14 – Stuttgart
Following behind Fury, their strange procession trudged along the deck of the floating air craft carrier. They made for a bizarre group, Harry mused. At the head, calm and smug as ever, strode the shield director. Directly behind him, staring around at their surroundings in abject fascination, went Thor. Next came Hank and Janet, one walking along calmly, hands clasped silently behind his back, the other skipping. Finally bringing up the rear came Harry, Bruce and Betty, Harry and the latter with their arms swung over one of Bruce's shoulders each. Behind the group, hurrying along at a respectful distance were a pair of shield agents, who had been instructed to bring Mr. Stark's depleted armour to a charging port. The former physicist let out a groan and rubbed his forehead as he slowly came to. He glanced between his girlfriend on one side, and friend on the other.
"I'm sorry, and thank you", he murmured softly, head falling in shame. Harry sighed good-naturedly; Bruce's self-deprecating attitude reminded him painfully of himself, before Hagrid had swooped him up and rescued him from the Dursleys. Not for the first time, the young wizard caught himself wondering what had become of his half-giant friend. With any luck, harry mused, his friend had finally plucked up the courage and proposed to madame Maxine. He grinned at the thought of the pair surrounded by a gaggle of teenagers, all on the way to being taller than both their parents.
The bizarre image made him giggle, and his companions turned to glance at him. He waved off their concerns, clearing his throat slightly and standing straighter as he went. Entering the 'Helicarrier' as fury called it, they felt their stomachs lurch forward and staggered slightly as it jerked up into the air once more. Harry and Betty silently passed Bruce off to the waiting Shield agents with the stretcher between them, and the scientist silently grasped his girlfriend's hand with a gentle squeeze. They watched as he was rushed off to the infirmary, Betty taking a deep breath as Harry slid a comforting grip over her shoulders. Fury waited patiently for the pair, gesturing for the others to head into a nearby conference room.
Silently, they turned towards the SHIELD director, who fell into line beside them. Harry, who sincerely disliked the other man, let out an exasperated sigh, "Thanks for the save back there; you probably saved my life, as well as Bruce's." Furry nodded.
"Don't mention it, you can repay the favour sooner rather than later; we brought in some assistance on that front by the way. Waiting in that room for us now", he gestured for the conference room, before striding in ahead. Harry turned to Betty.
"Go find Bruce and keep that puny nerd company; I'll keep you both posted once I know more." She nodded gratefully, before turning in the direction of the infirmary. Harry entered the conference room to find Steve standing near the entrance waiting for him. The wizard stepped forward, shaking the other man's offered hand.
"Cap." Harry grinned at the awed looks Steve was casting around at all the advanced technology around them, at least half of which had come from Stark Enterprises.
"Tony," the soldier replied, gesturing towards the table in the centre of the room, behind which the other heroes stood, "how is Miss Potts?" he asked as the pair took their seats, followed by Janet, Thor, and Hank. Fury sat at the head of the table, two empty seats on either side of his own.
"She's well," Harry replied, "busy, but well. When did you get here?"
"We picked him up for Fury on our way in", came a familiar female voice from behind him as agents Romanoff and Barton entered the room, each taking one of the seats nearest to the Director. Harry nodded to the two spies, who nodded back.
"Now that you're all here, we can get started," Fury began, tapping a button on the bottom of the glass table. A holographic screen flared to life behind him, showing images of all of them in battle. In the centre of the screen was captured footage of Harry, Thor, and Clint's fight with the Destroyer. Fury gestured to this image, whilst a brunette woman, who had entered the room whilst they were focused on the director, placed folders in front of each of them.
"This is the Destroyer, a piece of Asgardian weaponry. A doomsday device, or so our resident god of Thunder tells me," here he gestured to Thor, who nodded once. Steve's head shot up at the word god, staring at Thor. Harry bit his lip to keep from grinning.
"It was sent by this man, Loki, former prince of Asgard. Thor's brother, according to myth, the trickster god." There was general nodding throughout the room. Fury continued, tapping one more button. A shimmering blue cube took the place of the images on the screen. Beside him, Steve groaned.
"This is the tesseract, a device that was utilised by Hydra in the second world war. Not that long ago, Stark got his hands on it, and was running experiments using it." Steve turned his eyes in Harry's direction, who let out a huff, glaring at Fury. "When he was finished, he turned it over to our custody for safe keeping. It was stolen, we suspect by Loki, on route to this base." Harry let loose a gasp.
