Avengers – Legend Recruit
By Roff
CHAPTER TWO
Harry had just arrived on the scene of a major fire in New York City. A large apartment building was ablaze. There were fire trucks, firemen, police, and people all over the place. He appeared high in the air and became visible. He then flew toward the building and stopped a little ways from the blaze.
Harry raised his left hand and suddenly the fire was coming right to his hand. In fact all the fire was leaving the building and coming to Harry's hand. As it reached his hand it became smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared.
Everyone on the ground just watched in awe. One guy dressed in a red and blue costume who had been rescuing people from the building, shot what looked like webbing from his wrist and went back in the building for more people.
Harry took off and flew into the building and started casting repairing charms to stabilize the structure. He then removed all the smoke. Once done, he began looking for survivors. He came across a woman who looked to be in her early twenties who was severely burned. He flew to her and checked for signs of life. Most of her clothes had been burned off of her and she was barely alive. She had a lot of smoke in her lungs.
Harry immediately began healing her as fast as he could. He dispelled the smoke from her lungs and watched as her burned skin became like new. Even her badly marred face was fixed. Once she was healed, he vanished what was left of her destroyed clothes then permanently conjured her some clothes and magicked them onto her. She was still out as her body was settling back to normal.
Harry picked her up bridle style and flew her down to a waiting ambulance on the street. He laid her on an available gurney as a medic ran up to him and started checking her over.
"I was able to help her," Legend told the medic. "She should be okay now, but I think a checkup would not be out of the question, just in case."
"Thank you," the medic told him sincerely.
"You're welcome," replied Legend. "I best see if anyone else needs help." He then flew off and back into the building.
Peter Parker, A.K.A. Spiderman, heard the sirens and actually beat the emergency workers to the scene. He began helping people as fast as he could. The fire was out of control and it was all he could do not to get burned as he took people out of the burning building and into the street. He was at it for several minutes. All of a sudden, the fire just started leaving the building.
Spiderman looked and he saw it was heading out of the building and right into some guy's hand as he hovered in the air with his cape blowing in the wind. As the fire neared his hand it grew smaller until it disappeared. People had been calling Peter the Amazing Spiderman but this new guy really takes the cake, he thought to himself.
Now that the fire was gone, Spiderman went back in at full speed. Wow, did that new guy just make the building safer and vanish the smoke he asked in his head. Now that's some serious mojo! As he went through and rescued more people, he saw the new guy carry a young woman to the street. How she managed to not get burned and keep her clothes nice and clean through all that is amazing, he thought.
As the new guy pitched in and began floating several people at once and lowering them to the ground safely, they soon ran out of people to save. Some of the ones being floated were moving their arms and legs, and making noises as they floated unnaturally through the air. Many had also made their way out on their own as soon as the fire was gone. With their way clear of fire and smoke now, they were able to leave.
Spiderman jumped, did a flip, and landed close to Legend.
"Hey, new guy! That was amazing!" he said excitedly.
Harry turned to Spiderman and held out his gloved hand to shake.
"Legend, and pleased to meet you, Spiderman," he said as they shook hands. "However, I believe that word belongs to you though. Aren't you called the Amazing Spiderman?"
"Yes, but I think they may have to find me a new word after the show you put on today."
"I was just doing what I could. You did more than your fair share though, Spiderman. You're still amazing."
"Thank you, Legend. It was a pleasure working with you. Feel free to stop by the neighborhood anytime and lend a hand. I'll be here."
"See you around," and with that Harry flew up several feet into the air before he stopped and looked at the building.
Harry cast a spell to see if anyone was in the building now. No one was in there so he cast three big repair spells on the large building. Everyone heard the noise so turned to see the building coming back together like new again.
Harry inspected his work and made sure he didn't miss anything then flame travelled home.
All the crowd was watching him and many cameras were following him, but fixing the building had them with their mouths hanging wide open. Then when he burst into flames and just disappeared they were surprised they could be in more awe. A few of the photographers were using stop action photography so captured several shots as they had their camera lens focused on Legend.
The pictures were being taken one after another and more than one a second as they left their fingers on the button. The digital photos clearly showed Legend fly up and stop as he hovered there and used his hands to fix the building. Then suddenly he was engulfed entirely in flames and then just disappeared completely as if he teleported. Since he was no longer there then the natural conclusion was he did teleport.
