You & I, Defending, a Harry Potter + Avengers Crossover fanfic

You and I, Defending

I got inspiration for this fic while watching Home Alone with my younger siblings during the Christmas Hols.

Takes place in my E're Series, set in the later chapters of Awakening, but it can be read alone.

Enjoy.

If there was one thing the Avengers knew by now, almost a month after the NY incident, it was that you didn't mess with the Starks.

Yes, Starks; as in more than one.

What the majority of the world didn't know was that Anthony Edward 'Tony' Stark was in fact not the sole remaining member of the Stark family. What the rest of the world didn't know, was that he had a daughter.

Penella Piper Maria 'Penny' Stark was a genius, much like her father, and perhaps, like her father, had a tongue a bit sharper than she should. But that wasn't something she usually had to deal with. She was a Stark, and she made sure that those who knew of her existence knew exactly what that entailed. Because it wasn't just her brilliant, eccentric, billionaire father in a gold-titanium alloy suit that people would have to worry about. She could handle herself perfectly well, thank you very much.

If you would ask the sixteen year old red head with tight shoulder length ringlets and vivid emerald green eyes if she considered her life normal, she would laugh her ass off while asking you what normal was.

Because it was a bit hard to consider your life, or yourself, normal when you're the most recent reincarnation/life of the Immortal soul of the once Harry-Potter-turned-Aequivalere-Immortalis. But that's a story for another time.

Our story actually starts late one evening, when Penny was trying to get her overly protective and very paranoid father to actually leave the rebuilt Tower to answer a call somewhere in Texas that had to do with robots raging rapid in the streets.

Of course, Tony didn't want to leave his daughter alone. Which wasn't that surprising since the last time she had been left alone for a long(ish) period of time, she had ended up with a bullet through her Arc and chest. But again, a story for another time.

"Bloody hell, Dad!" Penny exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air. She was beyond frustrated with her father, and she was past sounding like a broken record. "Just go already! I'll be fine! Your team needs you! I can take care of myself; you know this, so just leave me be and actually play your part in the bloody Avengers!"

"But Pen!" Tony protested, ignoring how his voice sounded more like a whine than anything else.

"Go!" Penny exclaimed, her green eyes narrowing. She knew that her father was just worried, but seriously. She could take care of herself, and Jarvis would let him know instantly if something was going to happen. "I'll be fine. I have the Tower to myself for the night! I'll probably just pig out on popcorn and chips on the couch watching TV until you come home!"

"You should just come with us," Tony stated for the millionth time, his tone practically pleading. "It'd be taken care of so much quicker."

Penny sighed and held back an eye roll. "I've told you. I'm not part of the Avengers, and I will only show up if you all really need my help."

Sometimes, there were moments when Penny wished that she didn't have the X-gene on top of everything else, and that her superhero alias had stayed dead. At least that way Tony wouldn't want her going out into the public's eye.

He opened his mouth to reply, but Penny was pretty tired of the pointless argument with her father, and she waved her hand at him.

Tony vanished, suit and all, in a swirl of sparks. Her gaze flickering from the now empty balcony she glanced up just in time to see the suit's thrusters engage about fifteen stories above her as Tony caught himself in the air.

She would admit, it was a bit mean to teleport her dad into the middle of NY's airway to get her point across, but she would deal with the repercussions of her actions later.

Her dad was too stubborn for his own good sometimes.

But then again, so was she.

"Jar, let me know when they're on their way back." Penny said as she wandered back into the penthouse, heading towards the kitchen. For once, she was very glad she wasn't wearing her com, she was going to be in major trouble for her stunt and she was glad that Tony would have to wait till he got home to give her a tongue lashing.

Well, he would still be able to if he really wanted to, but she hoped that he wasn't that angry with her. She would be double screwed if he was.

"Of course, Miss Penny." Jarvis replied instantly as he slid the glass window/door closed behind the teenager. "If I may, was provoking your father really the wisest of ideas? Sir shall be very displeased and disgruntled when he returns to the Tower."

Penny snorted as she strolled into the kitchen. "That's the understatement of a century."

But Penny really couldn't bring herself to care. If Tony really had an issue with what she did they would hash it out, but this mollycoddling wasn't going on any longer. Tony really didn't channel worried Molly Weasley well.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" A tall, brown, curly, haired man asked his shorter companion as they gazed at the blueprints of Stark Tower in front of them. It had taken them almost three and a half weeks to get said blueprints; and the Tower had barely been standing that long!

"Do you really think now is a good time for second thoughts, Carl?" His companion, balding, stout, and blue eyes replied sourly. "We've been plannin' this heist for months! Ever since they built that damned tower we've been plannin' on robbin' it. "

"Well, yeah, but Mo, don't ya think that this is a bit risky?" Carl said timidly as Mo narrowed his eyes at the taller, but dumber, man.

"Risky? 'Course it's risky, but that's why we're doin' this smart. We have the whole place mapped out. Stark and his freaky friends are gone tonight, and intel says they won't be back till mornin'. Even Jerry and Phil are coming with us for extra backup! I've planned this out Carl, and by this time ta'morrow we'll be loaded!"

