Chapter 14 - Avengers assemble part 2
After disposing of another group of soldiers, Raven looks up in time to see Thor use an entire building as a lightning rod, lightning blasted from Thor's hammer and destroyed several chariots and destroy a leviathan.
Raven grinned before turning around and shooting lightning at some chariots that were flying overhead. Raven flew into the sky and flew towards some more chariots, firing as he did so.
Meanwhile, in the hellicarrier, Fury was watching everything using shield's monitoring systems. He couldn't help but be horrified at all the damage caused by these aliens. Though he was also impressed by all of the avengers. Romanoff and Barton were as brilliant as always, Cap and Thor were truly living up to the legends around them and Stark was demonstrating how brilliant he and his suit was.
There was also Raven, it appeared that he was the one that was directing the team. The team were listening to him, that was good. Though it did worry him a little, he couldn't help but think that if there was ever a reason to chose, the team would chose Raven over himself. Raven had befriended Barton and he was in a relationship with Romanoff, he had been war buddies with Captain America.
Stark was a bit of a rebel so he probably wouldn't mind going with Raven, Thor has no obligations to shield and would likely see Raven as a fellow warrior who deserves his respect. It was clear that at least most of the team were more loyal to Raven than they were to him.
Though, that didn't bother him as much as it would've a few days ago. He had put his trust in Raven, he trusted him to do the right thing.
"Sir" Maria Coulson walked up to him "the council is on"
Fury resisted the urge to groan, it appeared that today he would be dealing with alien invasions and politics. Both things he absolutely hated.
"Stark, you've got a lot of strays on your tail" Barton pointed out as he took out several Chitauri chariots with well aimed arrows
"Just...trying to keep them off the street" Tony replied as he was being chased by several chariots
"Well they can't bank turn a damn" Hawkeye said as he shot another arrow and took out another chariot "find a tight corner"
"I will roger that" Tony replied as he flew slightly faster, Barton took out one chariot from behind him just before Tony shot another. Tony began flying lower and making more sudden turns, a little while later he was no longer being chased as the soldiers had crashed into various buildings. "Well that worked, what else you got for me?"
"Thor is taking down a squadron down on six"
"And he didn't invite me" Stark staid before he flew towards Thor's location
"Try and keep up Stark" Raven said as he flew past Tony
"Bring it" Tony smirked as he sped up after Raven, the two began blasting and taking out various Chitauri chariots.
"Whoa!" A voice shouted, Raven turned to see Natasha flying on the back of a Chitauri chariot, she had currently latched herself on to the back of the driver and was steering it by using him.
"Nat? What the hell are you doing?" Raven asked
"Trying to steer" Nat replied just as she narrowly avoided a blast from the chariot behind her, Raven quickly acted and blasted the chariot away
"What are you..." Raven asked only to be interrupted when a soldier blasted him in the shoulder, Raven was thrown of course and crashed against a Chitauri chariot. The chariot was destroyed but Raven was thrown back and crashed into a building window, he smashed through the window and landed on a desk that collapsed under his weight. "Ow" Raven groaned as he stood up, ignoring the screams and gasps of surprise and shock from the civilians in the building.
"Dude are you alright?" One civilian asked
"I've been better" Raven stood up, already feeling his back beginning to heal "excuse me" Ravens said before he ran and jumped out a window before he flew straight back into the fight.
Raven flew around, blasting several Chitauri soldiers with a variety of spells from stunners to killing curses. His eyes locked onto a group of Chitauri soldiers heading towards a building with a giant crane on it...yeah, that was probably not good. Raven sped up and managed to take a few of them out, but he didn't get to them in time to stop two chariots from blasting the bottom of the crane, though Raven made up for it with a blood boiling and organ shrivelling curse that expertly hit the drivers and caused the chariots to go down.
The crane creaked and began falling, this wasn't good, especially when you consider how big the crane is. If that fell it could easily cause tons of damage and kill many people. Raven quickly got to work repairing the damage before the crane could start falling. Unfortunately, the chariots that were arriving seemed to disagree with Raven's goal of stopping it from falling.
"Hey guys" Raven said "I could use someone to cover me, I will take anyone right now"
"I am here!" Thor said as he flew up to Raven
"Thor, watch my back while I repair this" Raven ordered, Thor nodded and began battling away the Chitauri while Raven repaired the crane, a few seconds later it was done. "Thank you" Raven said to Thor "you go check on Cap, he may need your help"
"Very well, good luck" Thor flew off
Raven flew into the opposite direction, he took out several chariots right when he saw a leviathan heading towards him. He prepared to take action against it when it exploded, it was only his eagle like vision that allowed him to see Stark fall out of the explosion. Raven chased after Stark and caught him before he crash landed on the floor.
