Chapter 778: 767

Title: Conditions

"Should I ring a bell? Maybe sing for you?" the girl named Leah inquired with a cool expression. Seeing a petite girl standing in front of them, her waist-lengthed hair flowing freely, and a jeweled green dress with a separate green breast-length fabric jacket speaking without missing a beat made Loki snicker.

"Of course, not," she smiled while spreading her hands.

"I thought so. If not, then why am I not being introduced to," Leah whispered coldly, "I haven't slept in three years. Do not test my patience, Goddess."

"Refresh my memory, Handmaid means... a servant, right? What's with her?" Janet flew closer to Leah, observing her closely but Leah kept her lips pursed.

"She's Hela's right-hand," Loki replied, "A cold one. I thought that years with my daughter would make Leah as warm as her," she sighed sadly.

"Introduce us," Leah said again, this time forcefully.

"This is Nik, a non-human and quite the achiever as a mortal. Considering our relationship, I'll tell you that he's the reason I'm such a blissful woman," Loki's words made not only Leah, but also others cringe, however, Loki continued seamlessly, exaggerating every single introduction.

"This is Janet. A woman with wonderful taste and ability. Her original body is much larger, of course, but out of all of us, she has the best chance of survival." Janet nodded after hearing such assessment, feeling every word coming out of Loki's mouth nectar of honesty.

"Angela is special. My half-sister. So... she will probably suffer the most in this endeavor, emotionally, of course. She still doesn't understand how much of an emotional wreckage our father can cause with a few words."

It was right to assume that Loki still had remnants, no, she is still filled with daddy issues. Godly ones, at that.

"Jennifer. Easily the strongest woman you will ever meet. She can punch Hela through the realms without breaking a sweat!" Loki exclaimed, making Jennifer sigh a little. She would have appreciated such praises if it didn't involve entering into a physical confrontation with the goddess of death.

"Hmm, oh, those two in Nik's pockets are so-so. Consider them a burden," Loki pointed towards Spider and Poole and Leah nodded without care, revealing to the duo that there were many who could see them at the moment, making Spider blush in shame. Had she known it...

"Finally, this is Morgan. A Sorceress that rivals any Asgardian in the battle of spellcasting and possibly, strategies."

Somehow, out of all, Nik felt that Loki was the most sincere while introducing Morgan.

"The animals?"

Leah inquired.

"My pets," Nik smiled, "The big one is Ignit. The furry one is Moon, and this little fella is Venom," Nik pointed at Venom who dangled on Nik's ear as a biological earring.

"To acquire Hel's assistance—"

"Alliance," Loki corrected.

"It's just a word," Leah looked towards Loki before clearing her throat and speaking up.

"Three conditions must be fulfilled. First, Hel now requires the assistance of the Disir and you need to bring them into the service of the Queen.

Two, You shall assist in the culling of unrest in the hall of plague.

Three, by any means necessary, you shall rid Hel of the presence of Asgard's Valkyrie.

These three conditions must be met in the same order and I shall bear witness to the methods in which these objectives are cleared."

Loki furrowed for a moment, feeling a little hesitant while Nik looked at her patiently. Seeing that Loki still didn't have a concrete answer formed, Nik replied instead.

"Could you tell us more about... Disir?" Nik inquired.

"I could."

Leah nodded and then turned silent.

"Will you?" Jennifer inquired with a sigh.

"There's nothing much to know. Before Odin, his father had a group of warriors. The Valkyries of the past. They turned their back on the divine and descended into madness only to be cursed by the past King of the Asgard and were banished from the nine realms. Each of them possesses frightening strength and physical and attacks cannot touch these wraiths," Leah explained without missing a beat.

"Disir is a matter of no importance. Even I can manipulate them, much less Nik," Loki interjected. "It is the situation of the Hall of Plague that fills me with uncertainty."

Her hesitant expression couldn't have been more evident.

"Okay, so... Loki will take care of whatever these Disir are. Angela and Jennifer will take care of Hall of Plague with Morgan's and Janet's support since that place seems the most troublesome to Loki."

Instantly recognizing that Nik had delegated the tasks to all the girls, Loki narrowed her gaze.

"And what are you going to do? As a man in the realm of gods, shouldn't you toll in hard work and then bask in the affection of your women?"

Looking at Loki strangely, Nik inquired with sincerity, "Are you high? Jennifer can knock my head off, Janet can tear me from the inside, Angela can easily rip my guts, and Morgan... well she can effectively utilize my corpse further beyond. Convention dictates that... I let these powerful women toll in hard work and then bask them in my affection."

Everybody felt appalled by such a train of thought.

But, they couldn't help but agree.

"What about me?" Loki inquired with an expectant gaze.

"How am I the best one to take care of the Disir?"

"Well, I don't know this group well. But it seems that you do. And hands down, you're the third most deceptive being I have the pleasure of knowing."

Frowning, Loki inquired, "Who are the other two?"

"The second one is Ray."

"The Boy Toy?" Loki felt dissatisfied, "And the first?"

"Me, of course," Nik thought of Kaal with a sigh.

"These tasks do come with a limitation of time. According to the queen, there has been unrest in Asgard as Odin has awoken just a few hours ago and he suddenly appointed two foreign ministers as his advisors."

