Disclaimer – Anything you see and recognise does not belong to me. Harry Potter is JK Rowling's; The Avengers and other related characters belong to Marvel. I'm simply playing in their sandboxes.
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Heroes Assemble!
Chapter 38 – You Have My Word
"Excuse me, Miss Potts," the cultured voice of Jarvis said.
Looking up from her tablet, Pepper blinked, coming back to reality from the myriad of reports that she'd been reading, all to do with the running of Stark Industries.
"Yes, Jarvis?" she asked.
"The quinjet will be landing in five minutes," Jarvis informed her.
"It will? About time," she replied. "Thanks, Jarvis."
Without waiting for a reply, Pepper clicked off the pad before dropping it onto the top of her desk. As she rose, she instinctively flattened the front of her skirt before striding towards the door.
A short elevator ride later and she stepped out to see the landing deck of Avengers Tower across the room and out the glass doors. The deck itself wasn't large, but more than capable of accommodating a helicopter if needed, although its primary purpose was to berth the quinjet that was assigned the Tower.
A glint of metal off in the distance caught her attention and she smiled as she hustled across the room. It didn't take long for that far-off glint to resolve itself into the shape of the Avengers' quinjet. It banked hard before hovering just off the end of the deck, its stylized 'A' plain for all to see. Its manoeuvring thrusters fired, bringing it backwards, even as the tips of both wings folded up and in.
The instant that it touched down, servos built into the deck itself activated, quickly latching onto the wheels of the quinjet and drawing it backwards before locking it into place. As the turbines wound down to a stop, the rear ramp lowered and Pepper rushed forward.
"Pepper!" a beaming Tony exclaimed, his arms opened wide as he stood on the ramp.
"Tony!" Pepper exclaimed before bounding up the ramp to give him a great hug.
"Miss me?" Tony asked, his voice all playful. "Really, what am I saying? Of course, you missed me! Who wouldn't miss me?"
"Just this once, I'll admit that I did," she replied, before giving his cheek a lingering kiss.
It was only then, as she was pulling away, that movement over Tony's shoulder caught her attention and her eyes widened.
"Thor! You're back!" she exclaimed, pulling away from Tony to greet the tall, muscled man with a quick hug.
"It is pleasing to see you again as well, Lady Pepper," Thor laughed.
As she stepped back, Pepper took note of the remaining people in the quinjet. Harry, Clint and Matt were all expect. As was Peter, although his inclusion caused Pepper to frown. And then she saw the last one, attempting to stay hidden from view by keeping both Matt and Peter between them.
"Anthony Edward Stark!" she exclaimed, whirling about, her hands automatically settling on her hips. "What is the meaning of this? You took Doreen with you? It's bad enough that you took Peter out of school, but to take Doreen as well?"
"Hey, don't blame me, it's not like it was my idea," Tony replied, trying to defend himself. "She snuck on board. I didn't even know she was there until we were nearly in London."
Pepper stared at him, her eyes fierce, unblinking, making him visibly cringe away.
"Don't blame Tony, Pep," Doreen said, stepping forward, Monkey Joe riding in his usual place high on her shoulder. "I did sneak aboard without any of them knowing."
Pepper couldn't help but snort at that.
"Really? You really think that one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top spies couldn't detect you? Or Matt with his extraordinary hearing who can hear a heartbeat across the room? Or a full-on wizard?" she asked, shaking her head. "Maybe I should just as Jarvis, hmm?"
"No, no, there's no need for that," Tony interrupted quickly. "Besides, it was good for her. Doreen learnt a lot; see it as a part of her and Pete's Avenger Academy training."
Pepper lifted a single eyebrow before turning to take in the rest of the group. Every single one of them was very obviously trying not to smile.
"At least tell me that you didn't have them involved in any fighting," Pepper pled. "I know that it'd be too much to assume that you lot could stay out of trouble and didn't find yourself in some kind of fight."
"It was great!" Doreen said, bounding slightly where she stood. "We got to fight aliens and wizards. Not that I thought much of those Elves, really. They were an easy take down."
