AN: Quick note. I had some people comment on the Natasha over Ororo thing last chapter. Honestly when I started this story it was only going to be Natasha, then I wanted to add at least one more person. This lead to me choosing Ororo Munroe, or Storm. When I started writing her interactions with Harry they meshed really well. If it wasn't for the fact that writing a poly relationship is much harder than solo relationships I would have had them together first, but my reasonings for him dating both will be built on Natasha being more open at first to him having a second girlfriend. So don't worry Ororo will join them. It just might not be anytime soon.
June 2012, Stark Tower
After a few weeks of training the team felt like they were finally ready. Harry called Fury and let him know the team was battle ready and to start prepping for the removal of HYDRA. It took time for Fury to get all his teams ready, but with help from Harry to keep things quiet and his list of known HYDRA agents they were ready. That led to the team waiting high above the Triskelion in a Quinjet, all prepped for battle.
"Alright final equipment checks." Steve said as everyone made sure they were properly loaded out. "This is going to be dirty, but we need to be fast. Watch each other's backs and don't try taking prisoners if you don't have back up." Steve met everyone's eyes. "Don't forget your scanners." Steve said, tapping the small side visor on his helmet. "It'll point out our targets. Now then, let's do this!" He hit the ramp controls and led the team to the roof of SHIELD HQ in Washington.
The op started quietly, they were a common sight to SHIELD agents so their presence didn't raise any alarms. This familiarity allowed them to get to the security section and start taking out anyone who was listed as red. First they hit the security room, taking out any HYDRA agents and calling in the loyalists Fury pulled out. After that it was a quick sweep from the ground up and they didn't make any waves until Rumlow saw them taking out a HYDRA cell two floors before they reached Pierce's office. Rumlow immediately backed off while firing his weapons. Steve took off after the STRIKE team captain.
Clint and Natasha then disappeared around a corner to ensure no-one leaves the base. Tony didn't start engaging and instead moved to the side to start hacking the systems and intercepting outbound communications. That left Harry to engage a wave of agents coming from the nearby elevator. Not seeing any friendlies, Harry didn't play around, he swept his hand forward and transfigured the ground into a wave of metal that bound the agents in place, leaving their faces free, but immobilized.
He moved quickly from there stunning anyone in red he came across. At one point he had to disable a group of SHIELD agents not in the know, but that didn't happen again after Steve made the operation known to everyone through the speaker system. Harry crossed paths with Nat and Clint as they swept the next floor. Eventually they all congregated outside of Pierce's office. Harry, noticing they were all there, just kicked the door open and walked into the office to find Pierce trying to open a hidden door off to the side. Pierce saw them all standing there and frowned. "So Fury's little pet project is what's causing so much strife."
"We know you're HYDRA Pierce!" Steve said as he stepped forward, "Surrender or we'll have to use force." Harry watched as Pierce's eyes got slightly fanatical and quickly stunned the man letting his body drop to the ground. Steve turned to look at him in askance.
"He could have a bomb. Never try to negotiate with insane people." Harry shrugged as he explained. Tony chuckled off to the side as Steve walked over and zipped the man. Natasha walked over to Pierce's terminal and went through it looking for anything that might cause an explosion of collapse of the building. Harry called Fury, "Triskelion is secure and Pierce is in custody. Rumlow is," Harry looked at Steve who shook his head, "escaped. Be on the lookout for the STRIKE team."
"Good work. The Helicarrier is clean, I had most of them transferred off earlier. Last thing we need is the Helicarrier falling out of the sky." Fury said as Harry could hear Maria Hill barking off orders in the background. "Unfortunately we lost contact with the Training Center in Upstate New York. I need you guys to go and clear it out and rescue any friendlies."
"Understood." Harry said as he shut off his phone. He turned to his team, "Let's go, we have a new target." The rest of the team followed him back to the Quinjet that immediately took off. "Looks like we will be entering hostile territory this time. Priority is rescue and reducing collateral damage." They then pulled up schematics of the base they were attacking and made some quick plans. They were going to be landing outside the base's main area, in a forest to the south. Clint and Natasha would be taking down the Admin building. Steve and Tony were going to go after the barracks and training field. Harry was on hanger duty.
