Wow. This wait was pitiful, even for me. So sorry. :(
Since this wait was just sad, I just want to assure you guys - even if I may take awhile, I won't leave this story until it's finished. :) I'm slow, yes, but I'm with this story till the end. So if there's some ridiculous gap, don't think I abandoned it. I haven't! Just blame the time constraints of real life... -.-
A million thanks to all still with this story! Enjoy!
Miss Granger is on her way, sir.
"Good," Tony said, settling the metallic plate more firmly into the clamp. The runes imbedded within the metal glowed with a faint light. Satisfied, Tony retreated behind the clear barrier he'd set up and settled down to wait for the witch.
Hermione didn't take long. Soon she was standing in Tony's workshop, staring with wide eyes at the large plate with the circle of runes.
"Is that what I think it is?" Hermione asked tentatively.
"We're about to find out," Tony answered, ushering a bewildered Hermione behind the protective screen. "Put your wand hand through there," Tony said, indicating the small circle he'd drilled through the barrier. Still looking nonplussed, Hermione did so – and Tony saw it click when she realized the hole was directly in front of the runes.
Hermione needed no more provocation. Aiming directly for the heart of the circle, Hermione cried, "Stupefy!" A jet of red light arched from her wand, hit the engraved runes –
And bounced off. The magical red bolt rebounded, leaving the runes glowing and completely unscathed. The spell lanced through the crowded workshop and hit a pile of scrap metal, scattering them with a shower of sparks.
Tony stared at the untouched runes. There was no question they'd just rebounded the spell. He'd done it. He'd actually done it. He'd taken magic and introduced to electricity – and made it work. Now he could add "wizard" to his repertoire. Nice.
"You did it, Tony!" Hermione shouted, jumping in the air and completely surprising Tony with a vice-tight hug. "You did it!"
"No need to sound so surprised," Tony said, massaging his neck from where she'd grabbed him. "I am the resident genius here."
"Yes. Well…" Hermione said indistinctly, suddenly looking a lot less pleased. Not in the mood to deal with a sulky witch, Tony grudgingly added, "Resident mechanical genius."
Hermione looked considerably brighter after that. Tony was pretty proud of himself, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Sure, the runes rebounded a stunning spell. How about ten? Or what about one green laser? They needed to test it – which pretty much meant throwing a bunch of spells at it till it broke and going from there. It was sure to have a shot limit – Tony knew that whatever protection they were able to gather, it wouldn't be invincible. But if it even saved them once, it'd be helpful.
"We have to tell the others," Hermione said as she rose from her examination of the runes. "It'll be easier to test, anyway, with three of us instead of one. I'll be right back!" And she was out the door. This time, Tony could understand her rushing. He hated being ruled by the clock, but their timer was definitely ticking away. Every second that Voldy had the Tesseract was a second closer to the end of the world. And he had a brand-new all powerful wand to play with, too. Definitely a scary thought. So yeah, Tony couldn't blame her. Maybe they should start running everywhere.
Tony turned away from the empty doorway and looked back to the runes. Yes, he'd figured it out... but it actually hadn't been all that hard. All their thinking and overthinking had been to their detriment – when Tony took a step back from the mental puzzle, the answer showed itself to him pretty quickly. The runes were magical – everyone had agreed on that. But when any of the runes were etched on metal, scratched onto anything besides the shackles, they were dead. Empty. No glowing, no power.
No power…
Could it really be that simple?
Tony had been more than willing to give it a try. And so he'd laser-etched a circle of runes deeply into a scrap piece of metal. There was no glowing, no nothing… until he ran the current from an arc reactor through the metal. There had been an ominous sounding crackle (Tony had ducked) then a deep, resounding hum. The ancient runes flickered, then glowed with a faint, familiar light.
A battery. Those oh-so-special runes had just needed a power source.
Well, it certainly made things easier, though the knowledge didn't do much for Tony's pride. He half-hoped no one would ask for specifics on how he managed to make everything work out.
Before Hermione made it back into the workshop, Tony was greeted by a much less welcome visitor. While Tony was working on making a second test plate, he heard a crack and turned to find the god of lies standing there, not ten feet from him, staring with unreadable eyes at the glowing runes.
Since moving into the mansion, Loki had mostly done away with his over-the-top leather and metal getup – too damn heavy, Tony supposed. Instead, the god had adopted a simple green and black outfit; a plain tunic, plain pants and boots. Positively boring compared to his Asgardian armor, but probably easier to move around in. And, though they looked more fitting for a medieval faire than 21st century living, the clothes did suit him well.
