A/N - started and finished this last night. Enjoy!

Previously on Wonders:

Shaking her head, Bella smiled at him. "So where are you staying?"

He turned and pointed to a hotel directly across the square and maybe a hundred feet down the block. "Right there."

Bella's eyes widened: he really was like a two minute walk away. "You're staying in the Graham?"

"Yes," he said. "It's very nice, and I actually once stayed there before, about five years ago. And you being this close cinched it."

"Well, then, what time are we having dinner?"

"I'll call you at 7. Does that work?"

"Yes."

Meeting her in a hug, they held it for a moment, and Harry gave her a soft kiss to her lips. It was quick, and chaste, but Bella closed her eyes anyway, enjoying his sweet breath and toned arms that held her close.

After saying goodbye, Harry was standing in the lobby of the Graham less than a minute later. "You'll be staying two nights, Mr. Potter?" the clerk asked while checking him in.

"No," he said. "I'd like to change it to three if you have the room."

The clerk nodded after checking the computer. "Yes sir, we have availability."

When Harry walked into his room, he unshrunk his bags and quickly shed his clothes, heading for the shower. For the first time today, he wasn't thinking about Bella or the myriad other things that he often worried about.

No, he was thinking about one thing only, the same thing that had him extend his stay.

It was time for him to take an unauthorized trip to Puente Antiguo.

Chapter 13

It was 2am in Washington DC when Harry Potter initiated the first of what would be a series of small, blind apparitions to the small town of Puente Antiguo, clear on the opposite end of the country.

His evening with Bella had gone extremely well; a romantic but low-key dinner, a stroll through town, dessert, and then back to his hotel for their first seriously steamy make-out session. It was all so very easy to be with her, and he knew that he would have to give some thought to where they were headed: after all, she was still in school, and he worked across the ocean. Magic made long distance travel easy, but still...

He had not felt this strongly about anyone since Ginny, back when he was seventeen.

Shaking his head to clear it and focus on his mission, he arrived with a soft pop about a quarter mile outside of the small town of Puente Antiguo. He'd done coordinate based apparitions before, but they were never comfortable and always riskier than apparating to a known location. Hence, he had apparated into an area that was listed on the maps as open desert, giving himself plenty of space so he didn't suddenly appear in someone's living room.

Surrounded by the blackness of being hundreds of miles from the nearest city save for the blazing stars overhead, Harry immediately felt the extreme dryness of the desert, even in the cool air of late evening. It should be about 11pm local time here, and the temperature was comfortable; deserts simply could not retain heat at night. But the lack of moisture - especially to someone who lived in a place with lots of rainfall - was quite noticeable when he breathed.

Safe under his invisibility cloak, Harry saw the lights of Puente Antiguo in the distance. From his brief reading before he left, he knew the entire town was a few square blocks of small stores, a diner, and a gas station. Perhaps two dozen small homes surrounded the central area, and that was it. The town was essentially a pit stop in the middle of nowhere, for people traveling between other, larger places.

Having no interest in wandering around all night, Harry immediately cast a wide-area sensor spell, designed to pick up traces of magic. He knew whatever was out here had set off every magical sensor on the planet, and he figured this would be a good way to find it quickly. Hermione had taught the spell to him several years ago, and it was pretty reliable. More importantly, however, it was very hard to detect. Harry didn't know what sort of observation charms the American Ministry might have set up out here, not to mention what Fury and SHIELD might have. If the object was, indeed, of alien origin, Harry imagined that the security would be very impressive indeed.

After just a brief moment, a barely audible 'ping' sounded, and Harry saw the faint impression of blue and violet colors leading off somewhere to the west. Securing the cloak around him, he pulled out his broom from his 'bag of holding' - the affectionate nickname he gave to the extension -charmed bag that Hermione had gifted him for his 21st birthday; and even though he could create one himself these days, he liked hers better, as it made him feel close to her even when away on missions.

She truly was the sister of his heart.

Rising into the night air like an invisible ghost, Harry spent the next ten minutes cruising along at a steady fifty mph, occasionally slowing the Firebolt to check the spell trace. Moving steadily to the west, the colors slowly increased in intensity as he moved deeper into the desert. The ground became hilly, and he thought he could see a faint glow from somewhere ahead. Finally, he crested a series of steadily rising dunes, and just as he passed the largest, discovered a military style makeshift-camp laid out in front of him, perhaps a half mile distant.