"You would not think that if they were not under an enchantment," Thor replied. "The reactions of the Dark Elves were greatly hindered without their full faculties available to them."
"Which is a good thing," Harry stated. "It meant that we could get those kids away safely without anyone getting hurt."
"You were rescuing kids?" Pepper asked.
"A bunch of wizards and Dark Elves had taken them hostage," Tony replied. "We had to do something."
"Well, alright then," Pepper said. "Come on, I'm sure Jarvis has already arranged for some food to be delivered."
"Indeed," Jarvis confirmed. "Chinese, to be precise. It will be here by the time you have all cleaned up."
With matching grins, the group quickly strode down the ramp and headed into the Tower.
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Bruce lifted his hand to knock on the door, hesitated through the simple method of shifting his bag more comfortably on his shoulder, before biting the bullet and knocking firmly on the door thrice.
He could hardly believe that he was back in Los Angeles so soon. Especially after having so recently been hitching rides to get to the opposite side of the country. Indeed, he'd barely been there a day, not even long enough to unpack any clothes into what Jarvis and Pepper assured him was his room in the Tower, when he'd received word from his uncle via a truly roundabout method that he was needed back in L.A.
It seemed that his Uncle William had had the foresight to copy the phone number of the Marauder's Den that Bruce had left for Jennifer. He'd used that number to leave a message for him with Gwen, who had promptly rung the Tower and let Pepper know.
Something had apparently happened to his cousin, leaving parts of the hospital wrecked, people injured and Jennifer missing. Even with knowing only those few details, Bruce could take a very educated guess at what had happened, something that he'd fervently prayed would not happen to her. It was bad enough that it happened to him. And knowing what he did, how could he not come? It was more than likely that he was the only one who could … well, not exactly put things right, but at least contain the situation.
Thus, when Pepper had insisted that he use one of Stark's private jets to quickly get back across the country, he'd only put up a token protest.
"Bruce?" William asked after opening the door.
"Hi, Uncle William," Bruce replied.
"I didn't expect you to get back here so quick," William stated. "Well, don't just stand on the doorstep, get in here."
With a small smile, Bruce entered and turned back as William closed the door.
"Any word on Jennifer?" he asked.
William shook his head, a frown on his face. "No. Nothing yet. It's like she'd dropped off the face of the Earth. I hope she's alright."
"I'm sure she is," Bruce replied, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on his uncle's shoulder.
"I must say, your timing is impeccable," William stated. "I only just received a package with the security footage from the hospital. Pulled a few strings and called in a couple of favours. I was just about to take a look at it. I can wait until you're settled, if you'd like to see it, too?"
"No," Bruce stated flatly. "I'll unpack later. Let's go look at that footage now."
A pleased look appeared on William's face and his hand landed on Bruce's shoulder, giving it a quick squeeze as he strode past.
"This way," he said.
Bruce followed William from the small entryway into the loungeroom. An unwrapped box lay on the coffee table, its brown paper wrappings crumpled underneath the box. At his uncle's gesture, Bruce took a seat on one of the chairs facing the TV, albeit, sitting on the very edge.
Having ripped open the box, William pulled out a usb and quickly inserted it into the appropriate slot in the side of the TV. A few clicks of the remote turned the device on and brought up the menu on the drive. One last selection and William backed away slightly, staring intently at the screen.
The picture was grainy and monotone in colour. Still, it was good enough for the two men to easily see a corridor. Numerous doors lined each side of the corridor, except on the left at the front of the screen where a small reception desk was located.
"That one," William near whispered, reaching out to lightly tap one door on the screen with his finger, three down on the right.
Bruce simply nodded in agreement, having already picked it out from his memory of when he visited.
Two men appeared on the bottom of the screen, their backs to the camera making identifying them impossible. Even when they stopped outside of Jennifer's room, they seemed to take extra care insuring that their faces at no time faced the camera.
