Chapter 15

"You want to go to Asgard, to kill my father, and stop Ragnarok." Thor enunciated slowly, looking at them all as if they had gone crazy. Loki sat on the armrest of the couch next to him holding the same expression. Hadrian's face was absolutely serious and spoke louder than any words he could have uttered. "This is madness." "Which part?" Alex questioned amusedly. Thor glared lightly. "No one can stop Ragnarok." Loki gave him a sideways glance. "For a second I thought you would protest your father's seemingly impending demise." "He's not my father anymore. He threw away that right when he ordered your exile." Thor literally spat. "Mother is not any better." Naruto tapped a finger to his chin. "So you don't mind us killing him." "No, I don't. I think Asgard would be much better without him." "I think Asgard would be much worse with you on the throne." Loki joked wickedly but the smile dropped off his face at his brother's next words. "I agree with you brother. I think, no I know you would make a fine king. I'm more of a warrior." The three non-Asgardians watched the interaction between the two, silent as a shocked expression overtook Loki's face. When it looked as if the Jotun-born was not going to say anything Hadrian fixed his gaze on Thor. "Ragnarok has been waiting to happen for many centuries, it can wait a couple more." "I don't understand why you are so eager to help Asgard." Was Loki's response. Naruto shook his head. "If Asgard goes down there would be a mad scramble for power within the nine realms, perhaps even beyond. A war of such proportion would tear the worlds apart. We're not doing this for Asgard. We just want as peaceful a universe to live in as achievable." "I see! So you're not the power hungry bastards I thought you to be." Thor exclaimed with a smile. Hadrian raised an eyebrow though Loki beat him to an answer. "Trust me brother, they are worse than you think." The green-eyed man smirked at those words.

He stood up. "I have some things to attend to. Please make yourselves at home and use the training room to your advantage. After all, we need everyone to be battle-ready." He left the four in his study. Immediately someone was shadowing him. "Itachi, I'm fine." "No, I won't wait until you come through our doors bleeding. I'm going with you to make sure you are well-taken care of." Harry sighed. "I'm going to be meeting with Nick Fury at some restaurant he picked. You'll be my guard for the day." Itachi scowled. He didn't think it was a good idea for Harry to meet with an active enemy so soon, but there was no changing his mind. He made a mental list of all the things (weapons) he would need to take with him. That jacket Liam bought him with extendable pockets would come in handy. He could place over a hundred kunai, shuriken, ninja wire and explosive and smoke tags in there as well as a couple of guns and ammo. His katana could fit somewhere in there too. It would be perfect. "We're not going to fight a war Itachi." The older man ignored that comment. "What is the meeting about?" "Apparently those avenger idiots have gotten themselves into a pickle. Stark and Banner were working on creating an AI that would help eliminate any threats to earth's wellbeing but ended up with a psycho robot that believes the non-existence of humans would do the world some good." "It is right." Itachi mumbled. "Try telling that to the humans."

They exited the house and got into a random car but before they could leave Liam plastered himself into the driver's seat window. "I know you're going to a meeting with SHIELD. Take me with you!" Itachi sneered in disgust. "Permission to eliminate the nuisance with a bullet to the head." "Not granted. Run him over instead." Harry groused. Itachi started the car. Before he could put it into drive someone pushed Liam off to the side. It was Alfred. He tapped Itachi's window. With an annoyed look on his face the raven rolled down the window. To his further irritation Liam got into the back seat. "What?" "I believe SHIELD started running some secret operations last week and they are documented as hard copies. Permission to check it out." "Permission granted." Alfred nodded at them both and left. Harry turned back to look at Liam, extracting a sound of protest from Itachi about his stitches. "Any reason you're coming Liam?" Liam shrugged. "Maybe 'Tasha will be there." "Uh huh. Let me give you a real reason to come then Liam. After seeing Natasha, if she'll show up that is, I want you to visit Hydra's base at the location I Imperium just sent you." As the car started moving Liam looked over the address. "This is very close to Manhattan." "Hydra knows a thing or two about cover ups. Find out where they are hiding Dr. Strange, extract him from there if possible. I don't want that stone falling into their grasp." "Yes sir." A moment of silence passed but it was predictably broken by the innocent-looking brunette. "Where are we going again?" A small laugh left Harry's mouth, drawing the other passengers' attention. "You're simply adorable Liam." "Harry are you okay?" Itachi asked cautiously. Liam had a gob smacked expression on his face. Harry gave him a tiny smile, making his throat go dry. "Liam, I never want you to change. It's a great tactic for confusing the enemy." "O-Of course, boss." The rest of the drive was silent.

About thirty minutes later they got to the restaurant Director Fury specified. Upon getting out of the car Hadrian immediately spotted about a dozen agents and realized that most of the staff was probably replaced by them. "Of course we have been set up." He mumbled. Liam was looking around curiously as they walked in. He smiled brightly and waved at a brown-haired waitress whom Liam could sense was Natasha in a wig. The girl scowled at him but otherwise proceeded with her 'duties'. Liam pouted and jogged a bit to catch up with Hadrian and Itachi. They walked to where Nick was sitting at the back of the half-empty restaurant and Hadrian settled himself in the awaiting seat. Nick raised his eyebrow as his companions chose to stand on either side of him.

