This chapter was pretty tough, somehow a lot tougher than when the Avengers were looking for Loki.
"I need eyes on Loki," Fury demands, and Harry pokes his head out of his fort.
"He has eyes. Green ones." Harry sort of wishes Loki's eyes weren't the same as his, even if Loki's good now. "Do you want a different color? Are you going to give Loki a magic Moody eye? How come you just have a patch?"
Harry's Grandpa'fessor has his eyes closed and his finger against his head, like his minds flying off to talk to other people.
Fury looks down at Harry. A vein in his forehead jumps, like Uncle Vernon's did when he was mad, only he doesn't hit Harry. Instead, he barks at Dad. "Get your kid out of here."
"I don't take orders anymore," Dad's voice is flat, and he stands like a statue, not moving to take Harry anywhere.
Fury grumbles something about this being an active war zone, a top-secret base.
Harry scowls right back. "We were here first, Mr. Pirate." As soon as Mr. Stark's gone, this angry pirate's trying to take over the tower and kick them out.
Harry glances at Dad. Are they sure Fury's a good guy? Pirates are bad, right?
Harry whispers, loud enough for Dad to hear "Are you going to fight the pirate?"
"No," Dad says. Fury doesn't look any less angry hearing that.
Harry watches Mr. Barton shoot arrows from the walkway outside, and Iron Man zooms past the window.
Dad has a glove just like Iron Man's over his metal hand, but he's in here, not shooting anything. Harry doesn't understand it. "Why aren't you fighting? You're a soldier."
"Not anymore," Dad shoots a look at Fury and Mr. Coulson when he says it, like he wants to make sure they hear him.
Harry feels like he's lost something, suddenly.
"You're not my soldier? My fist?" Harry looks at Dad's hands. They aren't fists, but he's still standing like a statue.
"I'm retired."
"I'm not tired," Harry boasts. Why is his dad tired? He's a grown-up. Only babies take naps.
Now Dad has a small smile on his lips. "Retired. I'm not working as anyone's soldier anymore. I only fight if I have to."
Fury mutters something about goddamn alien invasions. Harry doesn't know what it means, and Dad doesn't reply.
Fury is still barking orders, and Harry wonders why he hasn't pulled out a sword and joined the fight. He goes to lift the man's dark, leather coat, but Fury steps back and gives him a hard, one-eyed stare.
Harry still isn't scared of him, even though Fury seems to think people should be. He's probably grumpy all the time, like Moody.
Jarvis starts to explain about personal bubbles, and how Harry shouldn't go right up to people and touch them. Even as Jarvis talks about personal bubbles, Harry thinks that Mr. Stark breaks them all the time. "Is this like how Mr. Stark can fight and say bad words but I can't?"
"I've given up on Mr. Stark," Jarvis replies.
Harry laughs, but then glances out the window. There's a huge hole in the sky now, above the tower, and bad things are coming out of it like bees. "He's not going to die."
"I should hope not. I monitor Sir's vitals constantly,"
"I hope nobody dies. Except bad guys." Harry turns to Dad. "I won't die, 'cos I beated the bad wizard as a baby."
Harry makes his hands act like they're blowing up, but they fall slowly to his sides. He lived, but the bad wizard killed his mummy, and his first James dad. And bad guys keep trying to kill his X-Family. What if they kill them for real this time?
"I don't want any more dead family," Harry says, quieter. Dad smooths his hand over Harry's hair, which is as long as Dad's, only messier.
That dumb wizard is still in Harry's head, so doesn't that mean the bad guy kind of won? Even Grandpa'fessor can't get him out.
Harry stamps his foot. Bad guys aren't supposed to win! They don't win on the telly, but they win in his life. It's not fair.
"I don't want bad guys to win," Harry grumbles, glaring at the ones flying outside.
"We've got Earth's Mightiest Heroes on the job," Mr. Coulson gives Harry a small smile, though he looks quite proud of himself. Fury turns his angry look toward Mr. Coulson, who says "Well, it's not just the Avengers now, is it?"
Harry points at Dad. "He's mighty too,"
Dad shakes his head again. "I'm not fighting."
He keeps saying that, and Harry doesn't get it. "But you're like Batman."
