April 2014, Penthouse, Avengers Tower, Two Days After the Battle
Harry walked into the main room and saw his teammates in various levels of casts and bandages, all looking at Fury who stood next to the windows.
"Glad you could finally make it." Fury said as he turned around.
"You'd be late too if you spent nearly 12 hours cleaning up the streets." Harry shot back as he took a seat next to the wheelchair Nat was in.
"The media is in a frenzy over the general mayhem of the last few months." Fury said, ignoring Harry's comment. "With such a large scale attack and the various attacks all around the globe people are worried and questioning everything. The UN is scrambling to make the best of the situation and secret meetings between leaders are being held behind closed doors all over. I can't guarantee what's being said but I can make a guess." Fury said with a look at the gathered Avengers.
"If they try and step in we'll just step out." Harry said easily. "I won't have some corrupt bloody fools try and control me or mine." The rest of the team seemed to agree, even if Steve looked slightly uncomfortable with not helping.
"It won't be that easy." Fury said but was interrupted before he could continue.
"Isn't it? Tony and I have figured out space travel, I can portal across the galaxy in an instant, and we know aliens exist." Harry said with a nod towards Thor. "What do they think they could do to us?"
"I'm not your enemy Harry." Fury said after a moment of silence. He looked at Harry, "Could you really leave everything here behind?"
"Who said I would leave? I have hidden my house so well it couldn't even be found with a satellite. I was just letting you know that we have other options." Harry explained as he grabbed Nat's hand. Fury looked at the gathered team and noticed they didn't look that putout by what Harry was saying. Rodgers was the most uncomfortable, but Fury chalked that up to him fighting for his county and now talking about abandoning it due to its own actions.
"Look I just wanted to give you a heads up. It looks like they might make a move soon and I didn't want you guys caught in the back." Fury said with a huff as he walked towards the .
"Nick." Harry spoke, causing the Director of SHIELD to stop. "You're more than welcome to join us at any time." Fury didn't say anything but left with his back a little straighter than previously. Nat gave him a smile and nodded.
"He seemed dispirited." Steve said as he looked at the now empty frame that was moved to the main living area.
"Of course he was. He built this team, he put his neck out to give it a chance, and defied superior officers to keep us established as a recognized entity." Tony said as he cautiously stood up and walked to the kitchen. Large bandages could be seen under his t-shirt as pink skin peeked out from underneath them.
"Us being ready to leave at a moment's notice probably didn't help either." Clint said from another wheelchair beside Thor. His arm was in a cast and he had a massive brace on his back, keeping it straight as it slowly healed.
"Fury is a good man. His quest to better the world hinges on having the warriors to back it up." Thor said thoughtfully from the side. He was already back to normal, having healed the massive gash on his chest overnight.
"Don't worry." Harry said from the side as he played with Nat's hand. "If they try anything I'll stop it. I said what I said because it was true, but also to give Fury ammunition to pull in some support. I love this planet and my home and if the governments of the world think they can control us." Harry paused as his eyes flashed, "Well, they will find out how wrong they are."
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
June 2014, Tony's Lab, Avengers Tower
Harry and Tony had been busy since the defeat of the group led by Stane. With Stane, Killian, and Viper dead, the organization built by the six villains fell apart. This of course caused problems in the short turn, but the approached SHADE members banded together and quickly fought off the wild and leaderless group.
Egghead, Moonstone, and Abomination were recaptured, but this time Harry took them directly to his prison. Watching Blonsky turn from the big monstrous version of himself back to his human form as the runes in the cell went to work, was fascinating. Unfortunately if left Emil Blonsky armless, not that they could be bothered to care. Harry even recommended putting him down, but Steve argued that killing in battle and execution were very different. Harry didn't want to upset Cap and agreed, with the proviso that Blonsky would never leave his prison.
So with all of the so-called 'League' under lock in key or six feet deep, the team could finally relax and get back to their everyday lives. Tony and Harry were back in the lab, the only change being a small room with a see-through wall was built into the lab. This small room housed a veritable mountain of toys and children's books and allowed Harry to keep an eye on Teddy while still working. Teddy also didn't seem to mind, with Harry in eyesight he had no problem playing and reading whatever he wanted. There was also a super nice voice that could get him anything he asked for or answer questions.
"So what next?" Harry asked as he wiped his hands clean from his etching works. Tony put the finishing touches on the repairs of his suit and leaned up and removed his goggles.