Harry descended with his broom to hover about five feet from the ground, just above the lip of one of the rises. Despite believing he had not tripped any wards, he was being very cautious. He didn't think anything magical could find him under the cloak, but Hermione had demonstrated to him about a year ago that muggle radar could reflect off the cloak and be used to spot him. Luckily, she'd said, his 'cross section' was so small that the radar station would need to be ridiculously powerful or he'd need to be really close for it to pick him up on their scopes.

During the few minutes he spent waiting to be sure he didn't trip any hidden alarms, he observed the site as best he could; he thought he did see a few spinning radar antennas similar to what he'd seen on large yachts, and was happy he had been so cautious. He suspected these kinds of radars were probably looking for overflying aircraft, but he would continue to be very careful.

He cast another detection spell, this one designed to look for magical wards or charms. When the spell returned nothing, he let out a small sigh of relief. This looked to be exclusively a SHIELD operation, though that did not rule out danger to him: there could be concealed landmines or tripwires out here for all he knew, and the radar made him uneasy.

Harry pulled his omnioculars from his bag, and raised the instrument to his eyes, setting it to record mode. Immediately, the details of the site jumped into clear focus as Harry fiddled with the zoom controls.

Four large towers stood in the corners of what was essentially an enclosed square - surrounded with fencing and razor wire - that was built around a shallow crater in the ground in the center of the site. Powerful, bright searchlights were perched on the towers, looking both into and out of the encampment, sweeping in wide arcs over the dark desert landscape. A series of small outbuildings - of very basic and most likely rapid construction - stood sentinel both inside and outside of the perimeter. A circular track - mostly just packed sand cleared of debris - wound around the inner edges of the fencing, and several vehicles were parked there.

At the center of the site, a series of sinuous corridors made of white, opaque plastic wound about a tall scaffolding type enclosure, with a small open top perhaps thirty feet across. Harry wasn't high enough to see down inside, but he suspected the object he was looking for would be found there.

He knew he would need to get much closer and sneak a peek inside, but had to stay as low as possible until he passed the radars during his approach. He knew that radar systems had trouble with picking up objects that were low to the ground, and he planned on taking advantage of that fact.

After his brief perusal, Harry began a more thorough inspection, looking carefully at the security they had set up. His eyes first swept the towers, and zoomed in to the maximum resolution of his omnioculars. He noticed an armed guard standing by each searchlight, a rifle slung over their shoulders. On the ground, additional armed servicemen in combat fatigues were walking the perimeter just inside the fencing, and there seemed to be several technicians walking in and out of some of the buildings.

A sudden low, growly rumble of thunder made his broom shake, and Harry felt the hairs on his arms standing as the smell of ozone filled the air. And then, a moment later, there was the feeling of magic in the air. It rolled over him, making his magical senses come alert.

With a brief shiver at the feel of the foreign magic, he zoomed in again to the central enclosure: he felt like the magic that he was feeling was coming from there.

A brief flash of lightning overhead made him blink his eyes as the omnioculars were flooded with white light, and he lowered them as he blinked, trying to regain his night vision even as thunder rolled over him again, louder than before. Looking at the sky, he noticed the stars were completely blotted out now by heavy clouds.

Harry frowned, not understanding what was happening. This storm had come out of nowhere, and seemed almost unnatural.

Huffing in annoyance - he didn't feel like getting drenched - he slowly began his approach to the camp, descending slowly on his broom. He kept low, barely a foot off the ground, meandering around scrub-brush and boulders, his speed slow enough that he didn't kick up any dust or sand in his wake; he had no idea what passive alarms or defenses the camp had, and he didn't want to set anything off accidentally.

He also had a second reason for approaching by broom: he could make a quick exit if he had to, in case he ran into anti-apparition wards set by MACUSA.

A few long minutes later, he was less than a hundred yards from the outer fence, hovering silently and invisibly on his broom. His eyes took in more detail now, and he looked around the camp edge trying to figure a way in that wouldn't mean stunning an unknown number of American government personnel. Harry didn't think that would go over well with MACUSA, never mind what Fury would think.