Tony turned quickly away from the now-grinning god. "What do you want, Loki?" Tony asked tiredly, keeping his attention away from the god and focused on the runes below him.
"You already know the answer to that question, Man of Iron," Loki said, lofty and melodramatic as usual. "I am here to offer my assistance. We have a world to save, remember?" His tone took on a sarcastic edge, which Tony thought he understood. Tony wanted to save the world – just save it, no strings attached. Loki wanted to save the world, yes… but only because he wanted to rule it.
"Well, if you're here to 'help'… too late," Tony replied. "Already have the magic all figured out, no thanks to you. So I think we're all good here." Tony nodded pointedly towards the door.
"No thanks to me?" Loki said, amused. "Oh, quite the contrary. The magic you are wielding – if you could call it such…" Loki said, throwing the arc reactor runes a distasteful look, "Is merely borrowed, not of your own creation. Regardless, you would not have found yourself successful without my help."
Tony gave up on the runes and glared at the god.
"Yes, you've been so very helpful," Tony said sarcastically. Before Loki could retort, Tony continued, "You're supposed to be a sorcerer." His pent-up anger and frustration at the god started to leak into his voice. "A wizard. A magic user. Someone who should have been able to tell that all these runes needed was a power source. Instead, what have you done? Oh, yes – dropped a few vague hints here and there and laughed. So very helpful."
Loki's expression soured, but he didn't stomp off as Tony had hoped he would. "Without my shackles, you would still be tinkering uselessly with your electricity and metal, Stark. It is I who supplied the key."
Tony stared, disbelieving, at the god. Was he seriously going to try that angle? "Did getting hacked up mess with your memory? You didn't supply anything. I had them while you were knocked cold - then you came along and stole them. Does that sound more familiar, liesmith?" Tony growled. He remembered all too well the terms of getting the shackles back - and he was still none too happy with them.
"Such anger," Loki said mockingly, still completely at ease.
Tony had had enough. "Don't claim to be the innocent helper here. I haven't forgotten your little curse –," Tony said, nearly snarled – "and you can bet that you'll pay for that."
"So many powerful emotions," Loki said softly. "Not, I suppose, surprising. However…" He skewered Tony with his gaze, "I did not expect denial to be chief amongst them."
Tony ignored the god's cryptic taunts, didn't even try to decipher them. Instead, he grabbed a glass from the counter and downed it quickly. Nothing like liquor to take the edge off a situation. Shaking his head slightly at the sharp burn of the alcohol, he deftly unclamped the runic metal plate and gathered everything he needed together in his arms. He did not have the patience or time for a god who liked nothing more than f**king with people's minds. For whatever reason, the god tended not to hang around when there were other people around – Tony was going to take full advantage of that fact. "Have fun playing your mind games by yourself, liesmith," Tony said, turning to leave. He should have kept walking, should have left, but Tony just couldn't leave it be. He rounded back on the god, who was watching him solemnly. "Oh, and a word of advice." He would have preferred to say it without his arms full of electronic crap (and preferably filled with a gauntlet or something similar instead) but too late now. "If you care about staying on this earth – or staying alive, for that matter – a little suggestion." Tony got right up to the god, making his voice low and deadly serious. "Never jinx me again."
Loki hesitated, not looking nearly as intimidated as Tony would have liked. The god looked like he was about to say something – then apparently thought better of it and just grinned in his normal creepy-ass way. Without a word, he gave a little bow and headed to the door. Tony watched him go. He'd almost made it out the door when he heard Loki's chuckle. "I never did," Tony thought he heard the god say, then the door swung shut behind him.
What the hell was his problem?
"Just Loki being Loki," Tony told himself, not for the first time. If there was one thing the god liked to do, it was f**k with people's minds. He knew that.
So why did Tony keep letting him?
Again, not the right time to be thinking of it. Since Loki had left, Tony no longer had to – he set the equipment back up and waited for the wizards to return. Once the due awe at the runes had passed, the true work began.
The wizards and Tony worked quickly to find the shot limit of the prototype shield. The result was better than Tony expected – it took five well-placed hits for the runes to crack and lose their power. Not invincible, but definitely an improvement.
In the middle of their planning and testing, Bruce entered, had a quick word with Harry, then dragged Ron out behind him. Bruce, apparently, had corralled Steve and Thor and was planning to venture to this 'Diagon Alley' via jet to scope out potential places to blow access to the tunnels. But, as Harry conveniently told them, Diagon Alley was hidden from all Muggle's eyes – which , for all their gifts, included the Avengers. So Ginger was tagging along to describe the magical scenery that was hiding beneath them; and hopefully help them find a good spot to land and work without crushing some poor magical settlement.
