Part Two

His hard-fought peace was disturbed by the sound of gunfire.

It was an odd thing to hear for a wizard, out in the middle of nowhere. Harry had kept away from any populated areas for obvious reasons and hadn't seen a human in days. Not since the last time he changed into his human form and spent a few hours in the diner of a small town (he didn't even remember the name of the town, but the food had been fine, the tea horrible and the pie had been especially good).

That had been over a week ago, though. And he had seen no sign of civilization since.

Until now.

Fury cursed as every contingency plan and possibility he had considered was blasted clear out of the window, spat on and grinded into the floor with a large steel-toed boot.

"What is the situation?" He barked to a nearby, cowering tech-guy.

"Well, sir…. it-uh seems like there was a c-complication."

"Tell me something I don't know." He practically growled.

He had no patience for the man's stammered apologies and turned to another likely victim. "Davis!" he barked to the source of his current headache; the man who brought the problem to his attention in the first place.

"Ah, yes sir." the man replied nervously, hesitatingly taking one brave step closer even as he told the director what he needed to know. "Captain America was approaching to see if the creature is hostile towards humans, and to find out if there are any more. The helicopter was just about to land in a field close-by, so that the sound did not spook the creature, but they found themselves unexpectedly under fire. They called the Captain back for help. It seems there was an illegal hidden tech-lab working on some sort of droids. The technology seems similar to that of Stark Industries; I believe they have been working to recreate some of it. While most of the scientists seemed to have fled at our presence, it is clear that they ordered their droids to take our people out."

Inwardly, Fury was slightly mollified by the clear report. The man was at least competent enough not to stammer like an idiot in the midst of a crisis. That didn't change the fact that the whole mission had gone completely down the drain. "You have been observing this creature for the past week. There was an illegal technology development lab within spitting distance from where I sent my people. And you dare to tell me you. did. not. know?"

Wisely, Davis did not comment that not knowing about it was, in fact, the very definition of an illegal hidden tech-lab. "Yes, sir."

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D sighed. Sometimes he really despised his job. "Send a team for back-up. I want them up in the air in two minutes. And for God's sake, be discreet about our presence there. I don't want to draw any more undue attention to this mess."

This was enough of a fucking headache as it was.

Harry barely had the time to process that a large flying object was coming straight at him but he dodged it easily. Even though his animal form was larger than he was as a human, this form was a lot more natural and manoeuvrable in the air than even his Firebolt. After all, he had his experience as a seeker as well as the instincts of a Griffin to guide him now.

Turning around in the air he blinked when he saw that the flying object was some sort of… robot? The fact that it looked rather broken from meeting the hard ground didn't change how impressive it was. The wizard hadn't had any idea that the muggle world was even capable of such things.

Cautiously he flew towards where the robot, and the sounds of fighting, came from. Yes, he could just fly off instead, but he didn't. It wasn't just due to his curiosity, but also because of the simple belief that even if he did leave, this would somehow come back to bite him in the ass anyway so he might as well know what was going on now, instead of letting it catch him off-guard later.

It was not paranoia but a proven fact. If there was trouble, it would find him eventually.

With that thought in mind he carefully moved close enough to see what was happening. And he snorted softly in amazement at what he found. It looked like something from a futuristic movie: where an army of robots tries to take over the world and humans fight back.

And in the centre of the battle, as sure as Harry had always been at the centre of his own fights, was a man dressed like the American flag. Despite his odd dress sense the man was impressive; he used his shield as a boomerang, took out more robots than any other and did his best to guard the backs of every one of his soldiers.

Unfortunately he was also severely outnumbered.

With the sharp eyes of his Griffin form, Harry could tell that out of the four men who seemed to be on the man's side, two sported significant injuries. The other two seemed to be trying to aid their team-mates in their retreat while the leader held off the robots. The plan was working but there was one rather large downside to it.

And that was that it left the American flag-man alone amongst a large group of robots. Sure, the injured teammates had been taken to safety but the apparent leader was now alone with his enemies.

Harry shook his head at the idiotic, suicidal plan that had undoubtedly come from the man staying behind.

That blonde was such a bloody Gryffindor.

A little huff left his beak. He just knew he was going to regret this.

But, as a blast of energy glanced of the man's shoulder and temporarily forced him to his knees, Harry knew there was really nothing for it.

After all, he had always been a Gryffindor as well.

Steve suppressed a wince when his wounds protested at his movements, ignoring them in favour of the small army of droids that was currently trying to erase him from existence. He couldn't wrap his mind around how someone had managed to create even one of these things, let alone a few dozen of them.