Smiling grimly to himself at that last thought, Harry moved around the perimeter, changing his location several times over the next ten minutes, always mindful of the searchlights and the radars. When he had done two complete circuits of the camp, he decided that approaching from the northeastern corner would be his best bet, as the searchlight pattern there had more ground to cover, and some small depressions and gully's gave some cover. He thought maybe he would set off a distraction well outside the camp - like one of his decoy detonator from the Weasley's - and use his broom to fly up and into the opening above the central enclosure.

Just as he was making his final decision, he caught movement off to his left, maybe fifty yards away. Turning that way, he was surprised to see a very broad shouldered man raising himself up from some desert tumbleweed. Lifting his omnioculars, Harry zoomed in, seeing the man - tall, bearded, with long blonde hair - run off from the brush, hunched down and approaching the fence at the same northeast side Harry thought was the easiest approach. Even hunched over, the guy was big, and as he closed the distance to the fence Harry didn't think he would be undetected for long.

Movement in the tumbleweed had Harry swinging the omnioculars back. There, left behind in the bush, Harry saw the face of a woman, her body lying flat on the sand, brown hair blowing lightly about her face. She was watching the large man run towards the camp, a very tense and nervous expression on her face. Harry watched her for a few seconds, until she rolled away, pulling out what looked to be a cellphone.

Blinking a few times to satisfy himself that he wasn't seeing things, Harry cursed at the terrible timing. He seriously doubted this big guy was going to get in without tripping some alarm; and, even though it might be the distraction he wanted, it was right inside the camp instead of out in the desert. Security was sure to be on high alert when this bozo came stumbling in, unless the guy was much more stealthy than what he'd seen so far.

He rose higher on his broom, debating with himself what to do, ideas running through his mind as he tried to settle on a plan.

His Gryffindorish side was prodding him to simply rocket straight up and into the roofless building, ignoring all alarms, and snatch the object they had in there, and then zoom away. Luckily, his reckless tendencies had been tempered over the years, and he thought it much more prudent to just hover over the opening and use the omnioculars to make a recording for Hermione to analyze later. After all, he had absolutely no idea what the object was, how large or heavy it might be, or even if it was dangerous or contaminated. Perhaps the top of the enclosure was open so fresh air could flow freely?

As he flew up and over the fence, Harry decided he would make-do, and take whatever advantage he could from the intruder's presence. Maybe, if he was lucky, when they caught this stooge any anomalous sensor readings they might have could be attributed to his break-in, and Harry could escape scot-free.

Looking down into the camp, trying to keep himself moving in random patterns and away from the spinning radars, he didn't see the intruder anymore; but he did see a portion of fence that was cut away. There were several vehicles and buildings near that portion of the fence, and the big guy was most likely hiding in the shadows there.

And then Harry saw a large bank of cameras and small, white triangles. He'd seen these before: motion detectors.

Harry flew towards the central enclosure, still careful for any magical or mundane traps, and trying to stay out of the way of the motion detectors. He hoped the light rain that was now falling would interfere with their operation, but he didn't know enough about them to know if this was true. He was also very aware that, if someone was carefully watching, a searchlight beam hitting him would make it obvious something was there blocking it; thus, he had to keep one eye out at all times for the crossing beams. He moved, stopping and hovering again, then moving again, steadily getting closer to the center of the site, keeping as low as he could.

Just then, Harry spotted the intruder, rushing behind a parked vehicle into the shadow of a small building. Two soldiers turned at the movement, but the intruder was quicker, smashing his fist into the faces of the two unlucky guards. Harry couldn't hear the blows over the rain and the rumbling thunder, but the guy must be pretty strong to knock them out with one blow.

Harry eyed the man curiously, noting the size of his arms and chest in the tight fitting t shirt as he ran towards one of the doors leading into the long corridors. He floated maybe ten feet from the man, when suddenly he sensed something from him that made his magical senses suddenly tingle. There was a subtle feeling of magic on the man, but restrained in some way. Trying to place the feeling, Harry suddenly realized it felt similar to what he felt when he was in the presence of Dumbledore or Voldemort during his middle teen years, when he became more sensitive to the magic around him. It was a feeling similar to that, except the magic on the man didn't feel like it was part of his aura; rather, it was almost as if something was suppressing or shackling him in some way.