"Thanks" Tony said as Raven lowered him down
"You're welcome" Raven said before he flew off in another direction and resumed the fight. Several Chitauri chariots flew towards him "this is going to be a long day" Raven groaned before he sped up
"Sir! We have a bird in motion!" Hill said in an alarmed voice as she noticed a jet preparing to launch "Anyone on the deck? We have a rouge bird! We need to shut it down, repeat, take off is not authorised."
Hill couldn't believe this, she had heard the Fury arguing with the council earlier about launching a nuke to stop the alien invasion. She was horrified when she had heard that the council wanted to basically kill New York in order to stop the invasion.
And now they had ignored his refusal and were sending one anyway!
She turned only to find that Fury had gone, she looked on the camera feed and saw Fury had run up to the launch bay with a rocket launcher. He shot a rocket at the jet and took it out, unfortunately he wasn't able to stop the second jet that flew off.
"Are you two okay?" Raven asked as he landed in front of Steve and Thor
"Why? Are you tired?" Steve grinned, never one to admit to being afraid and never one to back out of a fight.
"They keep on coming" Thor said
"You're right" Raven nodded as he spotted one Chitauri soldier that appeared to be struggling to get up "Hmm" Raven hit it with a body bind "you two cover me" Raven said as he turned the soldier over on to his back
"What are you doing?" Steve asked
"I'm going to try and read it's mind" Raven answered
"You can read minds?" Thor asked
"Yes, but I don't know how it's mind works" Raven replied "best case scenario nothing happens to me and I learn a lot"
"What's the worst case?" Steve asked, not entirely sure if he wanted to know
"It can break my mind" Raven answered "if it does then you will need to cover me while I heal up" Raven stared into the Chitauri soldier's eyes, he watched as the knowledge flashed into his brain, a few seconds later he withdrew. "Hive mind" He whispered
"What?" Steve asked
"Hive mind" Raven repeated "they have a hive mind, take out the mothership and then they all die"
"Isn't the mothership in there?" Steve pointed to the portal in the sky
"Where else would it be?" Raven asked sarcastically
"Raven!" Fury's voice echoed in his ear piece "We have a missile heading straight for the city"
"What?! A missile?! How long do we have?!"
"Three minutes, the payload could wipe out midtown"
"I'm on it" Stark's voice replied "I'll redirect it into the portal"
"Stark no! I'll do it!" Raven said but he had already spotted Stark flying towards the missile
"I can close it" Natasha spoke into her communication device as she stood on top of Stark tower with Loki's sceptre, thanks to Doctor Selvig she was able to realise that the sceptre was the only thing capable of breaking though the barrier that was protecting the portal "does anyone copy? I can close it"
"No, not yet" Raven replied "wait for my signal"
"Alright"
"No, listen to me. I am about to do something really stupid and dangerous and you need to trust me and wait for my signal"
"Harry? What are you..."
"Nat" Raven interrupted "you need to trust me and wait for my signal"
"Okay but you'll be fine right?" She asked, worry evident in her voice
"I promise" Raven said, he then turned to Steve and Thor "I'm about to do something stupid but don't worry, I'll survive" Before they could ask he flew away.
Stark flew after the missile, he was seconds away from touching the missile when he felt himself being blasted away. He quickly righted himself and prepared to fire when he saw it was not a Chitauri soldier, it was in fact Raven.
"What are you doing?!" Stark demanded
"Saving the world" Raven said before he flew after the missile, he grabbed it from beneath and began guiding it.
"Raven! Stop!" Stark shouted as he fly by him, Stark didn't dare try and blast him away or shove him off in case he damaged the missile "You can't do this!"
"Better me than you!" Raven shouted back
"You'll die!"
"I won't!" Raven shouted
"That's a nuke! And you're about to take it into an alien portal! You will die!"
"I won't!"
"How do you know?!"
"Because I've been trying to kill myself since I was seven!" Raven roared, surprising Stark, not just with his words but also how he was acting. Stark had only ever two sides of Raven, the jokey side and the serious side that he used when he started leading them in this bloody battle. Raven aimed one hand at Stark and banished him away, Stark flew backwards and just managed to stay in the air but his heart was still pounding as he watched Raven take that nuke and fly upwards towards the portal. Raven increased the speed, using his magic to add more power.