"What about Dean?" he demanded voice sharp.
Fury nodded; deep frown set on his face. "Agent Thomas has been listed as compromised, however, we believe he is alive. Intelligence suggests that Loki is controlling his mind with this staff" a silver staff with a glowing blue gem embedded in one end popped up on screen, "which he is also using on Erik Selvig. The sceptre has a similar energy signature to the tesseract, so we suspect that they were created by the same alien culture. On behalf of shield and every human being on Earth, I am hereby requesting your aid in bringing Loki to justice, and recovering the tesseract before any more damage can be done."
Janet piped up quickly. "How do we even know this Loki is still on Earth?" she enquired, glaring sharply at Fury, who ignored her expression.
Thor replied, glancing curiously at Janet's stingers, "my brother will not leave your planet, miss. I fear he means to conquer this realm."
"Oh yay," Hank muttered, "alien with delusions of grandeur wants to take over the world".
Thor glared, "Have a care how you speak, red man. Loki may have lost his way, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."
"He tried to have the Hulk wipe out a city of almost fifteen million people," Harry deadpanned.
"He's adopted" the alien god replied weakly.
- HPIM –
Harry slipped his earpiece in as he made his way through the helicarrier towards the infirmary to check in on Bruce and Betty.
"You there?" he asked, testing the frequency.
"For you sir? Always" came Edwin's reply.
"Good. How are you?"
"Miss Parker, Miss Stacey, young master Stacey, Mrs. Stacey, Mrs. Parker, Mr. Parker, Mr. Hogan, Miss Potts, and myself are in the bunker now sir. I am currently booting up the laptop in the bunker so that I will be able to more easily communicate with you and monitor the situation whilst we are down here. Miss Parker and Miss Stacey are eagerly awaiting your return, so that we might play the promised game of Mario Kart."
Harry winced. "Put it on video call, could you?"
He heard Edwin tapping away at the keyboard, before he replied that the task was done. Harry removed his Starkphone, patching it through to the laptop's signal.
"Hey there kiddo," Harry began, addressing Penny. The pre-teen's head snapped up with a grin, as she ran over to Edwin's side.
"Tony! Is everything okay with Dr. Banner?"
Harry nodded, "Should be now kiddo. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to come back and see you guys yet." The girl frowned, as did Gwen, who had also made her way over by now.
"How come," Penny asked, steeling herself and refusing to cry. Harry felt pride swell in his chest for his young protégé.
"You remember Thor? The alien I told you about?" she nodded.
"Well, his brother's causing trouble again. We're trying to find out where he's hiding so we can stop him."
"So, you have to help save New York again, Mr. Stark?" Gwen asked, peering at him. Harry smiled softly. How many times had he asked that kid to call him Tony?
"I think it could be saving the world this time, actually." The two kids glanced at each other, each one grinning.
"That's wicked Tony," Penny grinned, any disappointment forgotten. "Bring back something Alien!" Harry laughed as the kids ran back to their respective families. Edwin glanced at him, clearly concerned.
"Is it quite so serious as it sounds?"
Harry nodded grimly. "Fury's pretty shaken up; he's trying to hide it, but it's got him rattled. Dean's been attacked. I've got to try and rescue him, put things right after how we left them."
Edwin nodded. "Be careful, my boy. Come home to us." Harry felt a swell of emotion in his chest. If it had ever been unclear how Edwin felt about their relationship, it had just been made painfully apparent.
"Will do. I've got to go; promised Betty I'd keep her and Bruce up to date." Without giving the older man a chance to reply, he switched off his phone, and dropped it safely once more into his pocket.
"are you alright sir?"
"Fine Jay." He replied.
- HPIM –
Steve sat in the room they had provided for him, sketching away quietly. After so many decades, art was still as soothing as it had ever been. Right now, he needed that. His mind was racing. Memories flashed across his mind; he and Bucky, running through the streets of Brooklyn. Doing his best to look after his mother. Bucky standing by his side at her gravesite, hand on his best friend's shoulder. Their vow to always stand by the other's side. Trying to enlist, so many times. Failing, so many times. Bucky leaving for the front. Erskine. Peggy. Howard. The formula. The howling commandos. Waking up. Edwin, older now. Old enough to be his grandfather. Tony. The man who had saved him, the man who had given him his life back. The man he thought he could trust in this strange new world.
