The Hulk and the Beast: Chapter Seventeen

July 13, 1973

James forced everyone in bed by eight last night. They tried to sleep in their separate rooms and beds. By nine they were all bunkered in the master bedroom, huddled in the emperor bed that still smelled of Sleekeazy's and lavender perfume. They were doing their best not to think of the snarling werewolf pushing against the centuries old wards outside, trying to find a way in to kill them.

The alarm went off as the sun rose at 5:07 am. Everyone was upset with James, but they still had a lot of packing to do. Most of it was done, but they still had several sections of the library to comb through. Red Skull was after their books, no doubt, if what Remus had said was true. With no Potters left, the entire library would be unguarded. The wards would fail as soon as they were gone. The wards were made to protect James and Meriam, after all.

The outside was where all the wards were. Once those were breached, they'd have full reign of the house. Which was why they'd spent all of yesterday boobytrapping the hell out of the house. Evans helped brew this batch of expanding foam, giving Sirius time to make the boil balloons while James and Meriam went to the sports closet to work with James' collection of five Bludgers.

They enchanted them not to attack the four of them and remove as many of the cushioning charms as they could. It wasn't super difficult, they just had to label themselves as the referee and the audience. The cushioning charms were harder to remove, but they managed. When they were done, they weren't as deadly as a 149lb ball of solid iron flying at fifty to a hundred miles an hour should be. They were fine with that, neither James nor Meriam could stomach directly killing anyone, even if Remus assured them that HYDRA were Nazis. They would definitely be breaking bones and causing severe concussions.

Sirius called Remus through the mirror at 8:30 sharp, like James had planned. By 8:40 the wards failed and the booby traps starting going off. They weren't supposed to still be there for that, but oh well. He miscalculated how quickly gunfire could break wards that were designed with them in mind.

The five Bludgers whizzed overhead while they huddled in a secluded corner of the manor under the invisibility cloak. The sound of gunfire drowned out the sound of the four of them wording the ritual to punch a hole in the fabric of the universe and get them out.

They were done with the enchantment section and waiting for the rest of the magic to take hold when the gunfire stopped. All four of them had their mouths covered, Sirius and Evans had themselves covered, but years of hiding from their parents, trying not to giggle, had James and Meriam holding each other. This time the fear was not giggling.

They were invisible, the soldiers couldn't see them.

Then Greyback walked in. He lifted his head, sniffed the air, looked right at them, and smiled a toothy grin full of yellow, sharp teeth. The teeth that hurt Remus.

James' stomach went cold. Meriam leaned against him and he held her tight, praying that if this didn't work, he'd at least be able to give her time to get away.

Greyback took a step toward them.

They disappeared into the multiverse.

July 13, 2014

Tony had no idea how to handle this situation. To say Remus was hyperventilating would be a gross understatement. He was pacing the lab, pulling his hair as fur grew under his pajamas. His eyes, normally a soft olive green, were glowing a brilliant golden.

Tony should have said something, done something, instead of sitting there like an idiot with a foot in his mouth while four children were preparing to flee HYDRA. He was the adult in that situation and once again, he failed. Why was he so bad with children? Did it run in the family? Probably. At least that way he could blame Howard.

"Breathing exercises," Tony remembered. "You've got to do breathing…"

"I think breathing is the problem!" Remus cried.

"Well don't stop breathing," Tony panicked.

Adopt a werewolf, he thought. Nothing bad would happen, he thought. He could more than handle a puppy bookworm, easy-peasy. He could memorize hundreds of physics equations, thousands of chemical formulas, millions of stupid little facts, but he didn't remember a single breathing exercise.

He wasn't strong enough to stop Remus from hurting himself if he fully transformed. A part of him was afraid Remus' time in therapy getting over his horrendous self-loathing had put Tony on the menu. Then he felt ashamed for being afraid of his own kid. Remus was suffering and it was his responsibility to help.

What would Cap do?

Tony reluctantly reached out and wrapped his arms around Remus. Remus froze for a moment, his arms pinned uncomfortably between the two of them. His head came right up to Tony's arc reactor.

After a few moments, Remus twisted his arms free and wrapped them around Tony. He was shivering with sobs, and his fingers dug uncomfortably into Tony's back with a kind of desperation Tony could understand. He hugged Jarvis like this when he was Remus' age and Jarvis told Tony he was dying.

"It's okay," Tony said, trying not to sound mechanical. "We'll get through this together." That's what Jarvis had said. It hadn't made Tony feel better at the time, but it's what Jarvis said, so it had to be the right thing to say.

"They're really smart," Remus said quietly. "And really brave and really… really…" Remus whimpered.

"They'll make it," Tony said. "And if they reach out again, I'll track them down and bring them here myself, alright?"

Remus nodded into his chest and held on a little tighter, with a little more desperation.

"It's okay."

"I don't want Skull to do them what he did to me."