"Natasha!" Raven called "Wait twenty seconds then close it"
"Harry! What are you..."
"Just trust me and do it! I'll come back I promise! Just do it! Fifteen seconds!" Raven stopped talking just as he entered the portal.
As soon as he flew in his eyes landed on the army of Chitauri that were scattered all around him, he saw millions of chariots, hundreds of leviathan but he managed to spot his target. The biggest ship of all, the mother ship. Raven held his breath, his face was getting cold, he was slowly losing consciousness. Just because he couldn't die, didn't mean he didn't have to breath. He could pass out, choke but he could not die. Raven pushed the nuke at them, he realised that in a few seconds he would lose in his battle to stay awake.
His body slowly began descending, returning towards the portal. The portal began closing, in a few seconds he could be on the other side of the portal or stuck here, the nuke would destroy his body then his body would regrow into what it was and he would spend a long time suffering the pains of being stuck in space until he was either captured or someone found him. As you can see he was very much hoping for the former. The portal was getting thinner, and thinner, Harry's body was getting closer.
The portal decreased into the size of a truck, it then got shorter, it was soon the size of a small boat. Then...it closed.
He hadn't made it.
'Sorry Nat' He thought to himself as he slowly lost consciousness 'I'm sorry. I will come back Nat. I will come back' Harry vowed before his eyes closed
Tears dripped down Natasha's face after she watched the portal close, she had hoped, prayed for Harry to come back. She held onto a hope that he would return, even when the Portal was nearly closed, she hoped that he would make it out at the last moment.
"He...didn't make it" Steve's voice echoed in the ears of all the avengers.
Hawkeye looked at the portal with disbelief, having not yet processed Harry's failed attempt to get back. Thor felt saddened by the lost of Raven, he had only known the man for a short while but Thor felt that the wizard had earned his respect. Not just because of his power on the battlefield, but also because of his leadership, wisdom and desire to save the innocent. Hulk wasn't quite sure how to react, he felt two different emotions. One of which was anger, the other was sadness, the former was not as powerful as the other in this case.
Steve looked where the portal used to be, he couldn't believe it, he didn't want to believe it. He had just lost Harry, the only friend he had left. Bucky was gone, so were his other comrades, Harry was all that he had left and now he was gone.
Stark wasn't much better, he looked at the spot where the portal dissepeared, hoping he could will it into opening back up. Raven, the wizard who helped him and Yinsen escape that cave, had just stopped him from going up into that. It was supposed to be him that went up into that portal, now...now Raven had died for him. The man was a hero, he not only saved New York but also sacrificed himself. But Tony couldn't help the voices that kept whispering 'it should've been me', they echoed in his head again and again.
"Oh god" Natasha whispered into her hands
"I'm sorry" Selvig whispered from besides her, he too felt saddened by the loss of Raven. Not because he knew him, but because the man died a hero, protecting a world that he had endangered. Yes he was mind controlled by Loki but he was still the one who made the wretched portal. "I am..." Selvig stopped when the he and Natasha heard something land behind them. The two turned to see what it was.
"Harry?!" Natasha exclaimed as she rushed over to his body "Raven is back!" She yelled into he rear piece "Raven is here!" Natasha quickly knelt down next to him and removed his mask and lowered his hood, she checked to see if he was breathing and she was undeniably glad that he was. "Harry! Harry wake up!" She tried shaking him so he would wake up
"Amazing" Selvig tried walking closer only for him to be pushed back by an invisible force and landed on his back
"Romanoff!" Stark said as he landed next to her "Is he alright?!"
"He's fine but he's unconscious" Romanoff said "don't get too close"
"Why?" Stark frowned
"Because Selvig tried the same thing and he ended up on his back" She gestured with her head to Selvig who was trying to stand up. Stark aimed his hand at Selvig "wait Stark, he's fine. He's not being controlled anymore"
"If you say so" Stark looked like he doubted her but lowered his hand, he gingerly took a few steps towards Raven "nothing happened"
"Maybe it's his magic" Romanoff theorised "maybe it's protecting him"
"You mean it like a security system?" Tony asked
"Yeah" Natasha nodded "I think it thought that Selvig was a threat and tried to keep him away"
"Is Harry alright?!" Steve asked just as Thor flew them both to the top of Stark tower, Natasha was about to answer when a roar was heard, Hulk landed on top of the building with Hawkeye on top of his back
"Never again" Hawkeye shivered as he slid off the Hulk "I am not doing that again. How's Harry?"