Harry left soon after, to request more maps from Griphook. The resident goblin was carefully being kept in the dark about the whole explosive idea, but his maps were proving invaluable. The boy wizard soon returned, and the tests continued.
Tony was certain that given time – and an adequate amount of sleep – he would be able to strengthen the runes far past what they were now. But, again, the damn clock was ticking all too quickly. He substituted a slightly heavier alloy that raised the shot limit to seven, but then he had to pronounce himself done. In a few weeks he could very well have an invincible suit of armor, but Tony didn't particularly want to think of the state of the world if he locked himself in his workshop for that time. A seven-hit shield was going to have to do.
Tony set JARVIS to crafting the shield for his suit. Tony had figured out (by way of many short-circuits and backfiring arc-reactors) that the shield had to have its own energy source. If it fed from another arc reactor that was also powering his suit, the two essentially screwed each other up. For all his success, Tony still couldn't' make electricity and magic play nice together. When just functioning as a current, a battery for the runes, it worked fine, but the moment any outside force intruded in the battery, all hell broke loose. It was going to be tricky, keeping the two separated within the confines of one suit, but it was a much easier task than figuring out magic. This task, at least, he could pass over to JARVIS. This part was just stratagem and logistics, not logic-defying magical nonsense. And working out logistics was something that a machine could do – if your machine was built by Tony Stark.
Feeling at last like things were starting to go right, Tony pushed Loki solidly out of his mind. He had definite unfinished business with the god, but it would have to be tended to after the whole Gringotts was over with. Even the god seemed aware of the time crisis as everyone tried to put together a working plan to get into Gringotts without getting killed. There was enough on Tony's mind without having to deal with a psychotic sorcerer who liked to play mind games as well.
Of course, Tony was not the only one who needed to be protected. Still, Steve had his shield, Thor had his hammer, Bruce had… well, Bruce had his Hulk. Any sort of extra carry-around shield would probably be a burden, as opposed to helpful. Natasha and Clint, however, were sadly lacking in the magic protection department.
Both of them flatly refused shields, and Tony didn't blame them. It hardly worked with their fighting style. Still, he couldn't leave them completely unprotected. So, after a little tinkering, he revealed the new rune-covered bow for Clint, and four rune-filled daggers for Natasha. Clint immediately started shooting, to make sure the balance or whatever was still absolutely perfect. He didn't seem to care that he was shooting all of his arrows into a chair. "You're a billionaire. So buy a new one," Clint said with a shrug as he filled the chair leg with arrows.
Natasha's daggers were harder to work with– in the end, he hollowed out the pommel of the daggers, slotted a makeshift battery within and made do. Widow immediately said the balance was off, but her aim was impeccable as she slashed a rag training dummy to pieces. The balance couldn't be too bad then… and at least she'd had the good sense to use a dummy.
So, worst case scenario, if someone was shooting at them, they could raise their weapons and hopefully block the shot. Tony was also rather morbidly curious what would happen if a magic-repelling knife was stabbed into a magic user. Whatever the result, Tony had a feeling they were going to find out.
Two days later, the world hadn't ended and the Avengers had their plan. Harry and co. were going to go forward with their original plan – with a few small changes. First off, Tony worked some more magic and passed out magic-hardened earpieces, so finally contact wouldn't be a problem. Hermione would try to enter the vault disguised as the crazy witch Bellatrix, with Harry and the goblin hiding underneath their invisible sheet. If the ruse worked, great. The Avengers would get to stand around in a field for awhile while Hermione collected the Horcrux under the guise of Bellatrix and went on her way.
But Tony highly doubted they would be so lucky. When something inevitably went awry, the Avengers would set off the bombs and slip into the tunnels. They would meet up with Hermione, blast whatever they needed to out of their way, collect the stupid soul piece and get the hell out.
Somehow, Tony didn't think they'd be lucky enough for that work either, but it was the best they had. Loki assured the group that he had a few magical tricks up his sleeve, but naturally did not elaborate as to what those spells were.
Still, it didn't much matter. Loki hadn't outgrown his usefulness as a shield yet.
Tony sat down with a bottle of vodka and settled down to wait. Once JARVIS finished the upgrades to his suit, the Avengers would be off – off to break into a wizarding stronghold and a magical, goblin-filled bank.
After thinking of the daunting task looming before him, Tony grabbed another bottle from the cabinet. He had a sneaking suspicion he would need that and more before the night was out.
You could probably all tell, but still, have to say - Gringotts next chapter! Yay!
Hope you enjoyed!
.