Shaking his head, Harry turned away from the man and approached the central structure, flying up high enough that he could finally looking down inside. He knew that he was going to be right in the beams of the radar now, but he suspected the man was going to be caught any moment - there was a lot of movement from the guards now - and he wanted to be ready to take advantage of the distraction.

Looking inside, Harry saw that the 'building' was nothing more than a series of ramparts with three levels that surrounded a small object directly in the middle. On the side ledges, guards patrolled with rifles and technicians monitored banks of equipment.

Even as Harry reached for his omnioculars again, a shrill siren rang through the compound; a moment later, and a second and then third alarm began to blare as well, blasting into the night. Over the din, Harry could hear men shouting orders, and guards began to pour out of the buildings, guns at the ready, even as more searchlights came on, lighting up the camp.

Harry saw fast motion to the left, and blinked in surprise when he saw a man hurled through the plastic wall of one of the twisty corridors; clearly, the intruder was inside, and making his way towards the object, battering away all opposition.

With the lights blazing down, Harry could see the shadow of the intruder as he moved quickly through the thinly walled corridors, meeting up with other guards no doubt intended to stop him. Curses and loud thuds and crashing noises following his progress, and Harry could not help being amused at how easily this guy seemed to be dealing with Fury's agents. They fell like dominoes, one, then two more, then another, unable to do anything to stop his progress.

Perhaps he was being unfair to the agents, though; they surely could have shot him if they wanted him dead. No, they were most likely trying to restrain him.

As the rainfall increased, Harry spotted an extremely agile, fast moving figure dressed all in black run across the now muddy ground. In an amazing demonstration of acrobatic skill, he jumped smoothly onto what looked like a little platform attached to a lifting crane. The crane arm suddenly rose up - maybe a dozen yards from Harry on his broom - and the man was rapidly hauled up above the edges of the central building, to the highest vantage point in the whole camp.

As a searchlight briefly illuminated this figure, Harry was surprised to see the face of Agent Barton - Hawkeye - with his bow at the ready, pointed down towards the ground, no doubt ready to finish the burly intruder if necessary.

A crack of lightning lit up the area, making Harry flinch. Barton suddenly raised his head, bright eyes hard and locked right on Harry's position. The light from the strike faded, but Barton didn't turn away, he clearly had seen something; a shadow perhaps, or a ripple when Harry reacted to the powerful lightning.

Harry held himself completely still, barely breathing, as he floated less than twenty feet from Barton. He knew Barton was skillful - he'd seen him in action in London - and Harry should have immediately flown off when the Agent got to the top of the crane.

Stupid!

Harry thought he saw Barton squinting - trying to spot him, no doubt - and Barton must have sensed something, as he slowly turned his bow and pointed it almost directly at Harry as the agent continued to move his head in small movements left and right, using the acute sensitivity of peripheral vision to small motion, trying to discern Harry's position.

Cursing silently, Harry's wand slid into his hand, a shielding spell on his lips. If Barton loosed his arrow, Harry would have to cast a shield, and he had no doubt whatsoever the game would be up. Hawkeye had seen his shields before, and would know a magic user was nearby. Harry didn't doubt Fury would immediately know it was him, especially after he asked about Puente Antiguo at their meeting just yesterday.

The standoff lasted a long, breathless moment, when suddenly there was a shout and a loud grunt from below.

Not taking his eyes off of Barton until the archer cursed and pointed his bow back to the ground, Harry finally let out the breath he had been holding and maneuvered himself slowly away from the keen eyed Agent.

Having put another fifty feet between them, Harry looked down at the two figures fighting below.

On the muddy slope of the crater, arms locked together, the intruder was fighting an extremely large soldier. The two men were wrestling in the mud, trading punches and maneuvering for advantage. Finally, the intruder got the upper hand, landing a few hard body blows, and stood rapidly, gaining the high ground and putting a few feet between them. Then, with a vicious jump kick to the chest of the soldier, the burly intruder knocked the guard flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him. The blonde intruder staggered to his feet, dragged the soldier up, and used his knee to deliver a knockout blow to his jaw, sending him sprawling in the mud.

Rising like a gladiator from the wreckage, the blonde man - long hair drenched and face and body covered in mud - wiped his bloody mouth with the side of his arm, looking down on his foe with contempt.

