Asgard (plot)
| Asgard | |
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| Dates run: | August 4 - 10, 2004 |
| Run By: | Frito |
| Read the logs: | Asgard |
"Me? But I haven't got any magical power. How do you expect me to be able to do the spell? I mean, yeah, I can read it, so I know what needs to be done, but where's the power for the spell supposed to come from?"
Half the students and a teacher vanish in the middle of a softball game, ending up in the last place anyone would have thought - Asgard.
Contents
Cast
Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey, Amanda Sefton, Manuel de la Rocha, Jubilation Lee, Illyana Rasputin, Jamie Madrox, Paige Guthrie, Angelo Espinosa, Rahne Sinclair, Shiro Yoshida, Alison Blaire, Miles Blaire
Timing
Plot Summary
During a traditional Xavier's softball game, Illyana's stepping disk was hijacked by Loki, transporting the players and some of the watching crowd to the alternative dimension of Asgard, an act of revenge for the X-Men interfering with his plans for Iceland. The students (and Alison) were scattered across the magical realm, finding themselves in various situations. What was a week on Earth became several months in Asgard, as they struggled to survive in strange new surroundings.
Doug was dropped into a bard's room, and managed to impress the man enough to be taken on as his apprentice. He spent the majority of his time in Asgard as a skald, earning himself a certain reputation with his rendition of various stories drawn from fantasy and science fiction books and television shows.
Jamie found himself in the middle of a battle between dwarves and trolls. Injured in the process of rescuing the chieftain's daughter, he was taken in and healed by the dwarves. Along the way he participated in a punning contest with a dragon, earning himself a prize: a semi-precious stone.
Shiro rescued the Norns, appearing to him as anime characters, from a Frost Giant. They made him their champion, outfitting him and setting him to protecting them from intruders to their land.
Jubilee ran afoul of a trap laid out by the Dark Elves for unwary humans, eating fairy food and becoming a pixie. She subsequently was imprisoned by Jared, leader of the Dark Elves, and kept as a pet for his amusement.
Angelo also encountered elves, but his experience was far better. Dropped into a battle between Light Elves and goblins, he saved the life of an elven prince and was taken in by them and trained as a warrior, to assist them in their war against the Dark Elves.
Rahne was rescued from a giant by Hrimhari, prince of the wolves, who was able to transform into a transitional shape similar to hers. He took her into his pack, teaching her wolf ways. She became emotionally attached to him, but held back for fear of losing her humanity and becoming solely a wolf.
Manuel was taken in by Loki himself, who taught the young empath to control his powers and overcome the inhibitor device put on him by Charles Xavier after his part in the Kwannon incident, in exchange for his memory of Earth and his service as Loki's spy master, using his powers to identify conspirators.
Illyana found herself stranded in the desert, only to be rescued by Hel, goddess of the underworld. She was made Hel's enforcer, and delighted in terrifying the local villagers at Hel's command.
Paige was made a Valkyrie after rescuing one of their winged horses, Brightwind, and being chosen as its rider.
Amanda and Alison landed in the same tavern. In the ensuing brawl, caused by their skimpy dress, Amanda's amulet was lost. Overloading on the magical energy of Asgard, Amanda was saved by the intervention of Amora, the Enchantress, who had similar powers. Taking Amanda and Alison back to her castle, her true plans were revealed. Casting a spell on Alison to make her mute, she then teleported the teacher to the other end of Asgard and used her magic to make Amanda believe she was Amora's daughter.
Marie-Ange landed in Odin's meadhall. The god recognised her precognitive gifts and set her to training in weaponry with Sif. She was then sent out to find the rest of the group, with one of Odin's ravens, Memory. She first encountered Shiro, who had been sent by the Norns to destroy the invading 'witch'. On recognising each other, Shiro realised he had been lied to by the Norns about being the only one in Asgard. They then encountered Jamie and Miles, who had been discovered by the dwarves hiding in their caverns and thought a goblin and retrieved by Jamie.
Doug encountered Amanda whilst playing at one of Amora's parties, but initially didn't know her - her hair had been made blonde and the piercings removed. She didn't recognise him because of Amora's spell, and he realised that he wasn't the only Xavier's student in Asgard. This was confirmed by the appearance of Jamie, Marie-Ange, Shiro and Miles at his meadhall, where he and Marie-Ange had a touching reunion. As they journeyed through Asgard, they encountered Rahne and the wolf pack, who provided protection to the group.
Alison, unable to speak and thought a witch, discovered Frank the Lizard had been turned into a dragon - using her light powers she encouraged him to become her new form of transport. She found Illyana 'enforcing' and half-rescued, half-coerced the girl to come with her on her quest to free Amanda from the Enchantress and find her son, Miles. Illyana's time as Hel's servant had given her knowledge of Paige's status as a Valkyrie, and they went to retrieve her.
Angelo was captured by the Dark Elves during a sortie, trying to free the pixie Jubilee. Fortunately for the pair of them, Doug's party came across the Dark Elf caravan. Doug managed to buy Jubilee from Jarrod, the leader of the Dark Elves, and Jamie and the wolves managed to free Angelo and a dwarf who had been kind to the captured teens.
Meanwhile, Manuel was sent by Loki to the Enchantress's castle, on what was essentially a suicide mission. Amora was not there, but her 'daughter' was - Amanda captured Manuel by magical means, but he used his empathy to free himself. The use of his power on Amanda revealed the empathic link between them, shattering Loki's influence. He used his empathy to then break the Enchantress' spells on Amanda, but they were unable to flee the castle, Amanda's lack of control over her mutation meaning she was unable to leave its protective wards. Forced to use a binding spell on Manuel when the Enchantress returned unexpectedly, Amanda tricked Amora into letting her keep Manuel as a toy, and began secretly searching for a spell to get them all home.
The end finally came when Amora replaced Miles with a fetch, intending to use him in a spell to remove the powers of all those mutants trapped in Asgard. Whilst Jamie, Doug and the others rode to the rescue, Alison, Paige and Illyana captured the fetch and discovered what had happened. The group reunited at Amora's castle, with Amanda breaking the wards protecting it and allowing the group to attack. Overpowering Amora's troll and human guards, they managed to ransack the magical library before escaping.
Amanda managed to find the right spell, but was unable to cast it as it was traditional Viking magic, centered on the masculine. Instead, she transferred power to Doug, using a reversal of Rack's draining spell, and he managed to create a portal back to Earth. The prodigals were reunited with their families, who had gathered at the school during their absence.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
During the students' (and Alison's) absence, Romany Wisdom and Dr. Stephen Strange worked to discover what had happened and how to bring them back.
The spell Amanda used to break the wards also undid the binding on Manuel, the muting of Alison, and Jubilee's pixie-fication.
Dr. Strange gave Doug the spell that allowed him to burn off the remaining magical energy from Asgard flying.
Some weeks after their return, the students held an Asgard-themed party; many of them brought 'souveniers' of their time back with them, including Jamie's wolf-head staff, a gift from the dwarves, and Angelo's elven sword.
Jamie gave the stone he had won from the dragon to Kitty Pryde; it later hatched a baby dragon which she called Lockheed, much to her roommate Illyana's displeasure.
Meta
Plotrunner: Frito
This plot was a loose adaptation of the Asgardian Saga in New Mutants comic canon.
Many of the families of characters were shown for the first time in the course of logs written by those 'left behind'.
This plot still occurred in Phase 2, but specifics, such as which characters were involved, remain fuzzy for the purposes of not breaking the world. ;)
