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 122 – Sorry, We're Closed
It was strange, bizarre even. As much as Harry tried not to think about it. He knew that they were there, up there in the mountains. Sitting, waiting. And wanting to be used. The biggest thing was that, as long as he'd had his father's Cloak, he'd never felt that pull before. It was only now that all three were together that he felt it.
He'd even gone back to read The Tale of the Three Brothers. It was just as he remembered. Not that he was likely to forget that story. The three Peverell brothers, one of whom was his direct ancestor, had met Death. Whoever or whatever that meant. And from that encounter, the three objects, the three Deathly Hallows, were born. Supposedly, the one who united all three would be the 'Master of Death'.
Another useless, stupid title. At least, he hoped it was useless and stupid.
To be perfectly honest with himself, he had no idea what it meant.
Sure, he could take a guess. The Soul Stone was fairly obvious, it controlled all souls that lived or had ever lived, even giving its wielder the power to bring them back to life, in some way. The Elder Wand, also known by some down through the ages as the Death Stick was reputedly the most powerful wand in existence. The fact that it'd been responsible for the deaths of so many supported that fact, at least. And then there was his Invisibility Cloak. A cloak that never wore out and allowed anyone to hide under it.
And for the first time in history, since even before that story was first told, all three were now owned by the same person. Him.
Growling in frustration, Harry snapped the book shut once again. All he was doing was rereading the same words. There were no answers in there. What he needed was an expert, someone who had extensive knowledge of the Deathly Hallows. Someone who had studied the story and the objects and their history their entire life.
Or someone who knew everything that someone else had collated over the years. Someone like …
He had no idea where she was or even the best way to find her. But he was Harry Potter and he was Mage. He had ways. He would find her and beg her to come visit. He needed her and never, not once in all the years that he'd known her, had she ever let him down.
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The planet was blue and white, much like so many others that they'd seen. Of course, all of them, no matter what they looked like, how advanced they considered themselves, they all fell before the might of their Father.
"We are within range for a final approach," Proxima Midnight stated from the helm of the Q-ship. "Where should we start?"
"The traitor, Loki, opened his portal above a decent sized city," Ebony Maw mused. "That is as good a place to start as any."
"Taking us in," Proxima Midnight grinned.
She was looking forward to this, had been, in fact for quite some time. These people, these humans, had defeated the traitor and used a primitive weapon rather ingeniously to cripple their army. They were far past time to be taught their lesson.
The fact that they got to administer this lesson while their Father had gone to Knowhere was a very pleasing happenstance.
Thrusting her hands forward, she drove the Q-ship down into the atmosphere. Copious amounts of clouds billowed around them, building up on their bow before they simply blew through them.
And then she saw it. The city. It sat on the very edge of an ocean, full of millions of people all going about their boring, uneducated lives, completely unaware that the four most dangerous beings in their universe – not counting their Father, of course – had arrived to do their Father's bidding.
The buildings that she was headed towards meant nothing. The Q-ship could easily handle any damage that 'bumping' into a few would do. Not that she'd allow that to happen. She was too experienced a pilot for that.
"We have arrived," Proxima stated a very short time later. "The station-keeping thrusters have been engaged. The Q-ship is hovering above the city at the usual elevation."
"Then let us prepare for our transport to the surface," Ebony Maw stated.
The deep scrape of Cull Obsidian's great axe across the floor accompanied by a grunt that Proxima, due to the great number of years of their association, told her that she wasn't the only one looking forward to this.
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"Vat in the world?" Pietro asked.
A split second later, he was standing on the balcony of Avenger's Tower, looking out and up.
"Pietro?" Wanda asked nearly half a minute later as she came through the doors that he'd left open.
"Do you see what I'm seeing?" he asked his sister.
A glance at her told him that she did. Her eyes were wide and she, too, was now clutching at the balcony.
"Vis! Vis! You need to come out and see this!" Wanda called.
The fact that Vision missed the doors and simply phased through the wall in order to join them faster indicated that he, too, had heard the panic that Pietro had detected in his sister's voice.
"That is alien," Vision stated even as he morphed his everyday appearance of a normal looking man, albeit with a glowing yellow gem embedded into his forehead to his 'work' clothes, cape and all.
"That is what I thought as well," Pietro nodded. "At least, I assumed that it's not Stark's."
"No, that is definitely not Tony's," Vision replied.
"What should we do?" Wanda asked.
"It appears that they are currently hovering over Greenwich Village," Vision stated.