Carl's hopes and heart were lifted by Mo's passionate speak, and he was quick to nod. They had worked hard for this after all, and they could become famous, or infamous, for breaking into Stark Tower successfully. They'd be set for life when this was over!

"Set for life!" Carl cheered as Jerry and Phil, both wearing ski masks walked into the room.

"Set for life." Mo repeated with a nod as he rolled up the plans.

"Alright boys, you know the plan. So let's get cracking." A wide, and fairly creepy, smile spread across Mo's face as his three partners in crime nodded.

Stark Tower, here they came.

Penny hadn't even gotten half way through The Giver before Jarvis cut all of the lights, metal panels slid down on all of the windows and Penny could sense the high amount of electricity flowing through the air.

The Tower had just gone into lock down.

"Miss Penny, it seems that we have intruders in the sub levels. Two of them are heading up the east stairwell, and two others are climbing the west one. I am unsure as to how they have gotten passed my security. Shall I remove them from the premises while I attempt to find the error? I can have NYPD here along with SHIELD within minutes, and Sir on the phone even sooner."

Penny's left eyebrow rose as she quickly cast out her senses, worry gripping her heart. Now she was really glad that no one else was in the Tower at this hour; since it was nine o'clock and most of the employees went home at six.

"What happened to the security guards stationed here?" Penny asked swiftly, her mind whirling with the possibilities and the different pros and cons of each action.

Thankfully Pepper was in Dallas, Rhodey in Cali, and Happy was still on his little vacation; at least she didn't have to worry about them being in danger at all.

"They have been subdued, Miss Penny. How would you like me to proceed? Should I make the calls?" Jarvis asked, and Penny knew that if she hadn't been there, then her Dad would already know about the situation and the intruders would already be unconscious.

But as it was, she was here. She had the authority and ability to deal with this situation herself, and so she would.

"No," Penny said as she shook her head and got to her feet. "Don't tell Dad what's going on and keep the police and SHIELD out of it."

"Miss?" Jarvis asked his voice touched with confusion. Turning off the TV Penny smirked up at one of the more noticeable cameras that Jarvis employed.

"We're going to take care of this personally, Jar." Penny told the AI as she chuckled darkly. "And use this opportunity to send a message to all of those in the more normal criminal world."

Penny's lips split into a large dark grin, and if anyone other than Jarvis had been there to see it, they would've back away slowly before running for their lives.

"I think they need a reminder as to why it is extremely unwise to mess with the Starks."

If Jarvis had any protests, he kept them to himself. He simply pulled up the blue prints of the Tower, showing each life signature as a small red dot.

"And how shall we deal with these intruders than, Miss Penny?" Jarvis inquired, his interest caught.

Penny chuckled again, spinning the holographic Tower in front of her.

"Oh, I think we can think of a few ways."

This was going to be fun.

"…I have a bad feeling about this…" Carl muttered to himself as he and Mo continued their trek up the east stairwell.

Getting into the Tower had been even easier than Carl had thought. They had gotten jobs as security guards, Phil and Carl. Their records were the cleanest, and they had been working in the Tower for two weeks already. It had helped with the plan, and made sneaking Jerry and Mo in inside of a lead and copper lined crate easier. It had gotten the two past the security scanners, and somehow fooling the Tower's AI.

Once the Tower was empty, Stark having been called away to Texas to deal with an attack that Mo had known about in advanced, Phil and Carl had let Jerry and Mo out. After which Jerry had taken out the two other guards swiftly with a can of knockout gas.

Sadly, that alerted the AI to their presence and the Tower went into lockdown.

It was too bad for the rather smart computer that it hadn't turned off the secretary's computer. It had only taken Mo ten seconds to insert the flash drive that had the very expensive computer virus on it into said computer.

If Carl's time keeping skills were accurate than the virus should already be in the AI's system; or at least distracting it enough with an attack to its firewalls.

Mo had been right about one thing, they had planned this whole thing out.

Carl just hoped that it would be enough.

"Miss Penny, a virus-encrypted-algorithm is attacking my inner firewalls!"

Penny's eyes widened as the slight panic in Jarvis' voice and worry gripped her heart. How on earth had a virus even gotten past Jarvis' outer firewalls? They were the best on the goddamned planet!

"How is that possible?! Talk to me Jar," Her voice was cold and hard as she responded swiftly. The hologram for the Tower was pushed aside as Jarvis' code flooded the air as well as the virus' code as the two battled it out in cyberspace.

"It…it's a highly advanced virus, Miss. It completely bypassed my outer firewalls and defenses… as the virus was uploaded from a Tower computer." Jarvis reported and Pen could hear the wince in his voice as he stumbled a few times. Fighting against the virus must be taking up a lot of his mainframe and computing power. Damn it.

"Keep your firewalls up, Jar. Do whatever you need to but keep yourself save." Penny ordered as she narrowed her eyes at the virus' coding floating in the air in front of her. Jarvis had many layers of fire walls. The outer firewalls protected everything that Jarvis had ever touched, every single tentacle that he had in any system. Jarvis worked behind these when doing things for Stark Industries and running mundane operations.

