Predictably, Bucky does not sound pleased that James is staying behind as Steve boards the X-Jet.
Someone's gotta watch the punk's six. Bucky argues. Several scenes of having Steve's back flash through James's mind.
Steve has a team, James tells the inner voice. Two teams.
THE X-MEN AND AVENGERS ARE CAPABLE ALLIES. WE NEED TO WATCH HARRY.
"I'm going to fly my moto-broom" Harry announces, clearly relieved that he won't be flying in a jet after what happened in Stark's.
Stark sends Harry a knowing look. "You're going to try to follow us to Stuttgart, aren't you?"
"I can fly there!" Harry protests the word try.
"It's a thirteen hour flight, Oliver," Stark sighs, and, seeing Harry's blank look, amends his statement. "You'd be flying for a whole day, from when you get up all the way until bedtime."
Harry is insistent that he could fly all day, and stay up late since he already got up. Even though he has spent several hours zipping around on his motorbroom, James ensures that Harry fill his days with other activities as well.
"You said we're all going to Stugar." Harry frowns, crossing his arms petulantly. "We means us too."
"Trust me, Germany won't be very fun," Steve tells Harry. He's perhaps the worst person to tell Harry this, because Harry stubbornly insists it will be.
"It wasn't fun the last time I was there," Steve tries. Harry remains unconvinced.
"The big kids get to go," Harry points at Rogue, Bobby, Jubilee and a few other students in the X-Jet. "Dudley got to go out with Aun' Tuna and Uncle Vernon. To the park an' the movies an' for food and everything. But I always have to stay!"
Stark raises a brow, seeming impressed that Harry pulled the abused, neglected child card. Not long ago, Harry believed it was normal to be left behind on family outings.
"We're sitting in the jet the whole time," Rogue straps herself into a seat, and Harry doesn't look jealous about that aspect of the trip. "It's not like we'll be fighting Loki."
"You have a whole high-tech tower to run around," Bobby is clearly under the impression that Harry has the better deal. Stark looks exceedingly smug hearing this, considering he'd been admiring the X-Jet.
"Go use the hockey rink." Stark shoos Harry away with a hand.
Harry glances up at James. "But you don't like cold 'cos the ice box."
"We'll do something special, just the two of us." James promises. With all Harry's jealousy since Steve was thawed, James would have expected Harry to be delighted at the prospect of receiving undivided attention, at having his dad's company all to himself.
Harry watches the jet take off, turning invisible even before it rises into the clouds. Like Moody's cloak, Harry points out.
Harry slowly turns to James. "Are they going to die?"
James does not want to make any false promises, and Harry continues. "They're going to get attacked."
"They're on the lookout," James can promise his son that, at least.
"But bad guys can kill good guys." Harry's voice is now quiet and serious. "Like my mummy, and my other dad. What if he kills them?"
James blames Stark for Harry's abrupt shifts in topic. He opens his mouth, hoping to assure both Harry and himself. "Steve's defied death multiple times."
So have we, pal.
"What about Mr. Stark?" Harry asks impatiently, then exclaims "He has armor! He's Iron Man!"
Harry rattles off several defenses of the team- Logan's claws, Storm's tornadoes to suck the bad guys up, Jean's mind powers. He's clearly trying to reassure them both as well. "Does Black Widow have a whip?"
"No," James frowns. Harry's seen Romanoff fight during their first encounter, where she whipped herself around and tried to choke James with her thighs. "They are all skilled fighters. They can handle themselves."
"And you can beat bad guys up." Harry proclaims. "But what if they're magic?"
James senses this could continue all day, and reminds Harry "Today's special."
"Why? 'Cos they're fighting?" Harry asks. Despite his concern for the team, it's not a new occasion. Stark and Steve have raided HYDRA bases over the last few weeks.
"Not that." James leads Harry to the gym that Stark had shown off on the tour. "You get to fly inside."
Harry's eyes go wide as he jumps in excitement. Soon, Harry is soaring around the large, open area of the gym, trying to roll between the ropes of the boxing ring. James admires the shooting range and takes out some of his energy on some punching bags, and lifts weights.
As he careens around the gym, Harry shouts questions to Jarvis. "Did you see me? Look! See me now? Are they there yet?"
"You're asking if it's bedtime?" James's voice is level as he hoists a weight.
"No!" Harry shouts, laughing and outraged at the same time. "We didn't even eat lunch yet!"
Harry's onslaught of questions continues. Every few minutes, he asks after the team. Where are they? Did bad guys attack? Jarvis answers with unwavering patience, assuring Harry the team is safe and that they are still flying, just like Harry.
As much as he loves flying, Harry clearly wants to emulate James. He lifts small dumbbells while gawking at the size of the barbell James is holding over his head.
"Steve can't lift that!" Harry crows, pointing to the enormous weight.
"He probably could," James tells him, setting the barbell down.
"You have your robot arm. Cyborg." Harry tugs at the barbell, which does not move a millimeter. Harry grunts and pulls until he suddenly lifts it.
"I'm stronger than Dudley! And Steve!" Harry shouts, clearly not noticing that James is doing all the lifting from behind him.
James wonders if he's made a mistake. He shouldn't be misleading Harry about his strength, but the smile on Harry's face is worth it.
When Harry- or, rather, James- sets the barbell down, Harry announces that he's going to lift it with his magic. He waves his hands and says "Up!" but the barbell remains on the floor.
They eat lunch, and Harry inquires about the team every other bite. The news about the team is still good, but the Professor says he's having a difficult time trying to break the control of the scepter. It's not just a mental block (and James's have been tough enough). A foreign entity is interfering with Barton and Selvig's minds.
