March 2014, London, United Kingdom
Over the last couple of months Harry had been run ragged. He spent almost every free moment moving around the world approaching heroes and vigilantes, trying to build up a response team to the massive number of enhanced criminals popping up everywhere. SHIELD was barely able to respond most of the time and local agencies were not equipped to deal with the tech and powers being shown off.
Harry had worked alongside the team and Fury, tracking down and recruiting new heroes. Each one they approached were offered aid in the form of training and a way to communicate with liaisons currently working with SHIELD to facilitate backup or medical aid without divulging their identity.
Unfortunately the brutal pace they've been keeping, between hero introductions and enhanced crime, the compound in upstate New York was still incomplete. While Steve, Harry, Natasha, and Clint were out recruiting, Tony was in his lab creating a general armory and updating the medical advantages of Stark Industries and the Avengers.
Shaking away his thoughts, Harry flew up and away from the alley in London with a sigh. He just approached a young woman calling herself Lionheart, who has been using a mystic sword to battle the new wave of criminals. She agreed to work with the Avengers and the new Hero agency. He just wishes she hadn't been brought into the hero scene by the actions of others.
Of course she isn't the only initiate who started their hero journey on the back of tragedy. So many of the ones now fighting crime were just attempting to stop others from experiencing the same thing. Thinking it over he realized that all of them had some form of tragedy in their life. He pulled down his cowl as his foyer appeared in front of him. He listened but was disappointed when there seemed to be no-one home at the moment.
Moving through the game room over to the bar he poured himself a healthy measure of whiskey before he threw it back. Ever since the escape from the raft he barely had time to be home, let alone spend time with his kids. Now they stayed at the X-Mansion most of the time, just because Harry and Nat were on call so often.
Slowly the situation seemed to grow in his mind, his mood dropped, and the simmering rage that he always kept a tight lid on slowly boiled over. He clenched his fist, crushing the glass in his hand, leaving bloody glass shards all over the counter. Was it too much to ask for some peace? Would he ever gain the life he'd always wanted? Swallowing down his anger he waved his hand vanishing the mess.
He couldn't blame his situation on anyone but himself. Did he owe it to anyone to go out and do the things he did? No, but he did it anyway because he knew it was the right thing to do. Slowly the rage that engulfed his mind was once again placated enough to simmer below the surface. Breathing out another sigh he fell to the ground and leaned up against the bar.
Harry wasn't sure how long he sat there, but a beeping noise pulled him out of the daze he sat in. Pulling out his phone he was surprised to see a red alert from the Tower. Jumping up he pulled up his cowl and faded within a moment.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
20 minutes earlier, New York, New York
Stane stood at the window of the commandeered office and he looked out at the massive Avengers Tower. Seeing all that was stolen from him he fist clenched. He should be the owner of the greatest weapons manufacturer on the planet. He built up that company, it was his connections that steadied the ship after Howard and Maria died. He easily disregarded the part he played in the death of the Starks in favor of stewing in what he felt he deserved.
"Stane!" Turning Obadiah saw the egg headed scientist Elihas Starr. His genius was actually impressive, of course he wasn't as innovative as Tony, but his retention of knowledge and application of such was inspiring. His intelligence allowed Stane to remake a better version of his Iron Monger armor using Chitauri tech.
"Are we ready?" Stane asked as he moved away from the window.
"Almost. Blonsky and Moonstone are both ready and in position, Killian is being a bit difficult and Viper doesn't like the plan." Egghead explained as they moved to the staging room. Maps, blueprints, and targets were laid out all over the tables in the room. Moving over Stane looked down at the current objective for the day. On it was a blueprint of Avengers Tower, Stane's objective? The labs on the upper floors. While the Chitauri tech worked well, Stane still desired an arc reactor.
"Tell Killian he can infiltrate instead of Viper or Madame Hydra. Let her know she's to team up with Moonstone and occupy the Avengers. From what we could gather The Captain and Thor will both be halfway around the world, so the only heroes present will be Tony, the Widow, and the archer." Stane stated as he looked over everything. Switching the skilled agent for the super powered scientist might not have the discretion he was hoping for but Killian won't be stopped by average security. "Make sure Blonsky knows that if Banner is here he takes the Hulk's ire, Moonstone and Madame Hydra can't handle that level of fire power. Even if we fail in the secondary objective it doesn't matter, this is just the test run so being ready to retreat is most important."