Dad just looks at Harry for a bit before asking, "Batman was a disguise. Are you still Robin?"
Harry retreats into his fort, then hides under another blanket. He's not Robin. It's his fault that the bad guys are here now. It's always his fault that they're getting hunted. Even before Dad, back with the Dursleys, Dudley always hunted Harry down in the house, to pinch and push him.
Harry hates being hunted. This new blanket isn't even growing big like the other one did. Harry throws it off and storms around his new fort, which is at least as big as the whole tower floor. Through the fabric walls, he sees lightning flash outside the window.
Dad's still at the window, watching Mr. Barton shoot arrows. Harry runs to watch, too.
"Can I try that?" Harry asks. If he could shoot things, he could shoot any bad guy hunting them down.
Jarvis says there's a Wii archery game, but that Harry needs to move around, not just sit in front of the telly all day. Nobody ever said that to Dudley. Besides, Harry jumps and swings his Wii wand around, so that is moving.
Jarvis says Harry's seen too many screens.
Dad has a glove just like Iron Man's, and he's really, really good at shooting on the Wii. Maybe Harry doesn't need to learn to shoot, because Dad can shoot for him. But Dad said he's not a soldier, and he still has an Iron Man glove.
"Are you going to shoot bad guys?" Harry asks.
"If I have to," Dad says, his eyes like ice, but they warm when they look at Harry.
Harry wraps his arms around Dad's legs. "I'm sorry we're being hunted."
Dad looks down at him, then crouches and ruffles his head. "It's not your fault," he says, quietly but firmly. "Bad guys are after me, too. And Stark. They'd hunt Steve, if they knew he was thawed."
"Bad guys hate us," Harry agrees, "'cos we're good guys. I hate when bad guys win."
Harry needs to win something. He can lap the outside of the fort faster than he can run around the sofa.
Harry could fly around the fort faster than he can run, but Dad took his motorbroom away.
Harry tugs on Dad's hand. "Go inside my fort."
Dad turns away from the window, looking worried. He'd looked worried when they went to get Loki, but he still played with Harry almost the whole time. And that was more than a day.
Dad ducks into Harry's fort, and Harry announces, "I can beat you around. Ready, set, go!"
Harry races around the outside of the fort, then pokes his head in. Dad is still standing at the door.
"You didn't run! I beat you!"
"I did run," Dad's face is blank, like it is a lot, but his eyes aren't. They're like Mr. Stark's when he thinks he's being funny.
"Did not! I didn't see you run."
Harry watches Dad jog along the fort's sheet walls. He's fast, but not as fast as Harry was.
Harry punches his hands up as he jumps around, cheering for himself.
"You didn't run," Dad says, his eyes shining even more, though he still doesn't smile. "I won that one."
Harry opens his mouth to argue, but Mr. Coulson says "Why don't you both run around the outside of the fort, or around the inside?"
Harry doesn't answer, and Fury adds "Or go to the gym,"
The gym was where Dad fought Mr. Barton and gave him his brain back. Only Harry didn't get his brain back after fighting in the gym.
But the gym has basketball, and maybe Dad will give him his motorbroom back.
Harry runs to the lift. Dad says they should take the stairs. Dad always takes the stairs, never the lift.
Harry jabs all the buttons in the lift, and Jarvis asks "Do you wish to stop at all the floors, Master Harry?"
"I need to win," Harry says, hoping the lift doors will close soon.
The lift goes down, swiftly, and the doors open at the gym. Somehow, Dad's already there.
Harry throws the basketball like usual, but he keeps thinking about how Ms. Jean or Loki could make it fly, and how everyone's still fighting without them.
Harry climbs on the boxing ring. He balances on the ropes and tries to bounce off of them. "I can jump higher than you," he calls to Dad.
Jarvis says Harry's being too competitive. He explains that means Harry's trying to win too much, and that doesn't mean anything about computers even though it sounds like it.
But winning is good. Harry doesn't want to be a loser.
"Perhaps you could work on something with your dad, rather than trying to beat him," Jarvis suggests. Harry frowns. He wasn't going to beat Dad up, he just wanted to win all the games they played.
Jarvis leads them through workouts. Harry does jumping jacks and somersaults while Dad runs on some machine.
