Sorry for the wait... flu season has arrived and stopped by to say hello to me... urg.
Anyhoo, here's chapter 3. Some of it will be kind of confusing, but rest assured it will be explained next chapter.
Also, about the canon. Avengers is pretty much canon, minor changes will be mentioned as they come. But for Harry Potter... not quite canon. I'm messing with some things. XP Timeline is after the 6th book, maybe around the middle of the 7th. SPOILERS for those who haven't read the Deathly Hallows. Three horcruxes still remain - Hufflepuff's cup, the tiara, and Nagini. And, of course, Harry himself. The battle of hogwarts has not happened (and won't happen like in the book), Voldy and company are still alive. Hedwig is as well, just because I love Hedwig. I'll try to keep it canon-ish, but there are going to be some changes so that the Avengers can fit in. Hope this sounds okay to you guys ^^; And there will be guaranteed Harry next chapter!
Bruce, as it turned out, had learned to fly at some point. After a very unsteady takeoff, Tony was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the flight was… until he realized the jet was on autopilot.
Tony resisted the urge to laugh as he looked around the jet. How strange they all looked – him in his suit, Thor in his shiny leathery Asgardian getup, and the Captain all decked out in stars and spangle. They looked like they were heading to a circus, not to fight villains. Why did being a superhero dictate a ridiculous suit? Only Bruce looked normal, though he probably would be mistaken for a crew member in this crowd. No wonder Loki didn't take any of them seriously.
"We're getting close, guys," Bruce called after a very long period of awkward silence. They all nodded without breaking the quiet. No one seemed to know what to say to each other, but the edge in Banner's voice caught Tony's attention. He used the handy zoom feature in his HUD to check to make sure Bruce was wearing the special pants Tony had crafted for him. He was curious whether Bruce had planned ahead in case the other guy wanted to make a special guest appearance. To his relief, Bruce was wearing the thick reinforced weave. It didn't make any real difference, of course, but now if the Hulk showed up, his oversized junk wouldn't be hanging out for all to see. No one needed to be scarred by that sight again.
More awkward silence. Tony occupied himself by running diagnostics on his suit, making sure that everything was running in tip-top shape. If he was going to get it a shot in on Loki, he needed to be prepared to shoot at a second's notice – because a second would be all he'd probably get.
Finally, someone spoke out. "Is our cloak on?" Steve asked as Bruce began a shallow descent. Bruce's threw him a scathing look before turning back to the viewscreen. "No, we're heading into Loki's lair nice and visible. More fun that way." It took a second before Steve realized he was joking.
As they broke through the cloud layer, Banner activated the jet's cameras so everyone could see what was going on below. As Tony took in the sight, he felt a thin flutter of hope. Maybe Clint was right after all – for the gaping crater below did not look like it was created on purpose. It had probably once been a big building, but something – and Tony had a very shrewd guess as to what – had reduced it to cinders. But where were the people? Tony wondered. The fire trucks, the screaming citizens? He looked around again, but there was no sign anyone had even noticed. But then he realized, as Bruce banked and started to climb upwards again, that they were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. There was a small town some at the edge of the camera's views that had probably seen the smoke, but there was no way they could have arrived yet. The Avengers, however, had arrived very quickly. Half an hour from the base, and they had already arrived. That made Tony nervous. He mentally started going through his mansions, wondering whether he could make one into another base. You could never have too many high-tech lairs, it was true, but that didn't make it any better that Loki had set up shop a jet's-flight away. What was this crazed god's play?
After adjusting his flight pattern, Bruce descended again, angling so they'd all get a better view of the crater once the clouds cleared. A low hum buzzed throughout the aircraft as Bruce powered up the guns. Tony activated his gauntlet's beams, while Thor fidgeted with Mjolnir and the Captain fussed with his shield. Bruce didn't need to do anything except keep himself well in control – if he decided to become the beast, he tended to have some control over the other guy. But if the Hulk decided he wanted to come out and play? That's when things got smashy. Hopefully, though, Loki would be around to distract him. Hulk really did seem to like pulverizing the god.
