own people, who themselves should have been powerful enough to stop him. For some reason, he was stronger than them and eventually brought the rebellion to a halt by killing their leaders. The planet was then utterly destroyed, along with the rest of his race as they had backed the rebellion." Mar'vel glanced at Paris. "The Kree sent in a deep insertion ship to try to make contact with the Strontians. All they found of their homeworld was debris."
Harry winced, and patting his chest and nodding thoughtfully. "He was certainly strong enough I think to do that kind of thing, I'd imagine."
"Too right," Ben Grimm muttered. He wasn't there so much because he had anything to contribute, he was there to learn more about the guy who'd come within a few inches of beating him to death. "He threw me and Piotr around like we were lightweights. If not for the rest of ya, he coulda…" he shook his head falling silent. Piotr too had trouble dealing with how little help he'd been during the battle, but hadn't taken it as hard as Ben. He had retreated to be with his girlfriends and friends.
"After the planet was shattered, the story goes that Gladiator hunted down each and every one of his species and wiped them out. That we're not certain about. There are some rumors that he allowed one female to live, but that's just a rumor. What isn't a rumor is that Gladiator follows the orders of the Majestor, come what may, so you can see why he was a dark legend."
"He isn't any such thing now," Harry said, his voice an alloy of rage and disgust. The very idea of someone turning on their own people like that was horrible. That someone could be so callous as to order it was perhaps worse. "Let's set Gladiator and the Imperial Guard aside. The IP I think are just soldiers, good soldiers, but simple enough to understand. What can you tell me about the Shi'ar Empire as a whole than you haven't already?"
"And what do the Kree people feel about them?" Ororo asked from where she sat to his right side.
"I was never stationed along our border with the Shi'ar Empire. As for what we feel about them, we didn't have much interaction with them, no trade or dialogue but it was mostly a peaceful border. I can tell you rumors, but if you're looking for specifics, I don't have many."
"The emperor goes by the name of Majestor, two daughters, or is that sisters? There are lots and lots of conquered planets, weak individually, but very technologically advanced. Way too far away from Earth to be a real threat, they can operate out here, but only in small groups and with a lot of preparation since the Kree and Skrull are so close," Harry counted off the points on his fingers. "We can get more details on that from their ship's computers and our prisoners. So rumors are good enough for now."
"There is one rumor that we can share," Una said quietly. "Um, this is another case of formerly important information that has since become simple common knowledge. The Shi'ar people are predators, and one of the rumors about them is that they actually literally ate an entire species to death."
Again this drew silence from everyone, and Harry shook his head. "That just sounds a little too unbelievable. We are talking about a sentient race by your tone right? I can't believe that someone being indoctrinated to the point they turn on their fellows, that is something we've seen in human history if not to that level. But cannibalism? Eating a sentient?" Here Harry shuddered. "That, that is…"
"Gladiator will know the truth as well those prisoners," Emma said coldly. She, Harry could sense through his mental link to Jean, who was not there, was more willing to believe the worst than Harry was, while Paris, Steve and the others, bar Doom, seemed to think this was another exaggeration. "Regardless, none of this is as important as the elephant in the room: what the hell is he here for?"
"That we will have to find out from our prisoners. Emma, could you contact Betsy or Charles. Better to make it Betsy. I want at least two telepaths involved in the mental interrogation of Gladiator and given her condition Jean isn't my first choice for this. And when you probe his mind, don't be gentle." When he felt the need, Harry could be as cold and as ruthless as Emma or Doom. And given the trouble they'd had with him, there was no way he was going to let Gladiator go. "Mess up that mind man's mind, break his will, shatter his self-esteem so much that he will never regain it. Anyone that can nearly kill Benjamin Piotr and Hela is too dangerous to let live, regardless of his lack of resistance to magic."
"That I can do," Emma said coldly. She had not liked feeling Hela or Ororo's pain through the link she and Jean had been maintaining at the time with them all. And, though she still had problems showing it, Emma also cared for both women deeply, even Hela.
"Good. I'll join you after I give Carol and the others going over the ship a few requests. Let's set up a meeting tomorrow to go over what my people have learned. Um…" Harry frowned, scratching at his lightning bolt scar. "Let's put off a full press statement until we know why the Shi'ar were here. If that's alright with you Ms. Lourdes?"
Paris frowned but nodded. "I'd recommend having a neutral reporter, preferably a group of them, involved in the more formal briefing tomorrow. It would be a good way to start getting more media coverage on the EDF, which you desperately need. I'd also recommend getting some more world leaders involved. I know they don't have any power to impact space-based operations, but they do need to start being brought in on meetings like this one. Not so much to give thier opinions, but so they can then inform the world at large about their own take of what is going on."
That caused Harry's frown to deepen, but he couldn't argue with her logic. "So long as those reporters are warned that we will watch anything they right closely and won't allow it to be slanted one way or another. Facts only. I'll stick MJ in charge of choosing who, and you can be there as well Ms. Lourdes." Paris nodded indicating she was fine with that, and the meeting quickly broke up.