Harry gets tired, but Dad seems like he could go forever. Harry tries to jump harder, so Dad won't win, but then Dad taps some buttons and the machine slows to a stop.
Dad starts to lift Harry like the weights, though he acts like Harry's lighter than a feather. He keeps pretending to drop Harry before catching him, until Harry's laughing so hard he can't breathe. It's almost as good as flying, because Dad's catching him.
Dad still worries about Harry losing his breath, and stops just to watch him and tell him to breathe.
"Let's play!" Harry begs, sad that the game ended. Dad nods, but says they'll play something else.
"Are we going to punch bags?"
"That is not the best way to release your frustrations, though punching inanimate objects is preferable to punching others," Jarvis pauses and says it in smaller words, since Harry's smaller. "It isn't the best way to get your mad out, but it's better than punching people."
"What if we punched bad guys?" Harry asks.
Dad lets out a long breath. "I'm not a soldier, and neither are you."
"What are you now?" Harry asks. "'sides tired?"
"Retired." Dad reminds him. "I'm your dad."
"Forever?" Harry asks slowly. If Dad stopped being a soldier, maybe he'll stop being Harry's dad. Or he'll get killed too, like Harry's old dad, and he'll have to get another dad. Or would he just live with Mr. Stark? But Mr. Stark's fighting now and he might die.
"Forever," Dad promises, pulling Harry close.
"What do you want to be?" Harry's voice is muffled against Dad's chest. "For a job?"
"I don't know. What do you want to be?" Dad asks him right back.
"A magic mutant man," Harry answers at once, grinning. He's already magic, but he's going to grow up to be a mutant like almost everyone in his family, except Mr. Stark.
"What jobs do magic, mutant men have?" Dad's almost smiling with his mouth now.
"They..." Harry says the word for a long time. He was going to say they fight bad guys, but he doesn't think Dad would like that answer.
"They work at school homes!"
Dad asks if he wants to be a teacher.
"A grandpa'fessor," Harry grins. Dad tells him he won't be old enough to be a grandpa until he's a really old adult, which Harry already knows, but he could be a professor.
"I'm going to teach P.E." Harry decides. "And I'm going to be a doctor like Dr. Beast and Dr. Banner and Dr. Gray, so I can help people."
"Doctors are heroes too, Master Harry." Jarvis agrees. "It is an excellent career choice. You can save lives and help people, without all the violence."
Dad pulls out a little notebook and starts writing things down. Harry sees the letters P and E next to each other, though he can't read the rest.
"That's P.E." Harry points to the letters proudly. "Draw a basketball."
Dad quickly sketches a basketball, then a stethoscope for a doctor. "I'm not an artist, like Steve," Dad mutters. "You could be an artist. Should I add that to the list?"
"And a builder engineer," Harry nods and decides that he'll make Steve draw jobs when he gets back. "Are they done? Steve's better at drawing."
"The battle is still ongoing," reports Jarvis.
Maybe they'll want a party when they get back.
Harry grins. "I'm going to throw a party!"
"A splendid idea, Master Harry. Mr. Stark is quite fond of parties."
"I like parties," Harry declares, even though he's never been to one. He'd slept through Jubilee's birthday party when he was sick at the X-Mansion. He hadn't been too sad, since he thought he wasn't invited, like at the Dursleys'. But Jubilee sent him a piece of cake and a balloon.
Mr. Stark had said opening the tower was a party, but now there's this war going on.
"We need cake," Harry suddenly remembers that his family suggested he bake things instead of being a hero. He'd helped his aunt with a few cakes, only now he dares to hope he might get to eat some. And Dudley won't stick his fingers in the icing and then say it was Harry, so Harry won't be smacked.
They go up to the kitchen, and Harry sees that Mr. Coulson and Fury are gone.
Jarvis tells Harry where everything is in the cupboards. Harry even gets to put on an apron, which is a lot like a cape. It's a backwards cape, going down his front to save his clothes from getting messy.
"Bakers are heroes for hungry people," Harry tells Dad and Jarvis as he fetches things from the cupboards. He wants to help hungry people, like how Dad broke him out of his cupboard and gave him food.