"Well I was thinking of supplying a general armory." Tony said as he moved to the side and made himself another cup of coffee. "We need to have support items available for the new recruits. They also need training and we'll need to build more of those battle bots that you created for our training room." Tony said with a sigh as he sipped his coffee.
"True. We'll also need to complete the compound then approach the team about filing out our roster." Harry said as he cleaned up his workstation and looked over at Teddy. "Part of me wants to step back from the small-time stuff and spend more time with my kids."
"I know what you mean." Tony said as he stood next to Harry and watched Teddy jump onto a giant stuffed dragon. Harry gave him a look, "What? I've been doing this for six years now. I'm thinking of settling down a bit and you know how much Pepper worries."
"Oh ho? Settling down? Is the Billionaire Playboy going off the market permanently?" Harry asked with a chuckle. Tony just bumped his shoulder and grumbled under his breath before he reached into a nearby desk drawer pulling out a box.
"I'm going to ask Pep to marry me." Tony said as he flipped it open and revealed a gorgeous ring.
"That's quite the ring." Harry said as he inspected it. When he was done he stood back up and put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Congratulations man, I've been rooting for you two for ages. When are you going to ask her?"
"I was thinking of doing so soon, but part of me wants to wait until after I've gotten this removed." He said as he tapped the arc reactor in his chest. Harry sighed as he looked at it. If he had access to magical reagents it wouldn't be difficult to make something and do the removal in a day or two, but without skele gro, which he ran out of years ago, it will take a lot of time and hard work. Suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Actually, if we can complete the med-bed, I could remove the shrapnel while it does all the work of repairing your chest and heart." Harry said as he gazed off thinking over all the scenarios. Tony seemed to find the same train of thought and started computing and designing in his head.
A few years ago Harry had set several long term ideas down and the med-bed was one of them. It was a completely autonomous surgery bed, run by AI, that could quickly and efficiently do any procedure a surgeon could. Of course it had limitations as well. It would need any and all information on procedures, so anything experimental or irregular would not be feasible just yet. But heart repair and bone grafts are quite common and could easily be handled by the AI running the bed.
With an idea in mind they forgot their previous conversation and got to work. It wasn't until Pepper walked in to find them that they realized it was already very late in the day. Harry took a look at the table next to the door and Teddy's play area and saw the ring box. He quickly sent a silent spell at the box, causing it to vanish. Tony noticed and visibly relaxed as Pepper left, expecting them to follow.
Harry waited until the door closed before dropping the concealment ward and summoning the box. "Better put that away until you're ready." Harry said as he tossed it to Tony. Tony just nodded as he opened the draw and closed it again. This time Harry noticed a fingerprint scanner on the draw and nodded.
Harry moved over to the side room and picked up the wolf cub Teddy, who probably fell asleep after eating his afternoon snack. As he picked him up, Teddy woke up and attacked Harry with licks to his face causing Harry to roll his eyes and float Teddy beside himself. Teddy whined and barked before shifting back to his human form.
"Mean daddy." Teddy said with a huff as he crossed his little arms. Tony could be heard snickering just behind them so Teddy turned in mid air and stuck his tongue out. Harry summoned him over and held him in his arms.
"Don't be like that." Harry said with a roll of his eyes as he conjured a small hankie. He started wiping leftover sauce on his face before he set him down. Teddy didn't even wait for a moment before he shot off and ran to the elevator. Turning the corner Tony and Harry saw Teddy being held by Pepper as he talked about his adventures today and all the stuff he saw his daddy and uncle Tony do. Harry had to fire off a quick tickling charm when Teddy mentioned the box.
"What box?" Pepper asked as she narrowed her eyes at Harry and Tony who were trying to look innocent.
"Just a project I'm working on for the general armory." Tony explained as he darted his eyes to Harry for a moment who nodded along, "Did you know that Teddy made his dragon fly all on his own today?" he asked, trying desperately to sidetrack the conversation. Pepper looked at him for a moment longer but had her attention pulled back by the toddler who was explaining that all dragons fly and how upset he was when one of his couldn't.
It didn't take long for the elevator to put them on the family floor, as they now called it, where the sight of Wanda and Natasha staring at Clint and Steve playing a very serious game of poker.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as he walked up beside Wanda and Natasha, putting his arm around his girlfriend's waist and placing a hand on his daughter's head. Wanda slightly smiled before giving him an annoyed look as she pulled away from his hand and tried to fix her hair.
