The Vision commands everyone's attention. "Listen to me, heroes! This is your last chance! Join with me, now, as my lieutenants, just as these others have! Join now, or I give the word to strike you all down with no mercy! Within this box I stand upon, is the greatest power mankind has ever harnessed. It will ensure that my plan is successful. Do I share the secret with you, or will you be destroyed?"
Thor seethes, picking up the dazed Magneto, and throws him at the Vision. "Never villain! I'll never join with your filth!"
Dr. Kang, anticipating the strike, jumps in front of the Vision, who never bats an eye as the huge form of Magneto sails toward him. Dr. Kang grunts as Magneto hits him, hard, and the two crumple to the ground... both unmoving.
The Vision considers Thor for a second. "Strange, you may profess not to join me, but still, you seem... familiar..."
Baron Zemo blasts the box underneath the Vision with his repulsors, using his sensors to compensate from the goo on his faceplate. "The Reich is dead! Let it stay that way!" With a shattering roar, the replusors blast away at the box, sending Vision reeling to his knees, but also revealing.... a nuclear missile!
The Vision stands quickly, striking a dramatic pose! "YES! Unfortunately, I must agree with your sentiment! The Reich may be dead, BUT I can never stand idly and let it stay that way! With this nuclear device, I will be able to start the Reich on the road to TAKE ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE AS THE FIT RULERS OF THE GLOBE! Everyone into position! Blitzkrieg! Gingerbread! Help us!"
In a blink of an eye, Blitzkrieg dashes about the warehouse, moving the unconscious bodies of Guaridan, Kreiger Frau, Magneto, and Dr. Kang to various areas around the warehouse, vaguely beginning to form a wide circle, with the Vision and the nuclear device in the center.
Gingerbread makes motions with her hands, making the firey cage around Moon Knight flicker and dance about. Moon Knight is forced into a position within the circle-- it's either that or risk getting burned!
Zeppelin Man throws two new mini-zeppelins at the Black Knight. Blitzkrieg then turns back toward Hellcat, who seems to be intently regarding the circle being formed. Thor's two goats come out from behind him, look at him plaintively, and then begin to trot toward the rapidly forming circle. Guardian slowly and groggily gets to his feet...again.
The self-titled Vision of the Third Reich begins to chant in German beside the nuclear device, recently stolen from under the noses of the city after his plan to mobilize the city's criminals in one united force succeeded to plunge the city into chaos!
Even now, police and firefighters are stretched to their limits, forced to react as dozens upon dozens of crimes of all types are flaring from one end of the city to another. Riots, arson fires, bomb threats, bank robberies, pillaging and plundering...
The Vision smiles as he chants, and his fingers play across the arming device of the nuclear weapon.
The Avengers bravely battle on against their nazi counterparts. Continually beaten down but drawing upon resources they didn't know they had, they fight on undeterred by the villains' confidence.
Guardian takes a moment to assess the situation, feigning unconsciousness - he doesn't want to be percieved as a threat-- yet.
The Black Knight, after watching Gingerbread guide Moon Knight within her manipulative cage of fire, shouts "Look sharp, Moony, i'll get ya out o'that cage!" But then, Zeppelin Man's mini-zeppelins come whizzing through the air toward Black Knight! "First i suppose I'll have to avoid these things, though..." he adds.
Trying to fend off the mini-zepps with his sword, BK slashes the air. "C'mon Avengers, let's kick some more Nazi ass, we've got 'em on the run!" Sword strikes missles, and the Knight inadvertantly released the contents of the zeppelins, spreading Z-man's sticky paste all over the Knight! Similar to the substance currently covering Baron Zemo's helmet, Black Knight tries to move forward, but the goo provides too much, and the Knight plops down on the ground, like a bug in a spider's web. Zemo doesn't say anything. He wants to have the element of surprise on Gingerbread if that's possible. He uses his sensors to guide his blast to Gingerbread so that Moon Knight can get free. Strangely, the sensors are picking up Moon Knight, but not the fiery cage that Zemo remembers surrounding him.
Gingerbread screams as the energy sears into her. She is knocked to the ground, and gingerly puts her hand to her head.