"Then that's where we need to go," Pietro nodded. "You call the rest of the Avengers. I'll go scout out what's happening and keep the civilians out of the way."
And, before either of them could reply, he was gone, racing down the stairs. After all, the elevator was so slow.
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Peter was just hanging up the last of his photos to dry, pleased with the picture that he'd taken of Flash in the act of throwing the football that would secure the Tigers the win when he felt the hairs on his arm stand up.
He froze, looking down at his arm in alarm.
His spider-sense?
Carefully, his eyes darted about the small dark room. No, there was definitely nothing dangerous in here. Which meant that the danger was coming from outside. Which was weird in the extreme. His spider-sense had never gone off like that before. There was obviously something big in the works.
Leaving his photos and equipment where it was, Peter yanked the door open and raced outside.
The fact that a crowd of people all but blocked the door to the courtyard didn't help. No, there was no way through there.
Quickly, he backtracked, checked that there was no one watching and acrobatted himself up the wall and the stairs ten times faster than walking would have taken.
He raced to the nearest window and flung it open, allowing himself to half-dangle out of it in his haste.
And then he saw it.
A spaceship.
A real, honest-to-god spaceship.
No wonder his spider-sense was going haywire.
It was huge! And round, sort of like a donut. It was also spinning so fast that, even from this distance, it was possible to see the wind that it was generating; not to mention all of the detritus it was picking up and flicking away.
A glance down at the crowd showed him that everyone was staring up at the donut-ship and pointing or taking photos of it with their phones. All that is except one.
A flick of his head resulted in an answering nod. He waited just long enough to see Doreen push her way out of the crowd before he raced off to join her.
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Three watches simultaneously going off – vibrating, bleeping incessantly in the most irritating pattern imaginable, and the face of it flashing an incandescent red had the three Avengers shooting to their feet.
"Code Red!" Daisy exclaimed.
"I've never seen one before," Melati stated, staring down at her watch.
"It's happened once before," Harry stated grimly. "I think this one's a real emergency, though, not like last time."
"What happened then?" Nico asked from across the room where she and the rest of the Runaways had also stood in response to the adults.
"I'll tell you that story after we get back," Harry promised.
"Wanda's saying a spaceship over Greenwich Village," Daisy reported.
"You know, it'd be useful if we had a watch like that, too," Chase commented.
"And you'll get one. Once you get through the Academy," Harry replied. "For now, you're our backup. Go. Find Mockingbird, I think she's in the hanger bay and stay with her. If we need you, she'll know and get you to us."
Instantly, the five teens raced away, taking the stairs in a clatter instead of the elevator.
"Our backup?" Daisy asked quietly.
Harry shrugged. "You never know but hopefully we don't need them. Port to the Tower and then I'll side-along apparate the two of you to the Sanctum. We can go on foot from there."
"Harry? Are you sure about me going too?" Melati asked.
Daisy stopped and put her hand on the green-skinned lizard-woman's shoulder.
"The world's been introduced to you," she said. "You don't need to hide. And if there really are aliens come to visit, then we're going to need everyone."
Harry watched as she took a breath and readied herself. Then, almost simultaneously, they vanished with a swirl of rainbow colours.
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Quicksilver raced about Greenwich Village using Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum as a central point.
Twice he needed to rescue people from careening cars that were about to run them over because the driver was too busy looking up instead of where they were going. Another time, it was to move a group of school kids before they got crushed by a falling road sign that had been swept up by the fierce winds of the alien ship.
He came to a stop, looking up at the alien donut, frowning. If he knew his sister, then she and Vision would be on their way. Not to mention anyone else who could be here after they got the Red Alert that he'd seen go out.
The sound of a door opening had him turning to tell whoever it was to go back inside where it was safer. The bald-headed man who emerged, though, was someone that he'd met.
"Wong!" he called.
"Pietro Maximoff," the sorcerer replied with a nod.
"Aliens," Pietro said, waving his hand towards the sky.
Wong's eyes narrowed. "I am foreign, not stupid."
"Sorry," Pietro replied. "You got any magic to make them go away?"
"You really must learn to curb your tongue," Wong told him.
Pietro merely shrugged. "I'm fast. My mouth, too, sometimes."
A sound of someone landing behind them had the two men turning to see Vision releasing Wanda.
"Glad you could make it," Pietro said.
"Have the aliens come out of their ship yet?" Vision asked.
"Not that I've seen," Pietro shrugged.
"Then perhaps we should go meet them," Wanda stated, a hard tone in her voice and tendrils of red magic dancing about her fingers.
Together, the four walked around the corner only to blink at the sight walking down the street towards them.
