Heroes Assemble!

Darcy? Jane? Mage? Ian? Dr Selvig? Myeu-muh!

ooo00ooo

Mage apparated to just in front of where the gigantic alien ship had come to a stop. His wand dropped into his hand as he looked up at the thing in horror. From this close, it looked even larger, taller and more ominous. The gathering black clouds above it didn't help with that. And then a part near the top began moving, plummeting downwards in a controlled drop, just like an elevator.

A crack of thunder coincided almost perfectly with a ramp extending at the base of the ship and a door sliding open.

Mage shifted position slightly, one foot forward, his wand hand raised, ready.

"Seidhr!" a very welcome voice called.

Mage glanced across with a smile, not that the Asgardian could see it.

"Thor. Hope you don't mind me crashing the party," he said.

"Your aid is most welcome, my friend," Thor replied as he strode forth to stand beside him.

"You needn't have come so far, Asgardian! Death would have come to you soon enough," a shadowy figure stated in a deep voice.

Mage took in the alien. He was similar enough to human in shape, not that that often mattered, Thor was as well, and he was much more powerful and long-lived as well. His armour was dark – black seemed to be a favourite colour with this lot. Unlike the figures behind him, this one, the leader – Malekith according to Darcy – wore no mask. One half of his face was bone white, the other charred black as though he'd been caught in some sort of fire.

"Not by your hand!" Thor shot back.

"And you, Midgardian, come to die that much quicker than the rest of your pitiful race," Malekith stated. "Your universe was never meant to be. Your world and your family will be extinguished."

And then, before either Mage or Thor could respond, Malekith twirled slightly and shot twin jets of energy at them. It was deep, dark red, close enough in colour to clotted blood that had Mage raising the strongest shield that he knew of in front of him in defense.

The energy cared not a jot for the magic shield, shooting past it as though it wasn't even there. Mage felt it slam into his body, lift him up and throw him backwards. He twisted awkwardly in the air before coming down hard on his side, his wind all but knocked out of him.

"Well, that's not good," Mage wheezed as he pushed himself back to his feet.

Thor, it seemed, had recovered much quicker, having stood back up defiantly, only for a new burst of energy to come from Malekith to strike Thor, sending him flying backwards once more.

"That's the best you've got?" Mage yelled, aiming to simply draw the guy's attention so that Thor could do his thing with Mjolnir.

Malekith didn't seem to want to waste words in battle, something that he didn't have in common with Mage's past opponents. Instead, he simply blasted out with his energy at Mage.

Seeing it coming, Mage dove to the right, rolled as he landed and jumped back up to his feet. A hurried flurry of swishes and flicks had spells of red, bright blue and murky yellow shooting back at the alien. A bloom of deep red energy surged from Malekith's body to absorb the spells before they could touch the alien's body.

"Not good," Mage muttered, his mind desperately searching for an alternative form of attack other than spells.

He needn't have worried, though; his distraction seemed to be just what the doctor, well, god had ordered.

As Mage stared narrow-eyed at Malekith, Mjolnir came out of virtually nowhere to slam into Malekith, sending him flying, knocking his own men over like bowling pins before ploughing into and through a marble pillar and out of sight in the street beyond.