After trying to keep himself upright within the cage of fire, Moon Knight also falls to the ground, the cage disappearing into the air. About the same time, the two goats leading Thor into the circular formation about the Vision-- disappear! Where these the same goats that appeared earlier last evening? What is this conjuring witch doing?
Zepplin Man screams, "What are you doing, you verdammit turncoat!" Z-Man grapples with Zemo, wrapping him in a wrestling hold and trying to force him to the ground with no success.
Tearing Black Knight from his gooey predicament, Thor picks up the Knight and flings him like a spear at the Nazi Vision. "Fly monster slayer," Thor yells to the hurtling Knight, "There are no fouler beasts than these Nazis!!!!"
The Knight goes soaring through the air, but the villainous Vision manages to exaggerate his chanting/swaying at the last minute and the Knight misses, splatting against the far side of the warehouse floor.
Hellcat takes advantage of the blindness she induced on Blitzkrieg. She takes aim with an eldritch blast, and the speedster goes down hard!
Thinking the Vision may complete his ritual, charges him, trying to re-arrange his precise, Aryan features with a Kree mantis-kick! He connects, but the Vision merely grunts his chanting a little louder, and swats Guardian aside. The young man goes sprawling on the floor.
The Vision turns to face the heroes once again. "Fools!" he spits. "Do you think your paltry attempts to stop my plans would succeed! Never! The Vision of the Third Reich is pure! Strong! Soon, we shall take our place as leaders of this world, and the Earth will be united as one! The pure and strong shall lead this planet to unprecedented heights!"
Each hero and villain catches his/her breath as the high-pitched "tick tick tick" counting down the nuclear explosion reaches its end, become a rapidly beeping tone. In the space of another heartbeat, the bomb explodes!
Cringing, all the people of the scene blink into the bright light that engulfs the warehouse, with a rush of wind and sound, whipping up a deafening rush thunder! Just as suddenly, the cacophony is silenced! The wind and dust settles, and the characters rub their eyes, and blink as they adjust to the re-darkened warehouse. The area seems deadly chilled.
Standing where the nuclear explosion collapsed upon itself, stands an imposing figure: standing nearly 12 feet tall, obese and massively muscled, weighing 300 pounds if he were human-sized, thickly bearded with beady black eyes flashing fire from beneath the bushy eyebrows, with a horned leather/fur hat and a fur cape flowing about him... The large man holds an equally large spear, elaborately carved and decorated with huge black feathers.
"Who... dares?" says the tall man, in a strangely whiny voice, "Who dares to summon the High Father... LOKI?!"
"Yes! Father!" grovels the Vision, now reduced to supplicating on his knees, "It is me, the Vision of the Third Reich! You... you and your kind have once helped the Nazi soldiers reach great heights! We would have been nothing without you! But without your support, we were forced down by our enemies, and have languished ever since! I implore you, to lend your aid once more! With your help, all the world will bow down to the master race, and hail you, Loki, as the All-Father!"
The giant Loki slowly turns his head to regard the Vision.
With a gesture, Loki turns his head slowly away. The Vision's flesh, bone, and clothes burst into cloud of dust.
Loki regards the rest of the scene. "Gone are the days in which Loki needed the adoration of lesser beings! Begone, humans!"
"Serves him right...damned Nazi!" mutters Guardian.
Gingerbread looks up from clutching her head, the look of horror upon her face beyond compare... "The circle..." she breathes... "we didn't complete the.. circle. Summoning... all wrong..." Zeppelin Man lands beside her, helping her to her feet. He looks uncertain, but angered.
Thor watches with ever widening eyes as the figure is revealed. It couldn't be him... could it? He's long dead. Long dead. And ... yet ... it IS him. Half brother to Odin. Companion on more adventures than he could count. Trickster, pest, strategist, menace, betrayer, murderer. Mixed emotions well up in Thor. Tears come to his eyes. He is half outraged that this ... this fiend survived Ragnarok when so many other noble heroes died and half relieved that someone else survived the holocaust. Words choke in Thor's throat and remain unsaid. Fists clench and unclench. Thor's face glows red ad he begins to sweat. His armor hangs on his frame like the weight of the Midgard Serpent itself. Instinctively, he reacehes for Mjolnir . . . he grabs an empty whiskey bottle.
