War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men #2

Flushing, Queens, Midgard:
A group of panicked humans are fleeing from Frost Giants and their wild hounds. They get some unexpected help from Danielle Moonstar, who attacks the dogs with a sword. One of the Frost Giants recognizes her as the last Valkyrie and looks forward to seeing the Wild Hunt devour her. A moment later, he is hit by another giant who is possessed by her teammate Karma.

A little help here? Dani suggests and is joined by several Madrox dupes. Karma shouts that she cannot hold onto the Frost Giant’s mind much longer. Dani fells him with an energy arrow and the Madroxes take care of the other giant with Dani’s help. They tell the humans they have a camp at the ballpark, but the humans fear they won’t make it there. Leave that to them, they reply and Madrox calls Havok, telling him that they need a light show.

Standing on a roof, Havok replies he got them and begins blasting. The people are trapped in front of the gates until Havok’s blasts take the frost Giants’ hounds down. Madrox warns them that Havok is depleted and they should cover their ears. Banshee comes flying in and distracts the giants, but one of the – Koga the Diseased – takes him out.

Madrox calls Havok if his brother is up. They really don’t want to know how that guy got his name. Madrox begins to panic as Koga is almost upon them, but a second later the Frost Giant is hit by a red blast. Cyclops apologizes for being so late. He was resting.

They enter Fort Syndergaard and Dani promises they are safe. Havok welcomes the refugees. Karma adds they have over 300 refugees here and are the only thing keeping New York from completely falling to the Frost Giants. They handle supply runs and rescue missions. Havok clears the way for them to get home. The Madroxes man the walls, Banshee handles air support and Cyclops takes care of any giants they can’t handle.

Havok reminds Dani that Cyclops got shot in the head recently, and each time he uses his power they are afraid his head might explode. So, he adds pointedly, they are very judicious in asking for his help. Suddenly, he states that he doesn’t want Madrox to have the radio anymore.

Several Madroxes keep the refugees from getting close to Jamie prime, as his army is the only thing that keeps them from getting overrun. One of the refugees, a cop, apologizes. He isn’t used to this mutie stuff. Another refugee adds they really appreciate what they and the other mutants outside are doing. Other mutants? Dani asks.

Elsewhere, a Frost Giant chases after Wolfsbane and Chamber, who enter a tunnel. Instead, he is confronted by Hope Summers, who fires a big gun in his face. Unfortunately, that only makes him mad and he tears her apart. Suddenly, a car is thrown in his face. He falls and drops the corpse. Madrox tells Sunspot he shouldn’t have killed him. Whoops is the reply. Rahne gets in his face. They need a prisoner to interrogate and he keeps killing them. He defends himself that ‘whoops’ got that point across pretty clearly. When he killed Hope, he lost it. Yeah, that sucked, Chamber agrees dispassionately. Should they go find another one? He could pretend to be more upset, another Hope criticizes Chamber. So could she, he points out. Hope replies that, if her other self didn’t want to die, she should have waited for the order.

In fact, there are quite a bunch of Hopes, thanks to her copying the Madrox dupe’s power. They should get moving, the prime Hope states. The Wild Hunt are on their way. The Madrox dupe sulks that it doesn’t seem fair that she can use his power when he can’t. Hope bluntly tells him she isn’t using his power, she is borrowing Jamie Prime’s power. His presence gives her access. There is no difference between the dupe and the prime, he protests. Tell that to the dupe of her who just got torn into half, she retorts.

One of the others finds it a little unnerving Hope doesn’t seem to care about her dupes dying. She insists they aren’t really people. Then why does Jamie care so much, when his dupes die? Hope answers he is soft and it hurts like hell!

Hope notices wolftracks. The Hunt crossed this way. They find a small group of wolves. Wolfsbane tells them it has no alpha and orders them to dispatch them fast, before an alpha shows up with the whole pack.

Unfortunately, the wolves get reinforcements led by Sabretooth, who considers himself the Alpha Wolf. Him and his wolves join the fray, with Wofsbane singling out Sabretooth as a foe.

While he hits her first, she bites him in the arm and is actually about to get the upper hand. The others are not doing as well and Hope gives the order to fall back. Rahne refuses and Sunspot tries to save her. Hope warns him that they all die then. Chamber accuses her of cowardice. Hope retorts she isn’t afraid to die. She is afraid to die for no good reason. Luckily, at that moment, they are joined by Dani, Banshee, Karma and Havok.

Sabretooth and his wolves flee into a tunnel, though he threatens the X-Men are running out of places to hide. Havok shouts at him to get his “Game of Thrones cosplaying butt” back here. Dani tells him to let them go. They had luck and the element of surprise on their side. She doesn’t want to see what happens if they have neither.

Banshee flies away and Sunspot is nervous at his zombie-like state. Shan hugs him in greeting and asks what he is doing here. He explains he was in Jersey when the city was attacked. He made his way in but missed the battle. He’s been with these fools since. Roberto greets Dani and gives his condolences about the Valkyries. She promises they didn’t die in vain.

They notice that Illyana isn’t with either group. Roberto states it’s just the five of them, which makes them notice that Rahne is missing…

Indeed, Wolfsbane finds herself Sabretooth’s prisoner in his current HQ, Stark Unlimited Tower. He wakes the tied up Rahne, telling her she is in his castle, a castle without a kingdom. However, once she does her part, that should change. Rahne hisses she will never help him, so do to her what he will. He laughs and calls her unimportant, then explains she is just motivation – for her. He refers to the unconscious Magik who hangs from the ceiling in chains.

He explains that the heroes blew up the Black Bifrost Bridge, so Malekith can’t move his forces around anymore. If he could get her little Soviet goth friend to teleport Malekith’s force, that’s the kind of thing he’d give you a county for. Enchantress left behind some magical crap to help control her, but she’s a tough nut. He figured opening up her little sister in front of her might crack her. Ready to play her part?

Behind him, a voice remarks that was not their deal, or perhaps he wishes to break a promise to a god? It is Rahne’s dead, Asgardian, wolf-prince lover Hrimhari. When she doesn’t believe it, he explains all the realms came to Earth, including the realm of the dead. He left to search for her, made a few deals… and here he is. He came back for her? she asks. She doesn’t know what to say. Say she will come with them, he replies. “Them?” she asks. He shows that he has with him their equally formerly dead son Tier.