There were four of them. The one in front almost seemed to be gliding, his hands held together in front of him as though he was praying. The biggest, the one bringing up the rear but still managing to capture most of their attention carried the largest, strangest-looking axe that any of them had ever seen on his shoulder. The only female of the group walked lightly; a long three-pronged spear held in one hand. And the last, was a hooded fellow with an elaborate-looking glaive carried across his chest.
Upon seeing them, the strange looking one with the stringy hair held up a hand, halting his partners.
"Rejoice, humans, for you stand in the presence of the Children of Thanos. Your death shall be swift and merciful," he called.
"Go back to wherever you came from," Wanda retorted. "You won't achieve whatever it is that you hope for here."
"But my child," the alien said with a smile as though addressing an infant. "You have already brought us exactly what we want."
"He is focussed on the Stone," Vision stated.
Instantly, the magic in Wanda's hands readied itself, while Wong braced his legs and produced a golden shield from each hand.
Pietro, though, chose not to use purely defensive moves. Relying on his speed, he raced straight at the four. None had moved a fraction of an inch by the time he got there. His trajectory took him straight at the one with the glaive. With his right he delivered as hard a right hook as he could, while with his left hand, he grabbed the weapon and shoved it straight down into the foot of the big one.
Before anyone could blink, he was back exactly where he started.
"You didn't see that coming, did you?" he asked smugly as the one he'd struck was sent flying backwards and the other began howling with pain.
What he didn't expect was to suddenly find himself flung sidewards, straight into a building and for a car to slide after him, pinning him there and knocking him unconscious.
"You should not have done that," Wanda snarled.
Her magic gathered in her hands ready to strike out but she found that she was instead put on the defensive. Piles and piles of debris was flung at her – light poles, signs, a letter box, a fire hydrant, bars, even a car – and it was all that Wanda could do to ensure that each and every one of those items was sent off course and away.
Meanwhile, the big fellow and the female raced towards them, with even the hobble from the foot injury not really slowing the behemoth down in the slightest.
Vision fired the beam from the Mind Gem only to find that it was intercepted and redirected by the enormous axe. And that didn't stop him coming. The axe finished intercepting the beam as the giant stepped to the side, instantly bringing the axe back and up.
A whip of yellow magic flew up, wrapped around the axe handle and pulled. Wong was all but pulled from his feet and grunted with the effort of managing to ensure that the axe came down just to the side of Vision instead of straight on his head.
While Wong was defending him, Vision went to work defending Wong. The three-pronged spear was thrust straight at Wong's all-but-unprotected stomach. Vision, though, stepped right in front and clapped his hands together against the prongs of the spear, holding it in place.
He looked up, to see the woman grinning at him and then over her shoulder to see the man that Quicksilver had knocked over now back on his feet and almost at them, his glaive aimed straight at Vision's head.
Unexpectedly, the man never made it for he was suddenly and most remarkedly, send flying backwards halfway down the street before he landed and kept tumbling over and over and over.
The image of a fierce-looking Komodo appearing from the side, headed straight at the woman-warrior meant that Vision wrapped his fingers around the prongs of the spear and jerked. That was enough to put her off-balance and allow Komodo to get those first furious blows in. Left, right, body check, two more punches and then a quick spin, using her tail to whip the legs out of her.
Mage quickly joined Wanda in dealing with the serene one with the telekenic powers.
While Wanda continued defending from the debris being 'thrown' at them, Mage used his own magic to send a hail of rocks and loose bits of metal straight back at the man. A final twist of his magic ensured that every piece of it had a razor-sharp edge.
That was enough to ensure that he had the man's attention. A flick of his hand ripped the side of a bus shelter off its mount and into the path of Mage's daggers. But that was exactly what Mage was after.
A simple transfiguration spell reduced the shield to sand allowing the last few projectiles that hadn't slammed into it to pass harmlessly through. One even managed to slice the alien's cheek open. While the man was distracted with touching the tip of his fingers to the blood, Mage transfigured the bitumen under the man to water sending him plummeting up to his waist in the hole. Instantly, Mage cancelled the spell, trapping the man.
Quake, meanwhile had focussed on the Big One. Her quickness was enough to enable her to duck and dodge the axe swings while her quakes kept rocking the man backwards, forcing his arms and legs away from their intended target and further away from the rest of his comrades. Ducking in close, Quake aimed a powerful blast straight up, catching the warrior directly under his chin, lifting him off his feet and sending him crashing to the ground.