Loki regards the rest of the scene. "Gone are the days in which Loki needed the adoration of lesser beings! Begone, humans!"
BK utters a few non-sensical syllables. "Gah, Loki! Me pleasure to get the hell out of here, yah..." BK blubbers rather helplessly for a few seconds before he somehow gains control of himself again! "I say thee nay, the Black Knight shall not cringe before a pagan demon!" he shouts, and then again, seemingly at himself "It's a bleedin' god, ye moron!". And again "A false idol, I say! Now, to destroy this devil in the name of our Lord. if I can just get me down off this wall!"
Thor's feet move forward without his approval. His arms raise. Suddenly his voice is booming without consent. Thor runs towards the God of strife, he yells "LOKI! YOU LIVE!" He doesn't know why he does this. What else can a dead man do when he sees a lost acquaintance?
And Loki's face finds an expression it hasn't found for decades-- dumbfoundedness. "Th.. Thor." But just as soon as it appears, Loki regains his composure. "How...." he searches for the word, and looks like he is eating raw squid, "wonderful."
The two men stand side by side. Although they seem comparable in height, they could not be more opposite in girth or demeanor. Thor's slight frame with a goofy expression on his face, Loki's massive volume and his look of disgust.
"Look at thee," Loki spits. "I hardly recognized thee! Thou are but a skeleton! The end of the world has not been kind to you. Look at *me,*" Loki puffs, hefting his might spear, "I've been able to take ... advantage ... of the situation! Come with me, Thor. Never more shall thou be my brother, but thou may certainly attend to me in the new world I have created! What say thee?
Loki contiues, "'Tis only a matter of time, yea, perhaps any evening now, when Ragnarok, which even now sweeps down the tree of Yggdrasil, shall catch even Midgard. From what are thou still running? *I* have created a new heaven from which I rule all remnants of Ragnarok. Accept the inevitable, that Loki is now GOD of this UNIVERSE!"
During Loki's rant, the Black Knight has drawn upon his reserves of strength, extricating himself from his goo-spattered entanglement. Striking an odd pose in his blood-stained, goo-encrusted armor, the Black Knight does the Harrison-Ford-pointy-finger thing before running at the massive figure of Loki. "In the name of Christ I banish thee, foul one! Get thee back hence from where thou camest! Well dost thou know how thy kind has been forbidden to walk this mortal plane for the last two milleniums! Get thee gone, demon!"
BK's sword slashes down in a magnificient blow to Loki's back, and it actually dents the mighty armor underneath Loki's furry cloak, sticking fast. Loki half-turns to regard the Knight, and reaching behind himself, pulls Black Knight's sword from his armor: "GAH! That ... was a mighty blow, indeed! Pity it was ultimately insignificant."
MOON KNIGHT was watching if Thor would get knocked on his ass, and decides to fire off what'll probably be an insignificant Light Blast at Loki. Loki merely laughs. "Oh, humans! I hath forgotton how much merriment thou are as playthings! Very well! Thou all shall each have an opportunity to join me in glorious battle. Watch, Thor. Thou shall surely have a chuckle or two!"
"Proceed, humans!. First round goes to you. Do your worst." Loki folds his arms, still holding the spear in one hand and Black Knight's sword in the other. Loki lofts the Black Knight's sword into the air, and with a flash of light that puffs out like a miniature nuclear explosion, the sword dissolves into a black mist.
PFOOM!
"GAH! But the ebony blade is indestructible! For a thousand years and more the Black Knights have wielded it! Can it now truly be destroyed?" exclaimed the Black Knight in one voice, and answered himself with another. "Guess so, old boy. Man, is Morgan le Fay gonna have my ass!"
And with that the Black Knight faints dead away, collapsing in an undignified heap at the feet of the two Asgardians.
Guardian watched the altercation between Thor and Loki with a mixture of horror and awe, as Loki lofted the Black Knight's sword high into the air, and with a burst of light, totally disintigrated it! But after the burst of light faded... Guardian squints... he can still *see* it! Not as much seeing each speck of dust the sword burst into, but sensing each molecule, like a cloud of grains... almost... palpable?
