Agent May was awaiting Phil and Harry when they Apparated in.

"We've got a problem," she said briskly as she handed them each an in-ear comm unit. "There's some kind of —" she frowned and wiggled her fingers "—barrier around the place."

"Let's have a look, then," Harry said, as quiet pops signaled the others arriving behind them.

"Stark and Stane were down here pushing each other around a minute ago," May said as they walked, anticipating Phil's next question. "Then they flew straight up, hit the stratosphere and came back down right before you arrived. That's when this fired up."

She stopped just before the edge of SI's property line and put her hand up in the air. Phil still couldn't see anything, but he could tell that May's hand was pressing up on something by the way her fingers flexed.

"A ward?" Phil asked, turning to Harry. She was tapping at her glasses with her wand and muttering quietly.

"Yes," she said at last looking up and around, "it's a ward. And there's an anchor… about fifty meters that way."

"I'm on it," said Auror Matras from behind him. "Williams?"

The other Auror nodded and they both strode off in the direction Harry had indicated, wands up.

"Any chance you could just… power through it, mate?"

"Ron," Harry sighed, "I don't want to create a new coastline! Not to mention MACUSA wouldn't be happy with me."

"Well," Phil said, trying to keep a straight face, "people think this state is going to fall into the ocean someday anyway."

Harry rolled her eyes at him, but she was also smiling, so he counted it as a win.

"Hey," a voice crackled in Phil's ear, "no messing with my beachfront property."

"Stark?" Phil exclaimed. "How — this is a secured SHIELD line!"

"And I'm Tony Stark, thank you," the billionaire snarked, and then his tone rapidly changed. "Stane's modified the big Arc reactor in here with some runic guesswork; it's helping power that ward that —"

The sound of an explosion came through, along with a disturbing crunching noise and heavy breathing.

"Stark?" Phil asked, a little of his worry leaking into his tone. There were only more breathing sounds. "Stark, talk to me."

Phil exchanged an anxious glance with Harry as the silence stretched on.

"Podcast," Stark gasped at last. "Or a radio show?"

The sigh that Phil let out was equal parts exasperation and relief, despite being utterly bewildered at Stark's choice of words.

"You'd be good at either one, Agent Agent," Stark continued. "You've got the voice for it."

"Thank you," Phil said dryly, only half paying attention to Stark as Auror Matras approached Harry.

"There's a rune stone anchoring the ward down there; Williams is making a small adjustment to let someone go in," Matras said. "It will allow a… ah, I cannot recall your word for it. A magical person with no magic?"

"A magical person without magic?" Ron asked in confusion. "That's not even possible. Is it?"

"Yes, it is," Phil said, in slow realization. "You mean a Squib."

It was a commonly misunderstood concept in the wizarding world. It was true that Squibs did not possess the ability to perform magic, but they were still inherently magical beings, which was why they could see magical beings and use many magical objects that no-maj couldn't.

Harry whipped around. "No. You're not going in by yourself."

Her fierce green eyes clashed with his steady gaze.

Phil didn't think they'd ever disagreed about something before – at least, not something like this. They argued about which Chinese place to order takeout from all the time, but that was different. And Phil had set up a rotation system that was agreeable to them both, so that wasn't even a problem anymore.

It didn't look like Harry was going to give in, but Phil knew that this was what had to be done. Stane was confident that he had Stark alone in there, so he wouldn't even be looking for anyone else. There might be an opportunity if Phil could get in close enough, but he wasn't doing much good out here.

"Look, I've got a plan," Stark said, voice abruptly cutting into their comm units. "If you can get Agent in here, we can overload the reactor. I'll maneuver Obie on top of it and that should knock out his suit and the ward stones."

"Copy that, Stark," Phil said, eyes still on Harry, who'd glanced away with a clenched jaw.

"Let me know when you get to the reactor," Stark said, and then cut out.

Phil turned and headed towards the edge of the ward.

"Phil," Harry called, just before he reached it. He looked back at her, but she couldn't seem to find the rest of her words. He knew what she meant.

"I will," he told her, and then crossed through.

Phil got in the building relatively easily. That was good; Stane was overconfident. He'd turned his comm off to avoid the ward shorting it out as he passed through, and now he reached up and tapped it back on, hoping the ward hadn't blocked it.

