Chapter Thirty-One: Magic With A Punch!
It was like the entire city let out a collective sigh when the figures vanished through the gateway above Stark Tower, but Peter was still left holding his breath. His eyes never left, staring at the dark vastness of the space, and if he had bothered to glance away, he might have seen the last Chitauri foot soldiers drop like someone had cut their strings or the way Agent Barton stood just like him. And someplace else in the city, three other pairs of eyes didn't falter. But nothing came back out. The only thing that changed was the growing yellow light inside.
"Come on, Stark," Black Widow mumbled almost to herself and almost too quiet to be picked up by the microphone of the commlink. The seconds dragged on as hours. It was unbearable.
A soft sigh came through from the Captain. "Close it."
"No, no, no, no," the adolescent arachnoid mouthed breathily, far too quiet for anyone to hear. Ignorant of his inaudible and resigned protests, the portal began to shut rapidly as roiling energy and deep space were replaced by the sky. Back in its rightful place, but something was missing. A small something, comparatively, but he had a big ego. He had had a big ego, the boy corrected himself. His eyes still hadn't left the place that had once led to the other side of space and was only the size of a window now.
It shut.
And there was a dot that looked an awful lot like a flailing human body.
That was something Spider-man was unfortunately familiar with and he couldn't mistake it. The small spark in his chest still holding out hope burst back into flame at the sight of the falling armored figure. "Yes!"
"Son of a gun," Captain America muttered with a smile in his voice. The dot continued to fall, plummeting towards the ground uncontrollably without any discernable attempt to slow the descent. He wasn't stopping.
"Crud," was the only word out of his mouth before he took off over the rooftops, leaving Hawkeye to follow on the ground once the blonde's eyes caught the brightly colored shape. The boy took a flying leap towards a taller skyscraper and landed on a surprisingly intact window, then quickly made his way up the rest of the broken wall via metal support beams. Sprinting to the other side of the roof, he looked down over the shorter buildings only an inch from the edge with no fear.
A couple more buildings away, the Iron Man suit was nearing the ground, far too close for comfort. All of a sudden, a great green blur slammed into the figure and then the nearest building. The Hulk – with Iron Man in tow – drug his hand down the side before hopping his way to the ground, where the suit was set down immediately before he looked away. Spider-man backed up a few steps, then suddenly ran forward and swan dove off the shattered structure, freefalling down countless stories before sliding to a stop along a metal support to jump to the next building. A hop, a skip, and a wall-crawl later, he flipped down to the circle of Avengers just as the verdant creature roared loudly at the face-plate-less superhero. The deafening sound shook the remaining glass around them as it echoed down the empty streets.
Tony Stark startled awake with an eloquent: "What the hell?!" as the teenager jogged over. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." That elicited a snort from Captain America while the darker-haired man got to his feet, though further conversation was halted abruptly when a red-and-black blur almost tackled him back down to the ground.
"You said you wouldn't do anything stupid!" the spider reprimanded him and removed himself from the side of the suit.
"Well, it wasn't entirely stupid," Mr. Stark argued, "and I did save the city so—"
"You died!"
"Just a little bit!"
"Your heart stopped! I-I couldn't – I couldn't hear your heartbeat!"
"You can hear that far?"
"Stop changing the subject!" Spidey cuffed the back of the billionaire's head before lowering his own as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, sudden bravery gone. "I'm just – I'm glad you're okay." He toed a small chunk of pavement, kicking the rock a little.
The other sighed. "Me too. That'd suck." At the slight laugh, he cracked a signature smirk, spreading his arms out. "And not just for me, for the world! It wouldn't be the same with Anthony Edward fricking Stark! But rewind to 'what happened?'" Cap' looked like he wanted to protest against the language but settled for a soft laugh as he gazed around. The Hulk simply stood there, huffing quietly and watching his puny teammates banter with Thor in the background.
"We won."
"Alright," Mr. Stark half-groaned, half-cheered. "Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
"We're not finished yet," Thor warned from where he had been standing silently.
The cocky philanthropist slumped a little, downtrodden. "And then shawarma after?"
"Sure, Stark," Captain Rogers agreed with shocking sarcasm. Who knew the uptight soldier had a fun side, Spider-man thought, absentmindedly picking up the sound of pounding footsteps behind him. Hawkeye.
