One Of The Team

After Harry left, and after Loki followed, one of the agents that had been compromised snuck into the lab and hit Bruce with a dart. They still wanted him to rampage after all, and Loki was too powerful to go after just yet. Bruce, feeling his adrenaline spike thanks to whatever had filled the hollow point, panicked. He was going to change, he knew it, but he was lucky he was alone because that meant less casualties. When he did change, 'Bruce' went to sleep and the 'Hulk' woke up. 

Hulk was angry, Hulk was scared, Hulk wanted out. So, Hulk did what he usually did best; he tore his way through the walls. He was self aware enough to run from the agents, wanting nothing more than open sky and the ground beneath his feet, so as he ran, he ignored the pings of pain against his thick skin. They were little more than pokes against his hide, after all, and the only thing they served to do was irritate him. Eventually, however, he couldn't run anymore because he was falling. He let gravity take him, a satisfied grumble rumbling from him now that he was safe, then something in him urged him in one direction. 

Not knowing what it was, but knowing it was safe, he followed the urge. 

Harry had been halfway down the rather long hall when Bruce changed and he raced back, slowly beginning to fix the damage caused by the Hulk's beeline for freedom. Only one engine was still down, with Tony outside working on repairs, and after cleaning up Bruce's mess, Harry made his way as quickly as possible toward the hospital area. With Natasha going directly after Barton, and getting him rather early, the man hadn't been able to scramble their computers which meant they only had damage to repair. 

Loki continued to follow the smaller Seidr, eyes cataloguing everything he did and every spell he used, then he watched as Harry freed Barton from the last vestiges of mind control. "It was already fading, and I healed your concussion and the bruising on your brain, but you're clear now. Your eyes will stay a nice bright blue for a while before fading, just like Loki's, but you're clean. Can I scan the rest of your body for injuries before you get up? I want to make sure you didn't hurt yourself otherwise."

Hawkeye looked uncertainly between Harry, Natasha, and Loki, then at Natasha's nod, he repeated the gesture. Harry just smiled, waved a hand over Barton's body, then snagged the parchment out of the air and read it through. "There's a little I could do about the extent of your deafness, maybe enough to allow you to hear a tiny bit, but it says here it's a childhood affliction so it's too old to cure entirely. If I had the right ingredients, I could brew a skele-grow to strengthen your bones which show damage over the years, but I don't. If you like, I could boost them with my magic? It'll last maybe a year or two, and I can renew it, but until I can find the ingredients for skele-grow, you'll suffer lingering pain in mishealed broken bones." 

Barton read all this from Harry's lips, though it looked like he'd actually heard everything because of how practiced he was at hiding his weakness, and shrugged. "I've gotten by fine this far. Leave it and if you find the right things, then I don't mind you asking again then." 

Green eyes took in the man's conviction, then Harry nodded and stood, brushing off his legs. "You're free to go then. You might want to suit up, though, because we're headed out to the Tower." 

Natasha looked up sharply at that and raised an eyebrow. "'We'? What happened to you not fighting in other people's battles, Harry?" 

"Yeah, well, when you've got an alien army coming to Earth to attempt a hostile take over, what else can I do really? This is my world now, and I need to protect the people in it. I still won't fight if it's a quarrel between humans, but when it comes to extraterrestrial threats?" He grinned, the sight frightening due to the glow of power surrounding him. "Theyll learn why I'm called the Master of Death soon enough. You two get suited up now, I'm heading out to see if there are any injured. I'm still mostly at max capacity for magic, so I could use a bit of a distraction." 

Waving over his shoulder, Harry left two stunned but physically fine agents and headed down to the bridge, wondering what the damage would be. It turned out to not be that much, mainly some mild scrapes, a few burns, and only one gunshot victim. Phil had been stabbed by a rogue agent, just missing his heart, but that was the worst injury and Harry still had it healed within a few seconds. The call came then, as he was scouring himself clean with magic, and Harry looked up to see Tony on the big screen. 

"Come on, pint size and Reindeer Games, time to go defeat an army." Tony grinned before the image cut out, and Harry looked to Loki before they shared matching smirks. Harry had been the son of a Marauder, the godson of another, and the honorary nephew of the third, after all; pranking was in his blood. With no warning at all, he grabbed Loki by the arm, spun on the spot, and apparated them into the hangar, unknowingly leaving behind several short circuited electronics that fried with the burst of magic. 