Harry cracks open eggs and watches the goop slide into a bowl. He's suddenly glad he hadn't cracked his head trying to get the bad guy out. He wouldn't want all his brains to slide out like egg goop.
"I'm glad too," Dad tells him, when Harry shares this.
They open the flour, and Harry says "It's like snow, but it's warm."
He knows Dad hates the cold, but Dad tells him not to play with the warm flour snow either. When Harry asks why, Dad answers "It's wasteful,"
The tower has electric mixers and things that his aunt used, but Dad says Steve never had them. Dad doesn't use the electric tools. He seems to like using his hands to stir.
Harry tries too, but it's really hard to move the spoon. He tries stirring with his Wii wand, but Dad keeps stirring anyway.
Finally, after lots of measuring and mixing and pouring, all the batter is in the pan. Dad puts the pan in the oven without putting a mitten over his metal hand.
Now they have to wait. Harry's good at waiting. He watches the cake, then watches out the window, then goes back to peering through the oven's little window. The cake rises very slowly.
"Mr. Stark is calling," Jarvis announces, and then Mr. Stark's voice comes through the speakers instead of Jarvis'.
"Hey, so I'm about to shoot for the world's biggest basket, and it might go boom-" Mr. Stark starts.
"You can't die!" Harry yells. "If you die, I'll throw the cake on the floor."
"Cake?" Mr. Stark asks.
"Yeah. For saving the world."
Mr. Stark laughs, only it's a weird laugh, like a cry. Suddenly, Harry sees Iron Man fly toward the hole above the tower. He's holding something big and round, but it's too long to be a ball. He flies up, up until Harry can't see him anymore.
Harry holds his breath. He can't lose Mr. Stark.
The hole in the sky shrinks and shrinks, like water going down the drain, and Harry still doesn't see Iron Man.
"Dad! I need my moto-broom!" Harry shouts, trying to look up out the window instead of out at the city.
Dad rushes out onto the balcony. Mr. Barton isn't up here anymore, and Harry hopes he didn't fall. Harry follows Dad out, staring up at the shrinking hole. There's no sign of Mr. Stark.
Suddenly, something shiny and red falls out of the hole, right before the hole disappears.
Iron Man falls and falls. He'd caught them when they fell from the plane, but now he's falling, too far away to catch.
Harry needs his motorbroom now. Where are Ms. Jean and Storm? They can stop him from falling.
Iron Man's already fallen past the tower as Harry hears something smash through the floor behind him.
Dad pulls Harry back away from the edge of the balcony, but Harry hears a roar, and the building shakes a bit. His motorbroom skids to a halt behind him, but Dad doesn't let go of Harry.
Not long after, there's another roar, and Jarvis says that Mr. Stark is okay, and that they won.
"We won! We won!" Harry cheers as he runs back to the kitchen. Winning is definitely a reason to have a party. It wouldn't be a very fun party if they lost.
James pulls the cake out of the oven and writes words with frosting. Harry can't read any of them, but Dad says it reads "Congrats on saving the world."
Jarvis connects another call from Mr. Stark.
"Hey, so I made the basket. I'm alive. We're all alive, and we're going to get shawarma."
"What's shawarma?"
"I don't know, but I want to try it. You guys can come along, and then we can eat your cake."
"I can come?" Harry asks, shocked. The Dursleys never took him out, and Harry didn't get to go out at Mr. Stark's mansion or the school, either.
"Of course," Mr. Stark says. "Loki says he can disguise you, but even if someone recognizes you guys, well, they probably won't mess with us,"
Harry tugs on Dad's hand before the call ends.
Dad makes him wait long enough to put the cake in the fridge.
Even with a huge battle and time-out, and all the worry, Harry's getting to go out today. He runs toward the elevator, until Loki pops up in front of him.
"I know a faster way," Loki tells him with a huge grin.
So... I figured everyone's already seen the fight scene in Avengers, and fight scenes are hard to write and also not the intended focus of this story. So just imagine it went slightly faster with the X-Men's help... but I guess it still took a while.
Also I know Jean could've lifted the missile into the hole... but I wanted to keep that for Tony since it's kind of a big moment for him. Maybe she helped pull him out of the wormhole.
I hope you enjoyed.