Egghead soon had everyone informed of the change in plans and they all engaged on Stane's timing. The first thing Stane did was blast a hole in the side of the penthouse causing the three Avengers sitting there to jump into action. Unfortunately for Obadiah Tony wasn't present and Banner was. Soon he had a face full of Hulk but was agile enough to dodge the first attack and ignored him afterwards hearing the scream of Blonsky in the background.
"Killian! Go!" Obadiah said as Egghead disappeared, most likely to combat the AI guarding Tony's systems. Turning back to the fighting going on in the penthouse he watched as Moonstone and Viper easily kept pace with the two prior SHIELD agents.
Soon the battle was underway and he could see Tony flying out of the destroyed walls of the penthouse. With a huge hideous grin on his face he blasted that damn red and gold armor.
"Come on Tony! We still have unfinished business!"
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Harry faded into the team's penthouse. As soon as he saw the penthouse he was blown away by the sounds of battle and explosions. All around him the penthouse was in disarray, furniture burned or destroyed, the windows all blown out, and the walls had massive person or Hulk sized holes. Flying through a broken window he found Tony fighting a man in a suit in the sky, Hulk was battling the Abomination, Clint was providing cover fire from a nearby roof, and Nat was being besieged by two women on the ground.
Narrowing his eyes he shot towards Nat, intending on interfering, but was caught by a flame blast from behind. Spinning around in the air he came face to face with an orange glowing fist. "Killian, good to see you." He quipped as he turned his body dodging the hit. As Killian's arm extended he grabbed the arm, ignoring the heat, he shoulder tossed the man launching him towards the ground with force. Dropping down he soon landed on the glowing man, his stomp snapping the man's spine in two causing him to scream in pain.
"Welcome to the party!" Tony exclaimed, slightly out of breath as he flew overhead battling another suit. The suit looked similar to the Iron Monger armor from back then, but much slimmer and definitely more high-tech with a familiar purple glow.
"Is that Chitauri tech?" Harry asked through the now linked comms as he kicked the downed man in the face, knocking him unconscious. With him dealt with he moved towards Nat who was barely able to fight off the two women she was battling, even with Clint providing cover fire.
"Yeah, it seems Obie got himself an upgrade." Tony said before he grunted as he was blasted out of the sky. Tony pushed himself out of a nearby building and fired a giant beam from his chest at the charging Iron Monger blasting him away. "They have tech more advanced than the stuff being found everywhere but similar in design. Seems like we found the cause of the rise in enhanced crime." Tony said as he flew up and tackled a recovered Stane.
Harry was about to reply as he tried to attack the blond woman with a flying knee but was interrupted when he was sucker punched by Blonsky. Harry was sent flying and skipped along the ground like a stone being thrown across a lake.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Natasha was breathing heavily as she used her staff to parry another slice of the sword wielding woman in front of her. Jumping up she was able to dodge the energy blast from the blond floating nearby. Spinning the staff she sent out a wave of frozen energies and blocked another blast with the newly created I've wall. Landing into a roll she swept the ground towards the sword wielder causing a wave of ice spike to grow upwards and blocking the advancing swordswoman.
Using the staff she pushed at the ground and dozed another blast. Pulling back she spun the staff and blocked several more blasts before pulling a gun and shooting several magic bolts at the flying woman. Constantly, back and forth, she battled. Arrows from Hawkeye came flying down to interrupt attacks or break the flow of her enemies, but slowly she was losing in stamina. Using a quick glance she saw Tony battling the other suit.
She held out for what felt like hours before a figure was suddenly blasted into the ground nearby. Looking over she saw Harry land on the glowing form of Aldrich Killian before knocking him out with a kick to the face. She parried another attack and smiled to herself as he rushed to her aid only to see him getting punched from a blind spot and launched across the road.
"HA-Summoner!" Nat caught herself as she watched her boyfriend rag doll across the road. She paid for it as a blast from the blond woman caught her in the chest. The damage was blocked by her armor but still launched her away. As the two women went to chase down Black Widow they were stopped by a hulking green behemoth that landed directly in front of them and roared before he clapped his hands together and blasted the brunette away with a massive shockwave, the blond stumbled but wasn't sent flying.