Before Bruce got them through the cloud layer, Thor appeared at Bruce's elbow. "If you see my brother when we approach, do not shoot," Thor commanded. Cutting off all protests, he continued, "A blast from your weaponry will do nothing but alert him to our presence," Thor said. "As advanced as you are, it will take more than that to kill Loki."
Tony stood up, repulsors blazing. "We've got more," He said. He went over and pulled Thor away from Bruce. "Thor, I designed these weapons myself. It packs enough to send a god flying. When he's nice and stunned, we swoop in and grab him. Easy."
Thor seemed unsure, but he took a step toward the back of the jet. Steve was already waiting there, a parachute strapped to his back.
"We're all on the same team, remember guys?" Steve said with a brave attempt at humor. Tony smiled beneath his mask as he recalled the memorable fight in the forest. He had learned one thing that day – don't mess with Grampa Steve. He vividly remembered feeling like a misbehaving kid – aiming all his guns at Thor while Thor brandished his hammer. Ignoring Steve's pleas, he was all prepared to get back into the fight… but instead he was whacked in the face by Steve's shield, a not-too-subtle reminder to behave. Ah, good times.
"Though it saddens me still to fight against my brother, I fight alongside you, Captain. As well as you, Man of Iron," He said with a regal nod in Tony's direction.
Tony curtseyed in response. "As I fight alongside you both," Tony said in a lofty impression of Thor's formality. Thor looked as unfazed as ever, but Steve seemed amused, and also a little relieved. Tony doubted it was just his curtseying skills that had put Steve's mind at ease – did he really think Thor was going to turn on them, fight them instead of his maniacal brother? Thor was many things, but he really hoped Steve wasn't so naïve to believe that. Thor was a golden retriever, both in loyalty and intellectual capacity. He was on their side.
"Cut the crap, guys," Bruce said. "We're going in."
Tony watched as the clouds left the jet again, leaving the cameras clear. He could see the crater better now, see the ashes still floating in the air, the flames flickering at the edges of the crater. Warped pieces of metal littered the inside of the pit, the sad remains of a solid foundation. And, staggering among the twisted spires, was a black-haired figure.
Everybody froze in shock. Even Tony was surprised. Why the hell was Loki just wandering around in the open, unprotected and staggering like a drunkard? "He did come," Thor whispered under his breath. "I cannot believe it."
Tony couldn't believe it either, but for a different reason than Thor. He'd always believed that Loki would find a way off Asgard, but this just didn't seem right.
"Line up, guys," Bruce said as he carefully centered the god within the crosshairs. Tony studied the figure, feeling yet another shock as he noticed something. Was Loki… wearing a skirt?
"Wait!" Tony shouted. Bruce whirled in his chair, a slightly alarming glint in his eyes. "What?"
"That's not Loki!" Tony said tersely, keeping it down to the essentials. Everybody stared. Whatever they were expecting, that wasn't it.
"And just what makes you think that?" Bruce spat through his teeth.
Tony pointed at the viewscreen. "Does Loki seem like the type to wear dresses on his day off?"
They all looked again, and this time they caught it – the edge of a black dress, billowing in the breeze. Either this was a very clever disguise, or this was not the villain they were looking for.
Bruce calmed down a bit and rechecked his coordinates. "This is exactly where the Tesseract was last," He muttered to himself. "What, do you think she's just some bystander? Caught in the crossfire?"
"Could be – or she could be in cahoots with Loki. He doesn't have to be working alone." Ah, good old Steve, breathing life back into words like 'cahoots'.
Bruce slowly started the descent again, seeking a better look at the woman, whoever she was. As they got closer, they could see that she was very angular, all lines and points, with heavily-lidded eyes. Now that they could see detail, they could see that her dress was just plain crazy, outdone only by her frizzy, crazier hairdo. Black hair was flying everywhere around this woman.
Bruce crept closer, placing his trust in the cloaking device and silenced engines. Everything seemed fine – until he crossed over the edge of the crater. Though they were several thousand feet away, the woman's head snapped up, as though she had been called. Tony watched, unsure of what to make of her reaction.
