a/n: alrighty. chapter 1 coming at you. as i said last chapter this is a major time skip. i may write a side story about Harry's life at Hogwarts as Crimson Spider. i may let someone else write it. depends on how i feel and how life treats me. anyway, enjoy.
Chapter 1. These Tangled Webs We Weave.
Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. The Black Widow, smiled as she watched the crimson and black clad form of 'London's Favorite Son' swing through the London skyline. Coulson had asked her to bring the Crimson Spider in to help deal with the current crisis. She blushed, (thankful that no one was around to see it) as she thought of the first time she had met the Crimson Webslinger.
SHIELD had been called in by the surviving members of the British Ministry of Magic, who weren't in Voldemort's camp, to help deal with the threat of the Dark Lord. Natasha had been one of the army's worth of Agents sent to Hogwarts to help the Forces of Light. She had fought side by side with Harry, who had later told her he was the Famed Crimson Spider of London, and had watched as he dodged Voldemort's Killing Curse, and punch the bastard with his Venom Spikes. A quick blasting hex, and the Dark Lord was dead.
That had been 14 years ago, and while Harry had managed to keep the Wizarding World from learning that he was Crimson Spider, he had gained even more fame in the muggle world. The two had even worked together on a couple of SHIELD missions that required his particular set of skill set.
"Penny for your thoughts, beautiful?" A voice brought her out of her musings. Her instinctive punch was blocked, while her follow up roundhouse kick was caught. Her opponent dropped to the ground, dragging her down with him. The pair rolled till she ended up straddling the man. She smiled down at the silver eye protection, that covered the man's eye.
"As fun as this would be, Fury wants you to come in." She said, putting the mask back in place. Harry groaned in frustration.
"What does the cyclops want this time?" He asked. "Another bad guy with a nuke, threatening to blow up the free world again?"
Natasha laughed, remembering the time the 2 of them had beat the snot out of a South American Warlord who had done just that. "No. It's much worse. The Tesseract was stolen. Clint's been compromised." Harry cursed, as Natasha climbed off of him.
"Who else was called in?" He asked. "I'm assuming this is a level 7 threat? Meaning that Fury is activating the Avengers Initiative?" Nat raised an eyebrow, and nodded. Harry flipped up to his feet.
"Fury wants Cypher as well." Nat said. Harry sighed.
"Mione has been pretty busy lately. Not really sure where she is at the moment." He said. He and Hermione had tried to have a romantic relationship, but it hadn't worked out. The break up had been mutual, and their friendship had grown stronger, but the love they felt for one another turned out to be that of close siblings. After the 2nd Blood War, Hermione had thrown herself into helping Harry's superhero escapades, by researching the villains he came up against.
The two of them made a great team, as Crimson Spider and Cypher. But Hermione wanted to do more than sit behind a computer screen, and talk in Harry's ear. So she had gone off on a trip to learn how to fight.
"Don't worry. Coulson's tracking her down." Nat said. "SHIELD Intelligence has her somewhere in Asia. Now if your ready, lets go." Harry smiled evilly and grabbed the red head around her waist. Ignoring her commands to let her go, he flipped out a web line and swung away, the hardened spy screaming the entire way, her arms locked around his neck.
Hermione Granger, aka, Cypher, glared at her opponent, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The old Shaolin monk that had been her teacher for the past 6 months had barely broken a sweat. "You have improved greatly, my apprentice. No one has ever progressed as fast as you have in so short a time." He said. "I fear that I can teach you no more."
Hermione gasped, as Wu Chen bowed to her. "But Sifu, I want to learn all I can!" She said. "Why won't you teach me more?" Wu Chen smiled softly.
"My dear, Xiǎo lǎohǔ. It is not a matter of won't." He said. "There is simply nothing more for me to teach you. I have literally taught you everything I know. As have the other monks. All the knowledge we have, you have learned. Now the time has come for you to use what you have learned, to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Hermione gasped again. How was that possible? Most Shaolin Monks spent their entire lives learning kung fu. How could she have done in 6 months, what took others a lifetime to learn?
"Master Wu! There is someone her to see Xiǎo lǎohǔ. He says it is urgent." A young monk said rushing in to the sparring room, and bowing respectfully. Wu Chen nodded, and turned to a shelf on the platform where the masters usually sat watching their acolytes. He pulled down an ancient looking wooden box, and opened it. Handing the open box to the young monk, he reached in and pulled out a jade medallion, inlaid with gold.
"Usually there is a long Ceremony to go with this, but time is of the essence." He said turning to Hermione. "Xiǎo lǎohǔ, I confer upon you the Rank of Master. No longer are you the person known as Cypher. From this day forward, the world will know you as Bái lǎohǔ, the White Tiger." Hermione bowed to her beloved master, as she bowed and let the man place the Jade and gold tiger medallion around her neck. She stood straight and hugged Wu Chen, who returned the hug. She turned and followed the young monk out of the room.
He led her to the tourist section of the Monastery. There she saw an older man, in a dark grey suit, sunglasses covering his smiling brown eyes. "Phil!" She called, heading over to the man. SHIELD Special Agent Phil Coulson smiled, and removed his sunglasses.
"Miss Granger. It's good to see you." He said, handing a SHIELD holopad to her. "Unfortunately this is not a social call. We need you to come in."
Hermione took the pad and turned it on. An image of the Tesseract and a man in an ancient style of green and gold armor, appeared, in smaller tabs were videos of herself, Harry, Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton, a large green troll, Captain America, and Tony Stark in his Ironman armor. She looked up at Coulson.