OOOOOOO
Harry took most of that day to bind Gladiator magically in a more permanent fashion. Hela was a tremendous help there, having had to do the same thing to a very young Garm at one point when she had first bound the dread wolf to her service. At the same time, Emma and Betsy worked on, as Betsy put it, "Cocking up the purple shite's mind somethin' fierce."
This was extremely difficult. While not a telepath, Gladiator was as mentally tough as anyone Emma had ever dealt with bar Dr. Doom and Reed Richards, both of whom had developed a nonmagical version of Occlumency that gave them a high level of mental defense on top of their technological defenses. But between them, they were able to do so. By the end of the day the two telepaths had been able to not only find out what he was here for, but that yes, Gladiator had killed his entire race while younger. And did not regret that fact at all. The man was indoctrinated to such a degree Emma was utterly disgusted and said so. Beyond that, they pulled a lot of information from his mind, though no major, imperial type secrets. It was evident to Emma that the man had been kept away from politics to an extreme degree, though he was seemingly trusted as anyone could be by the successive emperors.
However, after that, the two of them retired to Camelot to be with his family. While what Emma had discovered was important, they could wait for the work on the ship to be finished before addressing it. Given the distances involved, there was nothing they could do right away anyway.
After spending an hour with Ororo, Jean, and Hela, Harry and Emma had a very romantic dinner out on the top of the library tower, the area heated by spells, and waited on by Cory, who had dressed the part of a butler in technicolor, complete with that silly towel that butlers always wore on their arms when they served things. The towel was itself a mélange of blue, yellow and white. The suit, white, red, green, yellow and with a pink undershirt. Harry thought the little guy looked a little ridiculous but wasn't about to say anything considering how proud of the outfit he seemed.
Jean, Ororo, and Hela spent their time elsewhere. This hadn't been the plan. The plan had been to let Harry and Emma have that night in bed together, but to spend dinner as a group. But with the interruption of the wedding, the girls had somehow communicated with one another, without any words being spoken as far as Harry could tell, that Emma deserved a little more personal time with Harry. Jean and Ororo had decided to spend time with the kids, while Hela had decided to get Betsy properly drunk after her time in Gladiator's head, which had not been a nice place to be.
"How did you all decide on that by the way?" Harry asked looking over at Emma. He had set the dinner up, but the lack of other girl ladies around them was still a surprise.
"Please Harry, if I told you how women communicated nonverbally, I would have to kill you. One of the purposes behind doing so is to keep men ignorant after all," Emma laughed.
Her laughter petering outs, she nuzzled into Harry's shoulder, sighing contentedly as she looked out over the winter landscape around Camelot. Save for a few parts here and there, such as around the botanical gardens and a little portion of the lake, which were magically heated, the rest was a frozen landscape of ice and snow. And it was gorgeous. Just like their wedding had been before being interrupted. "It really is a magical landscape isn't it," she mused.
Harry chuckled. "Sure, so long as you have forming charms."
"That is what I meant. Magic is what you make of it after all," The two exchanged a laugh, and when Emma opened her mouth, Harry held up a fork with some fish on it to her face obligingly, watching as she somehow ate the piece of fish in a sensual manner, licking her lips and flicking her tongue out underneath the piece of meat, before pulling it off the fork with her teeth. "And is that a secret too?" he asked, shaking his head.
She just chuckled, leaning back and taking a sip of her apple cider, there being no wine at the meal. Emma and Harry had both mostly stayed true to their promise to not drink once Jean got pregnant to show solidarity. But it didn't matter. Despite the lack of drink, it had been a most romantic night, and the air between them was almost supercharged, as Emma turned to Harry and said softly, "Take me to bed, my husband."
"And here you didn't particularly care about all that before," Harry teased even as he stood up, before crouching slightly to stare into Emma's eyes.
"That was before. Now, sharing that connection with you, knowing that I will soon share it with the others, that has become important to me." Emma reached forward, twinning her arms around Harry's neck and pulling it forward to kiss him. "Take me to bed Harry," she said again, her tone now one of command rather than sultry request.
Harry laughed, and put his arms under her, lifting her up easily from the sofa they had been sitting in. He then walked down to the staircase into the castle proper and then along the corridor from the library tower towards their quarters. "And why didn't you just teleport us?"
"Tradition," Harry said with another low, almost rumbling laugh that sent pleasant tingles up and down Emma's already aroused body. "Isn't the husband supposed to carry the bride over the threshold?"
"Hmm, and I think it is also a tradition that they are kissing as they do…" Emma replied, leaning up and kissing him. The kiss soon became ardent, and it was all Harry could do to concentrate on a spell that opened the doors ahead of them, one after another as he made his way up the circular staircase to their room.