Loki laughs derisivly at Thor acquiescence. "Aye, and come with me thou shalt! Thou but have two paths, to come with me, or to stay here for the slow but inevitable end of it all! Come with me, but no longer as my (he spits the word)Brother! Say it! Call me LORD!"
Gingerbread, helped up by Zeppelin Man, looks at the other costumed people about her. "I'm sorry!" She hisses, as Loki continues his ramblings, "But our summoning has went horribly wrong! You think that madman will simly leave after our meddling! We must hurry! Force him back or force him to flee!"
Zeppelin Man agrees, with a determined nod. "Thor! If that be your name, I salute you! I remember well your hand in battle alongside mine own, many years though it be, as we faught the Allies! Had I recongnized you, I would love to share with you stories of old, in true Nordic fashion! You are needed here! Help us! I stand beside you, even if your friends do not!"
And mini-zeppelins are sent flying toward Loki, three sent, twirling straight toward his face, his back, his legs!
Thor, resigned to take a step toward Loki, is stopped by the sudden appearance of his two goats. The white one looks up at him, pleading. The black looks up, accusingly.
Zeppelin Man continues his impassioned plea to Thor. "Had I recongnized you, I would love to share with you stories of old, in true Nordic fashion! You are needed here! Help us! I stand beside you, even if your friends do not!"
And mini-zeppelins are sent flying toward Loki, three sent, twirling straight toward his face, his back, his legs!
Loki uses the spear in his hand to deflect one, then two of the mini-zeppelins. The third explodes near his legs, erupting in a blinding flare around the fat god's waist. Loki reels back, clutching his eyes momentarily. "GAH!"
Guardian tries to reach out and pull down those particles that seem to be reminescient of the Ebony Blade, and Kirby-dot pink energy begins to coalesce above Guardian's hands! Unfortuantely, the strain is unbearable, and it doesn't seem to be enough.
Loki, rubbing his eyes as he focuses on Thor's bent frame before him: "Let them go?! LET THEM GO! These pitiful beings managed to summon even *me* Loki, from my newly created heaven! They have resorted to attacking my being! I have the power to hasten the eve of Ragnarok upon Midgard! By my direction, the sun and moon will be eaten! The Fimbulwinter will descend! Thou should give me *better reason* why I should not destroy this entire world-- something better than simply offering thy pitiful frame of a skeleton to me!"
Thor's thick red brows furrow in confusion. "But Loki -- How can this be? How have you survived? Are we the only ones? Are there others? Does Sif yet live? Baldur? Sygyn? How did you come by Gungnir? If it has survived, can I have hope that Mjolnir has as well?"
Loki turns his head back and his entire massive body shakes with his laughter. "There are no survivors for Ragnarok! Those whom I did not slay by my own hand I neither know of nor care about... How did *I* come by Gungir!? This spear was wrested from the hand of Odin himself! The man dared to call me "son!" It is I, Loki, who pried the spear Gungir from Odin's own dying hands, right after I carved out his heart to stain his throne red! He finally called *me* LORD in his dying breath, just as you must do if you wish to live!"
Thor pauses. Loki was an unlikely lord of Asgard in the past . . . and yet here he is, looking every inch a prince as well preserved as Thor is not. Perhaps Loki was even smarter than we gave him credit for. Thor falls to his knees. He bows his head. "As you command my lord so shall it be done."
Loki's eye twitches, his breath short. He spits in his frustration. "NO, DAMMIT! FIGHT ME! BAH! Thou art not the warrior Thor! Thou art some shadow! Thor indeed died during Ragnarok, for the man before me is not the true Thor. If thou be worthy... " Loki swishes his hand in a careless manner, and the hammer Mjolnir appears over Thor's kneeled form. "If thou be that whom thou sayest thou art, rise and take hold of the mighty hammer. RISE, DAMMIT! RISE IF THOU CANST!"
And with a sweep of his hand, the sword of Gungir comes crashing down upon his back!