"The hell happened here?" the archer asked comically after sweeping the scene: a slightly twitchy Spider-man sticking close to a now helmet-less Tony Stark, Captain America minus the cowl still crouched tiredly on the ground, Thor standing with the other two, and Hulk impatiently staring at them all.
"… a lot of things," the Captain breathed into the silence.
"So, where's Loki?" Everybody glanced at everyone else – except Hulk – as they slowly realized they had no clue where he went. The last time any of them had seen the mad god was when Hawkeye, who was currently staring at them with a raised eyebrow like he couldn't believe they'd lost a war criminal, blew him into the Tower. From behind, a thick green finger nudged Spidey's shoulder, making the enhanced youngster stumble under the strength of the behemoth, who had barely taken any damage in the entire battle.
"Hulk smash," he grunted at the teenager when he turned around.
"You… smashed Loki?" Spider-man guessed.
"Hulk smash puny god," came the confirmation, to Agent Barton's clear joy. The blonde had a huge smile on his face, while Thor seemed slightly worried and even the soldierly Rogers had a bright half-smile on.
"Well, where did you leave him?" A huge green hand pointed towards the top floor of Stark Tower with another grunt. Bruce Banner's other half didn't seem to be very talkative. "'Kay then, off we go." The motley crew began to make their way around the toppled cars and building debris, slowly but surely moving towards the damaged skyscraper. Other than the time Spidey vaulted over an upturned taxi and Hawkeye muttered "Show off," it was a quiet, solemn walk.
As they got closer and closer, the piles of rubble got bigger and bigger and they found numerous small fires that were hastily put out. The adolescent brunet looked around, he saw the broken windows, cracked concrete and even as his humorous mind tried to figure out how to fit the Hulk in an elevator, he worried about the people of the city he protected. About how everything would be repaired, hoping things would get back to normal or better. He would help as best he could as both Spider-man and Peter – though really, who could Peter help? – but he couldn't do everything. Especially considering how many things required money, something he really did not have. Something he was actually in need of too.
Unconsciously, the boy let out a soft sigh while he studied the top of a nearby building, then caught the Captain staring at him from the corner of his eye and skipped a few steps to catch up. The Hulk was tromping along at the front of the group and had to duck comically to make it through the front door, then again for the surprisingly huge elevator. "Who makes a Hulk-sized elevator?"
"Someone with too much money," Agent Barton snarked with a smirk.
"Hey!" Mr. Stark yelped.
"What? It's true." Apparently, there was no prepared comeback for that argument, so the armor-clad man simply grumbled unintelligibly under his breath as the machine swiftly delivered them to the top of the tower. When the doors finally slid open, they were greeted with the fiery redhead everyone knew as Agent Romanoff standing there with her arms crossed and a blank expression. Totally unruffled – except for a few minor injuries – and impatiently waiting for them. Her eyes traveled to Agent Barton and efficiently scanned him for anything major before moving onto the rest of them with a small nod, the Hulk earning a raised eyebrow.
"Come along boys," she beckoned. "Let's go retrieve our god." And with that they all followed her across the floor to a more destroyed version where part of a solid concrete wall was crumbling and one of the windows was pretty much gone. Not to mention the god of mischief laying weakly in a crater in the floor, which the Hulk looked weirdly proud about. The funny thing was… Loki seemed to be having a staring contest with a cat.
"The heck is Hiro doing up here?" Spidey half-sighed, almost used to his pet's shenanigans by that point. "Whose brilliant idea was that?"
"I told J.A.R.V.I.S. to take him somewhere safe," Agent Romanoff defended herself.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., where did you take Webhead's cat?" Mr. Stark called towards the ceiling, evidently having restored his AI's access to the systems on the way up.
"I safely deposited the feline on Floor Eighty-Three, sir."
"Well, how'd he get up here?" the youngest asked.
"I believe sir left the stairwell door open on Floor Eighty-Three when he was running from his twelve o'clock meeting previously." Everybody turned to look at the bearded man, who at least had the forethought to adopt a sheepish expression. Spider-man physically facepalmed.
"Oops."