The man who had been running tests on the Tesseract, without telling him. He sighed, tossing aside the sketchpad. He glanced at his shield and uniform, lying on the other end of the bed. How had Edwin allowed this? He knew how dangerous that thing was. Why didn't he stop Tony? Steve stood, walking resolutely from the room. He needed answers, only one person could give them.
Howard's son. It was strange to think of Howard Stark married with a child. Strange to think of Howard in general, really. It was still bizarre even now to think of any of his old war friends; the strangest thing of all was being alive. Not for the first time, he caught himself wondering about Peggy. He stopped an awed looking SHIELD agent to ask for directions to the infirmary. The kid gaped at him like a fish for several moments, before gesturing with one hand. It was all Steve could do to keep from rolling his eyes. This hero-worship reaction was getting old. Couldn't any of these people understand he'd just done all this to help his country? To do the right thing? That had been another thing he'd appreciated about Tony. He'd never looked at him as Captain America, living legend. Just Steve, Edwin's friend.
Ten minutes later, he stood outside the closed door in the infirmary, taking a deep breath as he raised his hand to knock. Did he really have to know? Did he have the right to knock on this door, to question a man who had already done so much for the world in his absence? Who had done so much for Steve himself?
"Captain," called an urgent voice, snapping him from his reverie, he turned to meet the voice. Agent Romanoff was making her way towards him, Thor at her side. "We found him. He's in Germany." He snapped into action, running back to his room to suit up.
"Get Stark," he yelled back at her, "tell him to go put on the suit."
- HPIM –
Harry stepped into the hospital room they had placed Bruce in. the two physicists were leaning close to one another, whispering softly. Harry cleared his throat, coughing awkwardly. They snapped up to look at him, each with pink cheeks.
Harry grinned at the pair, who looked like teenagers just caught out. "I can always come back later," he began, "But Betty wanted information on what was happening."
"Nonsense," Bruce replied, with a silent glare. "Sit. You're our friend, Tony." Betty nodded in agreement quickly. Harry moved to an empty seat, dragging it closer to the bed as he sat. Betty tilted her head as she glanced at him.
"You seem pretty shaken up," she stated as a matter of fact. Harry winced but plastered on a grin.
"Just worried about this business with Loki," he replied, only half lying.
"Loki?" Bruce asked, a twinge of the other guy in his tone. Betty ran her thumb over his wrist comfortingly.
"Is he the one who did this to Bruce?" she asked, staring at him.
Harry nodded. "Not sure why yet though. If I had to guess, it was to distract us."
Bruce winced. "I remember – bits and pieces. Flashes, really, I guess. It's always like that a little after
the other guy takes control, but this. This is different somehow. Like someone's actually forcing me
to forget what happened.
Harry nodded as Betty gently patted their fellow scientist on the shoulder, and kissed his hand
soothingly once more. The efforts seemed to calm the other man. Harry racked his mind; it sounded
like it could be magic, but without more data, he couldn't just hazard a guess. The whole thing felt
off. Loki was dangerous sure, but during their last fight, he had merely been playing with Harry and
Barton. The Asgardian had seemed hardly to be interested in the Earth at all. If anything, from what
he could personally gather the attack had been a personal vendetta against his brother. So, what
now?
Why go from not caring about a planet whatsoever, to wanting to conquer it? There was something
not right with any of it. Somehow, Harry doubted all this could have been just for the tesseract.
Unless there was something else about it they weren't aware of. Making his excuses to his friends,
Harry leaped to his feet, running for the nearest lab. He entered, brusquely ordering the SHIELD
agents within to leave as he made his way to the central computer, switching it on. Within moments,
Edwin's face greeted him once more.
"Sir?"
"The Tesseract. I need all our files on it. Now."
"Is something the matter?"
"A hunch. One I need to check; there's something telling me we aren't the only ones being
manipulated in all of this. Loki may be working with a third party."
Edwin let out a gasp. "Yes," the old man replied, "that would make sense. It fits his prior actions
much better than almost any alternative. That is, assuming we are dealing with any sort of rational
being, of course." The old man quickly forwarded all available data to Harry.
"Stay on the line". Edwin nodded.
"Of course, sir".
He scanned the files, looking for anything they had missed. He retrieved a flash drive from his
pocket, slipping it into the computer as he went. The drive flickered to life, connecting JARVIS to the
system. Having a second pair of 'eyes' to go over all the data with would certainly make his hunt
easier. He briefly explained to the AI what they were looking for. After nearly fifteen minutes, and
exhausting nearly every avenue, Harry collapsed into the closest nearby chair as JARVIS pinged with
a result.