Guardian, swaying from his exertion, closes his eyes from the brightness of the Kirby-energy swirling above his hands... and suddenly, the energy coalesces into a version of the Black Knight's sword! Guardian smiles, and then collapses to the floor, exhausted.
The Black Knight, however, comes out of his swoon, still muttering to himself. Mumbling and shuffling on hands and knees, he makes his way to where Guardian now lies, and clutches the sword in his hands. The Knight raises it to where his lips would be, gently "kissing" the blade. A soft "Thank you..." is heard, but in which voice, no one can tell. The Black Knight then groggily gets to his feet, his sword in battle-stance, and points to Loki... "Loki! There shall be retribution!"
Hellcat tries to focus past the overwhelming magical energies that threaten to consume her. What started as a simple use of the appropriate runestone has turned into the equivalent of trying to stop a flood with a Dixie cup (tm). But soon, a sense of order begin to arise from the confusion. Hellcat sees the rage within Loki, the restlessness, the bitterness. She also senses the power, the regality, the (albeit warped) majesty. But under it all, there is a sense of desperation. A hole, as it were, in Loki's mind, full of emptiness... of longing... of a need. As content as Loki has made himself, there is an undercurrent of... boredom.
A jumbled and sideways thought backlashes to everyone: "doog a retskcirt tahW tuohtiw si..." and Hellcat screams, almost fumbling with her runestone.
Guardian, still groggy, tries to recover some more so that he can stop being Somna, Lord of the Unconscious! Zemo also continues to watch. He wants to see what else is going to happen.
Thor moves more rapidly than he has moved in decades. His face is redder than blood and his body visably shakes with rage. Bitter tears stream from his buldging eyes. He is unable to speak and only growls like a wounded bear defending its young, "GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!" With every ounce of strength he can muster he leaps at Loki throwing all of his weight into a leaping strike.
Loki staggers beneath the mighty blow, genuinely surprised at Thor's sudden attack, but his eyes seem also, in part, relieved. "Thank you, skeleton! I was wondering if I would be allowed to do.... THIS!"
And with a sweep of his hand, the spear of Gungir comes crashing down upon Thor! Unfortuately, Thor's years of inactivity slow him down again, as the huge, poweful Loki brings the spear down hard on him. Magic energy arcs over Thor and once clear, the once 6-foot, 7-inch frame has reduced in half!
Loki laughs, a powerful belly laugh. "Oh, what fun I have been missing lo these years of becoming supreme!" The hammer Mjolnir remains hovering in the air above the now diminuitive Thor.
Moon Knight mumbles the words quietly several times trying to work it out as to what the words mean. "Retskcirt, retskcirt, retskcirt. Trickster!" He curses under his breath doing his best to put the words into some kind of order... "What good is a trickster without... Without what? Without his tricks?" His eyes lock onto the spear knowing that it may not be the best bet, but if it's a source of power then Loki doesn't need to have it.
He fires off a Light Blast into Loki's eyes hoping to finish the job of blinding him. Zemo, seeing Loki has stopped simply talking, tries to hit him with a light burst.
Loki staggers once more under the flashes-- "Wha?!"
Without missing a beat, Thor uses his new found vantage and punches Loki right in the cajones.
"Whop!" Loki nearly doubles over in surprise and pain.
"And I guess it's time to see what I'm made of!" Moon Knight comes up from behind Loki, running hard, and tries to wrest the spear from his hand! Loki nearly swirls 180 degrees, recoiling after Moon Knight manages to seize the mighty spear. Staggered, pained, and still half-blind, Loki's face reddens, his anger shaking his bent-over frame! The entire area draws silent as Loki's seething begins to reach a fevered pitch....!
And the Black Knight takes the opportunity of their distraction to attack. He charges forward and swings the ebony balde, not at Loki, but at his fancy-ass spear, hoping that he reveals the never-before-used-power of the ebony blade to dispel magic!
"CAMELOT!"
The now-mini-Thor cries out in pain as the Ebony Blade crashes down across his back. "HEY!" Black Knight staggers back in surprise, glancing blankly to his sword, holding it as if for the first time.
And Loki explodes.... into laughter!