After checking both ways down the corridor, the men eased open the door and slipped inside, immediately shutting the door behind them.
"Does this thing have sound?" Bruce asked.
"Unfortunately, not," William replied with a shake of his head.
They waited for what seemed an eternity before, suddenly, a male nurse rushed onto the screen sliding just before reaching Jennifer's door before bursting in. Seconds later, they could see the nurse backing up, his back against the now opened door, his hands gripping the edge of the door behind him. In the light, the man's face was just able to be seen, a face that showed pure, utter terror.
And then something burst through the door, pieces of wood from the doorframe scattering where they'd been torn from the wall. Before either man could blink, whatever it was that had just left Jennifer's room came towards the screen and promptly disappeared.
Judging by the fact that the … person who'd emerged had to slightly duck their head, they were easily at least seven feet tall. Other than that, the person hadn't been on the screen long enough to make out any other details.
Without Bruce even having to ask, William backed up the recording and played it again. And then a third time, this time in slow motion.
Bruce's eyes widened at what he was seeing.
The figure was clearly female, judging by her … assets which were barely covered by the torn and shredded clothing. She also had long dark hair.
The fourth time that William played it, he paused the playback so that it showed the female on the screen.
"What … what is that?" William breathed.
Bruce could only stare for the longest time. He knew. He knew that using his blood was a bad idea, but it was the only viable solution to save Jennifer's life. And here was the results, exactly as he'd feared.
"Not a what, Uncle Willian, a who," Bruce managed to croak. "That's Jennifer."
"Jennifer?" William repeated, disbelief clear in his voice. "What's happened to her?"
"Me," Bruce admitted. "But don't worry. I'm going to find her and help her. You have my word."
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The low table in between the various chairs and couches was littered with boxes, each one containing a variety of tastes and flavours of Chinese cuisine: lemon chicken; honey chicken; sweet and sour pork; walnut beef with plum and sweet chilli sauce; deep fried duck; satay lamb and a host of others, all surrounding a mound of Yang Zhou fried rice.
Plates were balanced on knees or held in hands. Some, like Tony, Matt and Peter used chopsticks, while others and especially Thor, simply used a fork to shovel in their food. The talk was minimal at first as each selected their favourites and settled back to satisfy their hunger. Eventually, though, food was being consumed at a slower pace and they began to talk about their time in England.
"You said that some of those creepy-looking Elves from London kidnapped some kids?" Pepper prompted.
"Not quite," Harry replied. "It was actually some of my lot. They'd used a rather serious spell on the Elves that they'd captured."
"Spell?" Pepper asked interestedly.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. It's actually one of our three Unforgivables."
Peter gave a shiver. "I could hear the capital on that. Must be bad."
"It is," Harry stated grimly. "That particular one is designed to take away free will. With it, you can make anyone do anything you want – steal for you, kill for you, even kill themselves. In this case, those wizards used it to make the Elves their hired muscle."
"Not very successfully," Thor interjected. "I've fought Dark Elves on a number of occasions now and these were not fighting as those of their kind are wont to do. I would say that they were fighting back against the enchantment, making their reactions slow and clumsy."
"You won't hear any complaints from us," Clint remarked. "Taking them down like that is always going to be preferable to potentially having civilians hurt, especially kids."
"How'd the wizards get that spell on them anyway?" Pepper asked, looking between Harry and Thor. "I thought that you two rounded them and send them to Asgard or something."
"So'd we," Harry grimaced. "Seems we missed a few."
"How'd they get the kids they took hostage anyway?" she asked.
"They were abducted from Harry's old school," Doreen said. "You should have seen it. A castle! A real life, magical castle. As a school! Full of talking paintings and ghosts – not that we actually saw any of them – "
"Thank goodness," Peter interjected. "Would have given me the willies for weeks. The towers and turrets looked pretty cool, wouldn't have minding going for a swing around them. Next time, yeah?"
Harry gave an indeterminate nod before continuing the story.
"Luckily, we were actually at the school when the kids were taken," he said.
