10 words part 3- The first battle
It had been about two months of team bonding before the entire Avengers team was first called in. Tony had been away for a couple of days doing a few assignments and the two SHIELD agents always had something come up.
Harri had gotten to know the Avengers quite well, as well as their hangers on. Pepper Potts and Harri were instant friends and often went on shopping trips that exhausted anyone else who came with them.
The phone calls continued and it drove everyone bonkas trying to work out what they could be. Tony even attempted to place a tracking signal or a bug into her phone but everytime he managed it, it never turned up any data.
Harri got a second phone for the Avengers to call her on, as for some reason she didn't want them to call her on the main one. She told them that,
"This phone is purely for family and emergencies at my private work. I will have another phone for Avengers stuff so I don't get confused."
Tony had announced he was mortally offended that she didn't consider them family and Harri had looked at him oddly.
"My family is the most important thing in my life. They are the one thing in this world that I would do anything for."
That was another strange thing that the team had slowly begun to understand about Harri, the depth of her feelings about her family, well that and the size of her family.
She explained it to them a few weeks in, after she spent nearly three hours on skype talking to a young man about her age with red hair and freckles.
"About 600 years ago there was this family, called the Weasleys. They had 7 children, all with red hair. They were very poor but they had a lot of strength in their family. Over the years this family has grown and grown. There are currently 375 children with Weasley blood in their veins and every single one of them is counted as my family."
"Can you tell us about them?" Natasha had asked,
Ron and Hermione are, were, still will be, my best friends. There is a habit of naming children after the dead ancestors. The original Weasley 7 were, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. Every time someone dies the next child to be born gets their name. I know two Ron's, three Hermione's that I am very close to."
"Whose Hermione? She isn't in the original 7?"
"Oh, huh, she was the wife of the original Ron."
"So how are you part of the family then?" Tony asked, "which Weasley were you named after?"
Harriet pinked, and coughed, feeling embarrased.
"Original Ron and Hermione's best friend, Harri."
"That doesn't answer how you are part of the family, you don't have red hair."
"Well observed Tony, but I cannot answer anymore questions." Harri had left the room quietly then, a small sad smile on her face. She hadn't appeared until dinner.
Slowly, over the course of the two months they had formed some sort of working team. Of course it hadn't been tested in combat and everyone knows the best laid plans never last.
The phone call from Fury came on a Tuesday afternoon. Tony was losing to Harri at chess, badly, which was complaining about, very loudly.
"Avengers Assemble. Calling all Avengers, rendezvous at the Helicarrier ASAP, be prepared for battle."
Immediately the game stopped. Tony stood up and called his suit to him with a flick of his wrist. Natasha and Clint were the first to arrive in the main room, uniforms already on and weapons ready. Bruce was next, wearing a large shirt and some funny looking purple pants with simple canvas shoes. He carried a briefcase that looked like it contained sciency stuff.
When Natasha arrived Harri had ran out to go to her room and so didn't see the arrival of Thor, resplendent in his official armour, or Steve now all fancied up in his Captain America suit. She was the last to arrive, but only by seconds and the group got an eyeful as she stepped into the room.
Harri was an uncommoly beautiful woman, but she always dressed in business type clothes, or formal wear. When she was relaxing, it became lose fitting trackies and jumpers. The team had never seen her in her battle dress before.
Harri was wearing some type of animal skin as armour. Tight knee high boots with a slight rise in them with black pants of the same material tucked into them encased her legs. The pants were very snug, outlining their well-formed curves and muscles. Her shirt was long sleeved made of the same black material. She had numerous daggers easily visible on her person, by numerous, Tony could count as least 50. The clothing was skin tight but somehow still had room to fit all those knives. Amazing.
Her hair was up in a tight bun, lightning bolt scar easily visible. There were two funny looking holsters on the wrist of each arm that the others could only see as Harri had her arms lifted to her neck, fastening some type of cloak. She let it fall and it tumbled around her body like silk. It was black but had a slight tinge to it, that could have been red, or purple depending on the light.
It completely obscured the rest of her outfit and she looked up at her team.
"Ready to go. How are we getting there?"
"Hot, sexy and dangerous."
"Tony what in Merlin's name has that got to do with travel?"
"I wasn't talking about travel, I was talking about that rather fitting outfit you have on."
Harri blushed, "oh, right. Um thanks? I didn't chose it. This is standard battle wear, where I'm from anyway." She amended at the team various looks.
The assembled group all made their way to the jet stored on the very top of Stark Tower, even Tony. As he claimed that he didn't want to have to spend more time with Fury when he could look at the outfit Harri was wearing instead. He got hit over the head by Natasha for that comment.
They flew straight to the Helicarrier and were all seated in the briefing room in a remarkable 35 minutes. It was actually the first time Harri had met Fury, the man had preferred to take a hands off approach with the unknown variable. He was surprised to see a long cloak, and was confused by how it could be battle worthy but she took it off when she sat down and his eye quickly assessed the dangerous looking knives, small splashes of colour against her black outfit.