They landed only 15 minutes later and they all ran off to find their targets. Harry morphed into his wolf form and started sprinting between trees. He eventually reached the edge of the tree line and saw a fairly busy hanger. There were groups moving munitions off of Quinn Jets and most had removed their SHIELD uniforms and were in new black and red outfits. It seems as if they're ready to go public with their plans. Growling a bit Harry lowered himself and waited, when a new Quinjet had just landed and most of them were in the plane he leapt from his spot, covering ground quickly. The men outside barely had time to register his form when he leapt and removed one of their heads with his massive paw, his hind leg kicked out and sent the remaining body rag dolling across the ground. Harry transformed back and swept into the plane with his sword ready. Just inside he found three men all highlighted by his visor and he sped forward and removed their heads with lightning quick swings of his sword. He stabbed the pilot in the back of his skull and killed two more that were just pulling their firearms from their holsters. Moving back to the exit, he readied himself for more battle.
He had just stepped back out of the jet when bullets started firing on his position. Ducking behind some boxes he took a peek and waved his hand causing the ground to rise up into a stone wall. He rushed forward and jumped the wall and sent out a sweeping kick that launched an air blade, bisecting the three guards in front of him. Seeing the other two turn, weapons ready he flung his hand forward and launched two spells of a sickly yellow color. The two men then started screaming when their faces started melting. Harry walked forward and killed them with a swipe of his sword before he made sure the rest of the hanger was clear. Soon he was moving to the next to do it all over again.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
On the other side of the facility just as Harry started his first engagement, Clint was climbing up the side of the administration building, planning on entering from the roof. Natasha moved confidently to the front doors. The guards standing next to the doors barely had time to react when she leapt and did a perfect split kick, knocking them both unconscious. Hurrying forward she gathered momentum and jumped through the front windows feet first, she landed in a roll and swept out with her feet to the sides where two guards were slightly discombobulated. They landed hard on the ground as she stood up and pulled a baton that expanded when she swung it out, releasing the Staff of Ymir. She tapped both guards and froze them in place.
Scanning the room she didn't see any more hostiles so she approached the door labeled security on the side of the entrance hall and kicked the door in. Placing the staff in front of her, she pushed off and glided along the floor as it was covered in ice. Coming through the door, gunfire hit the spots above her as she swept into the room. She slid on her knees into a row of cubicles and jumped up slamming her feet into the face of a man coming our of a cubicle. Moving to each 'doorway' she would knock out or freeze anyone she came in contact with. When the guards moved to the ends of the aisle she threw the bo staff like a spear, tagging the guard in the chest and shattering him like a sculpture. She spun and jumped on the other guard, her knees locked onto the enemy's head and she pulled back, placing her hands on the ground and flipping the guard down. She stood up and held out her hand summoning the staff and dispatching the HYDRA agent. Moving on she found the rest of the room empty. She walked up to the main security terminal and plugged in a flash drive given to her by Stark. When it was done she walked off to clear the rest of the floor.
Above her, Clint had just snuck onto the top floor through the roof vents. He used his position to snipe any marked hostiles and used his taser arrows to disable anyone not recognized. When the gunfire came from downstairs he smiled and waited, soon he was taking out agents left and right as they all tried to rush for the elevators. When no one else showed up he dropped down to the ground. Along the way he collected any reusable arrows humming, "These new runic arrows are kick ass."
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Steve let go of Tony's gauntlet and tucked his body into a ball and brought up his shield. Soon he was crashing through a small window and using the shield to absorb the fall. He rolled and popped up into a ready stance but was momentarily baffled when he looked around and found himself in a locker/shower room filled with women in various states of undress. The women were all looking at him in surprise and the silence carried for a moment. Steve, not sure what else to do, just looked up at the ceiling and walked through the door on the side and closed it behind himself. He heard the yells coming from the room behind himself and hurried off not wanting to be caught by them. His mood was quickly brought back to battle when he saw a man hitting a trainee in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. Whipping his arm up he launched his shield at the marked HYDRA agent and caught him in the temple sending him sprawling to the ground.