We had foreign entities interferin' too. Or did you forget getting zapped?
James ends up snapping a metal fork with his prosthesis. Harry stares, eyes flicking between James's scowl and the shattered fork.
After the meal, Jarvis suggests they try some of the video games, though he cautions that children should not have too much screen time. On the tour of the tower, Stark had made sure to show off an entertainment center even more elaborate than the ones at either of the mansions they've resided in.
James has seen students at Xavier's Institute playing games ranging from war simulations, futuristic war simulations, sports games, and cart racing games. One popular game with the students involves various cartoonish human and non-human characters brawling with fists, weapons and magic.
So far, James has avoided the war games, and ignored Bucky bragging that he could totally own any of them- as well as Bucky's use of modern slang. James knows Bucky is right; he could beat defeat any other players in the shooting games, even if the controls are unfamiliar and nothing like real guns. James is adaptable.
One of the systems is called a Nintendo Wii, which makes Harry giggle about loos and poop. According to Stark and Jarvis, the Wii is the most family friendly system. Rather than controllers with joysticks and buttons, like some of the systems, the Wii uses long remotes that are pointed and waved at the screen like wands. Joysticks can be attached separately as nunchucks.
Jarvis walks James and Harry through creating cartoonish models of themselves called Miis. Harry's brow furrows when he sees there is no lightning scar option, though he claims "I'm not putting a bad guy in my head."
"He's in your scar," James reminds his son, though he wishes he didn't need to. Harry nods slowly, but grows more frustrated that James's Mii can't have a silver prosthesis.
"He's wearing sleeves." James tells Harry, shaking his head when Jarvis offers to hack into the system to provide the modifications. Jarvis mentions that Stark had felt the need to add his self-proclaimed glorious goatee, so a prosthesis would be no issue.
Despite his frustration at the lack of options, Harry insists on making Miis of everyone in the mansion and all the Avengers, even Steve.
One by one, a crowd of Miis fills the screen. Harry jabs his new "wand" at the characters walking around a blank white room onscreen. "It's like Steve's painting, but they're moving. Are they in ice?"
"No," James frowns. Harry frowns in concentration, trying to make Beast but realizing there is no blue skin. Nor is there a wheelchair available for "Grandpa'fessor".
"Moody's eye isn't here," Harry remarks, though he does not seem inclinded to make the wizard a Mii, regardless.
They ain't exactly realistic anyway, Bucky drawls. When James points this out, Harry laughs.
"They have ball hands." Harry curls his own hands into fists, swinging them around. "Look, they're walking!"
"They can play, as well." Jarvis points them toward a shelf full of disc cases.
James knows that Bucky had lived in a time where, if one couldn't get baseball tickets, the most they could do was listen to the game on the radio.
Now, James and his son can swing remotes and the Miis onscreen will either pitch the ball or swing a bat. Harry, for once, doesn't immediately declare baseball boring, though he does grow frustrated when he strikes out too many times. "Throw your ball hands!" he tells the Mii batters, which don't even have arms in the game.
Harry lasts all of five minutes before asking to play hockey or Quidditch.
James insists they try the golf, bowling, tennis and boxing before switching discs. Harry waves his "Wii wand" wildly for most of them.
"Can we play Quidditch?" he asks as his character fails to hit a tennis ball.
"I don't believe there's a Quidditch game," Jarvis says apologetically, then suggests another collection of games with air hockey. "We have real air hockey as well."
Taking the hint that Harry has had too much screen time, James guides Harry to the real air hockey in the rec room. When Harry tires of that, he attempts to whack billards balls with the cue until James shows him how to play. Harry argues he could fly his broom into them instead, then tries to shove the balls with his magic. When that doesn't work, he carries two around as hands.
Jarvis reports that Loki has surrendered.
The next day, they try out another Wii game with virtual laser hockey, cow racing, a toy tank game, and shooting.
The shooting is simple. Even though James hasn't shot with a remote before, it's all too easy to aim it and click the trigger on the back to snipe virtual cans and targets.
James guides Harry's remote, though Harry seems to believe he's doing all the aiming. The game is simple, likely too easy even for the untrained students at the mansion. This is nothing compared to sniping the scientist through Romanoff.
At the last round of the game, Miis pop up in the grass. Flying saucers come to abduct them, and Harry shouts "It's Loki! He's stealing their brains!"
The saucers attempt to steal the Miis' whole bodies, but James snipes them out of the sky with ease.
Harry frantically waves his remote like a wand, and the screen suddenly explodes in a shower of sparks. The saucers and Miis disappear.
Harry stares guiltily at the TV, going suddenly still. As the sparks die down, he whispers "Did they die?"
"You merely exploded the television." Jarvis's tone is a combination of amusement and reproach. Likely Stark has broken much more than Harry, though Harry mutters something about Dudley kicking the telly. "The Miis are stored in the Wii itself."
"Did we beat Loki?" Harry's voice is a little louder.
"Loki has surrendered, and the team is due to arrive momentarily," Jarvis pauses as Harry and James watch the real jet descend onto a landing platform. The ramp lowers, James is already backing Harry into a corner. He pulls out one of his many knives as boots descend the ramp to the platform outside.
I know you were probably all waiting for Loki but I had too much fun with this chapter. And they did have a pretty long wait till the others got Loki. I think it was at least two days since Loki's arrival and all the helicarrier stuff in Avengers, since Natasha said Loki killed 80 people in 2 days.
I was trying to avoid too many dated pop culture references (even though Avengers is firmly set in 2012) but I got hit with a wave of Wii nostalgia. So then this happened. And now Harry has a makeshift wand :)