And the cockpit exploded.
Tony let out a most unmanly scream as tumbled senselessly in the air – and then he remembered he could fly. Firing his repulsor beams, he righted himself, searching for the Steve and Bruce. Thor could fly, but those two couldn't.
He found Steve first, already deploying his parachute. Good. He cast about for Thor, but the blonde god was nowhere to be seen. That was fine… but then he caught sight of the good doctor. Bruce was screaming madly, tumbling through the air with no protection but one. The hulk would save him, no doubt about it, but would probably end up killing everyone else. Apparently it was up to Tony to make sure that wasn't necessary.
Tony flew at full speed, catching Banner with plenty of time to spare. But Bruce continued to convulse even after Tony had caught him, trying to keep the monster contained. And now Tony had no use of his hand repulsors, which made steering quite difficult. He landed ungracefully by the wreckage of the plane, Banner falling the moment he touched ground. Thor landed beside them seconds later, holding a piece of what looked like Steve's parachute. "He required assistance," Thor said before Tony could ask.
Now that he was on solid ground, Tony had just enough time to think, What the hell blasted us out of the sky?
"Stark!"
Tony looked up at Thor, who was staring at Bruce. Bruce was on the ground, every muscle taut, fists clenched and pressed against the ashy ground. Tony quickly kneeled, laying a metal hand upon his shoulder. This was not good. "Hey, doc? Bruce, we're fine, we're fine. No need to unleash the big guy."
But his words could have been in Latin for all the good they did – when Bruce opened his mouth, all that came out was an inhuman growl. He staggered to his feet, stumbling away from both Tony and Thor. Bruce began to run, fighting visibly to restrain the Hulk. "Dudes!" Tony heard him shout as he ran. "You're on your own!" He jumped over what looked to be a chair from the cockpit, continuing to run until he was out of sight.
"Why is he running from us?" Thor asked, staring after Bruce. "We will soon be needing his strength. Shall I retrieve him?"
"You won't want him," Tony replied. "Did Bruce really look calm and controlled to you? If you brought him back now, Hulk would be just as likely to smash you as the woman or anyone else. We'll have to deal without him."
"I see," Thor said slowly, though he clearly didn't. Whatever. There were more important things to deal with. "Where's Steve?" Even though Thor said he had helped, the Captain had yet to appear.
Thor turned and pointed to one of the less-charred trees surrounding the crater. "There. I found him trapped within this cloth –" He held up the piece of parachute again. "After freeing him from it, I was going to bring him down, but he requested to stay. For the 'element of surprise', I believe he said."
"Great," Tony muttered. No Hulk, a Captain up a tree, and a clueless god up against someone who definitely wanted them dead. Loki or no Loki, they needed to know what they were up against. Leaving Thor by the wreckage of the plane, he took to the air, gaining altitude until he could see into the crater. He thought he saw a flicker in his vision, a hint of red – and he was blasted out of the sky. He landed hard, skidding, roughing the metal in the back of the suit. But the moment momentum was on his side again, he took back to the air. Whatever he'd been hit with hadn't done any damage to the workings of the suit itself, or so JARVIS said – though the paint would need some touching up. But the woman definitely wasn't just an innocent bystander. "JARVIS, turn that target to red, will you?" The blue of possible civilian immediately changed to red on his viewscreen, marking the woman as an enemy. He slowly gained altitude, waiting for the opportune moment. The moment he cleared the crater, the target locked, and he started throwing every weapon he had at the woman. She cackled evilly, dancing about, deflecting missiles and repulors alike with her scepter – which really looked like nothing but a stick of wood. Whatever it was, though, it was effective.
"I could use some help here!" He shouted over his shoulder, ducking as a jet of green light arched over him. So she could use the green laser of death too. Spectacular.
The day grew perceptively darker, and thunder began to rumble in the sky. Tony gained one step on her when she risked a glance upwards, but was forced backwards again by yet another jet of green light. He fired another ineffective missile at her, trying to analyze how she deflected it. There was no physical explanation for how she was still alive… which of course explained it immediately. Magic.