"HA HA HA HA HA HAAAaaaa!! Oh my! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!" Everyone stares at Loki as he continues a hearty bellylaugh. And continues. And continues. Just as soon as the moment becomes awkward enough to lead someone to interrupt, Loki rears back, fully restored and as hearty as ever, his fur-lined cloak swirling dramatically.
"MORTALS!" Loki cackles. "You fool with magic mixed with fundamental forces more primal than you've ever known! All told, a valiant attempt, nonetheless! Verily, you all foolish indeed! Foolish to touch what should never be e'en gazed upon by mortal eyes..."
Loki stretches out his hand, and the spear Gungir appears in his hand, while Moon Knight's hand dissolves into blood and mist.
"Foolish... and yet observant. As GOD, God of the nuclear forces, creator of a New Asgard, overseer of Ragnarok, I have neglected my true role of the cosmos-- the god of mischief. After all," Loki remarks, holding the mini-Thor's head between massive fingers, "is it not as god of mischief that I manipulated events to my own ends, allowing myself to grab the mantle of Atomic God as humans harnessed the atom, allowing myself to grab the mantle of High-Father as Asgard crumbled?"
"No, Thor," he pushes the midget away from him, "you belong here, on this mudball Midgard. My hand, and my hand only, stays the Fimbulwinter from bringing the end of it all. But whenst would come my amusement? Aye, verily, I retire to New Asgard! But watch for my finger to press down upon thy tiny frame when thou least doth expect it!"
To all the others, Loki swirls his gaze, catching each of you. "Thy world owes you all its deepest appreciation, for I take my leave. But thy world also owes you deepest scorn, for I will never take away my gaze upon it!"
And in a flash of pink-Kirby energy, Loki is gone.
Everyone takes a brief moment to breathe deeply. Gingerbread and Zeppelin Man turn to tend to their fallen teammates, who begin to recover from their unconsciousness.
And Mjolnir crashes to the floor in front of Thor.
The Black Knight turns his attention to the villains rising from the floor: "....Now back to where we were before that sod interrupted us: die you bloated nazi pig!" And BK swings his blade at Zeppelin Man! "CAMELOT!"
Guardian also leaps out to attack Gingerbread with his Kree martial prowess. "We need to take care of these secondary rogues, now that the primary threat is eliminated!" Both Z-Man and Gingerbread are hit, and Gingerbread falls hard to the ground. Zeppelin Man cries out in pain. Both turn to their combatants with a look of hate in their eyes....
"STOP!" shouts the pudgy little man, Dr. Kang. His weak frame is supported by the metallic-skinned Magneto, who also had just risen, groggily, to his feet. "There... there is no cause for further battle. We... surrender. (he coughs) Our "Vision" is lost. Our god is false. Our Time Has Passed!"
And on cue, Gingerbread raises her hands high before Guardian can stop her. A blinding flash of light fills the warehouse, and although it takes only a few eyeblinks to recover, the villains had disappeared!
Everyone is filled with mixtures of relief and frustration, but as each checks up on the other and scours the warehouse in a fruitless search for clues, they hear the sirens tolling the end of the night of the "Convention of Crime."
The now-small Thor picks up Mjolnir, as a father does a long-lost child, and his two goats stare dispassionately after him, gnawing on remnants of the battle debris.
Moon Knight's left hand has been completely severed after Loki spirited it away when reclaiming Gungir from MK's grasp. At least, he thinks, he was able to have a hand (ugh, literally) in stopping Loki's threat, since it was MK's involvement that led the Avengers to the warehouse in the first place.
Hellcat senses that there is some lingering presence of the villains, as if they were still watching, but can find no evidence of them.
Black Knight curses the fact that his need for skewering more nazis must go unsatiated. Then there is that whole "Morgan" thing... did she really help, or was it a coincidence, and what now?
Guardian still feels the rush of power in him. He can sense things more deeply, and influence the very molecules that make up his enviornement, but what practical use does it have?
Baron Zemo broods as well, confident that his abilities helped turn the tide, but embarassed at the paste on his faceplate and the fact that Zeppelin Man still regards the dishonored name of Zemo as the true mantle he should wear.
And everyone thinks a variation of the same thought:
"You mean I just saved the world, and not a blessed person will ever know?"