"Cut me out of this," Andromeda said, handing her knife to Stacey as Tina maintained a barrier over the entrance to the ship. Barton was trying a variety of arrows, but they weren't really effective against Tina's… magic? Mike said it wasn't magic, but it sure seemed like magic. She had drawn the staff out of her chest, for goodness sake. No time to be worried about that. What the hell was Barton doing here. Had SHIELD caught on to them?

Stacey rushed to obey, finding the seem of the corset and slashing down it as carefully as she could. Andromeda held in her frustration. First her wedding and now her dress were ruined and she was going to make whoever was responsible pay. But first she had to go get her fiancé back, the chivalrous idiot.

"Andromeda!" Andromeda's mother said, scandalized at the fact that she was now basically naked in front of a crowd of their family, friends, and several minor children. But there was no time for privacy or modesty. Hydra itself, as far as Andromeda was concerned, was endangered.

Andromeda ripped her suit off her inner thigh, heedless of the face that she was barely wearing anything at all. She whispered, "Mi amor," to the suit and it enlarged to her size and she started climbing into it. She almost had her helmet on when she heard the spaceship announce, "Tetragrammaton protocol active."

Andromeda's heart plummeted into her stomach. The Tetragrammaton protocol was the code for mind control. If Mike had activated it, he was certain that nothing could save him.

"Computer, Sly Dog," she announced, putting down her helmet. The ship jolted into the air, the vague vertigo that came with that laying onto everyone in unit. She hustled to the front see and jumped into the cockpit, directing the ship straight upward. "Raise Pierce," she said to the computer, "Operation code Gamma-Foxtrot-Delta-4-2-5."

"Ms. Albertson," a voice said over the intercom, "Yes, I just got word from your fiancé, I am so sorry about the wedding."

"Mike activated his anti-subversion protocol, he's locked out of all his stuff for forty eight hours, what's happening?"

"There's been an extra-terrestrial incursion, an alien called Loki has a mind-controlling staff."

"And you didn't warn us?" Andromeda could barely contain her rage.

"I thought you would soon be safely in space. My apologies, Andromeda. You're right, of course, it was a major strategic mistake not to involve Michael."

"Damn right, what do we know? Can we get Mike out of being mind controlled?"

"Nothing is certain," Pierce said and Andromeda felt a hand on her shoulder. "I'll let you know more. I'm sending you the coordinates for the helicarrier, come quickly."

"Got the PRIDE aboard."

"Bring them, we could use all the brains we can get. Andromeda, is Mike still a ten on threat without his stuff?"

"Yes. We'll make it to the helicarrier and interface with Fury when we get there. Over and out."

"If anything he's higher," Victor said from next to Andromeda, where he was staring out over space.

"Um, excuse me," Stacey said, "What's going on? Why'd we leave without Mike?"

The whole PRIDE was behind her, as was most of Andromeda's family. They were all terribly frightened. The ship was quiet in upper atmosphere, the fear on everyone's faces was very loud. Andromeda was not a leader. She never had been nor had she hoped to be. She was happy as a soldier of Hydra.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

In the end, it was Victor who spoke up, "The earth is under attack by a would be world conqueror named Loki Odinson. He carries a staff with a mind control effect. It compels active loyalty, so we should assume that Mike is operating as his loyal agent. I do not need to tell any of you how intelligent and dangerous Mike is, but I do need to tell you the stakes. If Mike is able to aid Loki long term, it is very likely that hundreds of trillions of lives will be lost."

The group stiffened and then thought for a few seconds. Dale said, "Uh, you mean hundreds of thousands?"

"No," Victor said. "The invaders who are working with Loki aim to wipe out at least fifty percent of the population of the entire universe."

The security guards were slumping and the PRIDE kids were visibly shaken.

Tina Minoru spoke first, "The children need somewhere safe to go,"

"We'll handle it on the helicarrier."

"We need to go my house," Victor said with a sigh. "I need to blow up the time machine in my basement."

"We have a time machine in our basement?" Janet said, echoing more or less what Andromeda was thinking. He must have had Mike's help on that. Why hadn't he told her.

Victor clenched his jaw and flexed his hand and Janet visibly shrunk. That relationship was not healthy. "Yes, Janet. Obviously it needed to be kept secret. It's not very useful anyway - It creates alternate worlds and if there's one benefit to blowing it up it's that Mike won't lecture me on the ethical complications of creating universes."

Stacey raced a finger and said, "Ah, if we're securing things against Mike, our office has several batches of super soldier serum we should probably take."

"Super-soldier serum?" Molly asked, "Like Captain America?"

"Not now honey," Stacey replied.

"And if it's really the fate of the universe at stake," Geoffrey said, "We actually still have the Abstract." Every adult in the PRIDE's head swiveled to Geoffrey, including Catherine, who looked... annoyed. Geoffrey shrugged, "We're talking about trillions of people dear." Catherine pursed her lips and then nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright, what's the Abstract?" Andromeda asked.

"It's the blueprint book that helped us build things," Victor said, "And I can't believe you still have it!"

Geoffrey didn't even bother to defend himself.

"Okay, does anyone not have secret super experiments in their basement?" Tina and Robert raised their hands. "Alright. So, we'll land at Victor's, Mike must know exactly where that is. He'll destroy the…" she couldn't believe she was saying this, "time machine. Tina and the Yorkes will go retrieve the super soldier serum, I and the Wilders will retrieve the Abstract. My family and Robert will watch the kids and move them to a secure location, does that work for everyone."

The adults all nodded and Alex Wilder raised his hand, "Uh, are we going to discuss the fact that you guys are like superhero mad scientists? And Mrs. Minoru is a wizard?"

The whole crowd of adults echoed, "No!" simultaneously.