There they found that someone, Ororo most likely, had prepared the room. There were candles in several places to provide light rather than their normal lamps. A bit of incense had also been lit, giving the room a scent of elderflowers and violets. The blinds had been replaced by a light velvet blind that made the lighting far more red-tinted, something that caused Emma to gasp in delight. The regular sheets had also been replaced with pure white silk.
Emma looked around, and murmured, "Remind me to do something nice for Ororo later. This is… well, this setup is out of one of my fantasies frankly."
Placing her on her feet, Harry moved over to the bedside quizzically, picking up a few small circular containers of something, bring them to his nose and sniffing. "Massage oils," he murmured setting one down, then when smelling didn't work on the second, poking his finger into it. "Lube? Why in the world's would we need that?"
"We certainly haven't yet," Emma replied with a laugh behind him. "And I'm certainly not going to be so adventuresome as to let you into the one area where we haven't already played."
"Good, I would be a little put off by that…" Harry said, before turning around and gulping. "Blessed be…"
Emma had pulled her dress off her shoulders faster than Harry had thought possible, and was now shimmying out of it, twisting her hips this way and that as if swaying to unheard music. When she felt Harry's eyes on her, she looked up, and smiled, running her hands from her hips all the way up her side, then up into her hair, as she cocked her head to one side then back down her front where she unlatched her bra, it was one of the ones where it was done up at the front, tossing it to one side.
Harry had seen Emma naked, more often than any other person in the world, save perhaps Jean, since the two of them routinely took showers together in the mornings. And yet, Emma felt a thrill go through her as watched as he licked his lips, and moved towards her, but she took a single step back, stepping out of her dress, and dancing around, before pushing him towards the bed, making him sit down at the edge. "Ah, ah, ah. Not just yet."
She slowly shimmied out of the dress she'd been wearing to dinner, a thin-strapped slinky number that had been tight around her waist, stomach and hips. This revealed the garter belts and panties she was wearing, which seemed made of silk and frills in equal measure. She then moved over to stand directly in front of Harry, reaching her hands forward to run her fingers through his wild hair. "Help me with my panties?" she asked, her voice low and sultry.
Lemon Start:
Harry nodded slightly, then, smirking leaned forward and instead of using his hand or rather just his hands, he bit at the front of the panties, getting them between his teeth and slowly pulling them down, licking at the exposed skin until the small tiny tuft of hair
Unlike Ororo or Jean, Emma waxed, and Harry nuzzled into her crotch right above her pussy lips, his tongue flicking out. Emma's quim was already moist, and he let his tongue flick around and then down either side of her lower lips. In reply Emma's fingers wove through Harry's hair, as she began to moan, humping against his head.
Then she squeaked as Harry's hands gripped her rear hard, squeezing just to the edge of pain, before lifting her up, and somehow twisting them around before gently, so very gently, laying her down on the bed. During this movement Harry didn't stop his ministrations of her salivating pussy, his tongue first flicking up and down again before diving inside of her deep as he could go, before licking back out, his fingers tracing up and down her thighs, below her to her rear, squeezing, then up again.
Emma moaned and moaned again, but, when Harry began to use his fingers to trace her pussy, she reached down and tugged at his hair. He looked up from his joyous work one eyebrow corking, and she shook her head. "This is supposed to be a night for both of us love", Emma moaned throatily, "and you are far too dressed."
Harry obliged by hopping off the bed, but when he was about to use magic to remove his clothing, Emma shook her head, pushing yourself up the bed to prop herself against the headrest, her eyes smoldering. "Slowly. Give me a show, lover. We have the rest of the night after all."
Harry smiled, then as he began to unbutton his shirt, began to mutter, "I'm too sexy for my shirt… too sexy for my shirt…"
"I can do without the commentary, thanks!" Emma laughed, shaking her head. "No matter how truthful it might be."
Harry shrugged and continued, but no longer made a show of it, winking Emma. "You can't have it both ways love."
She rolled her eyes but still took in his form as he removed his clothing, then, as he was pulling down his boxers Harry looked down for a brief second to step out of them. When he looked up he found Emma at the side of the bed. She reached forward, taking his shaft in one of her hands and moving her hand up and down it, marveling at how hard it was. She never got tired of that, or of the fact that Harry was already standing at attention, despite her not having done anything just yet. Now, Emma did do something pulling Harry towards her, her mouth opening.
She took his shaft into her mouth, a few inches at first, slathering it with her tongue, before pulling back, kissing down its length on both sides and then underneath, tracing the curve of Harry's staff, feeling his balls under one hand, as Harry began to grunt. Then, she slowly pulled back again and gestured him forward onto the bed.
Before Harry had finished getting on the bed, Emma was on him, pulling him down and kissing him hard on the lips pulling him down on top of her, she squirmed then until Harry was underneath her, and she was grinding on him, her wet quim sliding up and down his shaft.