"I thought the Avengers Initiative was scraped?" She said. "And who is the man in the armor?"
"It's been unscraped. And the man calls himself Loki." Coulson said. "He stole the Tesseract and somehow took control of several of our assets. Barton and Selvig have been compromised." Hermione scowled and nodded. A wave of her hand, and her Go-bag flew into her hand.
"Well what are we waiting for?" She asked.
Harry smiled, as he and Dr. Bruce Banner followed Natasha to the Quinjet that had just landed. There they were met by two men and a bushy haired woman. "Pretty impressive isn't it Captain?" Natasha asked the tall, blonde haired American.
"It certainly is." He replied. Natasha turned to the shorter man, and informed him that Director Fury wanted him on the bridge asap. Harry smiled and moved to hug Hermione.
"Hey there, Mione. How was your trip?" He asked. She smiled at him, returning the hug.
"Productive." She said. "Oh Harry. I learned so much. London's Underworld better look out, because there's a new super heroine patrolling her streets." Harry smiled, and moved to shake the Blonde's hand.
"You must be Captain Rodgers. Harry Potter." He said, as the man returned his hand shake.
"Good to meet you." Steve said. "I read your file. You've done great work in London. I'm impressed." Harry fought down a blush.
"So has Coulson asked you to sign his trading cards yet?" Natasha asked Steve. The super soldier blinked. "He's really proud of them. Their vintage." Harry snorted in amusement, causing Hermione to roll her eyes.
"Don't make fun of Phil, spider-boy." She scolded him, a knowing smile on his lips. Harry glared at her and shook his head. "Or I'll have to tell Captain Rodgers about your vintage Captain America Comicbook set. Oops. Too late." Steve chuckled, as Harry continued to glare at his friend.
"We might want to get inside." Natasha said, as an announcement came over the P.A. System, prepare for launch. "It's gonna get kinda hard to breathe in a moment."
"Is this a sub?" Steve asked.
Bruce galked at her. "They want me inside a pressurized submerged vessel? Not sure that's a good idea." The Doctor said. The four civilians moved to the edge of the large ship the were on and looked down into the water.
At the fore and aft of the ship, the water churned, as a pair of large propellers rose out of the water, and secured themselves to the ship. The massive vessel slowly began to rise into the air. "Oh no." Bruce said. "This is much worse." The group turned and made there way to the bridge.
The Bridge of the SHIELD Helicarrier, was a hive of activity. Agents moved from console to console, passing information on to one another, while others performed various tasks to keep the Helicarrier in flight. Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, and Super Spy Extraordinaire, stood on a platform in the center of the Bridge, surrounded by consoles. Standing at similar consoles on lower platforms were 2 people Harry was very familiar with.
To Fury's right, stood Special Agent Severus Snape, head of SHIELDS Mage Division. On Fury's left stood Special Agent Maria Snape nee Hill. Severus and Maria had met during the Last Battle, and had kept in touch. Eventually they had fallen in love, something Harry had encouraged. He was happy his Mentor and guardian had found someone to help heal his broken heart.
The three spies looked up as Nat led the civilians in. Steve moved to shake Fury's hand, pulling a $10 bill out of his pocket and handing it to the man. "Thank you for coming. You've all been briefed on the situation." Fury said, moving to the large conference table behind his station.
"How are you going about looking for Loki?" Hermione asked, shifting into her Cypher persona. Harry smiled, as her hands twitched. She clearly wanted to get in one of the consoles.
"We are using facial recognition to track him, Barton, and Dr. Selvig down." Fury said. "We'll find them. Miss Granger, you and Dr. Banner will be working together. We have a lab set up for you."
"Director! We have a hit!" Agent Sitwell called from his station. "60% match, scratch that. 75%."
"Where is he?" Fury asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Koenigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." Fury turned and looked at Harry and Steve.
"Captain, Crimson Spider, your up." He said. Harry and steve nodded, and left the Bridge, Natasha on their heels.
Stuttgart, Germany.
Loki stalked through the large Hall, like a predatory jungle cat. He smiled as he approached the guards standing at the bottom of the stairs. As they turned, he swung his cane, knocking them out.
The crowd screamed and backed away, as the Asgardian grabbed the bald speaker. He dragged the man over to one of the artifacts, and slammed the man down onto its flat surface. Smiling as he looked around, Loki pulled out a strange device. Women screamed, has he stabbed the man's eye. The panicked crowd ran for the doors.
Loki left the wounded and dying man where he lie, and followed the crowd out. His finely tailored suit shone with a golden light, as it transformed into his normal Asgardian garb, his cane transforming into a sharp, spear like staff. A police car turned the corner and sped toward him. A blast from his staff sent the car flipping onto its roof.
The large crowd of screaming people tried to run, but duplicates of Loki appeared surrounding them. "Kneel." Loki said. The panicked crowd ignored him. "I said...KNEEL!"(1) He roared. The crowd fell silent and began to drop to their knees.
"Is this not better?" Loki asked, calmly walking through the crowd. "Is this not your Natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation."(2)
"Holy crap? Are you serious right now?" A voice said from above. Loki looked up, and saw a crimson and black clad form, crouched on a street lamp.
a/n2: welp there ya go. anything with a number by it is taken from the movie, the rights to which i dont own. otherwise I'd be living in a mansion on a hill somewhere. please leave a review. and to any guests, let me know who you are so i can reply. btw any flames will be promptly ignored.