And that was when a pair of armoured Avengers arrived, the repulsors blasting, adding extra incentive to the four aliens to fight their own battles and to not link up to support each other.
War Machine instantly joined Komodo who was rapidly being forced to scamper backwards. The woman was fast and strong, even without the spear which Vision had managed to wrench from her hands. She was flipping and dodging faster than Komodo was able to keep up with and, even though she was still landing blows, the ratio was quickly swinging in the alien's favour.
But with War Machine's blasts putting her off-balance and back on the defensive, it meant that they were able to once again gain the upper hand.
And then Wong intervened. A portal opened directly behind the woman. A portal that showed a frozen, ice-bound landscape. Komodo didn't even hesitate. Seeing the opportunity, she raced in, ignored the blows aimed at her and especially the one that landed on her shoulder, instantly deadening her entire right arm and delivered a powerful kick that sent the woman flying through the portal.
Thankfully, Wong was quick enough to close it before she could recover.
The last of the four, the warrior with the glaive, had once again, managed to get to his feet, a highly annoyed expression on his face and was racing to get back into the fight. What he didn't count on was a string of webbing catching his glaive and tearing it from his grasp. He skidded to a stop, watching where his weapon was going in surprise.
That, allowed Squirrel Girl to catch him from his blind side.
Her flying leap caught the side of his face with her foot, spinning him around and sending him reeling. A series of fwips then echoed around the man, trapping his hands, feet, legs, biceps and waist against the ground. For good measure, Spider-Man added an extra glob across the man's mouth.
Iron Man had come in hot, firing straight at the big one, despite the fact that Quake had already knocked him down. The behemoth wasn't unconscious and was already pushing himself back up. Anyone that could take that kind of force to their jaw and remain awake and ready to battle again, deserved his attention.
"Who are these guys?" Iron Man asked.
"No idea, just got here," Quake replied.
"They want Vision's Mind Stone," Wanda replied from where she was, once again, defending from the guy with telekinesis who was still doing his thing even though half of him was now stuck in the road.
"Did you tell them that Earth's closed for business to them?" Iron Man quipped.
"Of course. And I think we've been letting them know that they're not welcome," she shot back.
A stream of dirt flew in towards Mage before, with a wave of his wand, he redirected it towards the alien. It swirled around this head and upper body for an instant before condensing and transforming into a block of ice, completely encasing what could be seen of the alien.
With one alien no longer in New York, another entangled in Spider-Man's webs and the third and apparent leader half buried and half frozen, the Avengers turned their attention to the last of them.
The man still had his axe in his hand and was rubbing his jaw, his eyes flitting between the advancing team. It was easy to tell that he knew that he was seriously outgunned and out-matched in this fight. And he was still down on one knee.
But where the Avengers expected him to come out swinging hard, instead he simply touched something on his chest.
Three beams of blue light instantly descended from the alien ship, engulfed the three aliens and pulled them up almost faster than they could be tracked. Unexpectedly, the alien's weapons – the glaive and the three-pronged spear – quickly joined them, spinning away only without the blue beam to help them on their way.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Tony said, retracting his helmet as he looked up.
"I would have been interested in talking to them, finding out what their ultimate plans were," Harry said.
"Interrogating, I think you mean," Rhodey correct to which Harry simply shrugged.
"Somehow, I think that was just the opening act," Tony stated.
"Indeed. They were most fixated on the Gem," Vision said. "I fear they will be back."
"Then it is a good thing that Stephen took the Time Stone to another world," Wong added.
"Guys, Pietro's fairly badly hurt here," Wanda said.
The group looked across to see Pietro slumped over the bonnet of the car, the rest of him pinned between it and the wall behind him.
A wave of Harry's hand simply levitated the car out of the way allowing Wanda to get in to her brother.
"He's alive," she said. "I'm taking him to the Island for Daphne to heal."
And in a swirl of colour, she was gone.
"That's not a bad idea," Tony mused.
"What's not?" Rhodey asked.
"Heading to the island," he replied. "Everyone did a bang-up job today, we worked well as a team but that? That was just the warm-up. Gandalf and I've seen these guys really try and when they do, they bring an army."
"We beat their last army," Harry frowned.
"Which will mean that they will bring even more force to bear next time," Vision nodded.
"The rest of the gang's probably already on their way," Tony said, snapping his helmet back into place. "Friday, modify the Red Alert signal. Have all Avengers – primary, ancillary and Academy members – rendezvous on the Island asap."
Everyone's watches instantly flashing purple and beginning to vibrate indicated that Friday had already followed the command.
"What about school?" Peter asked.