"This is Coulson," he said.

"We hear you," Harry said, relief bleeding through. Phil smiled.

"Is Miss Potts there? I need directions to the Arc reactor from here." While Phil had glanced over the layout, he hadn't been to this part of the building before and he didn't want to be second-guessing himself at every turn.

"Yes," Miss Potts' voice came down the line, "of course."

She directed him concisely, and he could see the reactor in the next room, was right next to the door when he realized there was someone else he could see, too.

His comm crackled as Stark connected them again, obviously wanting him to hear his conversation with Stane. Phil looked up through the window in the door to the reactor room, watching Stark and Stane face off above him.

"Don't you understand what you've created, Tony?" Stane cried, his eyes wild. "We can remove all these witches and wizards keeping it all to themselves. Who needs them? We've got you."

"You – you're insane," Stark said. "You want to commit genocide!"

"Tony," Stane crooned from his armor, "don't be like this. Together, we'll bring magic to regular people. We'll set things right in the world."

"Sure, with clean energy and world peace, not by killing off the wizarding community!"

Stane laughed, deep and dark. "If you're that attached to your PA, I suppose we can spare her, Tony. Come on, don't you see now? I'm right."

He looked satisfied, confident that his argument had been persuasive, but Stark shook his head, and flipped the faceplate down.

"No," he said, mechanized voice emerging from the metal. "I can't let you do that, Stane."

"So be it," Stane said grimly, his own faceplate dropping down as he spoke, and causing the last word to echo with deep finality.

Phil waited until the first shots were fired before moving from his spot, sliding into the room, and locating the controls by the Arc. He could hear Miss Potts' shaky breaths down the open comm line.

"What buttons am I pushing?"

"Just one," Stark said breathlessly, "The big red and yellow one, under the case."

Well, that did make things easy, thought Phil, flipping up the square glass cover over the brightly colored button.

"On your cue, Stark," he said, hand hovering over it. There was a grunting noise, and then Phil saw Stane's suit stagger back, coming closer to the edge.

"Now!" Stark called.

Phil pressed it, and the Arc reactor immediately crackled, overloading with energy and magic. Stane, on the ledge above, stiffened as it was channeled into his suit. Phil saw what was about to happen and ran for the door as the behemoth jerked, and then the armor, no longer functioning, slowly toppled over into the heart of the reactor and exploded.

The door Phil was sheltered behind rattled and the glass window cracked in three places, but what was more concerning to Phil was the sight of Stark dangling from the ledge above the reactor.

"Stark?" he asked, but the Arc's energy burst had damaged his comm unit, and all he heard was distant static in response. There had to be an entrance to the roof around here, he thought, looking around and jogging down the hall in what looked like the most likely direction.

He took the stairs two steps at a time to the top.

By the time he threw open the service door to the roof, Stark was weakly struggling to clamber out of the hole. Phil strode over.

"Need a hand?"

Stark looked at him as if he didn't recognize him for a second. Phil would have to make sure he was checked over for a concussion.

His grip, however, was just fine, and Phil nearly grunted in surprise at how tightly Stark grabbed on to his arm.

"Thanks," Stark said, once he was safely on two feet again.

Phil nodded, and was about to speak when there were several pops behind them. He recognized the noise easily, but Stark startled like a rabbit, aiming his palms at the intruders.

"Would you like the good news, or the bad news?" Harry asked, smiling weakly although she had her three Aurors flanking her.

Stark lowered his arms slowly. "Good?"

"Well, the wards are falling, and it looks like you got Stane," Harry said, "but, um, the arc's still going."

"Oh, shit," Stark said, turning to look.

Phil glanced down at the same time. Harry was right. The arc reactor was still cycling wildly out of control. The energy dump it had made into Stane and the ward stones had hardly slowed it down.

The air around them started to literally crackle.

"Can you do anything?" Phil asked Harry. She frowned, but by the time she turned to look at him her expression was firm.

"Yes," she said. "Get Stark out of here."

"Excuse you," Stark said, affronted. "I can get myself out, and your boyfriend, too."

Before Phil could say anything, Stark had grabbed him and was taking off. He met Harry's eyes, though, and thought with all his might: take care of yourself.

She gave him a smile and a nod just before she dipped out of his line of sight.