July 13, 1973

They had the Book, Skull realized. This group of annoying children had the Book that held the secrets of the multiverse. Why the Grimoire of the Cosmic Wolves would deem such inferior children worthy of such power was beyond him, but it had.

"You have disappointed me for a second time, Greyback," Skull informed his newest ally.

"You promised we would be equals," Greyback snarled. "You think I'm an idiot?"

Red Skull didn't deem him worthy of an answer.

"I told you they had your precious book, didn't I?"

"I will get you what you want if you somehow manage, despite your many failings, to get me what I want," Red Skull snarled.

"How about this," Greyback got as close to Red Skull as his little lacky Winter Soldier would allow him. "You give me the Lupins and I don't eat you on the next full moon."

Nikola was right to avoid Greyback and bring the boy instead. The adult werewolf was unstable, prone to unnecessary violence. At least he was predictable. That meant he could be controlled.

"As soon as I have my Book.," Red Skull scoffed at Greyback. "You can keep the children. You will have the boy and you will have his father."

Unknown

"Where are we, again?" Sirius asked.

They'd been walking for what felt like days. According to Evans' watch it had only been three hours. This world wasn't like Earth or the nightmare Apparition dimension. It was bright, like late afternoon. There was a vast purple void all around them, and they walked along a suspended golden pathway leading to several other dimensions, none of which looked remotely like Earth.

"Book says…" Meriam flipped a few pages, "The Crossroads. We made it to Remus' local multiverse, we've got to make it the rest of the way to Earthspace."

"Are we there yet?" Sirius whined.

"Stop complaining," James grumbled.

"But my feet hurt."

"You don't have to answer this, but do you really have to be dramatic all the time?"

"How do we know we're going the right direction?" Lily asked. "I don't want to wander here until we run out of food, water, or sanity."

"The Book is guiding us," Meriam said. "We're following the sign posts."

The sign posts in question were a mishmash of hands, some humanoid, most not. They twisted from pillars with unusual shapes and pointed in odd directions. Meriam did not sound convinced that the Book was guiding them correctly.

"Where do we go to the bathroom?" Sirius whined. "What if we fall off? Where are we going to sleep? How do we know when it's nighttime?"

"All the Book says is that it would take two years to walk to Earth if we stayed in the Crossroads," Meriam said. "Which means the door it's taking us to doesn't lead to Earth."

"That answers none of my questions."

"We'll be there in another hour," Meriam said.

"Is it safe?" James asked.

"It's not classified as immediately deadly, so at the very least we can breathe the air," Meriam said.

"I think Remus' new dad was right," Evans said. "The book is more dangerous than we thought."

"It's got us this far," James said. "I trust it's not trying to kill us."

"It's not exactly trying to keep us alive, though, is it?" Sirius grumbled.

They popped out of the Crossroads and landed in Earthspace but not on Earth. The planet was strange but had an Earthlike atmosphere. It also had three moons. Or… it was a moon that was orbiting a planet that looked vaguely like Neptune, and they could see three other moons in the night sky.

"We're aliens," Evans said. "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

"What?" Sirius asked.

"He doesn't have a telly, Evans," James said. "He has no idea Muggles got a man on the moon."

"I knew that," Sirius said. "Moony told me. Besides, wizards got four kids into the multiverse," Sirius added smugly.

"No, we got ourselves into the multiverse using a Cosmic Artefact," Meriam said. "Don't blame this on wizards."

"Wizards are dumb," Evans sighed.

"We're wizards," James frowned.

"My point exactly."

Somehow, likely intervention from the Book, when Evans' alarm went off in eight hours, the twin suns were rising on the horizon. One was white, the other a dark orange. The sky itself was blue, but just a little bit greener than Earth's. It was nicer than purple, that's for sure.

After a breakfast of sausage and oatmeal, they scattered into the shrubbery for a moment to take care of their business. Sirius was the last one back – he needed his routine, thank you very much – and he returned to a small panic.

The most alarming thing was that the Book was vibrating.

"Wands!" James shouted.

"What's…"

Wild animals had surrounded their camp. It was going to be one of those backpacking trips, Sirius grumbled to himself. It was like one of the trips his Uncle Alphard had dragged him and Regulus on in a magical reserve in the Alps. They'd been accosted by mountain trolls twice and wild gnomes fourteen times. He still had a scar on his ankle were a gnome had latched on and would let go until Uncle Alphard had killed the thing.

These wild animals looked nothing like mountain trolls or wild gnomes. They were large, hairless canids. Their skin was purple and striped, to blend in with the tall purple grass on all sides. They had four eyes and an upsetting amount of teeth.

James was standing tall in front of the girls, so stressed by the obvious predators that he'd sprouted his velvet antlers and was struggling not to give in to his deer instincts and paw the ground threateningly.

All in all, animal instincts weren't a bad idea. They were canids, and their body language was alarming Sirius enough that he was sorely tempted to raise his own hackles and growl. Meriam certainly was.