"If I may—" The god in the hole began, only to get sharply cut off by Hawkeye's quick motion of nocking an arrow he found and aiming it straight at his face. He raised pale hands in an unsure imitation of the universal sign of surrender, though the motion only made two more people palm their weapons and not a one relaxed. Everyone knew his penchant for tricks and magic. Even unarmed, Loki could do serious damage if he wished, yet he seemed injured enough to wisely not try anything. "May I speak?"
Captain Rogers surreptitiously glanced at each person in the room and met each of their eyes, including Spider-man's, before giving a sharp – if cautious – nod.
"Wonderful," the liesmith drawled superiorly. "As I was trying to tell you peasants, this 'cat' is not normal." A few pairs of eyes turned towards Hiro, who was innocently cleaning his ears with his paw, and Spidey simply raised a brow at Loki.
"Really? That's it?" he scoffed. "I could've told you that. Hiro has a tendency to get into things he's not supposed to and he's pretty smart, but there's nothing too abnormal 'bout him. He's just a weird cat."
"And that is where you are wrong," the god sniffed with his nose in the air with Hiro behind him, preening at the praise. "This 'Hiro' is not a cat." All conversation in the room screeched to a silent halt and even the kit was glaring at the Norse deity. It was a simple, insane phrase that took them all a second to comprehend and Mr. Stark was the first to react with a loud bark of laughter. Nobody else joined him, but the tension decreased drastically, and they all stopped staring at the black animal.
"Pretty impossible," the billionaire snickered as Captain Rogers rolled his eyes more at Mr. Stark than the concept, causing Spider-man to join in with a little laugh of his own.
"I assure you it is not."
"Prove it."
"Gladly." And with that Loki's hand shot out with his winding green magic twisting through his fingers and twining around the midnight-colored feline sitting on the ground next to him, who didn't seem thrilled with whole predicament to the young arachnid. The entirety of the gathered Avengers – plus Spider-man – surged forward a step as the green light brightened… then collectively shuffled back as it cleared leaving… his goggles must've been dirty because that looked an awful lot like a person. The brunet shoved his lenses up into his filthy hair and blinked twice, but the hallucination didn't fade and he let out a mildly embarrassing squeak.
There was a human being that seemed around his age sitting wide-eyed on the partially destroyed concrete next to a tired-looking god of mischief. The boy had messy black hair that looked as if it hadn't seen a brush for years – though how long had it been since Peter picked him up in cat form? – and almost luminous emerald eyes, the color was so bright. With his pale skin, he looked disturbingly like Loki, though his eyes were brighter, and his skin still had a healthy tone while the fallen god was rather gaunt. Beside Spidey, Mr. Stark mumbled something about drugs in his coffee.
Hir—the boy squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again rapidly in a confused imitation of a blink before opening his mouth. "Bloody hell." Another, more normal, blink. "Now I know what Malfoy felt like when he was turned into a ferret. Ruddy disconcerting, that is."
"He's British," somebody mumbled in the back, though the… well he might not be the youngest anymore… vigilante couldn't tell. Whoever it was was right though, the stranger had a clear accent in his words.
"Yes, I am," the raven-haired teen nodded in agreement. "I can hear too." He cocked his head and gazed off into blank space as if trying to remember something. "Now, where was I? … ah, yes." Those green eyes flicked to Loki, still sorely sitting in his pit with a smug smirk on. "You."
"Me?" the silvertongue echoed almost amusedly as the boy got to his feet. He was rather thin and lanky, though not tall and still shorter than Spider-man. "Well, I suppose I can accept your thanks whenever you feel it is the right time to give iiiii—!" Loki interrupted his own haughty speech with a loud screech that continued to rise in pitch as his body achieved liftoff and slammed into the ceiling with enough force to crack the plaster. The green-clad body smashed into a wall as it followed the movements of the apparently telekinetic new guy's hand as said superpowered individual let out an impressive string of insults.
All Spidey could catch was: "—cking git – son of a basilisk – stupid prat – manipulative bastard – manky excuse for a man—" and a number of curses he didn't even want to think about, they were so bad. Once and a while the boy would slip into some odd other language that almost sounded like raspy hissing, then back into English – though you wouldn't have thought it was English from the number of confused looks in the room. That is, if you could look past the eyebrows slowly escaping into everybody's hairline. Eventually, the god was set back down in his crater none too gently, though was then jerked right back up and hung from some invisible rope with a hatefully muttered "Levicorpus."
