AN: For those saying the Endless don't exist within the Marvel universe, I am well aware Fate, and Death within this are OC.
For those complaining about Harry not escaping there is reason behind that as well that I have yet to get to. Harry telling Tony about magic had everything to do with believing he was going to die in the cave. While he has lived for over 200 years, he hasn't been in any real danger since the war against Voldemort.
Also within the MCU there exists characters who hold dominion over Death (IE Hela) so it might not have been the actual Death who persuaded Thanos onto his path.
I've also gotten a lot of complaints about Harry trusting Fury so quickly. Harry has his own reasons which I assure you will be revealed as time goes on.
Finally no one has so far guessed the identity of the mystery figure at the end of the last chapter. As always I own nothing this is something I do for fun when I am bored. Just as a heads up there will be a time jump at the start of this chapter.
It had been a long six months preparing for the Stark Expo. During that time, Iron Man and the Iron Sorcerer had been fighting terrorists cells in the Middle East. It had been a long road, but had gone a long way in improving peace between the East and the West. The Expo was finally here and Tony wanted to make a big entrance. While Harry was running things on the ground, Tony was suiting up and getting into position in a plane above the Expo. Once sure everything was setup and in place, Harry signaled the dancers to start. Harry turned his focus to the tablet in his hands where he pushed the sequence opening the dome.
"Alright, Tony. All eyes on you ready when you are."
In the plane above the Expo, Tony nodded before flipping down his face plate. He leaned forward and dropped from the plane, letting the repulsors take over. He flew amongst the fireworks display before flying through the opening in the Expo showcase center and landing in the center of the stage. Dropping below the stage he stepped out of the suit placing it on autopilot before moving next to it adjusting his tie, the platform began rising. Tony smiled and began waving to the crowd before gesturing to the Iron man suit which was standing protectively in the background. "Ladies and gentleman thank you for coming this evening the past few months have been an interesting time my body guards Iron Man and the Silver Sorcerer have taken out many of the terrorist organizations operating out of the Middle East…."
Here he had to pause as the crowd began clapping enthusiastically "…I am not saying I created world peace, but I have yet to come across anyone who is willing to fight me. For the next year and for the first time since 1974 we have brought together the best and the brightest to be able to pool their resources to leave behind a better future for the next generation. Making a guest appearance from the great beyond, my father."
Gesturing to the screen behind Tony stepped off stage pulling out his blood analyzer. Tony pricked his finger and looked down at the reading "Blood Toxicity 19%." Sighing he continued forward meeting up with Happy and Harry.
Happy escorted the pair outside. Along the way, Harry and Tony said hello and signed autographs for the crowd before reaching the pair of cars waiting for them. Happy spoke up, "Like them? They are the newest models." Happy gestured towards the cars.
"Do I get the girl with cars as well?" said Tony, being his usual self, which caused Happy and Harry to both groan. Taking keys from Happy, the pair each claimed a car. Turning to the woman, Tony asked, "So, beautiful, what are you up to later?"
She smiled. "Serving subpoenas." She held out two slips of paper and handed one to Tony and one to Harry. "Misters Stark, you are here by ordered to present yourself in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee."
Taking both slips, Harry began looking them over with the legal knowledge he had picked up, though not very much coming back to him.
"Sorry he doesn't like to be handed things."
Turning to Tony he sighed, "looks like you aren't getting out of this one; we are going to have to show up," that caused Tony to groan.
Tony turned to Happy, "How far away from DC are we right now?"
Happy thought for a moment and replied, "about 250 miles give or take."
Nodding Tony turned to Harry "let's get this over with." Starting his car, he pulled away.
Harry climbed in his car, started it and followed after Tony. He pulled out his phone and dialed the line Fury had given him.
"Fury it's me. The government is after me and Tony… we could use some help getting out of it."
Listening to the reply from the other side he nodded, "we are driving there now. should be in DC sometime tomorrow morning if you could lend us an asset." Hanging up the phone, Harry continued to follow Tony, driving through the night. Harry and Tony arrived about mid-day at the Stark House Tony kept in DC.
Changing into suits the pair headed to the hearing turning to Tony, Harry studied him for a second. "If things go bad, I've called in an audible to help get us out of things."
Tony just laughed, "this isn't the first time the government has tried to take things from me. I think I can handle them." Walking outside, the pair climbed in the limo Tony had called to take them to hearing.