"And you immediately swung into action," Pepper supplied.
"Well, what else could we do, we're Avengers!" Tony stated and promptly popped a piece of pork into his mouth.
"The battle was short but everyone acquitted themselves well, working as a team to bring down the villains and rescue the young," Thor stated.
"I think Harry was the most surprising, though," Clint smirked.
Pepper looked between the two men before focussing on the archer. "How so?"
"Why don't you show her, bird-brain?" Clint suggested.
"What? I thought that that was what Tony called you," a confused Pepper said.
"Oh, he did. But that phrase is just much more apt for Harry now," Clint remarked.
With everyone now staring at him, Harry bowed to pressure. Carefully, he slid his plate onto the table, nudging empty boxes out of the way, before closing his eyes, concentrating and changing.
"What the hell?" Pepper practically screamed, scrambling backwards on her chair until she was perched in Tony's lap.
Sparrowhawk-Harry leapt upwards, flapping his wings to get airborne before making a leisurely circle of the room. All eyes were turned upwards, watching him; Pepper's mouth dropped open.
"That's … that's really Harry?" she asked.
"Yep, the real 'birdbrain'," Clint replied with a grin.
"You should have seen Tony the first time Harry did it," Matt said. "Never knew he could be so happy. I was sure he was about to wet himself."
"Well, why wouldn't I be happy? He'd just proven me right! All those months I'd been calling him 'sparrowhawk' and he can turn himself into one! Ha! Teach him to mock my name-calling. I'm the great Tony Stark; I'm always right," Tony stated happily.
"How'd he do that? Turn himself into a bird, I mean?" Pepper asked.
"Magic," Doreen replied, her big eyes watching Harry zeroing in on his chair.
"Don't even go there," Tony retorted, pointing his chopsticks at her the same instant that Peter snorted. "Magic is just science that we can't explain yet."
"Nope, Doreen's right. It's magic, plain and simple," a reverted Harry replied.
"We'll see about that," Tony promised. "Just wait until Bruce gets back; between him, me and Peter, we'll have your hocus pocus explained in a couple of days."
"Doubt it'll take that long," Peter agreed.
"What else can you change into?" Pepper asked eagerly.
"While I can use my wand to self-transfigure parts of my body, it's not like becoming an Animagus, becoming the actual animal. You only get one form and you just saw mine," Harry explained. "Although, it's much easier to change someone else into an animal."
Snickers all around, apart from Tony, alerted Pepper to the fact that there was a story she was missing.
"What? What happened?" she practically demanded.
"Stark was annoying the seidhr something fierce, thus Harry enchanted Stark into a small, yellow duck," Thor explained.
Pepper spun to look at Tony. "Really?" Her head snapped to Harry. "Do it again, I want to see."
"What? No!" Tony protested as the rest of the room burst into laughter. "You're supposed to be on my side, don't encourage him."
"Don't worry, dear, I like you just the way you are, ego and all," Pepper replied, patting his cheek. "What other cool magic did you see?"
"There was a whole shopping district," Doreen explained eagerly. "It was full of the weirdest, coolest stuff. Everything you could imagine – cauldrons and wands; potions and animal bits like snake eyes and spleens of rats and everything to make potions; whole shops full of wizard clothes and magic books and magic jokes and tricks. It was amazing!"
"And a couple of hundred years behind the times," Tony groused. "Not a speck of electricity or technology anywhere. They use gas lights and torches with real fire for goodness sake."
"But the sight of the magic itself," Matt breathed softly. "Sorry, Tony, but the only word for it is: 'magical'."
"I'll give you that one, Murdoch, all things considered," Tony replied.
"I could see the magic," Matt explained. "It was beautiful, so many colours."
There was silence, then, for a minute before it was broken by Peter.
"Never dreamed that goblins were real," he said.
"Goblins?" Pepper asked in disbelief.
Peter nodded. "Yep. And house elves and apparently a whole host more."
"House elves?" Pepper asked, looking at Thor.