He let out a soft sigh of relief when he heard that at least the agents had made it out. Via his in-ear radio, someone also assured him that back-up was on the way.

Yeah, that was great. Now he just had to make sure he wasn't dead when the back-up finally arrived. He flung out his shield, striking one of the things in the neck and taking its head clean off its shoulders. The exposed wiring sparked and sizzled while the body fell down.

Steve tried to dodge all of their attacks, but there were too many and fire was coming at him from all sides. He took one hit to his right shoulder and groaned as the force of the blast downed him. A soldier, through and through, he didn't allow himself more than a second to assess the damage before he rose again, trying to break out of their circle. It was no use, though. Every time he took one of those damned things down and tried to move past it, another one seemed to take its place, forcing him back.

It was impossible to keep an eye on all of the droids so he put his shield on his back for cover and tried to take the things down as quickly as he could. It seemed slightly unfair that not only did the things outnumber him about thirty-to-one, but they also had bigger weapons.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw one of the things lift up into the air. "Oh, you have got to be joking. They can fly too?"

By the time he had a chance to turn his head for a better look the flying robot was already crashing to the ground, the victorious beast screeching above it.

Was that… creature helping him?

The winged lion-like being flew gracefully between the weapons' fire and grasped another one of the droids, viciously biting out the wiring in its neck. It dumped the thing right on top of one of the other droids firing at Steve.

Apparently it was.

He blinked but didn't let his confusion stop him from fighting the droids. As Captain America he had seen stranger and more disturbing things: like the leader of Hydra taking off his face and revealing the Red Skull beneath it.

So he fired at the droids, took up his shield again and flung it at another few unfortunate electronics. But the soldier also kept an eye on his strange companion. So this was the Griffin whose threat-level he was supposed to assess.

The beast tore of the head of another droid when Steve glanced at it.

Well, he couldn't really call it harmless.

Still, taking out the rest of the robot things was a lot easier with the large animal covering his back. The strange part was that it actually was covering his back: taking out the droids trying to sneak up on him or box him in.

Then again, the robots had proven to be capable of tactical thought, so why not the mythical creature as well? At least the Griffin was a living being. For that creature to know what it was doing was far less disturbing than the electronics that were capable of thinking for themselves.

At least, in his opinion.

He shrugged, wincing as it aggravated his shoulder and helped the beast take out the rest of the droids. When all of the technological things had been beaten up enough to have stopped moving entirely, Steve Rogers finally took a good look at the animal that had helped him.

Like the file he had been given told him, and the photographs had already shown him, the creature was a Griffin. It certainly looked like a combination of an eagle and a lion, although it was larger than either. And it had already proven to have a sharp beak and strong talons and claws. Luckily it didn't seem as if it was going to attack him.

And Steve felt somewhat lost on what to do. It was one thing to see the picture of such a creature and to be told that it may just be real, but another to stand beside it in real life.

The beast was truly majestic, stunning, like a piece of art come to life. But the slight tilt of its head and the lazy curling of its tail seemed to tell him that it hadn't suddenly sprung into existence, but that it had always been there for those willing to look.

Look at me, those vibrant green eyes seemed to say, here I am. This world, it is mine. I was here far before you were and will be here long after you are gone. Those eyes were young and lost but old and tired as if it had seen the world change just as he had and had lost something, his home, his world, himself, along the way.

So Steve awkwardly shuffled beneath the clear green gaze, feeling as small and awkward as he had when he was younger, before the serum. Or even afterwards around women.

"Thank you." he finally told the creature. Not just because he felt like it needed to be said, but also because there seemed to be something in the animal's stance that said that it would understand.

The regal nod he received from the Griffin could have been a coincidence, but it could also have been an indication of something else entirely and Steve wasn't entirely sure he wanted to open that particular can of worms. Besides, he had never been good at making conversation and he felt that counted doubly for intelligent mythical creatures (and triple for women). So instead he just stared at the being in silence.

Until, over the soft electric buzzing of the robotic remains and the huffing breath of his current companion, Steve could hear the chopper in the distance.

"Ah, back-up." he couldn't help but comment.

He could also have imagined the Griffin snorting in amusement at that.

A.N.: I'm a bit iffy about the whole fighting stuff, but hey, I tried… Also, not satisfied with my summary, but I might change it later on... My usual secret to summaries is using a not-so-random paragraph from my story. But that doesn't always work with multi-chapter fics, though. .

And no, I have no idea where I'm going with this and that is kind of scary. And yet, oddly fun for writing.