Heroes Assemble!

Aren't You Supposed To Be Dead?

"I must get this one back to Asgard," Thor stated, nudging the unconscious body of the Dark Elf Malekith at his feet with his boot. "The aether must be extracted and secured where none can find it and use it in such a way again."

"Smart idea," Mage nodded. "And I'll round up the others. Most should be easy to find – I left them scattered about the place either unconscious or tied up. It's the last few that'll probably be a problem."

"A challenge that I'm sure that you're up for," Thor beamed, clapping him on the shoulder. "Once you have them all, call for Heimdell, he'll hear you and send someone to collect them and remove them from Midgard for you."

"That won't be problem?" Jane asked. "There's a number of you who just committed treason, remember?"

Thor laughed. "After what happened here, my Father will be lenient, have no fear, Lady Jane."

Jane gave him doubtful look but nodded anyway.

"I look forward to seeing you all soon," Thor said. "Heimdall!"

At that, Mage, Jane, Erik, Darcy and Ian quick-stepped backwards. They were none too soon as the clouds swirled above them before a jet of multicoloured energy crashed to Earth, engulfing both Thor and Malekith before abruptly leaping skywards again, leaving nothing but an elaborate Nordic pattern burnt into the grass.

Mage took a look around at his companions, trying to decide the best way to go about fulfilling his half of the bargain.

"Hey, don't worry, Magic Man, I've got your back," Darcy said jovially pulling her taser out of her pocket. "Bring the big bad dudes here and we'll look after them and if they so much as twitch ..."

The smell of ozone and the crackle of her taser lighting up told the story of what the Dark Elves had in store if Darcy thought they needed it.

ooo00ooo

Rounding up the downed Dark Elves had been child's play. Well, mostly. The four frozen in the midst of the Weasley Portable Swamp had taken a bit of extraction and Mage was sure that they still weren't fully thawed. Not that it mattered all that much.

As each Elf was brought to the central spot for Darcy, Jane and Erik to watch over, Mage made sure to conjure some heavy iron shackles for them. That was in conjunction with the fact that they were still stunned and bound in heavy ropes.

Darcy pouted a bit at the sight of what he was doing to them, making Mage involuntarily shudder at the thought of the gleeful damage that she could do with her taser.

Finding the missing Dark Elves had proven to be slightly trickier. Thankfully, Mage had three aces up his sleeve: his broom for fast aerial surveillance, a point-me spell, and the screams of the general public.

The few that fought back with some kind of energy gun were the most interesting. Fortunately, a protogo spell was more than a match for it.

Mage was starting to feel drained by the time that he'd gathered all of the Elves that he could find by any method. The fact that there were only twenty-seven of them had him frowning though – he was sure that there'd been a lot more than that.

"Jane or I probably zapped them to one of the other planets," Erik tried to reassure him.

Mage could only nod and hope that that was in fact what had happened; the idea of some of these aliens running loose in London was not a comforting thought.

"Well, let's see about getting rid of them," Mage said before looking up uncertainly at the sky. "Heimdall?"

Exactly as had happened when Thor had called, the clouds above instantly churned together before a multi-coloured beam of light shot towards the Earth. Instead of engulfing the Dark Elves and transporting them away as had been expected, the Rainbow Bridge that formed was off to the side.