Edited by the mighty pazed!
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Chapter 22
"The fµ€k you say?" said the short haired woman running for her life, as blaster fire splashed against the walls surrounding them.
"I'm just say'n-" came from the gigantic man next to her.
"I ain't leaving ya, you dumba$$!" she screamed as the pair slid around a corner, and began to run again.
"But Harls, he's after me!" exclaimed the large man, desperate for her to see his point. "He won't chase you if you just-"
"No and that's final you a$$hole!" she said. "We'll get out of this!"
"I'm begging you-" he began again.
"NO! We jump together! That'll buy us some godƌ Ɯ time!" she growled out.
The giant man next to her sighed. "Fine! This is the last time though! If he finds us again you're going on without me!"
She smirked. "Yeah whatever," she said, as she began to hum. A shimmering hole began to form in front of them.
"I'm serious Harls!" he said, as they ran forward towards the event threshold.
They were just about to enter when the large man grabbed her arm and shoved. "Sorry Harly… I know better now. Goodbye!" he yelled as he watched her disappear in a thunderclap before she could answer.
He turned towards his pursuer. "Alright monster! Let's do this!" he screamed as he lifted his own pulse rifle in one hand and the hyper velocity, belt fed slug thrower in the other. "RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed as he began firing.
"What the hell?" Clint asked staring at the pillar of magical energy.
"Don't ask me Legolas…" Tony said looking on in awe. "JARVIS is in low power mode… I can't even scan that thing."
"Do you think Harry is ok in there?" Clint asked.
Tony shrugged. "He'd better be or his girl is going to kill him."
The discharge of Natasha's rifle broke their attention away from the sight. "Minds back in the game boys!" she said, adjusting her sights. "Let Harry worry about that and get your asses back in gear, we have a battle to win!"
'Something is wrong!' screamed Voldemort's senses. 'How can he be doing this?'
Voldemort watched as the joining point of their energies surged again, increasing the opaque dome around them as well as the now solid pillar that was reaching into the sky.
He could feel his strength beginning to ebb, while that of his opponent only seemed to increase.
'How is this possible?' he thought. 'Potter never showed this type of focus nor strength! It has always been luck that has been the deciding factor in his favor before!"
Voldemort could feel his knees begin to buckle. 'NO! I will not be denied! I have come too far! Sacrificed too much! I am LORD VOLDEMORT!' he screamed within his own mind and began to push again against his adversary.
Harry's face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, as he continued his battle of wills with Tom. He knew that his friends were counting on him, Hermione was counting on him. For them he wouldn't fail!
His wand tip began to shake, as he continued to pour his magic through it. He was beginning to tire, then something Steve said to him floated to the surface of his thoughts.
"Harry, you are capable of amazing things, things that you have scarcely scratched the surface of. Trust your instincts, relax and let them help guide you."
Harry grinned and relaxed, letting the magic flow from his core freely, reaching out with it, allowing his instincts to guide his next actions.
All at once he changed his tactic, instead of pushing against Voldemort's magic he used his own to grab a hold of it, then he pulled, redirecting all of Voldemort's magic into the pillar above them.
The sky cracked.
Tony watched the countdown on his visor cycle down to one minute, as he stood behind the pair of assassins that were putting their deadly skills to the test, wishing he could do more.
As it was anything he did would only hinder the Arc-core's recharge cycle and that included unnecessary movement. When the pillar of light shifted, doubling in intensity and size, and from an amber tinted white to neon red, all he could do was stare in wonder.
Here he stood encased in the pinnacle of human technology and sensory equipment, looking at a pillar of energy the likes of which he had only seen once before, with the Tesseract, and again he was in no position to study it.
Once again he watched the sky shatter, and a gateway to someplace else form out of the nothingness. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared it was gone.
He stared in horror as a figure fell out of the sky, oddly reminiscent of the films he had seen of his own plummet, helpless to intervene as the figure fell.
"Problem Tom?" Harry chided his opponent as he stood over the man who was fighting to remain standing, and holding his now charred wand.
"H-How did…" he began, still gathering himself. "How did you do it Potter? Wh-What form of magic…" Voldemort gasped.
"No magic Tom," he said, walking slowly forward, wand at the ready. "Combat tactics… didn't you feel it? When I stopped directly opposing you and redirected your spell?"
"But- but the connection!" he said. "Or wands can't hurt one another."
"That was just it Tom," Harry said with a smile. "I had no intention of hurting you, just protecting my friends… Your own power is what burned your wand out."
Voldemort looked down at his smoldering wand, then over his shoulder towards the lake and the few still burning Inferi, willing them forward to surround him. "Then if I have lost this battle, I will be sure that you are not alive to celebrate it!"
Once again the surface began to boil as the form of the lake's squid broke through, its melted surface showing deep gouges where there had once been eyes.