Arriving, the pair worked their way inside through the crowd that assembled at the word that the government was suing the creator of the newest heroes Iron Man and the Silver Sorcerer. Making their way to the front, they sat down taking seats side by side. Tony spotted Pepper and proceeded to make googly eyes at her—she had flown in on a red-eye the moment Tony had called her last night. He turned around once Senator Sterns banged his gavel signaling it was time to start.
"We are here today to ascertain whether or not the Iron Man Suit and Silver Sorcerer bracers are weapons which should be removed from the hands of Mr. Stark and turned over to the government for proper control. Mr. Stark do you have anything to say in your defense?" The senator decided to get right down to the heart of the matter and kick out at the pair.
Harry decided to kick right back. "These quote unquote weapons, as you call them senator are better off in the hands they are currenlty. As it stands the current bearers of the Iron Man Suit and Silver Sorcerer bracers are unknown and only hold affiliation to myself and Mr. Stark, however in the hands of a say a US senator such as yourself who for all we know could be a secret terrorist, or could be bought out by someone with evil purposes. In our bodyguards possession however, we have successfully brought about a bigger age of peace in the past six months than any other seen before."
The only thing the Sterns did in response was smirk. "Very good, gentlemen. Well we have brought in a weapons expert of our own. Mr. Justin Hammer."
"Let the record reflect that I am aware of Mr. Hammer's work and I would like to know when a real expert will be entering the room," Tony interdicted with a smirk.
Hammer stood up. "Now Anthony is that any way to talk to a friend?" Harry leaned back in his seat and smirked. Tony hated being called by his actual first name and would proceed to ruin Hammer today.
"The Iron Man weapon is dangerous to be in the hands of a civilian. It was your father, Howard Stark, who helped develop many of the weapons used by our armies in World War II helping to keep our men safe. For you to keep a weapon such as this to yourself especially one which once recreated will leave our men in danger, not to mention the power that has been displayed from the Silver Sorcerer's bracers. That kind of power alone in our militaries hands would be a deterrent to any kind of war."
Tony faked a yawn before Sterns continued. "Thank you, Mr. Hammer. Now I would like to call forward Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes who has completed an assessment on Mr. Potter and Mr. Stark and their abilities to wield these weapons."
Rhodey walked forward at that point taking a seat at the table, "Colonel Rhodes can you read for us paragraph 4 of page 7 of your assessment please?"
Rhodey stared. "You realize Senator that reading one paragraph of one page would be entirely out of context. I thought my being here today would be for an in depth analysis of on Mr. Stark and Mr. Potter."
The Senator smirked, "we have had to change some things around Colonel due to time constraints please just read the section for us."
Sighing Rhodey opened the report to the specified section before reading it aloud.
"Mr. Stark, being unassociated with any form of government, along with the fact that Mr. Potter is a foreign national, it is my belief that the two should surrender any and all models of the Iron Man suit and the Silver Sorcerer bracers. However, I go on to mention that the good that both men have done…"
Senator Sterns interrupted him, "Thank you Col. Rhodes that is enough." Harry and Tony were speechless, which is exactly what the Senator was hoping for. He continued, "we also have pictures that went along with the report, which I will be showing on these screens here if you could explain those for us Lt. Col." Holding back another sigh, Rhodey turned towards the screens as the images came up.
"These images are, what we believe, several countries testing what we believe to be, at this time based on intel we gathered from personnel in the area, to be working Iron Man suits." Rhodey looked down as he finished.
Harry looked back making eye contact with the SHIELD contact who was sitting in the back signaling for him to set in. Nodding the Agent stood up and made her forward causing Sterns to speak up "excuse me Ma'am return to your seat we are in the middle of a hearing here."
Not stopping, the Agent continued forward approaching the bench. "Senator, I am Deputy Director Maria Hill with SHIELD. In my hand are the official dossiers on Mr. Potter and Mr. Stark both of whom are on record as official SHIELD consultants for projects under direct oversight of Director Fury. Due to this, neither Mr. Potter or Mr. Stark have any need to curtail to the word of this government." Nodding she turned gave Harry a nod and returned to her seat.
After the display caused by Hill, the Senator was left sputtering, not sure how to come back from that. Tony took the opportunity to step in; "I'm going to borrow your screens here." Using his tablet, he took control over the two screens. "Here we have North Korea, suit doesn't look functional, Iran, Afghanistan," continually flicking through footage of what was claimed to be working suits.