"Banner, Stark, Romanov, Barton, Odinson, Rogers and for the first time Potter." He greeted them frowning around his eye patch. Harri simply raised an eyebrow slightly and nodded,
"Director Fury, what is the situation?"
Ah so she was someone who didn't like to dwell on pleasantries. He could deal with that.
"There has been an accident in a military base 60 miles from New York. A group of scientists were experimenting with creating robots that can repair themselves."
Tony groaned and the team could see where this was going.
"These robots, 10 in total have seized control of the base and killed all the scientists."
"Wait, the robots are in control, they are intelligent?" Bruce questioned.
"We do not have intel on whether they have revolted or someone is behind this, controlling them. All we know is we have 10 robots who can repair themselves from any sort of metal heading towards New York city as we speak. I need you guys to stop them, yesterday."
"All right, no need to get your knickers in a knot." Tony quipped, attempting to allievate stress in his usual manner. Harri smirked and stood first. She loosened a dagger that had a blue edged handle and passed it Fury.
"Here, hang onto this for me will you? There is a technical worker on this ship who is behind the attack and he will attempt to get you at some point."
The entire room went silent and they stared.
"Wait, what?" Steve was the first to speak, completely incredulous.
"This is a battle situation, that means I can finally show you my skills. When I give a warning," she looked at the director, "heed it." Her face was hard and uncompromising and Fury found himself tightening his fingers around the dagger.
The team climbed into the small plane that would take them to the robots and sat in bemused silence for about 30 seconds.
"So what can you do?" Tony asked.
Harri scoffed, "Still can't tell you Ironman, just observe me closely and ask questions later.
They arrived and got out about 100 metres away from the advancing robots. They looked chunky and slow moving. Hardly dangerous, but if they could repair themselves…. It was a good idea not to judge the robot by its shell, as Tony announced cheerfully.
"Call it captain," Natasha ordered.
"Alright, Ironman, they can repair from any metal, so keep yourself away from them. Set up a perimeter and stop them advancing, blast them back to us.
"Hulk, you know what to do, aim for the metal.
"Widow and Hawkeye, work together and keep the right boundary, don't let them spread out too much.
"Thor, use the hammer and see if they respond to a little lightning.
"Bolt you're with me to push from the left boundary."
The team looked at each other grimly for a moment before turning to face their adversary. It was a good thing they didn't underestimate their opponent.
These repairing robots were very difficult to defeat. They stopped them advancing easily enough, but defeating them was practically impossible. Harri used her throwing knives and some scarily excellent marksmanship to cut their circuits but they kept functioning without them. Steve had worried a little at first, that's why she was with him, as he felt responsible for her, but within 5 minutes he had seen just how excellent her maneuverability was. Harri moved like water and struck with perfect precision each time.
The battle was stale, going no where.
"Cap, I think we need a new plan, we stopped them moving, but we are gonna tire out soon enough and they aren't. they just keep on repairing themselves."
Harri stopped fighting for a brief second, long enough for Steve to glance at her serious face. He was surprised when she spoke for the first time over their comm system.
"I'll finish them then, ironman, get behind me."
"Wait, what?" Tony was very confused, how could Harri finish them when all she had were knives? Then he remembered the serious look on her face as she had said heed my warning back on the ship and decided to move.
As soon as Tony was behind her, Harri dropped her current knifes and freed both hands. She strode towards the robots, who instantly focused on the new threat. Steve was very worried, and the rest of the team practically stopped to stare, including the hulk.
When the first robot started to come close, Harri moved.
Whipping out her right hand they saw she held something, a thin rod of some kind, and she yelled one word,
"Fiendfyre!"
To the utter amazement of the team, thick ropes of fire spewed from the rod, they raced through the air to wrap around the robot. More and more fire came from the want and formed into animals, racing through the air. They rounded up all the robots and contained them. Unbearable heat was coming off the huge fire and Harri kept the stick out and somehow guided the flames to go smaller and smaller, before finally they disappeared. All that was left of the robots was a small pile of metal. Tony flew over to look at it, before anyone could tell him it was a bad idea and discovered it was knives.
Specifically, Harri's knives. The various colour bands around the edges slightly darkened but all intact. The ground itself was a huge blackened circle and all the robots had been melted into vapour.
The team was in shock, but predictably in this case Thor was the first to recover,
"You never told us you were able to manipulate the forces of magic."
Harri laughed, wearily and then sighed. The team could suddenly see how tired she appeared.
"I couldn't, remember. Sworn to secrecy and all that."
They trudged back to the plane, deciding to leave the clean up job to Fury and his slaves. The entire battle had taken probably 40 minutes and all were tired and in need of a shower.