They were accustomed to seeing these special people leave in different ways. Some flew away like Iron Man, Spiderman swung away on his webs, the Hulk usually leaped away high in the air almost as if flying, and Thor swung his hammer before flying off with it, so they were all different in their abilities and how they left. Teleportation by fire though? Now that was something new and very exciting to see. The fact that teleportation was just one of this new guy's abilities made it that much more exciting.
"That's some fancy tricks you got there, Legend," Spiderman said in a low voice before he swung away home.
The next day Nick Fury was ranting again.
"He helped Spiderman with the burning building yesterday by putting out the fire, removing all the smoke, miraculously strengthening the building, and rescuing people by floating them somehow out of the building and to safety. Then he completely fixes the building like new with a few waves of his hand before he simply teleports away …by fire no less. WHY DO I NOT HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THIS GUY?" he asked getting louder.
Before anyone could answer, he continued.
"Do any of you realize what this guy could do if he decided to stop being helpful?" Then he started really yelling. "HE CAN TELEPORT! WHAT'S TO STOP HIM FROM TELEPORTING ANYWHERE HE WANTS TO GO? LAST TIME I CHECKED WE DON'T HAVE A WAY TO STOP TELEPORTING! WHAT IF HE DECIDED TO TELEPORT ONTO THIS VERY SHIP?"
Fury looked around at his subordinates then took a breath and calmed down. He knew his blood pressure was elevated a bit.
"I'm sorry, sir," replied Agent Hill, "but we've never run across anyone as elusive and difficult to track as this new guy. We tried everything we can think of and we have nothing. With his ability to just appear and disappear via his teleportation technique, not even one of our best agents can track him. We have no idea when he will show up nor where he goes when he leaves."
"Perhaps I can help with that?" they heard a new voice join the conversation.
Everyone turned to look at the new guy standing behind them where they were certain no one was standing there previously. He was dressed as they normally saw him in his costume with the cape and the hood. His face was obscured under the hood. His voice sounded American in origin.
"Legend, I take it?" asked Fury with a calculated look.
"Yes. At your service," Harry said with slight bow of his head. "I knew you would be curious but unable to find me. I decided to come forward and introduce myself."
"But why now and not sooner?" Fury asked curiously. "You first appeared over a month ago and you've been appearing frequently over the past few weeks. We've been trying to figure out who you are this whole time with no success and I don't like surprises."
"I wanted to try it for a month before deciding whether or not to continue. I wasn't sure I would enjoy it so I decided to test the waters. If I didn't like it I could always disappear and no one would ever see me again."
"Since you are here now, I take it you decided that you like it?" Asked Agent Hill.
"Yes, I've been accused many times that I have a habit of saving people. I just like to help where I can."
"It would help me if you could remove your hood so I can see who I'm talking with," Fury demanded. "We are all on the same team here with the same goals to protect everyone who needs protecting. All the members of the Avengers show their real faces when we meet."
"Then I'm sorry to disappoint, Director. Perhaps if you can gain my trust, in time I might be able to share with a select few my real identity. For now, I will have to stay hidden. I can't take the risk of being recognized. It would cause a great amount of unnecessary upheaval in certain sections of the world."
"I see. Perhaps you should join me in my office so we can talk privately then?"
Harry nodded.
"Agent Hill you have the helm," he told her before leading Harry to his office.
Once they were in his office, Fury offered Legend a seat before he took his behind his desk. After he saw Legend sit, he began.
"Let's make sure we are clear and understand equally what this is all about. You spoke of trust before you could reveal your real identity. I can understand your reasoning. Just know that trust is a very important thing in my line of work. You have only been at it for a month so we only have one month of detail on you. That's not very long in my book. If this was all just a ruse to get into our good graces so you could destroy us from within, then I must inform you that you would not be the first to try that."
"I can understand that, Director. You don't really know me so it will be difficult to trust me until you do. I feel the same way. While I've heard of you and read up about the Avenger Initiative years ago and everything they've done since then, I don't know you personally. Until I do, I will not be able to trust you enough with my real identity. Maybe we will get there one day. We will just have to wait and see."
Harry continued before Fury could interject.
"Now to your point of this just being a ruse to get in here and wreak havoc, you realize don't you that I don't need an invite to go wherever I want to go if that was my goal. Rest assured it's not. You see, I have many abilities that would allow me to go and do pretty much anything I want to do. I could even steal lots of wealth. In fact, it would be quite easy, except for this one …nagging little part inside of me."