Without realizing it, Sirius was on all padded fours, stalking closer, ears pinned, teeth bared, a very threatening growl rumbling in his throat. The alien canids eyed him wearily. Sirius was more than five times bigger than them, but he was outnumbered twelve to one.

"Padfoot," James brandished his wand. "Whatever you're doing, it'd better work."

Padfoot was in no mood to answer with his human words and instead started barking bloody murder at the wild alien dogs. None of the aliens were expecting this, and ran off with their purple rat-like tails between their legs, whimpering.

Sirius was back to himself shortly, sitting on his haunches and scratching the back of his head. The transition between dog and boy wasn't smooth and it felt good to be scratched.

"Don't think they can bark," Sirius said happily. "What now?"

Meriam walked over to the book. "It says the other gateway to the Crossroads is on the top of the Tooth Mountain."

"What's Tooth Mountain?" Evans asked. "Is there a map."

"No… and… it closes in two weeks."

"Hey, we're in Earthspace, right? That means the Milky Way," Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah, suppose it does," James shrugged.

"The Mirror!" They all shouted at the same time.

July 13, 2014

Remus didn't eat much. He knew he should but he was always so nauseous when he was nervous. Currently, it was post dinner and post desert. Somehow, the Hulk was still eating despite eating enough to feed a decently sized army. He nearly broke Clint's arm when Clint tried to steal a handful of popcorn.

"You're getting butter on the controller," Clint complained.

Remus couldn't eat, but he claimed he could still kick Clint's ass at Mario Kart. That was a lie, Remus was terrible at Mario Kart. But hey, he'd finally made it into eleventh! Only because Hulk was in last. The Hulk was better at Street Fighter. He liked smashing the cars in the bonus round.

"He's just going to crush the controller at the end of the cup anyway," Remus said.

"Still, what if it survives?"

"If it had a chance you wouldn't be sitting next to a bin of fifty other controllers," Remus said.

"Stark should make bigger controller!" Hulk complained.

"You don't need the buttons, it's motion controls…"

"Remus!" four excited voices shouted from the mirror sitting on the couch next to Remus.

"Coc y gath!" Remus jumped out of his skin.

The controller was tossed aside, accidently hitting Clint in the shoulder.

"Ah, kid, one, language, I think, and two, damn you throw hard. That's what the little strap is for!"

"Sorry."

"Someone owes me at least one galleon it only took him… two words to apologize," Sirius said.

"Wanker," Remus hissed.

"Language!" Clint insisted.

"Four words, actually, coc y gath is three words."

"What's it mean?"

"Uh… cat willy…" Remus translated.

"That's hilarious."

"Where the hell are you?"

"Space!" James said happily, grabbing the mirror from Sirius and angling it so Remus could see two suns rising over a purple forest.

"Should I get Tony?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, probably," Remus said.

"We were in the Crossroads, but we were too far from an Earth portal, so we're taking shortcuts," Meriam explained.

"Crossroads bad," Hulk growled.

"Whoa, he's really green," Sirius said. "And really big."

"Hulk strong," Hulk grunted.

"Ha-ha, cool!" James said.

Of course their favorite Avenger would be the Hulk. Remus was pretty sure Hulk was his favorite, too, but he couldn't say that while living with five other Avengers.

"What's bad about the Crossroads?" Lily asked.

"Easy to get lost," Hulk explained. "Maze."

"Yeah, it's pretty maze like," Sirius said. "But the Book seems to know where we're going…"

"Meeting grounds for dangerous things," Hulk added.

"How do you know so much about multidimensional travel?" Mr. Stark came back with Clint.

Hulk grunted, "Also banishing place for dangerous things. And I have a PhD in theoretical physics," Hulk reminded them. "Don't get caught. Some portals require payment."

"Oh, that's less fun than a simple maze," Meriam said. "Good thing we're not using it that much. According to this, we only need to get there two more times before we end up on Earth."

"Does it say where on Earth you're going to come out?" Remus asked. "So we can pick you up before someone else gets there."

"Central Park?"

"Oh, that's easy, that's just outside," Remus sighed. "And of course it would be Central Park. Everything here happens in New York."

Just then, James' head shot up like a deer caught in headlights. In fact, he was so in deer mode that velvety antlers sprouted from underneath his mop of hair and his ears went from human to deerlike, spinning wildly as the rest of him was stock still.

"They're back," James said. "They brought a very big friend."

"Oh, crap," Sirius shouted.

The last thing Remus saw on the mirror was an absolutely giant purple canine, silhouetted by the twin suns. The last thing he heard was it's very loud, very hungry roar. Then the blackness of an expanded bag and the mirror was once more a mirror.

"Sirius! James!" Remus cried. "Shite! Crap, shit, shit…"

"Don't know that planet," Hulk grunted.

"Hand me the mirror," Mr. Stark didn't wait to be handed the mirror and snatched it right from Remus' shaking hands.

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