With the show over and Hawkeye's full attention on the intruder, Harry decided it was time to get what he came for and get out of there. He raised the omnioculars and zoomed-in on the object in the center of the crater, ignoring the now pouring rain. His hands were sure despite the slippery surface of the device and the dripping water across the lenses: he'd caught snitches in worse weather than this.

Pressing the record rune, Harry stared down, not completely sure what he was seeing at first. As he focused more clearly, he realized he was looking at a mace or warhammer of some sort. It had impacted at the dead center of the crater, somehow sitting on a small knoll or mound, with concentric impact rings around it. And then, he realized, this whole crater was probably the result of this object impacting into the ground at some tremendous speed.

Zooming to the max, Harry saw a braided handle- leather perhaps? - attached to a rectangular, silvery head. The head of the hammer was large and looked very heavy. It must have been incredibly strong to have not been destroyed after impacting the ground, but Harry didn't know enough about muggle science to know if there were any metals that could withstand that kind of impact and appear undamaged. Perhaps it was enchanted somehow?

Aware that time was running out, Harry flew a few feet to the left to make his angle more oblique; he thought he could see a symbol on one side of the object, though it was hard to tell, as the angles were still very steep. He moved himself a bit to the left - always moving away from Agent Barton if possible - but the opening at top of the structure was small and he couldn't get the necessary angle he needed to spot the symbol clearly, especially with Hawkeye hanging almost overhead with his deadly bow.

After maybe a half-minute of observation, Harry put away his omnioculars, and turned to go. But just then, the intruder lurched into view. He was stumbling a bit from his fights, his clothes completely drenched, his hair filled with water and mud, but he seemed exultant, almost drunk. A quick glance showed many rifles pointed at him from soldiers on the terraced ledges, and Agent Barton had an arrow knocked and pointed right at him.

But the man seemed oblivious, and if Harry had to characterize the intruder, he would say he was swaggering. He had an arrogant gait to him, and he looked confident of claiming the prize hammer. He wandered in an almost complete circle around it, a wide smile on his face, before finally walking slowly and confidently to the hammer.

Lightning flashed overhead again, and the rain and wind picked up. Harry felt the feel of magic in the air again, stronger than before, and it had an edge to it, almost like it was...eager, waiting for something. Harry knew this was ridiculous, but the strange, disconcerting feeling did not abate. If anything, it got stronger the closer the man got to the hammer.

Harry did not know why Barton or the soldiers had not stopped him, but Harry found himself watching with as much anticipation as everyone else. The burly man finally stood before the hammer, his manner confident. He did not hesitate, his motion sure; when he moved his right arm to the handle of the hammer, his wrist twisted to the left as if he had done this many times before, as if the hammer belonged in his hand.

The sense of anticipation grew in Harry, and the magic was so thick around him now that he could feel it crackling over his skin. At the same time, that feeling of something being suppressed grew as well, unsettling him.

Harry felt himself holding his breath: he had no idea what was going to happen now, no idea what Hermione would think of all this. Who was this man, who brazenly and with no weapons breaks into a guarded facility to steal an alien artifact, and acts like it belonged to him?

Even as the thought raced through his mind, the man's hand suddenly closed around the hammer, and the feeling of magic surged around him. Harry let out a breath, waiting for something to happen... But then, a second passed with no change, and the man's expression changed; his confident demeanor became tense, and he tugged, clearly having expected to be able to lift the hammer.

The man tried again, and when the hammer didn't budge, he moved a second hand to the handle, and used his legs to try and wrestle the hammer off the mound. His motions became more frantic - desperate even - and when a large bolt of lightning lit the skies and thunder followed, the man seemed to collapse in humiliating defeat. He turned his head to the sky, his expression lost, and cried out what to Harry sounded like a desperate roar, followed by a fading 'why father', just as a deafening bolt of lightning crashed down.

As the man slouched, completely defeated, the SHIELD guards approached and cuffed him. Harry finally lifted away, flying himself clear of the facility to a reasonable distance so he could apparate back to Washington, his mind filled with many questions.

A/N - We have now caught up to the Thor Movie. The campsite was as close to the movie as I could get (I watched the scene where he breaks in last night to refresh my memory). I always loved the line that Barton delivers when Thor knocks out the large guard - "I'm starting to root for this guy."

let me know what you think!