"What is it?" he asked quickly, standing once more.
"Perhaps nothing, Mr. Stark. However, our files, collaborated by these photos", images of the cube,
showing the entire structure of the device, popped up on screen, "indicates that the cube may
actually, also double as a holding device for another artefact. There is a growth within the centre of
the Tesseract, which my preliminary calculations suggest, may be the source of its energy."
"You think this explains why Loki is here?" Edwin inquired, snapping Harry back into reality, "this
'growth' in the Tesseract? He wants it?"
Harry sighed. "I'm sure it is. I just don't know if he wants it for himself yet, or someone else."
"Both daunting prospects."
"No doubt". Romanoff's voice from the doorway interrupted his current train of thought.
"We've tracked Loki down to Stuttgart in Germany. Rodgers says it's time to suit up." She stated,
peering at him curiously. "Is everything alright with you, Stark?" Harry picked himself up out of the
chair and turned in her direction, nodding as he did so.
"I am wrestling with a problem and there are many factors to take into consideration, and I have not
yet come up with a solution." She stared at him blankly. Harry sighed.
"I've been trying to figure out why Loki would do all of this, and I may have a partial answer," he replied as they walked down the hall side by side. She smirked.
"Because he's an insane, egomaniacal alien who wants to conquer the world to prove he can." The super spy stated simply, as though it were a matter of fact. Harry shrugged, seeing no point in arguing with her.
"Maybe. There's some new evidence to seduce otherwise though." She blinked.
"What?"
"The tesseract. There's something inside of it. JARVIS and I think maybe it could be the source of the energy it gives off. I'm wondering if Loki specifically wants to collect that, rather than the cube itself." She strode silently beside him, and nodded slowly.
"So, you think that's it? He wants the tesseract – or whatever's inside it. This isn't actually about us, just the cube?"
Harry nodded. She shrugged, walking on ahead.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe not. Guess will just have to wait and see when we bring Loki in."
- HPIM –
He soared through the air following closely behind the troop carrier the others were using. They'd decided the best way of approaching things was to have Steve, Natasha, and Janet arrive first to confront the Asgardian first whilst Harry and Thor arrived later when needed. Hank would remain on the Helicarrier, trying to locate the cube with Bruce and Betty's help. Whilst he hoped Steve and the others would be alright by themselves, he was eagerly anticipating getting his hands on the demigod. His relationship with Dean may have been fractured, but no matter what issues there were in their friendship, he hardly wanted the other man to be harmed. Loki had gone after Harry's own. Now, the Asgardian would have to take his chances with the consequences.
As they arrived at the target location, he could make out the sight of Loki standing over a crowd of cowering German citizens. The god turned his attention to an old man who had stood up amongst the crowd of kneeling on lookers. Harry grit his teeth, powering the thrusters to propel him forwards. Before he could reach the spectacle however, he caught a flash of blue, white, and red shooting through the air. He pulled to a halt in mid-air, staring at the sight below. Steve had landed, feet first, on cement, shield hoisted between the old man and Loki's blast.
"Did he just –"
"Yep," Edwin replied; Harry could hear the amusement in the other man's voice.
"Without –"
"Without a parachute. Yeah." Harry snorted, shaking his head in wonder as he shot forward towards Loki once more. The god and the captain, after a brief conversation, had engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Steve was going well, utilizing his shield to extend combos and break down Loki's attacks. The demigod slung out with his sceptre, firing a blast of energy at Steve. The captain slid back along the road, kicking his shield out just as Harry launched a barrage of missiles, followed by a unibeam. The attacks struck at once, throwing Loki through the air and into a pedestal. He lay sprawled out on the ground, slowly sitting up as Harry landed beside Steve, who had ran over to retrieve his fallen shield.
The captain glanced at Harry out of the corner of his eye. "Stark," he stated, somewhat frostily, "thanks for the assist".
Harry glanced at the other man curiously for a moment, before returning his attention to their fallen enemy.
"You're welcome Captain. Want to make your next move, god?"
"I surrender" Loki started calmly, as Thor landed on the ground next to Harry.
"Good move, brother" The Asgardian stated, glaring at his adopted brother. Harry stared after Loki as Thor and Steve escorted their prisoner onto the waiting jet.
"Does this feel way too easy to you as well?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," Edwin replied. Harry nodded grimly, following after the others as he stepped onto the jet, eager to get the suit off for awhile once they returned to the Helicarrier.