By now, none of the superheroes' eyebrows were visible and Loki was dazed, half-conscious, and groaning as he hung by his ankle. The teenager had a wolfish smile on his face as he stepped closer, now nose-to-nose with Loki. "Don't mess with my friends." The words were growled and punctuated with a swift strike to his nose. A sliver of red trickled out.
"I believe in magic," Mr. Stark muttered breathily around the wide grin that had appeared on his face. Behind him, Agent Barton nodded with a matching smile, and Captain Rogers got on the comm with Fury, eyes still widened.
"Really?" the boy tilted his head to the side. "Well that makes everything much easier."
"Not really," Agent Romanoff stepped in. "We have some questions." She ignored the whispers of "We do?" from certain teammates. "Who are you? Where are you from? Are you another Asgardian?"
"Are you Loki's illegitimate son?" Mr. Stark shouted over Thor's shoulder after the god had stepped up curiously to better see the stranger.
"What the hell?! No!" The raven seemed thoroughly disgusted at the thought as his eyes darted back and forth between the strung-up invader and the philanthropist. He finally stopped on Loki, looking him up and down from toes to head with an odd expression. "Though… it's missing something… ah, I know! Colovaria!" With a wave of his hand, his target was now clothed in a hot pink version of his Asgardian outfit, eliciting no small amount of laughter from the superheroes as he smirked at his work proudly. "Perfect! Where were we? Oh, right. I'm Hiro, you all know that, don't you?"
The redhead in the room was hard-pressed to maintain her straight face. "You must've had a name before Spider-man named you."
"Why do you want to know?"
"Security purposes."
"Ah." Apparently that answer explained everything to… should he still call him "Hiro" now? "If you're going to look me up, I'll tell you now, that won't get you anywhere. I'm not from around here. In a way."
"So, are you Asgardian?" Agent Barton questioned.
"No."
"Are you from Earth?"
"Yep, Britain."
"Are you from this Earth?" Mr. Stark piped up, wriggling his way out from the muscular body-blockade.
"No," Not-Hiro grinned lazily, enjoying the game and the effective change of subject.
The genius engineer took a couple seconds as he seemed to run calculations in his head before throwing his hands up. "I just proved the multiverse theory!" he crowed, then focused in on the adolescent with laser-focus… for Tony Stark. "What's it like? What're the people like? Is it like here? Are there others like you? Is everyone like you? Are there dinosaurs?"
"Yes, yes, no, and no?" he replied after a moment. "It's rather like this world, but there's less technology. Probably because there's no Tony Stark." Mr. Stark looked equal parts proud and horrified at that statement. "There's a really small percentage of people that can do what I do. We're called wizards and witches."
"Like Gandalf? Merlin?"
"Merlin was a real bloke. Who's Gandalf?" The only response the newcomer got to his inquiry was a dramatic gasp and faux swooning motion. He rolled his virescent eyes and turned semi-awkwardly towards Spider-man, who had just realized he'd been uncharacteristically silent the whole time and was trying to blink himself out of his stupor. "You good?" Unlike with Mr. Stark, he fidgeted nervously when faced with the other of his age. His smile dipped a tad and he fiddled with the hem of the black shirt he was wearing. In fact, his whole ensemble was black, from the jeans to the tennis shoes, but it showed that he was mostly just happy to be clothed in the first place.
"Yeah, yeah," Spidey said mainly to himself. "Just… adjusting my whole world view." A few more seconds of contemplation later and he clapped his hands together, perking up. "I have about a bajillion questions though. First of all, what should I call you?"
"I am partial to 'Hiro,'" the re-renamed teenager responded cheekily, while his smile communicated his happiness and his eyes promised a thorough explanation later.
"I updated the director," Captain Rogers spoke up, cutting right through Mr. Stark's flamboyant explanation of The Hobbit, which no one was paying any attention to. "Explained the situation and that you're… a friendly, apparently." Everyone eyed where Loki still hung, eyes unfocused.