"I think the fate of the world's more important than school," Harry replied, laying a hand on his shoulder.
A decisive nod indicated that Peter agreed.
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"What's that?" Rocket asked of the unexpected noise that filled the Benatar. "That doesn't sound like one of my usual alarms."
"Our Avengers' watches," Carol replied. "They're receiving a signal from Earth."
"Well, it is right there. There's no reason you shouldn't be picking up a signal if that's what it's designed to do," Rocket retorted.
"Does it flashing red like that mean something specific or is it just decoration?" Peter asked.
"No, it means something. Something bad. Something's happened," Thor stated grimly.
"It's an all-Avengers Red Alert Call," Carol added.
"Yeah, well, I think I know that that something is," Peter exclaimed and instantly hurtled the Benatar over and away from its current trajectory.
"I am Groot!"
"I don't particularly care that you nearly fell out of your seat, Groot!" Peter shot back. "That's a Q-ship leaving that planet. We do not want to tangle with it."
"We could destroy it," Drax stated confidently.
"No, we couldn't," Gamora replied. "I know those ships. They outgun us and can out fly us. We wouldn't stand a chance."
"I still think we would win," Drax quietly told Mantis.
"I wonder what's got their knickers all in a twist to be leaving so fast," Peter asked.
"Where were they coming from?" Doctor Strange asked. "What part of Earth?"
"Gamora? Can you pull up a map of the surface?" Peter asked.
A second later, a map of the eastern seaboard of North America appeared on the screen, a blinking yellow light in the centre of it.
"New York," Doctor Strange said grimly.
"Vision's there. Or at least, he was the last that I heard," Carol said.
"And he has the Mind Stone," Thor nodded. "But that was just a Q-ship. Thanos would have brought the Sanctuary II."
"Unless Thanos has gone after the other one," Rocket said. "You said that there's one on Knowhere, right?"
"Indeed, Rabbit. It is being safeguarded by the Collector," Thor replied.
Almost the entire crew of Guardians turned to stare of him.
"You gave an Infinity Stone to the Collector?" Rocket asked incredulously. "That's the worst idea in the entire universe. He couldn't keep it safe if his life depended on it. Which it now does."
"That means that he most likely sent the Black Order to retrieve the one here for him," Gamora said.
Suddenly, Thor and Carol's watched changed to a flashing purple.
"I suspect that the Avengers were up to the task of protecting Vision and the Mind Stone," Thor stated smugly.
"We have a new destination on Earth," Carol said. "You're going to need to give me the helm."
"Uh uh," Peter replied. "This is my ship. I pilot her. You just give me the coordinates."
"That's the thing, I can't. They're protected by magic," Carol replied.
"Magic?" Rocket repeated, disbelief clear in his voice.
"Peter, I think you should let Carol pilot," Gamora said.
With a glare and a continuous grumble that none wanted to listen to, Peter relinquished his place at the helm of the Benatar.
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The Q-ship slipped right around the planet, following the signal before finally settling into orbit over one specific point near one of the polar caps.
Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw were standing in a loose semi-circle when their sister returned. She looked mildly cold and incandescently furious.
"The Gem?" Proxima Midnight demanded.
"Alas, it remains within the head of the artificial being," Ebony Maw replied.
"We failed?" she asked, clearly shocked. "We have never failed Father before."
"And nor shall we," Ebony Maw replied. "This was simply a minor setback. We now have more of an idea of what we face and what it will take to defeat the Stone's defenders."
"We took them too lightly," Corvus Glaive stated irritably.
"Perhaps," Ebony Maw replied. "They are warriors that deserve some respect. We can respect them and yet still defeat them. The Sanctuary II will be here within two days. And you all know what it contains, the forces at our disposal. Have no fear, we will have the Stone to present to our Father when he arrives from his own mission."
A bleep from a console interrupted their discussion and the four turned puzzled expressions in the direction from which it came. Proxima Midnight was the first to reach the console and examine what it was that the ship had detected.
"A signal, incredibly weak," she said. "And it's in orbit."
"Destroy it," Corvus Glaive growled.
"This is technology unlike what we would expect from a backward planet like Earth," Proxima Midnight replied. "And it is remarkedly similar to what we detected from the artificial being who holds the Mind Stone."
"Perhaps we can learn from it," Ebony Maw mused. "Find it, bring it on board."
With a nod, Proxima Midnight redirected the Q-ship towards the signal.
It wasn't until they were all but right on top of it that they saw, glinting in the reflected light of the system's star, a metallic silver, humanoid figure.