Lightning streaked across the now-stormy sky, and Thor flew down under the cover of the jagged fork of light. Tony fired several repulsor blasts at the woman, just trying to distract her. It worked somewhat – Thor was able to swing his hammer at her, lightning crackling mightily. But the woman dodged just in time. "You'll have to get up earlier if you want to beat me, sweetie!" Tony heard the woman squeal, her voice high and insane. And then it was close combat between the two, and Tony was not confident Thor would be the last one standing.
Tony aimed with one of his few remaining missiles. The missiles, at least, wouldn't do much to Thor if he got hit. He would save his repulsor blasts for when Thor wasn't so close. But before he could shoot, gunfire rained down, and the woman shrieked again – this time with pain. A bullet had somehow gotten though her defenses, burying itself in her arm. Thor took a swing at her, but instead ended up ducking more green light. The woman's aim seemed as impeccable as ever, so Thor took advantage of her injury, not to fight her, but to escape back to the sky. He landed moments later beside Tony, just as the earth rocked beneath their feet. Apparently the woman had tired of her green lasers, and was now firing some sort of explosion from her power stick, knocking both Thor and Tony to the ground.
"Who is this crazy bitch?!" Tony demanded, parrying every blow he could and trying to distract her enough so Thor could get a shot in. As Steve had shown, if she was distracted, her magical shield wasn't so effective. But no matter how much energy they threw at her, she always managed to deflect it – or worse, bounce it back at them. Tony ducked yet another of his own repulsor blasts, unable to gain so much of an inch on the manic woman. Steve was still holed up in his tree, ready to rain her with bullets again, but so far there hadn't been another opening. Then JARVIS informed him of a depletion in his weapons storage – all of them. He couldn't afford to be picky when deflecting her blasts, but it was costing him.
Tony felt trapped. He couldn't move farther away without abandoning Thor, couldn't take to the air without getting blasted from the sky. Every attempt at subterfuge had ended with missing death by inches. The green light was too powerful to risk getting hit by – he still vividly remembered the deaths of the scientists, how instantaneous it was. His suit might help soften the blow… but then again, it might do nothing at all. He wasn't going to risk it by getting in the way of her death ray. Her weapons seemed never-ending, but Tony knew of one way out of the fight. When the woman had been distracted by both Thor at close range and Tony from afar, her shield had not blocked Steve's shots. All they had to do was recreate that. They just had to get one more opening.
A mad cackle echoed from the crater, where he knew the woman must be behind all the debris and light. The red target on the screen danced and wavered as JARVIS tried to get a lock on her. Whatever magic she was using was interfering with his sensors – she never seemed to be where she should be. He'd thought she was more or less in the middle of the smoke and debris, but then he saw a green light fly out, much closer than it should have been. Thor dodged, but couldn't get out of the way in time. The bolt disappeared within his shoulder, and the thunder god crumpled to the ground.
The woman gave a high shriek of triumph. "No!" Steve cried from wherever he was hidden – Steve missed a golden opportunity and was shot at instead. Tony heard the resounding thunk as the laser deflected off his shield. Tony deflected whatever the woman threw at him without attacking back, every second feeling like hours as JARVIS checked for vital signs. Thor was a god, he reminded himself. As evidenced by Loki, gods did not go down easy. Thor just couldn't be dead… right?
The wait seemed to go on forever, and his lapse in concentration nearly cost him his own life, but then JARVIS found a heartbeat. Faint, worryingly slow, but there. He was unconscious but alive.
Then Steve flashed in his peripheral vision, heading for Thor. "He's fine!" Tony hissed as quietly as he could, yanking him back as more deadly green light flashed across his path. Then, louder, for the woman's sake, he said, "There's nothing you can do for him now!" There would be no point in protecting a supposedly dead body, and Tony didn't want to risk arousing the woman's suspicions and have her blow Thor up. Thor was alive, but he certainly looked dead. That would have to do for now.