"TOM! What have you done?" Harry cried, stunned by the sight before him.
"No matter how this ends, I will survive this battle Potter!" cackled the madman. "This creature is my final gift to you and your friends! Not only humans can be made Inferi it seems! Kill him!" was his last order before disappearing behind the gargantuan creature.
Harry dodged one of the massive tentacles, and rolled to his feet. "I'm going to need some help here!" he yelled over the coms.
Dane Whitman blinked his eyes as the pillar of eldritch energy blinked out of existence. "My God! What was that?" he said to himself as he blinked again trying to regain his night vision.
As his eyes refocused, they landed on an object falling from the sky. "That's a person… Strider! Down!" he yelled, and the mighty pegasus folded its wings in and they dove after the falling form.
Tony's face plate snapped into place as Jarvis began the reboot sequence of his armor.
"Come on… Come on…" he chanted as the symbols before him flickered. "Whoever that is doesn't have much time…"
The instant the last symbol settled he was in the air. "JARVIS! Full sc-" His voice died as his enhanced vision settled on the falling figure, apparently a young woman, being pulled aboard a horse with wings by a man in medieval armor. "Well… that's different…" he said, only for his attention to be torn away from the pair as Harry's voice came over his helmet radio.
"I'm going to need some help here!" Harry screamed.
Wheeling in the air he tried to take in the sight below him, as a giant squid was pulling its way onto shore and Harry was fending it off with a rapid succession of red blasts that ended in flames as he dodged tentacles.
"And the nightmares just keep coming…" he muttered. "JARVIS, lock on to that thing, and prep the Party Poppers."
"Sir, we are still below fifty percent power at the moment and diagnostics, are as of yet, incomplete, charging the Party Poppers is inadvisable."
"Just do it, the kid needs help!" he yelled. "Steve looks like his hands are full!"
"Party Poppers will be charged in six seconds…"
"Target the front of the body," Tony said. "Cut the tentacles off as close to the body as we can!"
He swung his arms forward as the came to a hover. "FIRE!"
Twin beams of scarlet lanced from the backs of his gauntlets, tearing through the upper tentacles like a hot knife through butter removing five before sputtering and dying out.
"What the..." was all Tony had time to say before his armor bucked and his boot jets failed as well, and he fell tumbling into the lake.
Voldemort ran towards the school gates; all he needed to do was make it to the ward line. Once he made it there he could apparate to safety!
As he ran he scooped up the wand that was still clasped in the hand of the now headless body of his most faithful and powerful warrior.
Potter had cost him much this night! Something he would rectify in short order!
His mind was already making new plans as the large metal disk collided with him and sent him sprawling on the stone path.
"You're not getting away that easily, Riddle!" said the man now standing in his way, dressed in red, white and blue, matching the shield he held.
"I don't know who you are, but my name is-" he said gathering his feet under him.
"Harry told us your story, Riddle. You are just another tyrant with delusions," he said, turning so the shield offered more protection, while keeping himself between Voldemort and the gate.
This time Voldemort only answered with a bolt of green.
"Let me go you Mother Fucker!" yelled the young woman, struggling in the man's arm.
"Stop moving please!" Dane said. "I don't want to drop you!"
Her eyes widened as she glanced around; suddenly she was grasping him tighter.
"SHIT!" she yelled. "What the hell? How the fuck did I get up here? Who the hell are you? Where is Killpower?"
"I don't know, you fell out of some form of rift, and you were alone…" he said, moving her to sit in front of him. "And you can call me the Black Knight."
The young woman took a deep breath. "Right… the fucker pushed me… I've got to get back…" she said, and began to hum. Only to grab her throat. "It's… It's not working!" she said softly.
"I'm going to need to drop you off here," he said, approaching the ground. "They need my help."
She slid to the ground next to a pair of giant iron gates, collapsing to her knees as she did.
Steve spun away from the next shot, a blot of ugly red, and moved to block Voldemort's path again. "Out of my way!" the man yelled, pointing the wand again. Only this time the ground under Steve erupted upward, tossing him to the side.
Voldemort began running again, only to find his path blocked by another man holding a shield. "Are there no end of you?" he yelled. "Are you another that is willing to die at the behest of Potter?"
The man before him shrugged. "I don't know who Potter is," he said as he adjusted the kite shield in his left arm and drew his sword. "But I do know who he is," gesturing to the star spangled avenger, who was already on his feet again.
Steve studied the man standing in the path for a moment. He stood almost six feet tall, though it was hard to tell exactly because of the helmet and armor; his armor that in places shone in the moonlight as much as it seemed to suck all of the light in that touched it in others. His kite shield had a red starburst in the center, and his sword seemed to shine with an inner light.
Voldemort snarled, "And you stand with him?"
Dane settled into a fighting stance. "With Captain America? Every time!"