Sprinting forward he saw that the room the HYDRA agent was forcing the trainee into was filled with others just like him, Making sure there weren't any combatants he lifted the knocked out trainee and placed him inside. Grabbing the gun from the HYDRA agent he handed it off, "Don't let anyone else come in here. SHIELD is dealing with an infiltration and we're handling it. Fury himself will give the all-clear. Got it?" When the brunette young man in SHIELD trainee gear nodded he moved out of the room and closed the door. Sighing he moved off to make sure the rest of the barracks were clear.
After dropping Cap, Tony kept flying and eventually landed in the middle of a training field that was being occupied by a group that all looked red on his HUD. He stood from his landing and watched as the entire group pulled their weapons. "Now we don't want anyone to get hurt do we?" Tony asked as he lifted his hands opening a panel on the bottom of his wrist. Sound waves shot out at such a low decibel that it started vibrating the very organs on the people in front of him. Most dropped quickly in pain but few were steadfast and slowly raised their guns. Tony huffed and shot four quick magic bolts that hit and dropped the remaining combatants. To ensure they didn't get back up Tony walked around and tased them all with his electrified gauntlets. When he was done he looked over the area and didn't see anyone else so he flew up and started scanning the buildings dotting the area around the training field.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
An hour later the Avengers all met up near the hangers. They watched as Fury exited alongside several dozen agents who then moved off to secure everything. Fury approached the group. "Excellent work. We have kept most SHIELD facilities in our hands but lost a few of our smaller safe houses."
"What's next?" Steve asked as Harry and Tony were sitting in conjured chairs watching the organized chaos.
Fury gave Harry and Tony a glare before looking back at the captain. "Well we'll regroup. I'll be making a task force to start tracking down any remaining cells and I'll call you guys in if it gets too much for our current amount of agents." Pausing for a moment he frowned, "Unfortunately we lost the Scepter when Baron von Strucker escaped custody." Harry, who was talking with Tony, stopped and looked at Fury.
"You lost the scepter?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes." Fury said with a huff. "We didn't tag all of them. Turns out Sitwell, who works with Coulson, was deep cover. His only contact was Strucker and was never tagged."
"Thor isn't going to like that." Harry said with a sigh. Fury decided to ignore him.
"We did find a few bases that we'll be doing 'search and clears' of soon. We don't expect resistance, but be ready. Evidently HYDRA didn't like having all its eggs in one basket and had separate cells spread out around the world. The first stop is a base in Siberia." Fury said as he turned to walk off. "Rest up Avengers, more work is inbound." Harry rolled his eyes and got up prompting Tony to do the same. He gathered the team together and made a portal back to Tony's penthouse. Walking through he immediately fell onto the sofa and watched the group as they each sat down and let the battle adrenalin fall away. Tony had walked to the side to remove his armor before he returned with a drink in his hand.
"So I was thinking about turning the top floors of the tower into a base for us and by us I mean the team." Tony said, taking a sip of his drink, trying to be nonchalant. Harry smirked at his friend trying to maintain his aloof nature.
"I think that's a great idea Tony. It gives us a place to meet up and stay if we don't want to stay on base." Harry said starting the conversation.
"I appreciate it Tony." Steve said. Clint agreed with the idea and Natasha thanked him as well. Both her and Clint spent most of their time at SHIELD HQ even if they had apartments and Clint a house.
"Yeah, well I figured if this is going to last we would want to have a place to congregate that isn't just for missions." Tony explained. Tony then went on to talk about the changes he was making with Pepper's help and asked for their input on how they think they should organize the new Avenger's floor. That talk lasted a while until they all just kind of let the conversation drop. The team sat there in mutual silence for a while until Tony couldn't stand it anymore and stood up, "I'm going to get shawarma." The team all laughed and stood to follow him. Harry watched as Clint started ribbing the Captain about his landing snafu and Tony joined in. His hand was grabbed and he looked to the side and saw Nat giving him a look.
"I think this will work out well." Harry said as he squeezed her hand. She just leaned into him slightly and let go before following the rest of the team out to one of their new favorite restaurants.