Steve promptly covered them both with his shield when the woman sent some explosive thing after them. It did no damage to the shield but left Tony's ears ringing. "Now that I'm here…" Steve said, peering in at the dust cloud obscuring the woman, "Tony, on my word, throw everything you have at her, okay?"
Tony grunted. "I don't have much left."
"Doesn't matter. Just do it… now!"
This was not the time to question. Hoping very much that Steve's plan was sound, he threw everything at her, missiles, bullets, repulsor blasts, even his uni-beam. It all bounced back. Then, in the middle of the barrage, Steve threw his shield into the fray. They both heard a solid collision, and the shield didn't bounce back.
Grabbing Steve, Tony flew into the crater, not willing to lose any advantage. The woman was lying several yards away, knocked senseless by Steve's shield. Tony shot at her, but she deflected it once again. "I have failed you, master!" She shouted to the sky as she got to her feet. Tony ran forward to grab her, but she twisted away from him… and disappeared. Nothing left but some smoke and an unconscious thunder god to show she'd ever been there.
Steve and Tony both waited for several tense minutes, but the woman did not return. Slowly, Steve retreated, clambering up the side of the pit to check on Thor. Tony left him to it and examined the crater. Gamma radiation was everywhere, courtesy of the Tesseract. But there were also pieces of metal that were foreign, glinting strangely when he picked it up. There were several such pieces scattered around, along with – weirdly – a dead snake. It was charred almost past recognition, but there was no question it was the woman's, or at least someone's pet – the thing was nearly 20 feet long. There was no way that was living under the building unnoticed.
"Tony! Get up here!"
That was Steve, of course. Abandoning his search, he flew over to where Steve was crouched by Thor. "He's not waking up," He said. A cold knot formed in Tony's stomach as he kneeled beside Thor and gave him a cursory glance. He was no medic, but even he could tell his breathing was way too shallow to be healthy, and that his skin really shouldn't be that shade of gray. He stood up. "JARVIS, get Fury on the line."
Nothing but static. Stupid effing magic. He took to the air and landed a few yards away. Suddenly Fury was in his headset, crystal clear. The magic apparently had a boundary – probably how the woman had found them and shot them down in the first place. They'd crossed some taboo magic boundary and revealed themselves… somehow. He tried to force all thoughts of magic and voodoo out of his head. It only promised to make his growing headache worse.
"Stark, what happened?" Fury demanded immediately.
Tony shook his head, feeling suddenly very tired. "I'll explain everything later. Send Natasha or somebody with a jet to pick us up. Steve, Thor and me. Hulk ran wild, don't know where."
Fury only frowned. "Explain."
"We got blasted out of the air by some maniac. Whoever she was, she wasn't Loki." Tony said, not in the mood for wisecracks. He just wanted to get back to some relatively safe place where he could mull over everything without worrying about having his head blasted off. There had to be a defense against magic. Technology could do amazing things… so why couldn't it mess with magic the way magic messed with electricity?
And, though he did not say it out loud, he just wanted to know that Thor was going to be all right.
"And?" Fury pressed.
"And, we fought, she escaped. And… Thor was hit. By the green light."
Silence from the other end. "He's still alive," Tony said wearily. "But unconscious."
Fury said nothing for a long while. Finally, he said, "I'll send a jet," and disconnected.
"How rude," Tony muttered to himself. But with the promise of a ride in a half an hour, Tony went to stand beside Steve and unconscious Thor, counting down the seconds until the plane arrived. There was a lot of research to be done, projects to do. It was high time for magic users to meet the true mechanical genius of Tony Stark.
Oog, 'kay, writing through a flu isn't fun. I apologize in advance if the next chapter is slow in coming.
Just want to make clear - the snake Tony found isn't Nagini. Also I do hope I hinted hard enough at who they were fighting. Please yell at me in the reviews if I didn't ^^;
And huge shout-out to the Avengers gag reel, which I loved xDD Hope you enjoyed my recreation of my favorite part when Mark Ruffalo runs away. :3
Thanks for all the reviews and favorites and follows! Can't say it enough - thank you! Hope this was fun for you to read =)