As they sat in their seats, Tony, ever the interrogator spoke first,
"So… you have a stick that starts a fire, that is over 3000 degrees centrigrade."
"Yes I do." Harri laughed.
"Wait, the Big guy said you used magic."
Harri paused, opened her mouth and then stopped.
"Hey, no rush," this was Bruce, having just transformed back, "10 words remember. Give us the 10 words."
"Okay… well. First word is… magic."
"Aha so Thor was right!" tony exclaimed triumphantly
"Second word, is what I am called. Witch."
"That's a bit of a nasty term to call yourself."
"No Tony, it is what I am. I am part of a secret society of witches and wizards."
Silence.
"Third word, wand."
"So it's not a staff like Loki had?" Steve questioned.
"Well some great wizards used staffs, people like Merlin, that sort of thing."
"Wait, Merlin was real?" this was Clint, who looked so excited, "like actual real? That's why you always swear about him."
"Yeah he's pretty big back home. Um fourth word, Spells."
"The fire was a spell. What did you say. Fiendish fire or something."
"Fiendfyre. It is latin for cursed fire. I summoned the very fire from Hell to melt the robots." Everyone blinked at that.
"Hell is real?" Natahsa asked, suddenly very interested,
Harri frowned, "no, yes," she sighed, "it depends on who your enemies are and some of the actions you take in life. There are a specific set which will place your soul into eternal torment. They are impossible to achieve without being a wizard, so don't worry too much."
"Fifth word?" Bruce prompted.
"No sixth, Fiendfyre was the fifth. Um… seer."
There was a brief pause where no one spoke, trying to riddle out what Harri had told them.
"Nope I give up," Tony announced.
"Do you mean the warning you gave to Fury?" Steve asked.
"Yes, a seer can see the future. One of the tech crew is currently attacking Fury when he heard that the robots failed. My knife is plenty enough to protect him."
"You can see the future? Do we ever sleep together?" A very typical Tony question, and Harri blushed bright red and squeaked.
"Tonyyyy!" everyone laughed loudly at her discomfort.
"Okay seventh word, transfiguration."
"Um what?" Clint had no idea what she even just said.
Harri smiled cheekily. "The art of turning something into something else. She snapped her fingers and suddenly Tony was wearing a beautiful flowing blue dress and his hair was long blonde ringlets.
"What?! Get me out of this!" The team laughed even harder at his misfortune.
"Serves you right for hitting on a witch," Bruce declared.
Taking pity on her friend she removed the spell. Tony hurried over to his suit to check his hair in the reflective surface.
"Okay eighth word. Charms."
No one had an explanation for that and so Harri just snapped her fingers. Bruce's head shot up and he stared into her eyes, untterly fascinated.
"How… what.. how did you do that?" his voice was husky.
"Calming charm, it worked like a treat. The hulk relies on your anger, so I just removed that temporarily."
The team was stunned into silence again, this witch was able to combat the hulk, a feat that not even the best weapons Tony had once produced could have done.
"Ooookay.. um ninth word. Potions"
"Wait as in fire burn and cauldron bubble?" Tony asked excitedly.
"Yes," she reached into a pocket of her cloak, that had been left on the plane and removed 6 vials. She passed them to everyone and said bottoms up. Unsurprisingly no one did, having just witnessed Tony's transformation into the drag queen.
"Oh Sweet Salazar, it's a healing potion, to make sure you don't need to spend time with the doctor when we get home."
All the potions were eagerly tipped back then and the reactions were hilarious. Harri laughed at the faces they pulled at the disgusting taste. But she did tell the truth, the all immediately felt more alert and less tired, their aches faded and they felt fresh again.
"Amazing," breathed Clint, "I could use this all the time."
"Yes, well it's addictive, and jolly well expensive to make, so you can't have it all the time." Harri informed him steadily.
"What is in it?" Bruce questioned, the ever present eager scientist.
"Uh sure you want to know? You just drank it after all." At his nod she continued,
"Diluted bubotuber pus, boomslang thorns, phoenix tears and several other expensive ingredients."
Natasha suddenly felt a little green, "I just drank pus?"
"Diluted pus, the full strength is poisonous. It's just there to stop the potion from attempting to over heal you."
"Still, gross. I did not want to know that Bruce."
Bruce looked faintly grossed too. "I'm not so sure I did either."
"Okay final word, 62442 663."
"Huh?"
"My phone number. I'd be honoured to let you guys call me." Harri smiled nervously as them and Stark decided to reassure her.
"So you think of us a family! I'm honoured. I've always wanted a wife."
Harri gasped, then shook her head and chuckled.
"I'll be your big sister Stark."
"Big sister? You aren't old enough to be my big sister."
"I'm everyone's big sister, you hippogriff."
"Oh, well… I guess that's alright then."
Silence.
"Hey, what's a hippogriff? Did she just insult me in witch-speak?"