"Very different from Dark Elves," Thor explained. "One is a warrior race, the other a symbiotic species that only want to help and serve."
"I assume, Harry, that you introduced this lot to your friends?" Pepper asked.
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, a few."
"We saw Hermione, of course," Clint smirked.
"We're friends," Harry stated flatly. "Nothing romantic there at all."
Tony shrugged. "What about that werewolf girl? She seemed cute."
"Did she, Tony?" Pepper asked, one eyebrow raised.
"In a werewolf, scarred sort of way," Tony backpedalled quickly. "And obviously nowhere as good looking as you."
Seeing the pleading look on Tony's face, Harry decided to take pity on the man by changing the topic.
"If you want to talk about friends, I guess that we should mention that the Tower'll be getting some visitors soon," he said.
"If you are speaking of the Lady Jane and her companions, I expect them to be taking up residence, not simply visiting," Thor stated.
"Oh?" Pepper asked happily. "It'll be nice to have some more females around here to balance up the testosterone levels. Are the 'companions' Erik and Darcy?"
"Got it in one," Peter replied, pointing his fingers like a gun at her to emphasise his point.
"That wasn't the most … interesting of the 'friends' we met," Clint stated darkly.
"Are we …?" Matt began before being cut off by the angered archer.
"Yes! I don't give a damn about what Fury wants," he near-snarled. "To keep that from us like that."
Pepper looked between her dinner companions, taking note that the most intense expressions were on the original Avengers: Tony, Clint and Thor.
"Agent's alive," Tony said quietly.
"Agent? Agent who?" a confused Pepper asked.
"Who do you think? Agent Agent," Tony snapped back.
"Wait! What? You don't mean Phil, do you?" she asked.
"Yeah, we do," Clint replied quietly. "Apparently, he survived being stabbed in the heart by Loki up on the carrier, not that anyone thought that we should be told!"
"I thought that you said that there was no way that he could have survived," Pepper said to Thor.
"Nor should he have," Thor agreed. "Exactly how the Son of Coul survived his wounds is unknown."
"Some sort of medical procedure that we're not cleared to know," Tony stated. "I put Jarvis on it, but even he couldn't find any records of it."
"I don't think Phil knows either," Harry relayed. "From the way he was talking to me, he seemed just as mystified as the rest of us."
"What about Steve and Nat? Do they know?" Pepper asked.
"Not yet," Clint stated, leaving no doubt his intentions for the next time that he saw them.
"Any idea when they're due back?" Matt asked.
"According to Fury, they're on some kind of classified assignment," Clint replied. "They'll turn up when they do."
"Now that you know, is Phil going to visit anytime soon?" Pepper asked.
Tony shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. He's got his own super plane and team now and special missions to go along with it."
"I'll invite them over the next time I'm talking to Skye," Harry promised, then, seeing Pepper's expression, elaborated. "One of the members on Phil's team. I've been working with her; there's something … funky … that happens when I use one of my spells near her."
"Well, it definitely sounds as though you guys had a very interesting trip," Pepper said awkwardly into the tension.
"It was amazing!" Doreen grinned. "When can we go again?"
"No!" Pepper replied, beating any of the others to a response.
"What do you mean, 'no'?" Tony asked indignantly.
"I mean 'no'," Pepper repeated, before pointing firstly at Doreen and then at Peter. "No taking these two out of school. They need their education."
"Um?" Peter said, timidly putting one hand up. "I'm already the number one student at Midtown. A little extracurricular education is only going to be a good thing."
Pepper's glare, though, promptly shut him up.
"As much as I agree with you," Matt said, "there are likely to be times when their skills are going to be needed."
"I agree with Matt," Peter stated. "I'm not going to give up my web-slinging for anything."
"They're in the Academy for a reason, Pep," Tony said. "And while we'll try to not interrupt their schooling, I'm not going to make any promises."
Pepper looked around the circle at each of the faces, from the determined to the hopeful before sighing in defeat.