The inner firewalls were more important; they protected all of the more sensitive things, like the Stark's privet servers, SHIELD's files (even if they didn't know it) and things like that. Thankfully, the virus wasn't attacking Jarvis' core firewalls, those protected who Jarvis was, the base of his coding, his very being.

But still, this was far from good.

"Expanding memory banks and operations now Miss," Jarvis reported his voice steadying and she watched as Jarvis' code brutally attacked the virus.

"Does it require all of your attention?" Penny asked after a moment of silence, when the movement of the little life-force bleeps on the Tower hologram caught her attention.

"No, I was forced to pause a few processes but I shall be able to handle it well enough without having to disconnect from the Tower or the Suit." Jarvis informed her and Penny let out a sigh of relief before wincing.

She had forgotten Jarvis was also out in the suit with her dad. That could've been bad.

"Alright." She said after a moment, worry in her stomach turning to rage. "They crossed a line."

Her eyes narrowed and sparks started dancing across her skin as her powers fluctuated with her emotions.

"Mess with the Tower, whatever, we can replace %90 of it. But no one is allowed to touch Jarvis." Penny growled to herself as she enlarged the hologram of the Tower.

"Jarvis, initiate Defense Code nine-oh-alpha-eight-tango." She growled, swiping all holograms away and heading towards the elevator.

Both teams of intruders had stopped on the common room floor belonging to the Avengers; and she was going to intercept them.

"Are you sure that it is necessary to activate Defense Living Ghost?" Jarvis asked hesitantly, and she nodded knowing that Jar would be able to see her.

"Oh yes," Penny growled, looking practically livid. "It is completely necessary."

She stepped inside of the elevator and the doors slid shut just as a dark smirk made it's way onto Penny's face.

She had been planning on just spooking them a bit, but now…Hel's wrath would make her plan look like a walk in the park.

No one touched a Starks' things.

Carl's bad feeling didn't go away as they stepped out of the dark stairwell and into the equally dark hallway. The floor was carpeted, unlike the lower levels of the Tower, and the walls painted in light blue tones. It was too dark to make out any other details, but it seemed that with every step he took the ball of unease in his stomach slowly turned to lead.

"What are we doing here," Carl hissed to Mo quietly, "I thought we were going up to the penthouse!"

Mo rolled his eyes, though Carl could've see the action in such darkness. Their flashlights did little to light the way, and so Carl didn't see Mo's irritation growing.

"We are, ya idiot." Mo replied scathingly. "But this is where the 'vengers live, and…hell, even the floor would have us richer than our dreams!"

Carl nodded slowly.

As the two thieves made their way deeper into the bowls of the Tower, they didn't notice the small metal devices scurrying around their feet.

Soon they stumbled upon the Avengers' living room, and Mo let out a dark chuckle at all of the paintings and artifacts scattered about the room.

If Mo or Carl had been smart, they would've realized that the whole room looked a bit too perfect, or that a slow silver mist had started crawling out of the vents.

On the other side of the floor, entering the very large and fully stocked kitchen was Phil and Jerry, the two tag-alongs to the rather idiotic thieves.

"You sure that virus disabled the AI?" Phil whispered to his partner as they crept into the kitchen. They were both more silent and quicker than the other two, having a few more brain cells between them.

"Well, Mo said it did." Was Jerry's only reassurance and Phil gulped. "But don't worry about it. If it still worked than do you really think we'd be here right now?"

Unable to think of a suitable argument, Phil nodded slowly, admitting that his partner had a point. Surely the AI would've let them creep around the Tower if it was still active?

"Grab anything valuable." Jerry whispered to Phil as they started raiding the silverware drawers.

Leaning against the kitchen doorway completely invisible Penny sighed, shaking her head. They really were idiots. Everything in the Tower, SI documents, the R&D labs, their Labs, the bloody penthouse, and they go after the Avengers' silverware?

Pathetic.

Oh well, even pathetic morons could be taught a lesson.

Swump, boom.

At the same time, both duos froze as a deep thumping sound echoed through the Tower.

Swump, boom.

"What's that?" Carl whispered to Mo. He was pretty much terrified. He knew that this job had been a bad idea!

"Just the air conditioner." Mo said dismissively, continuing to walk down the hallway, looking for another room to loot.

Swump, boom.

"Mo, I don't think that's the AC!" Carl exclaimed looking around in panic as the noise steadily got louder.

"Shut it Carl, it's just your imagination." Mo dismissed him with a wave of his hand as they snuck into another room.

Swump, boom.

"Ok, Jerry it's getting louder!" Phil exclaimed in a panic as they both froze in the kitchen, before turning to glance at each other in fear.

Swump, boom.

"…let's try another room. Maybe it's just the AI trying to get back online." Jerry tried to calm his partner as they strode out of the now destroyed kitchen.

Swump, boom.

When they entered the hall way, they both froze. A thick white mist was covering the carpeted floor; it was eerie and chilled their feet as it swept around them.

"Something isn't right." Phil whimpered as they shared a look.

Swump, boom.

The floor suddenly shook, and another noise joined the thumping.