18 18. A NAUGHTY GOD.
"Location?" Coulson asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
This stunned Harry. "Are you certain?"
Sitwell projected his screen to one of the larger displays for them to view. The footage was not of the greatest quality but it appeared to be enough to convince Hill and Fury who had both seen the god in person.
"That's him alright." Fury ground out.
"That makes no sense." Harry countered.
"Why not? He's not from Earth. He might be as ignorant of technology as I am." Steve offered.
"Or me as well but he has Barton and several other SHIELD agents, they would have advised him of the possible methods they would use to track him. He's a trickster, an illusionist, a shapeshifter and has a mind control staff. There is no reason for him to be this blatant."
"Unless he wants us to know where he is." Hill offered.
"It's either a trap or a distraction." Steve added.
"He's a trickster. All good stage magicians make you focus on their right hand doing showy gestures while their left hand quietly takes the coin away." Harry agreed.
"And Barton should be getting to Germany right now so he's not with Loki so he's on his own mission." Coulson added.
"So who do we go after?" Steve asked.
"If Loki is a distraction then Hakeye's mission must be important." Hill suggested.
"But at the same time, we can't exactly ignore the Norse god walking around in plain daylight either." Fury countered, looking straight at Harry.
"I'll take Loki, Steve and the Black Widow should go and disrupt Barton's mission."
The group, minus Fury, looked at Harry in surprise.
"You want to go one on one with a Norse god?" Hill asked baffled. "He cleared out a room of some of our better agents in under a minute."
"Want to? No. But we can't exactly pass up the chance and if I get in over my head I can probably just 'poof' away as Sitwell so elegantly calls it."
"Harry, you're not a soldier, you're a private detective. You did your detective work."
Harry looked to Steve, seeing only concern from the man.
"No, I'm not a private detective, I'm a wizard."
Steve looked Harry straight in the eye for a few more moments before nodding to him. "I'm not in any position to tell someone they are getting in over their heads."
"Ok so we have a plan. Everybody head out."
"Sir, we're about to reach the 600 miles target to Stuttgart." the pilot called back to Harry over the noise of the engine and wind some time later.
"How long before you get there to back me up? Oh and it's just Harry." Harry asked as he made his way to the cockpit.
"At our current cruising speed of 1800 miles per hour that would be about 20 minutes, sir."
Harry nodded to the man. Shaking his head in amazement at the speed these planes could fly. Harry's top of the line racing broom could only do 240kph or 150mph.
"Right, can we get some images of the area?"
The copilot punched in a few buttons and a side screen shifted to a detailed satellite view of the area around the building Loki had appeared in.
After a few moments, Harry nodded to the men. "See you in 20 minutes." and with a twist and a crack the wizard disappeared only to appear a second later in front of a lavish building to the sounds of panicked screaming.
Harry cursed himself silently for having left his invisibility cloak back in his apartment and settled for the far inferior disillusionment charm.
Quietly sneaking into the lavish reception hall, Harry spotted his target. Looming over the bloody body of an elderly man lying on an altar like table, some type of high tech probe in one hand and a bladed scepter with a glowing blue gem in the other.
Harry noted briefly that the god apparently had no family name or so the enchantment in his glasses informed him.
Loki pulled the device away from his victims eye after it had beeped twice and tossed it negligently over his shoulder. After staring at his handiwork in satisfaction for a few moments, he began to make his way towards the main doors.
Having moved into an advantageous position Harry fired off a quick but silent stunning spell at the god, the disillusionment spell fading.
With inhuman speed and agility, Loki twirled about and batted the red spell away with the bladed spear to splash against the walls harmlessly.
"Now who might you be … ah! Harry Potter. They sent the detective to face me? Where is the soldier out of time?" Loki asked as he casually walked a few steps towards the wizard. All the while his expensive suit shimmered and shifted into an exotic looking outfit in greens and golds. On his head appeared a massive golden horned helm
"Steve had a prior engagement."
"So they send a Seidr to face the god of mischief?" The god in question asked mockingly.
Harry shrugged, moving his body slightly into a better dueling position.
"Are you going to come quietly?" Harry asked, raising his wand.
"You believe you have power over me mortal?" Loki's voice was low and filled with disbelief.
"You believe your paltry magics are a match for my own power!?" The gods voice rising with the powerful beings anger.
Lighting fast, Loki swung his scepter out a blazing blue blast of energy streaking towards Harry.
With a flick of his wand, the wizard deflected the bolt of power, causing it to explode into the ceiling. A chandelier crashed down along with plaster and timber.
Not waiting for a follow up blast, Harry sent out another powerful stunner towards the Jotun only for it to be parried and deflected by the bladed staff.
"Perhaps I have misjudged you Völva." Loki conceded.
"I get that a lot." Harry acknowledged, not lowering his wand.
"It is a mistake that I'll not soon repeat."
Loki vanished in a flash of light and suddenly a dozen Lokis appeared in various places around the reception hall.
All the Lokis laughed as Harry spun about is surprise.
"While you might actually have some sliver of power, you could never hope to match the Master of Magic." Loki taunted, his voice echoing from all directions.