"Evidently the new recruits are scheduled for their first training event and they couldn't figure out who would do it. They decided to figure it out with a poker game." Nat explained as she leaned into Harry. He just raised an eyebrow as he looked at Steve and Clint both eyeing each other with cards in their hand and the river full. Pietro was seated to the side as the dealer and Thor was lounging on a one seat nearby tossing his hammer up and down.
Steve eyed Clint and played his hand, 2 pairs. Clint visibly grinned before presenting his cards with a flourish.
"Straight! Suck it!" Clint leaned back and propped his feet up on the table. "Looks like Cap will be taking this training event."
"I love how he thinks the whole team won't be there for the first training event for SHADE ever." Harry said fairly loudly to Natasha and Wanda. Clint looked up at him like he stole the last cookie in the jar.
"You said we didn't need to be there all the time." Clint said with a whine, getting an eyebrow raise from the three standing there.
"This is the very first training event sponsored by SHADE. It will be the first showing of what we as a group can offer other heroes. We can use this opportunity to gauge the temperament, ability, and potential of those we recruited first hand. Of course we're all going to be there." As Harry explained it Steve gave a little smirk to Clint but nodded along with Harry's reasonings.
Harry then led everyone to the dining room and passed around take-out containers. Everyone was discussing the new organization and the plans in place. Clint mopped for a bit before spending the rest of dinner trying to make Teddy laugh, but instead had Pietro cracking up while Teddy ignored him in favor of having Natasha feed him. Harry watched as everyone ate and relaxed, he compared it to just a month ago when everyone was still on the mend.
Nearly being beaten had damaged the confidence they gained after the invasion and taking out HYDRA. It took Steve explaining his own shortcomings when he was younger and how it couldn't keep them down to get most of them out of their funk. Of course Steve was ready to go even before his pep talk, never being one to give up when the chips are down it wasn't surprising.
Now here they sat, all healed up and ready to engage in the future. He knew something was coming, not what it was but he would make sure they were prepared. Thinking of the future, he realized he hadn't gone to see Yao since last year. Maybe tomorrow.
AN: Reviews!
Joe Lawyer - I actually adressed that in the previous chapter but like a lot of things I'm learning, should have been stated explicitly at some point. I'm trying to craft a story and create events, especially since Ultron won't be happening and HYDRA was taken out early, so the rise of Villains had to start somewhere. As for the killing thing, the Avengers (read Steve) realized that they kill a lot of people in battle so started training to reduce that amount. It's hard to be a figure of heroics if you kill everyone who fights you. I'll do what I can for truly evil and irredeemable characters, but I can't kill them all off all the time.
Also yes, Harry is a wizard again. My style and ideas were influenced by my current reading project and I wrote Harry very differently than I usually did. I'll try and keep that from happening in the future
Monkey D. Conan - Glad you liked it. It took some time for me to craft that chapter and I kept feeling like I was missing something. So I'm glad you liked it.
Naruto Uzumaki - Loki was found, because he wanted to be found. He walked into a crowded elites party to gather an eye and then walked out into the streets using his magic. So that doesn't count.
Elihas Starr is a genius level villain from the Marvel universe, codenammed Egghead due to his large egg-shaped head. He isn't just some random OC that I made. Also did you think the worldwide robbing of banks and military installations was just a side thing? It was how they funded their operations and stole alien tech to use in Eggheads experiments. Yes, that means that the Department of Damage Control still exists.
Harry doesn't have any magical owls and Muggleborns were found using large ward nets that could register magic all across the United Kingdoms. He could use blood, if he had any, or he could use scrying, which I didn't think of, so he didn't. I try and fill holes that pop up but I honestly can't think of everything.
Good news for you, this particular set of villains is done for and a new arc begins.
Dauntes - Honestly? Harry just didn't have enough hate to generate a killing curse. If you noticed, the only chapter or battle he used one was the chapter that Teddy was kidnapped by demons. Harry just doesn't have the natural mind set to use the killing curse like the Death Eaters did. Also, I've always wanted to write in the organ liquefying curse. It's brutal.
starboy454 - Thanks for commenting as much as you do. It really helps keep me motivated to know people enjoy reading what I write. Cheers!