Harry however picked up on something, "Wait, Tony go back a video, for me." He swiped back. "Isn't that your weapons expert Justin Hammer testing a suit?" At the point the room was in an uproar as Hammer and the Senator attempted to shut down the feed. "Senator, I believe in light of our consultant status with SHIELD and the fact that your so called weapons expert doesn't appear to be as good as led to believe we are done here." With that statement Harry and Tony strode out from the room.
It felt good being back in his lab; now he could concentrate. He first pulled out his cigar box and he removed the Arc reactor from his chest. Jarvis spoke up, "Another core has been burned out. It appears that extended use of the Iron Man suits is burning them up quicker." Tony replaced the palladium core in the reactor before replacing it in his chest.
Pulling out the toxicity monitor from his pocket, he pricked his finger looking down at the reading. "Blood Toxicity 29%," sighing he looked up.
"Jarvis where are we on the elemental permutations for the new core." Unaware to Tony, Harry had walked in as Tony was measuring the toxicity and was listening in.
"I have run cross analysis of every possible combination of all known elements and none of them provide a suitable replacement for the Palladium core you are currently using." That caused Tony to groan as he pulled down the collar of his shirt where he had black lines crisscrossing their way across his chest.
Harry opened his mouth. "Tony what is going on?" He walked over pulling up a stool to sit in front of Tony, "Blood Toxicity? New element for the Arc reactor core?" He looked concerned as his finger traced over the black lines attempting to push healing magic through to try and reduce the poisoning, however it was proving resistant to his magic.
Tony sighed "Palladium while a great source of power, is apparently toxic in high doses to the body. SO, the very thing that is supposed to be keeping me alive is killing me, and no existing element is strong enough to provide the kind of power for the I need without killing me. Just please don't tell Pepper, I don't want to worry her."
Harry stared not sure what to say. Pepper walked in, "Tony what this I hear about you selling my art collection!" Harry quickly cast a concealment charm on the marks from the poisoning so Pepper couldn't see them.
"Actually, it's my art collection," Tony quickly pointed out, "and I needed the tax write off." As Tony walked through his lab, he was getting rid of old project ideas that he no longer found viable or were just plain obsolete.
Pepper sputtered, "the last few months all you have been doing is focusing on the Stark World Expo. Well that's started, and someone needs to run Stark International, you can't just sit down here with Harry all day working on whatever is you guys are working on."
Tony seemed to think for a moment before turning to Pepper. "Great idea. You do it." After that Tony's mind was set and he had decided he was signing over CEO position of the company to Pepper.
It was a few days later that Harry and Tony were having a boxing lesson in the private gym, when a red-head walked in. "Mr. Stark, my name is Natalie Rushman. I am here from legal to facilitate the signing transferring CEO to Miss Potts". Tony nodded walking over.
"Tell me, Miss Rushman, was it? You said you're from legal," Tony took the portfolio she was holding looking it over as he took a seat, "while I look this over lets see how you do in the ring." Harry who had up to this point had been getting his butt kicked was more than happy to tag out.
Harry walked over grabbing a seat next to Pepper and Tony who werefiling out the paperwork signing at all the X's. All 3 looked up when Natalie took down Happy effortlessly. Raising an eyebrow in interest, Tony pulled up her personnel file. "Very impressive, Miss Rushman. Speaks 12 languages including Latin." Turning to Pepper, Tony had one reaction. "I do need a new assistant," Pepper was completely against it, however, once he set his mind to something wasn't one to be denied. Less than one week later, he had Natalie as his assistant.
Over the two next weeks, Harry had been trying to figure out a way to have his bracers and dragon-hide available to him wherever he was, as he was under no illusion that he would always be able to get back to the house for it. His first thought was summoning, however he had capped out on his abilities to summon when he was somewhere in Asia about halfway around the world.
His next thought was to keep them in his moleskin pouch, which at first seemed to work. Three days into keeping them in the pouch though, he encountered an issue when he had to suit up quickly and the gauntlets conflicted with the magic in the pouch causing quite a spectacular explosion which caused Tony to laugh at him.
Harry then spent the better part of three and a half days reading over the books on magic he had with him from his old dimension, when he had finally found a solution. He then spent the next week after that figuring out how to make it work as most spells from his home dimension where not this complicated. Finally nearing the end of the second week, Harry had figured out how to make his hands move properly; casting the spell he had done it he created a pocket dimension to store his gear in.
However, before he had a chance to do any extended testing outside of the immediate city, Tony decided they needed to go race the Monaco because, as he put it, he should see his race car in action every once in a while.