"Fine, but I'm holding you to that. And I'm telling Steve as well. I'm sure that he at least knows the importance of Peter and Doreen's education," she stated.
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After allowing Doreen to precede him through the door, Harry entered and closed the door to his apartment behind himself.
Wearily, he crossed the room before dropping heavily onto the couch. He was tired; the trip across the Atlantic on the quinjet, while faster than it would have been on a normal aircraft, was still incredibly long. How he wished that they could have taken a portkey. Obviously, he was out of practice at long distance travel. It really didn't seem that long ago that he was still travelling the world, taking plane rides with such regularity that they seemed mundane.
The worst part about the long quinjet ride was the fact that it was impossible to sleep on those bucket seats. And, while the dinner with everyone at the Tower was great, it had simply prolonged the time until they arrived home.
Sensing a presence standing nearby, Harry opened his eyes. Seeing Doreen staring expectantly at him, he quirked an eyebrow before comprehension dawned.
Tipping himself slightly to one side, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of bags that wouldn't look out of place in a doll's house. After placing them on the seat beside him, he channelled his magic as he lightly touched each one with the tip of his finger, cancelling the shrinking charm and returning them to their normal size.
"Thanks, Harry," Doreen said as she picked up her bag before skipping away in the direction of her room.
He was just in the process of convincing himself that he should get up and head towards his own room and bed when an unexpected vibration from his pocket startled him. Adrenaline coursing through his body snapped his eyes wide and sent his heart racing. Even when he realised that it was simply his mobile, he didn't settle back down.
"Hello?" he said after fishing it out.
"Hey, you," a voice he vaguely recognised replied. "I didn't wake you, did I?"
The extra sentence was enough for him to place the identity of the female voice on the other end of the call.
"Skye? No, no you didn't wake me. Not long got home, actually," he replied.
"Cool. 'Cause I would've felt bad if I did. So, uh, just thought that I should check that I programmed in my number right," she said.
Quickly removing the mobile from his ear, Harry looked at the screen to see that it did, indeed, say that the caller was 'Skye'.
"Nope, all good," Harry replied. "I'm guessing it's not the middle of the night where you are?"
"Nah," there was a slight pause then. "Apparently, I'm not allowed to tell anyone I call what time it is where I am; security reasons or some such. Sorry."
"It's okay, I understand," Harry replied. "Before I forget, I'm supposed to ask you to pass on a message."
"Okay? Who to?"
"Agent Coulson," Harry replied.
"AC? No problem. What's the message?" Skye asked.
"If you could tell Phil that he's invited to Avengers Tower, preferably sometime soon. There's a couple of people that would like the chance to talk with him some more," he said.
"I get that, clear the air sort of thing after the not-dying thing," Skye said. "I can pass that on, provided the invite extends to me? I'd give anything to get a chance to talk to you lot properly, not to mention see Avengers Tower up close like."
"I think we can do that," Harry smiled. "Tell you what, I'll even give you a tour of the place personally."
"Deal," Skye replied quickly. "In all honesty, though, I've got no idea when that'll happen. HQ has got us hopping all over the globe on a moment's notice. I've already seen more of the world in my short time here than in the rest of my life combined."
"Sounds exciting. Got a favourite place you've visited?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Skye sighed, "but I'm probably not allowed to tell. Can't say I'm a fan of all this red tape."
"Know what that's like," Harry commiserated. Then, hearing the expectant silence on the other end of the phone, he elaborated. "I was a … magical policeman for a few years. The paperwork and red tape were some of the worst parts of the job."
"Sounds like you've got some stories," Skye said. "Do I get to hear some of them?"
"We could maybe do that, but I'm afraid that it won't be tonight, I'm beat," Harry apologised.
"I best let you get some shut eye then. Talk to you later?" she asked.
"Definitely. Good night, Skye," Harry said.
"Good morning, Harry," she replied and Harry could hear the smirk in her voice.
Feeling a little lighter after the conversation, Harry pushed himself from the couch, grabbed his bag and headed towards his room and bed.