Nat sat up gingerly, feeling the presence of fresh bruises all over her body. Shaking it off she stumbled up and was about to rush to Harry's side when the wall rubble that he was knocked into exploded and Harry came flying out. She smiled in relief as he blasted across the road and drop kicked the huge form of Blonsky in the back. Hulk who had just thrown the blond woman away capitalized on this and uppercutted the Abomination.
Between the two of them they slowly beat down the massive man before Hulk got him in a head lock and started to choke him. Harry was scanning the area when a sinking was heard and he looked over only to see a grenade looking item. Feeling a tingle of danger he moved as fast as possible and rushed towards Nat and yelled, "MOVE!"
Hulk pushed away Abomination as he leapt away and Harry landed on a nearby roof with Widow. He watched as the grenade-like object exploded causing a yellow wave of energy to expand out. Everything the energy hit rapidly corroded, leaving the road looking like a pit of sand and dust.
"What the hell was that?" Natasha asked with a wide eyed look from next to Harry.
"I'm not sure, but that could have done serious damage to even me." Harry said as he looked for the villains they were battling, only to realize they were all gone. "Looks like our new admirers took that as a way to retreat."
"You're right." Tony said as he landed next to them with his helmet now collapsing into his suit, "Stane fell back as soon as the sixth person showed up." Tony shook his head as he inspected the area.
"Who were those people?" Bruce asked as he shrunk down, his clothes reappearing on his body.
"Well the other guy in a suit was Obadiah Stane, real pillock that one. The orange moron was Aldrich Killian. You know Blonsky of course." Harry said while Bruce's eye glowed green for a moment as Hulk acknowledged the comment. "I'm not sure about the other three?" Harry said with a questioning tone towards Tony.
"The last guy didn't fight, he only showed up at the end." Tony explained as he inspected the damage of the nearby areas. Stane's weapons did tons of damage to the nearby buildings and infrastructure. Suddenly Tony's phone was ringing with the star spangled banner, Harry raised an eyebrow at him but Tony easily ignored it. "Tony here." "Yeah everything is fine now but we need the whole team back at the tower." "There was an attack, but they retreated." "Don't get your trousers in a twist grandpa everyone is safe, if a little banged up." "We'll see you soon."
"So Steve?" Harry asked
"Yup. Him and Thor are on their way back. They were successful in making contact with that catsuit guy in Africa. We will need to be at that meeting evidently." Tony said, looking directly at Harry. "Turns out the guy is from Wakanda and their king and prince want to meet us."
"Whatever. I'm going to do some cleanup. You three go and collect Clint and clean yourselves up, I'll be up shortly." Harry said. He pulled down his cowl and gave Nat a quick kiss before flying off to start the cleanup.
For the next hour or so Harry flew around and repaired what he could. Some of the buildings damaged by the corrosion bomb didn't repair properly, so he had to transfigure the dust and stone into something usable. When he was done he looked around and frowned at the few deaths that occurred. Sighing, he flew up and approached the tower. Waving his hand around as he flew up made the tower look almost undamaged from the fight. The furniture could be transfigured, but they would never be as comfortable as a proper couch, so he left that to Tony to replace.
Moving to his room in the tower he saw Nat laying in bed already asleep from her long day. Taking a quick shower he elected to join her. Maybe when he woke up the world would be a little less crazy.
AN: Hope you all like these chapters. If my writting style seems a little off blame it on the face slapping webnovel I'm reading right now. On to the Reviews!
Firestar Prime - All heroes need villains. Don't worry they aren't going to be like a big bad in the background, their just the catalyst to the next arc.
Vukk - So far my only plans for magical Marvel characters generally have some type of magic in their backstory; Magik, Clea, Agatha Harkness, Pixie, and any of the Master of the Mystic Arts characters. (Note taht even if they are on the list, doesn't mean they will actually make an appearance. I'm just using them as an example.) The only one not on that list that has a type of magic is Ororo Munroe, which is a storm mage, but has no affinity for any other magic.
Dauntes - Most likely but one of them might survive, I'm not sure just yet.
wery07 - Eh, The League of Villains was actually a one off villain group in the Strange Tale comics starring Doctor Strange. It had Black Knight, Starr (a space dragon), Baron Mordo, and a few others. There is also the League of Villainy headed by The Riddler. I don't think the name is that odd, you just feel that way because The League of Villains has been popularized in My Hero Academia. Some of the more well known names from Marvel are just as odd; Masters of Evil, Dark Avengers, Circus of Crime, Bastards of Evil, Villains for Hire, and The Revengers.