Havoc and Retribution

Over the Precipice

Bradlich responds to Hel's declaration by opening fire on Iron Man, who is the first on the scene. Stark barely escapes an intimate look down the barrel of his missile launcher as the charge speeds outwards, blowing a perfectly circular hole through the wall behind him. Now able to get a good look at what the weapon is, Loki can see that it is deadly. The charge opens a temporary Bifrost portal, a ring of rainbow light that evaporates what it touches out into space. Tony's quick maneuvering is enough to save him this time, and the Avengers are more careful after that.

Bradlich's men pin down the Avengers, giving Hel the space she needs to advance upon Loki and the still concussed Steve. She walks towards them with a saunter, one leg crossing in front of the other with each step. She doesn't have her swords in hand, but she doesn't need them. "Oh, lover boys," she croons. "Come play with me my darlings."

Loki sends a spear of green light straight for Hel's rib cage, letting go any memories of Sigyn or Jace in that moment. The spear shatters on Hel's telekinetic barrier, green shards of light whipping past her. Rogers rolls and picks up a piece of debris, sending it towards her in a frisbee throw. She merely side steps, letting it fly by and counters with a telekinetic thrust that sends Steve flying backwards.

It is no gentle thrust either. When he hits the wall, Steve hears ribs snap and the broken rebar in the concrete punches into his back in multiple places. The savagery of her strike has him gasping as much as the pain that hits him like Thor's hammer. He suspected but didn't understand just how much Hel must have been held back by Jay before.

Loki is left to fight Hel alone and she has none of the psychological impediments that he does despite having a split personality. He throws up constructs at her, bombards her with magic and pushes all his power into each attack. None of it seems to faze her at all. She counterstrikes with a depth of telekinetic power he didn't know she had. Despite being injured and recently interrogated, he rapidly comes to the same conclusion as Steve, that Jay was holding Hel back far more than they realized if she can defeat them this easily.

Speaking of defeat, Bradlich's goons are not having difficulty distracting the remaining Avengers. They seem to have a weapon designed specifically for each Avenger, even the Hulk, something from the depths of the Warren Biochemical building that can combat each of them in turn. Loki and the injured Steve see Clint dive out of the way of a pulse that renders the wall behind him not more than rubble. The serious artillery they are packing would allow even a single battalion to win a war.

The weapons have a very distinctly Vanir flair, each blast or pulse a simulacrum of a clairvoyant power. There are swords that cleave metal like cream, guns that fire flaming bullets, and of course, the Bifrost missile launcher that Bradlich aims with strength and finesse at whichever Avengers gets closest to Hel as she battles with Loki. A theory is forming in Loki's mind, a question about how Warren Biochemical was formed and who formed it. They always assumed it was Tyr, as a way to get to Jaycee and Sigyn's descendants, but now, he is not sure. Weapons based on clairvoyant powers seems less Tyr and more... he cannot place his finger on it.

This thought process has Loki momentarily distracted and he pays for that mistake.

Hel's next strike hits him in the arm, bending his shoulder joint back at an unnatural angle. As the tendons and ligaments snap, the white hot agony sears through his mind, Hel standing over him triumphantly. She laughs at him with Jaycee's smile.

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In all honesty, she hadn't thought much further than beyond her own desperation to be away from Asgard.

She is normally not so brash. The only time she would ever use the word brash to describe herself is when she let the Asgardian prince into her heart.