Hiro glared at the god once more and sighed. "I suppose I should take the snake down. Though that's an insult to snakes. Liberacorpus." The greasy-haired man flopped back down onto the floor. "Incarcerous. Immobulus. Just a little extra protection." Thick cords had popped out of nowhere to wind around their captive, who had gone stiff.
The blonde blinked. There was a lot of that going on, the spider absently noticed. "Okay. Now we need to figure out what to do with you."
"'To do with me?'" the boy bristled unhappily. "I'm not going to be locked up."
"No one said you would be," Agent Barton soothed even as he was still smiling absurdly at the rope-bound Loki. "I like you too much for that to be effective."
"More like a living situation," the captain explained. "You… don't exactly exist here."
"True," Hiro conceded with a loud sigh-moan. "Hey, I'll just tag along with Webhead. Never boring there."
"What?" Spider-man startled, not expecting that suggestion and very prepared to lose his friend, though not happy about it. Hiro was looking at him expectantly, excitedly, and confidently. His eyes met the other teen's, chocolate and green, and then he saw the shield there. The same shield Peter had, but thinner as it held back less, only trying to hide the uncertainty, the nervousness in front of the heroes, letting hope leak through. He didn't like seeing that shield on somebody else. Is that what everyone saw when they looked at him? Just a barrier-façade between them and his guilt, his worthlessness, his tiredness and melancholy? No, now was not the time to reconsider this, the world didn't need his problems, and everybody had enough of their own. So, he smiled softly and broke the second-too-long staring contest. "Oh, sure, yeah. I've got plenty of space." Heck, he had the whole city. "It'll be fun."
"Famous last words," Hiro singsonged with a mischievous smirk.
The moment you've all been waiting for has happened! Voila! Hope I mostly lived up to expectations. Tony's a lot of fun to write (he loves being the center of attention) and I'm sorry if Harry/Hiro is OOC, but I've had a lot of fun crafting his personality.
If you're observant, you'll notice something about Hiro that I seemingly "missed" when I was describing his looks. If you haven't found it, go back and try.
If you're even more observant, you'll notice three of my chapter titles make up a slightly altered line from Infinity War.
You know, I updated early last week (on Monday) and that was purely 'cause I legitimately thought it was Tuesday… my life, ladies and gentlemen.
A note to Dylan-A-Friend: I had planned the cute Hulk and Hiro scene I talked about forever ago for this chapter, but it got too long and I decided it would happen later. Not sure if it'll be in MITE, or if I'll have to write a one-shot (oh, the HORROR! It's not like I don't have half a dozen OTHER ideas for oneshots already!) or some such thing. IDK. But it shall happen at somepoint! I swear it!
Be seein' y'all!
Lucky (had way too much fun thinking up the ideas for this chapter)
To tr96ey: Oh my flarking gods yes. Unfortunately, that doesn't quite jive with my future story plans but maybe I'll do a oneshot with something like that… keep an eye out, I might just use this idea! And thanks! =D
To SoraMalfoySlytherin: Gods, imagine the damage the son of a Marauder and Deadpool could do… jeebus… they'd probably drive poor Peter insane…
To Matt (Guest): Kind-of-not-really? Not sure how to answer that phrasing… as you can see, Hiro (Harry) is not a cat anymore. But yes, my ultimate plan is to pair the two boys together and have them help each other through their many problems. Hope that answers your question!
To Vladimir Mithrander: Thanks! I personally think that sometimes the best thing a writer can do with a character, be it an OC or established canon, is just let them hang out. You don't need a huge event to characterize or show things about someone, usually it's just the little tells. Though big events do show other sides and are kinda the dramatic-fun reason books are written…
To sammyfox: THANKS! (Sorry, I couldn't ignore the caps lock… XP)
To Lockolocka: Oh my gods, your review just made my entire flarking day! You're so sweet! Hope the transformation scene (and doesn't that make this sound like a stereotypical anime… das't, I should really go find wherever my brain-mouth filter disappeared to) didn't disappoint! I loved writing it. I've gotten a few chapters written ahead, I wish I had more written 'cause you guys are catching up fast. Inspiration comes in waves, it seems, but I shall not be defeated by writer's block, I promise! Thank you so so much for the amazing review! =D