For some reason, those words brought a shiver down Harry's spine.
Harry had noticed one interesting fact, only one of the Lokis showed a name in his glasses, a Loki fairly close to his position by the large windows leading to the front of the building.
Harry spun aiming at one of the images 90 degrees to the left of his enemy casting a silent stunner once more as a feint and readying for the sneak attack he knew would be coming from the real Loki.
When all the Lokis sent a blast from their staff, Harry ignored the blasts coming from what he assumed were illusions and deflected the blast from the real Loki back at the god sending him crashing through the windows and out into promenade beyond.
Harry rushed outside the building to see the god slowly come to his feet, his green eyes aglow with power and anger.
Harry began to wave his wand, silently transfiguring whatever pieces of debris he could into a flock of a dozen or so ravens while his opponent made to stand.
"That … was … a … mistake." The angry god ground out as he sent a blast of power at Harry.
A raven dived, intercepting the blast while Harry returned fire from his wand. Seeing how the blast of energy that had taken part of the roof of a building had simply annoyed the Ice Giant, Harry used a powerful blasting curse.
The two green eyed, dark haired magic users traded blasts for a few moments. Loki dodging or deflecting Harry's attacks while Harry's quickly diminishing flock of ravens intercepted Loki's scepter blasts.
The quick exchange of powerful blasting energy quickly caused massive damage to the surrounding plaza until Loki summoned a dagger in his free hand, sending it flying just behind a bolt from his scepter.
Harry deflected the bolt with a flick of his wand but only missed being skewered by the dagger by a narrow margin, the knife slicing a gash over his ribs.
Harry marveled at the speed and fluidity of the Ice Giant's movement. Harry had considered himself a great duelist, not the best in the wizarding world but certainly the best at Hogwarts by a large margin, years of having madmen trying to murder him forced the developement of survival skills, but Loki's speed and agility were unlike anything he had seen before clearly showing Loki's inhuman heritage.
Seeing how his current tactic was leading to an inevitable loss, Harry gathered water from a broken fire hydrant and, like Dumbledore had done to Riddle in the atrium at the Ministry of Magic, entrapped the god in a sphere of water. Harry pushed with his magic, increasing the pressure, hoping the lack of air or the pressure would be enough to make his opponent pass out.
For a moment it seemed to work as Loki's skin began to turn blue but then the entire ball of water flash froze from the center outwards. The ball no longer being water, Harry's spell fizzled and the ball of ice fell to the ground, shattering and revealing a very angry Jotun.
Loki raised his staff to fire but Harry snapped out his wand, sending a tendril of fire whipping from the tip of his wand to wrap around Loki's arm.
Loki screamed in pain and anger, wrapping another loop of the fiery rope around his arm, he suddenly pulled causing Harry to go flying through the air, landing at his feet.
"You fought well … for a mortal. I could use someone with your skills and powers." And with that said, Harry was pushed unto his back and held firm by a powerful foot. Harry struggled but could not budge the leg that held him down. Loki lowered his scepter with the tip touching Harry's chest gently.
The power of the staff hit Harry like a tidal wave compared to the power of even Voldemorts Imperius. Harry found himself floating in a familiar haze of bliss. His worries and uncertainties washed away as the power of the staff flowed into him. Or no, not the staff itself but something within the staff.
"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled." Loki spoke confidently, as he stepped back from the fallen wizard.
A voice inside Harry's mind agreed with Loki whole heartedly. It was simpler … no! It was right! But another voice, one Harry was more familiar with retorted in anger and disgust 'Ruled? Subjugated!?'
And suddenly the fog cleared, the enchantment: broken.
The declaration of subjugation had awakened something within Harry that even the imperius curse had never been able to overwhelm but the staff ahd. Harry was fairly certain that had Loki not gloated he would still be under the staffs thrall.
"I think I've had enough of people trying to rule me." Harry answered out loud as he called his wand to his hand and sent a blasting curse at the god sending him flying once more, this time over the flaming ruins of a car.
Slowly making his way around the vehicle revealed … nothing. Scanning the area, Harry noticed a snake making it's way around some debris, a snake named Loki.
"Nice try. But unfortunately for you, you are on Santa's naughty list." Harry whispered, unknowingly in Parseltongue.
The snakes head whipped up in surprise just as Harry sent a flipendo curse at the transformed god followed by a blasting curse while his target was still in mid air.
Loki transformed back into his normal state mid flight, rolling to the ground.
Loki quickly shrugged off the blast and came rolling to his feat, charging towards the wizard. A dagger in one hand and the deadly bladed staff in the other.
Harry sent a quick burst of three blasting curses at the quickly approaching god only for them to be dodged or deflected. As Loki neered melee range, Harry twisted and apparated on the other side of the plaza.
"You infuriating insect!" Loki raged. "You cannot win, even now, I can see you tire! Why do you resist! You have no hope of defeat..."
Harry silently agreed, he was tiring. Loki's supernatural origins were only partly to blame for this. Harry realized that he'd been rather slothful since his arrival in this reality, spending his leisure time mostly reading.
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(edited chapter.)
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