January 2014, Harry's Bastion
Harry sat at the kitchen table, a plate of food abandoned as he watched a news clip on the tablet in his hands.
"-ow how much damage has been done during this new bank robbery in the string of robberies since the new year." The news reporter on screen moved to the side and the camera zoomed in showing a bank with giant holes in the walls leading all the way to the vault. Police lined the area while detectives and a few agent types cased the bank. Harry shook his head and put the tablet down.
"Fuck." He exclaimed in frustration. After the breakout at the Raft, they had seen no sign of the three missing prisoners. Harry and the team ended up spending a few weeks searching for them but made no headway before the holidays. Having spent a wonderful Christmas with the whole team and his family, they faded from his mind.
Harry spent the last week of December planning the holiday and hosting his Christmas Eve Party, which had now become an annual event to his friends. Some of the X-Men were even able to show up and join the festivities. For some reason Nat kept pushing him to dance with Ororo, but he disregarded it as something about women he'll never understand.
Looking at the tablet laying on the table his thoughts were brought back to the present. Just after the new year several bank heists took place all over the world. Every single one of them using powers or technology not common to everyday criminals. The Avengers were scrambling to shut down these super powered villains, but were woefully unprepared for the sheer number of events. Even with his portals and Tony's tech they only caught a couple dozen of the bank robbers.
Now there was an upsurge of super powered villains. News outlets calling out to the Avengers as the reason criminals were being powered up. Harry had even heard whispers of some new legislation being passed around. His thoughts were disturbed when the kitchen door was forced open and the click clack of heels sounded out. Turning with a smile on his face he went to greet his girlfriend only to stop short when he saw how battered she looked.
Nat walked in, her face haggard, bags lined her eyes, a nasty bruise could be seen under the collar of her shirt, and several rips and tears in her hero suit. Harry rushed forward and grabbed her shoulders before looking her over.
"What happened to you?" Harry asked with worry lacing his voice.
"Abomination." Nat sighed as she was led over to the window bench. "We showed up for an attack at an African gun depot. It was a few men with high tech guns and jetpacks, so me and Steve said we could handle it. We got there, stopped them fairly easily, but we were jumped by Blonsky. Steve took the brunt of the damage and I was hit with Steve's body." She winced as she rolled her shoulders. "By the time we got up they were all long gone. We called it in to Fury, but decided we didn't need back-up since they fled."
Harry's eyes narrowed as Nat explained what happened. Looking over his paramour he decided it was time for Harry and Tony to roll out the wagon. They needed the team equipped to deal with Hulk level threats with Blonsky on the loose.
"That's not all though." Harry looked at Natasha in surprise.
"What do you mean?"
"They didn't flee just because we were there. Someone else showed up and helped push them back as we recovered. He was dressed in some black suit with a Panther motif." Nat shook her head, "He didn't talk to us and left in pursuit so I don't know what happened to him."
"We'll figure it out later. Let's get you into the bath, hmm?" Harry said as he scooped her up causing her to smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Harry gave her a big grin as he carried her upstairs.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Harry wiped the sweat off his brow as local law enforcement led the most recent criminals he'd captured away. Looking over the area he winced at the devastation before waving his hands and repairing as much as possible. Some of the electronics would of course be affected, but the buildings were now once again whole.
Sighing he flew up and looked over the barren streets of a typically busy area in London. Shaking his head he was about to fade back home when he received an incoming call from Fury.
"What?" Harry asked shortly. He'd been flying around taking down groups for almost 12 hours now. He wanted to go home.
"A lab in Frankfurt Germany is currently under attack. The group seems to be targeting a series of metals and chemicals. You need to stop them." Fury said. Harry frowned as he opened a portal to a nearby area before flying towards the city.
"Where is everyone else?" Harry asked.
"Hulk and Captain Rogers are both in Texas following an attack on a refinery and mentions of Abomination. Hawkeye, Widow, and Iron Man are in Russia where a group is attacking a nuclear weapons storage facility and Thor is in the middle of stopping a barge heist off the coast of New York." Fury explained quickly. "I need to go, there's been four more heists across Europe in the last day and a half."
"This is insane." Harry said as he heard the director hang up the phone. Looking around he soon heard the gunfire and chaos of a heist on the outskirts of the city. Sighing he prepared himself for another fight. "I need to call a team meeting, this is getting out of hand."
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
"Thanks for coming, everyone." Harry said as the whole team sat down in the lounge of the Avengers Penthouse, "We've had a crazy few weeks and I see it only getting worse. We need a plan."
"I agree. The amount of criminals with powers or high tech weapons is increasing daily." Steve stopped and shook his head. "We just don't have the manpower to take on everything going on. SHIELD is helping where it can, but they're baseline humans and we've had a few fatalities already." Everyone sitting around the area frowned at that. They all looked fairly worn down; Tony had barely slept as he tried to create new gadgets to help combat the massive amount of enemies, Bruce looked twitchy and depressed with Hulk not even speaking up, Steve was still recovering from the sucker punch thrown by Abomination, Clint was sporting a new cast on his foot where exploding car shrapnel had his his boots so hard it broke a few toes, Nat was barely awake with how ragged she had been run with discolored bruising all over her body, and Thor looked tired from the sheer number of battles.