"What's that?" Fury asked confused.
"My moral compass. You see there are people born with amazing powers and they lack the moral fiber required to keep themselves grounded. They let the power go to their heads and use it for personal gain and even to hurt others. But then you have people like me and the Avengers who have these special powers but we use them for good because our moral compass dictates that we do.
"I suggest we get to know each other better, Director, and see where it leads us."
"Fine with me. Can you share with me your powers and what all you can do?"
"That's a loaded question because there are way too many to list. However, I can generalize it down to just one word."
"What word would that be?" he asked taking the bait.
"Magic! Tell me, Director. Do you believe in magic?"
"Loki comes to mind. He did some while he was here. Thor's hammer also seems to be imbued with it."
"Exactly! I'm like a wizard, or a warlock, or perhaps a mage if any of that terminology makes sense to you."
"Are you from another world like Thor and Loki?"
"No. I'm from right here on Earth."
"Can you demonstrate for me some of this magic?"
"You've seen me do things for a month and you need me to show you more?"
"Yes, now that you are telling me you use magic to accomplish these things and not some new or alien technology then I would like to see you do something a little smaller right here in my office so I can understand better."
"Very well. Let me see. Oh, here we go!"
Harry waved his hand and Fury's desk transfigured into a very large Bengal tiger. Fury jumped back in fright, causing his chair to roll him backwards and into the table behind him with a loud thump as the big cat appeared. However, it started purring and waving its tail up and down as it just laid there.
Harry cancelled the transfiguration and reverted the cat back into a desk with everything back the way it was. Fury slowly looked it over and rolled back into place, slowly touching it and testing it with his hands.
"It's perfectly safe. I cancelled the spell and your desk is back the way it was."
"How in the world are you able to do this?" he asked in shock.
"I was simply born this way and I've had many years to develop my skill with these abilities. When it comes to magic the imagination can pretty much run wild. Some say the sky's the limit. Not with magic though. The sky is not even close to the limit."
"What about your parents?" Fury asked.
"Both died when I was just one year old. I don't even remember them."
"So, no one else can do what you do?"
"As far as I know, I am the only one like me," he explained in the strictest sense to remain honest.
Harry went on to explain his abilities over the elements, his animagus abilities, flying abilities, healing abilities, etc. giving Fury a good idea of what all he could do to help the cause. He offered his services should they ever need his help.
Of course, Fury insisted he turn into some animals when he mentioned that ability. Harry couldn't show him any of the bigger ones but he transformed into a grim like Padfoot for him, and then transformed into a stag like Prongs, before transforming into Ash, his phoenix form.
Fury was very impressed.
Before Harry left, Fury handed him a phone so they could contact him when they needed him. Harry took it and placed it in one of his pockets before making his good-byes to the crew and flashing home.
Fury had them track the phone he gave to Legend so they could see where he went. However, when they tried to locate the phone they couldn't find it anywhere. No matter what they tried the phone could not be located.
When Harry returned home, he left the phone in his pocket while he cast a spell on it so it could not be tracked. The pocket he put the phone in was warded so it blocked any method of locating it. Once he had cast the spell on it, he was able to safely remove the phone from the protected pocket.
He was checking the phone out when it suddenly rang. Harry quickly put his hood back on to disguise his voice and answered.
"Legend here."
"Hello, Legend," a female voice spoke. "This is Maria Hill with Director Fury and the Avengers. We were just testing to make sure the phone was in good working order. It went off our radar as soon as you left."
"It apparently works just fine as we seem to be conversing without any issues. I'm quite sure my magic is the most likely cause of you not being able to locate it. It can wreak havoc on technology sometimes."
"Thanks. We'll make a note of it. Have a pleasant day, Legend."
"And you as well, Commander."
"Director," she said as she walked into his office. "This guy is a step ahead of us. He said his magic was the likely cause of why we can't locate the phone. He said it can wreak havoc on technology sometimes."
"And what did you say?" he asked perturbed.
"I told him we would make a note of it."
"He's good. I've never seen magic like his and I likely have not seen anything close to what all he can do."
"What about Loki?" she asked.
"Loki is definitely powerful but his magic is different or at least Legend uses his in a different manner than Loki. We still don't know Legend well enough. See if we can call on him for the next problem that pops up. We need to see how he works with one or more of the Avengers. Maybe they can shed more light on this new guy once they work with him."
"Will do," she told him then went back to her duties.