"I see you brought bodyguards." The dark-skinned man commented as he waved down a waiter. Hadrian took the menu from him. "And I see you got a whole entourage of agents at your beck and call around here. I'll have a chicken salad with some white wine." The waiter nodded and also took Fury's order before continuing with his task. Hadrian looked the man in the eye. "I believe there is something you want to discuss." Fury nodded. "You have already been briefed on the situation in the message that was delivered to you. I'm here to ask you again personally and also to discuss any conditions you may have." "Of course." He started eating the salad that had already arrived. "I am willing to assist for a price of course. I believe that Dr. Banner is exceptionally gifted in biosciences and knowledgeable with gamma radiation. I need him to complete a task I have been struggling with, which you do not need to know about. I also need every single file on Hydra that you have in your possession. They have something that belongs to me." Fury's grip tightened on his fork. "You can't expect me to fulfill the first request without knowing what it would entail and can't possibly believe I would empower you that much." "You asked for my help, acknowledging that it won't be for free. I am naming a price. Take it or leave it. Either way I will be getting what I want whether you hand it to me or not. I am just giving you the option of doing it on your terms."

Fury sighed, ribbing at his face. "Alright, fine. You stop an invading robot army and I fulfill your requests." "Good. I do have a question though. Why can't the Avengers do it themselves?" "I fear Ultron, the robot, has grown too strong and will destroy far too much before he is captured. Also, they have somewhat of a magic-user against them." He pushed a file to Hadrian, who put down his cutlery to flip it open. "Wanda Maximoff. Her powers are still mysterious to us but hold some similarity to what Mr. Houston has shown in the past." Hadrian made an interested sound. Liam leaned over his shoulder to read the file with him. "Someone like me. Maybe she'll like me." "I doubt that." Hadrian mumbled. "That aside, anything familiar?" "No, other than the fact she almost looks like your mother." "More reason to deal with her then." Fury interrupted them. "Excuse me? 'Deal with her'?" Hadrian looked up as Itachi took the file from him. "If she exhibits the same power as Liam it is something to worry about. I will deal with her accordingly." "You're going to kill her." "Yes, if she is indeed what I'm assuming her to be." "Which is?" "None of your concern Director." Hadrian stood up. "It has been a lovely evening Fury but I got some work to do. I will see you in two days' time to deal with this Ultron. In the meantime, have a good night." Liam downed the drink which Hadrian left untouched and saluted at the Director before trotting away.

Fury watched them leave and silently cursed himself. He knew they would demand something pricey but did not anticipate them wanting possession of Banner even for the shortest time. Natasha sat opposite him. "Are you really going to give Banner over?" "I'm afraid so. We'll need to prepare for that to at least gain something more from this. Banner will not be notified, are we clear?" "Sir, I don't think that's a good idea." "Banner may bolt knowing that I sold him off to the enemy. I'd rather have Potter deal with him." "You're putting him in unnecessary danger. We can deal with Ultron on our own." Fury glared "If you haven't noticed agent Romanov the Avengers Initiative is falling apart. Thor has been gone for a week without any sign of coming back not to mention he had little faith in us beforehand. Captain America is thinking of taking off to God knows where, Banner wants no more association with us beyond strictly necessary and Stark is giving us the middle finger. The only thing keeping them in one room is the prospect of another invasion or attack on Manhattan. We need Hadrian Potter on our side no matter what." Natasha stared at him wide-eyed then stood up. "Well, I still believe this is a bad idea. Then again, they do say desperate times call for desperate measures." She walked away. Fury sighed once again as agent Hill came to stand beside him. "I agree with her on Banner. He has to know. At least make him understand." "You're dismissed Hill." The defeat in his voice was clear, so Hill moved away.

~Scene Change~

As soon as Harry entered the house Alex was at his side. "Someone is trying to hack us. He has managed to temporarily shut Imperium down, about five seconds, but I fear he learned a lot." Harry frowned and took the tab. "Any idea who it is." Alex shrugged. Imperium materialized at his other side. "He calls himself Ultron. He tried to persuade me to his side. I managed to keep a copy of his coding sequence." "And?" he stopped. Imperium's narrow eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "it's unlike anything I've ever seen. He seems to be changing, evolving at a constant rate. The coding sequence is self-sustaining and building up on itself constantly. He can adapt to almost any environment." "I see." He offered a hand to Imperium. She took it and closed her eyes as a rush of magic filled her. "I want you to find Ultron and analyze him completely. Integrate yourself into him so you can read his every move. I don't care if he notices. He can never throw you off." "I cannot be able to take over his sequence. He is too advance." "I didn't ask you to. Learn something from him. This ability of his would be useful to us." "Yes, my lord."

"Is it a good idea to send her into him?" Alex questioned. Harry nodded. "It will make it much easier to follow his moves. I also tweaked her to make her completely hack proof. Ultron can never breach her defenses." "Alright. In that case, Alfred has found something." Some documents hovered over his smart watch. Harry scowled. "This Hydra keeps on popping up." "Yes. SHIELD has been keeping an eye out on them for a long while. All softcopy records on them were wiped out, only hardcopies remain as Alfred predicted. They are also recording information on the infinity stones, Asgard as well as us." "Tell Alfred to copy all the files he can and come back. I need to know more about this Hydra." "Sure." And Harry was left alone. He took the rare chance and cooped himself up in his room. He had a lot of research to do after all.