"We need back-up. We need someone to help monitor and respond to attacks when we're already engaged." Harry said with a sigh. Even he wasn't immune to the brutal pace they have kept for two whole weeks. After that day where Nat came back all banged up he had been working non-stop. If he wasn't responding to an attack he was in the lab with Tony. He hadn't even seen Teddy in nearly two days. "It's time to move forward with the plans I presented when we first came together."
"You mean that Super Hero Agency?" Tony asked as he perked up a bit. He remembered the presentation Harry gave quite a few years back. "Where would we even start?"
"Here." Harry said as he tossed several folders onto the table. "This here is a list of known and recently discovered vigilantes. I even talked with Xavier and the X-Men have signed on to be our much needed back-up."
Each member of the team took a folder and looked through it. While most of the 'vigilantes' were low level, with powers in the area of minor enhancements, a few of them had the potential for the big leagues.
"If we can bring them all together, give them some much needed support, we could battle off all these attacks. There are heroes from every continent in those files. Just having a few friendly faces when we leave our home ground could change many areas in our favor." Harry explained as he slumped into the seat next to Nat. He gave them all some time to look through the folders and make notes on who could potentially join the team and who to contact first.
"This is all well and good, but we can't host all these people at the tower." Steve was the first to speak up. "This is first and foremost a second home to most of us and a primary home to Tony and Pepper." He said with a nod towards the present billionaire. "Using it as a base of operations for us is all well and good, but the number of heroes being discussed will quickly wear out our welcome." Tony nodded and gave an appreciative look towards the Captain.
"That's true. Which is why Tony and myself have been working on an Avengers base upstate." Harry looked up, "Jarvis if you would." Prompting the AI the lights lowered a bit and a holographic image appeared in the center of the room. "This is the S.H.A.D.E. Compound. Tony and myself have been designing and building this base over the past few weeks. Using a combination of tech and magic it should be ready for occupation within a month or two, instead of the year quoted by contractors."
"Unfortunately the plans for SHADE will take most of the year to be implemented." Tony spoke up with a sigh. "While some of these heroes are good, they aren't at our level and are in dire need of training." Tony waved the folder in his hand as he pumped the brakes on the excitement in the room.
"It's a start though. We have to show that we're making plans for the increased crime rates. This will soothe a lot of peoples worries." Nat said diplomatically from Harry's side.
"Nat is right. As long as we show some type of plan we could boost morale and hopefully stop the negative press being bandied about." Clint said from the side. "The only other thing we should focus on is catching the three escapees. I have a hunch that they're the reason for this surge of enhanced criminals."
The entire group agreed with that. Ever since the escape from the Raft, things have deteriorated all around the world. After that everyone agreed to all get some rest and leave the continuing crimes to be handled by SHIELD and local agencies. They would focus on catching Blonsky, Stane, and Killian tomorrow.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Halfway around the world from where the Avengers were meeting, an underground bunker in eastern Europe was holding a similar meeting.
"Everything is going as planned. Soon enough we'll have all the materials we need and our ranks are quickly being filled with rogue HYDRA agents and spurned criminals that hate the Avengers." Stane said as he looked over the group arrayed in front of him. To the right was Killian leaning back in his chair as he eyed the others in the group. Next to him was a new addition, an angry former employee of SHIELD named Elihas Starr who had been fired due to stealing confidential files on Alien tech from the Invasion of New York. He joined up when offered freedom in exchange for outfitting the group with high tech weapons.
Looking to his left was the beautiful Ophelia Sarkissian, also known as Madame Hydra or Viper. She met them at one of their safe houses and told them she would be joining their attack on the Avengers.
Just past her was another new addition, Karla Sofen, or Moonstone as she preferred to be called. On the other side of the table was the massive form of Emil Blonsky, or Abomination. Seeing no disagreements, Stane decided to continue.
"With the help of Dr. Starr we've been able to create a number of new toys that we flooded the black market with over the last month. With these weapons on the loose the Avengers barely have time to sleep let alone look for us." Stane said with a grin as he leaned back in his chair. "Soon we'll be ready to go on the attack and set the new world order." Each of the villains sitting at the table grinned at his words. The League of Villains would bring about a change that the Avengers weren't prepared for.
AN: Answering reviews
Monkey D. Conan - I don't think I'll be making Peter Parker magical, sorry. There wa a story like that called Magical Spider or something where Harry was reincarnated as Harry Osborne. I don't think it's finished but I remember enjoying it.
Ironlad - They have met him, but I'll do a fluff chapter in the future with the team all having a series of meetings with Teddy.