"He's alive" Natasha smiled
"But I thought the portal had closed" Thor replied
"It did but he can teleport" Steve responded
"I don't think he did, at least not intentionally" Natasha replied "he was unconscious when he landed here. I think it might have to do with his magic"
"His magic?"
"Romanoff thinks that his magic is alive" Stark said, looking thoughtful as his visor opened to reveal his face "it...could be possible that the magic is sentient. Dr Selvig tried to get close and was pushed back, the magic probably considered him a threat and kept him from getting close. But I think we should be fine then, if it believes that we're Harry's friends and won't harm him. Now, I know he has a healing factor so I think he'll probably be alright physically. We just need to wake him up"
"Well how are we..." Hawkeye was interrupted by Hulk roaring at Harry. Harry let out a startled gasp as he jumped back into consciousness
"What the hell!?" Harry demanded as he sat up, he was a second from going into combat mode when he saw he was surrounded by the avengers "What happened?!" Any further response was cut off by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a very passionate kiss.
"Aw how cute" Stark smiled, only for Barton to slap him on the back of the head for interrupting.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Natasha demanded after releasing him
"Primarily along the lines the lines of 'this nuke would look brilliant next to some aliens'" Harry replied
"You could've died!"
"Can't die" Harry shook his head
"You could've..."
"No" Harry cut her off "listen...I literally cannot die. I am immortal"
"What?" She whispered
"Immortal?" Tony asked, beating Steve by a second
"You've seen me get filled with bullets" Harry said to Stark then he looked around at the rest of them "and you know that I've been around since at least World War two despite not looking older than twenty one. Steve was frozen in ice, me...I'm immortal. I literally cannot die. You could chop my head off and I would still live"
"That thing you said..." Stark spoke slowly "about you know..."
"There are worse things than death Stark" Harry cut him off "plenty worse than death and I've experienced things that would make many people want to kill themselves. Once I realised it was pointless I decided to at least be useful, protect people, I figured that there was a reason for me staying alive. Now...wait a sec...where's Loki?"
"Sir, Loki is currently in the penthouse" Jarvis informed Tony
"Penthouse" Stark said as he pointed to the penthouse
"Let's secure him then" Harry said as Natasha helped him up, the Avengers nodded. They gave Harry one last look before walking off
"We will be talking about this later" Natasha whispered to Harry, it was obvious it wasn't a request.
"Fine" Harry sighed "I promise we'll talk, just later yeah?"
"Good" She agreed and the two walked off after the avengers with Natasha's arm around Harry's waist while he had his own around her shoulders "you do realise that you are going to have to pull off one hell of a first date to make me forgive you for worrying me?"
"That sounds like a challenge" Harry grinned "and your challenge is gladly accepted"
The Avengers all arrived inside Stark's penthouse, Loki had crawled out of hole that was suspiciously Loki shaped, he was trying to get back to his feet when he realised that the avengers were behind him. He looked back, his face had various cuts on it.
The Avengers stood in front of him, they were all ready for a fight. Thor had his hammer, Steve had his shield, Hulk growled at him, Tony stood ready with his armour, Natasha held the sceptre while Harry aimed his hand at Loki, ready to fire off a spell. Clint had an arrow aimed at Loki and was ready to fire the second Loki tried anything.
"If it's all the same to you..." Loki said as he looked at them "I'll have that drink now"
A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. Just want to address a few things.
Firstly I know some people mentioned how the story is pretty much following the MCU canon, that's because my changes so far have only been little ones. My more major changes will be later in the story, roughly around Civil war/end of Avengers Age of Ultron so please just hold on until then.
Second of all, I don't know what the reactions will be concerning Harry taking the nuke instead of Tony. My justification for that is rather simple, in this story, Harry can fly and he can't die. That makes him tons better to take the nuke instead of Tony. Plus it's pretty well known that Harry is willing to sacrifice himself for others, I mean the dude took a killing curse from Voldemort just to protect other people in the canon story. So to me at least, it makes sense that Harry wouldn't let Tony take the nuke when he could do it himself.
Also I want to point out that I am at least trying to please everyone, however the problem is many people have different opinions. For example some might say that I am just having Harry do everything, others might say they liked it, so all I'm going to say is I'm sorry if you don't like what I've done but I can't please everyone so please be a little understanding.
Now, thanks again to everyone who read this chapter, the next chapter will be the aftermath of the battle and continue right where this one left off. Also (spoiler) Harry will not be happy with the council (end spoiler). Thanks again, hope you enjoyed the chapter and feel free to leave a review.