Leah informed, "So, this might be the most opportune moment to commit to your plans."

"We'll see," Loki replied ambiguously. "Since Hela has given out the task of subduing the Disir, she must have already known the current location of the group, right?"

"Follow this signature of energy," Leah nodded and took out an article of cloth from under her sleeves.

"I would need assistance to reach these spatial coordinates. Oh, how simple would it have been if someone didn't destroy a great relic of teleportation," Loki sighed.

"Hey, come on, I said I'm sorry already. Here, let me see it," Nik took the cloth from Leah's outstretched arm and examined the residual energy. It wasn't just the residual energy, he could even see the location embedded on the cloth only to be revealed to those who can accept the source of energy completely.

"Anyway, while we are completing tasks, what are you going to do?" Loki inquired.

"Pet," Nik stated while closing his eyes as he slowly tried to form a connection with the location embedded in the cloth. However, he failed to make the solid connection necessary to open a portal from both sides.

"It's a locked space?" Nik furrowed.

Without extensive training in the spatial element, Nik wouldn't have been able to solve the situation but instantly, Nik's clenched fist glowed in a bright blue color which made everyone feel a little suffocated. Leah's lips twitched as a blue, cloudy portal instantly formed through the location. Even before Loki could step in, a ghastly hand emerged out of the portal.

"All yours," Nik mumbled while Loki rolled her eyes.

***

A complete day has passed since Nik's disappearance and yet, the life of everyone on Earth continued as is. Wakanda and Shield took note of the sudden disappearance but Shield was much more occupied by the sudden changes in the modus operandi of the Hand. Several executives later noted to be Hydra agents were assassinated, many of them important leaders of the nation.

Hydra's bases have been on a chain of destruction by a mysterious force for a while now and even Shield had tried to locate the source of chaos only to fail. Even their fear towards Nik was based on unprovable conjectures and personal conclusions. Not to mention, Cindy, and Ava have been doing good, even on overtime since Iron Fist's disappearance. Even with Luke added to the team, they still cannot cope up with another wave of mobsters slowly clawing their way into the nation.

It was Natasha's situation that seemed quite worse. Unlike Maria, who provided extensive information on Nik's behavior, and 'weaknesses' which seemed to have clouded a bit of negativity towards 'Vanish,' Agent Widow didn't provide remotely anything comparable to the file prepared by Maria. Even after being in quite a casual relationship with the Hero.

Of course, the situation didn't turn for the worse in a single day. But the dissatisfaction has been accumulating. Not to mention, the major source of stress on Shield emerged when Hulk disappeared without any signature of energy left on the planet.

"So... Nik really did just become Angela's guide without even raising his voice and she let him?" Luke inquired, dodging a laser blow from one of the many training bots in the chamber of Hellicarrier.

Rolling her eyes, Cindy groaned, webbing two drones together, "Let it go, Luke! She can still cut you like a block of cheese and as stated on the file, Angela was accidentally brought into the planet."

"Ava, cover me! I'll end things quicker," Luke growled after being hit multiple times.

Ava, who now did not need the amulet and was considerably strengthened did as asked while thinking internally.

'Nik never did find out how Angela appeared here...'

While the group trained, Natasha looked on from the outside. She was deeply aware of the change in the situation. The fact that Hydra's worsening condition somehow managed to negatively affect the Shield was a great concern to her. This simply suggested that even an organization as secretive as Shield cannot really remain free from spies.

Of course, without concrete pieces of evidence, this was merely a conclusion reached from her instincts.

'And there's that Maria... who the hell fucks and talks so much? What about the implied confidentiality of the bedroom? Pillow talks are called as such because they aren't discussed in a room filled with agents!'

The redhead agent grumbled internally. But she couldn't do much about it. It wasn't like she was the one being discussed and even if she would be leaving her job without a notice, she didn't want to end her time with conflicts.

'Still, Nik's weakness to vibranium is now an accepted truth,' Natasha nodded. After hearing Cindy, Maria, and Natasha voicing the same thing about his weakness, this theory had become a fact but, of course, the Shield knew better than to call Nik over just to test his weaknesses. If they did such a thing, they might as well bring along a hammer to smash at their foot.

While Natasha continued to observe the group's progress, within a dark lair, two men could be observed. One of them wore a metal mask to hide his face and even dressed himself in a high-tech armor covered by a green hooded cape.

In front of the man was a long-haired middle-aged man with a metal arm.

"The last time, spatial fluctuations were rejected and instead caused an anomaly. Pulling an alien lifeform instead of the intended target," the man looked at the image of Angela's sword stuck into Luke's torso on a mountain in Korea. He then looked at Nik's profile image with Vanish's poster stuck next to him with a narrowed gaze.

"Instead of finding an appropriate assassin and brainwashing them, don't you think it is better to find someone who is already dependent on another mentally?" The man gave a throaty chuckle.

"I want you to hunt down this group," The top light revealed a file in the man's hand as he tossed it onto the long-haired man's lap.

The slightly confused male slowly opened the file, revealing the image of Johnny Storm.

"Out of all of them, he is the most vulnerable to your methods. Deal with him, Winter Soldier."

The long-haired man looked at the mask of his new employer.

"... yes."