Loki swore when they landed and bent over to breathe through his nose, his stomach churning, then he glared up at Harry when the male chuckled. "Never, do that again. That was worse than the secret roots of the Yggdrasil." He grumbled, ignoring Harry snickering into his palm, then once he felt like his tender stomach could handle the movement, he straightened and followed Harry into the jet which was already filled with Steve, Natasha, and Hawkeye. Tony had elected to fly himself in a second suit of armor, and as a group, they left, Harry and Loki staying to the back. 

In an unconscious gesture, their magic began mixing again, twining into strands and coaxing the other's out to play. Never had Harry felt anything like it before, not even with Ginny, but he was sure it meant something. Then again, it felt like something was still missing, like there was a gap between their magics that needed something. It feels too calm... Chaotic, yes, but not quite 'wild' enough. 

Bruce landed, the Hulk once more relegated to the back of his mind, and woke to the sound of an older man's voice. He was given clothes, praised for his aim in landing almost the middle of nowhere, then he hijacked an old vintage motorcycle and began following that tug that had led the Hulk. There was no telling what he'd find when he arrived, but for once, he looked forward to the adrenaline, the explosion of power he got when 'Bruce' became 'Hulk', and surprisingly, Hulk grumbled approvingly in the back of his head. Didn't realize he was sentient... He thought to himself, receiving another surprise as he got an insulted grumble in return. 

Tony arrived first at the tower, ignoring the tesseract set up to land on the pad and letting Jarvis remove his simple flight suit, then he added the damaged one to storage for repair and pulled out the prototype Mark Seven bracelets which he slipped on. By that point in time, the rest of the 'team' had arrived and scattered around the penthouse suite, tension radiating from them all. Harry looked upwards with glazed eyes, hands twitching as if he was trying to interact with something, and Loki stood next to the man, seemingly hovering. Thor scowled in their direction but didn't interfere, then Harry jolted forward and shook his head to clear it. 

"It's happening. The tesseract... It's-... It's like I can understand it, almost. It's not sentient, not really, but at the same time it is? I don't know how to describe it, but we need to leave." 

The building jolted as a beam of energy shot up into the sky, forming a portal much the same as it had in the compound, but this one was much larger and opened onto blank space. Almost immediately, that blank space was filled with Chitauri riders, those who would be the first to invade, and Tony was the first to act, deploying the Mark Seven and shooting up into the sky. Meanwhile, Harry followed behind, using the spell taught to him by Severus's portrait after they'd dealt with each other the better part of a century so he could fly. A protective bubble formed around him while the rest of the team took out riders one by one, then as he hovered, he used a sonorous maximus, a spell designed for panicking crowds who wouldn't be able to hear the regular sonorous.

"Citizens of New York, please remain calm and evacuate to the nearest shelter or subway station. I repeat, please evacuate to the nearest shelter or subway station. These invaders will not hesitate to kill you, and their first target will be the buildings. Please, remain calm and evacuate in an orderly fashion. Those of you in the police force, please assist in the evacuation of civilians. Your assistance will be much appreciated." A blast against his shield had him turning an aggravated look on his attacker, who then disintegrated into nothing with a quick fiendfyre, and once he'd taken out a few more, he made his way back to the balcony of Stark Tower. 

The device to amplify the tesseract was fully operational, the buzz and hum of protective magic surrounding it, but the thing was, Harry didn't want to destroy it; he wanted to see if he could absorb it. Landing, he stunned Selvig, cast a sticking charm on him so he'd stay put, then approached the whirring force field of energy. It was intense, the sheer amount of power making it hard to breathe, but at the same time, it seemed to welcome him in, fusing with his skin until he literally glowed with it. So absorbed in absorbing the tesseract, Harry didn't notice the aliens creeping closer until lightning crackled harmlessly against his skin and Thor landed with a thud. 

Thor took one look at the male before him, glowing from within with power, then yanked him forward and crushed him close into a heated kiss. Harry's gasp allowed him entrance and he took it, his tongue swiping along Harry's, the roof of the male's mouth, the insides of his cheeks. The only thing the green eyed male could do was hang on to Thor's armor and melt. This is what I was missing with Loki, but now I'm missing Loki with Thor. Hands crackling with energy wrapped around Harry, breaking his train of thought, and he made an incoherent sound as he was pressed closer, the firm muscles of Thor's chest, arms, stomach, pretty much everything taking all his focus. 

Repulsors powered up next to them, breaking their concentration, and Thor pulled away to smugly survey Harry's glazed expression before looking to the Man of Iron. 

"You can make out later, there's a war on, remember?!" Tony scowled behind his mask and flew off, then Thor followed, flight assisted by Mjolnir as he crashed into and through aliens and their chariots. 

Before Harry could regain his senses, there was an arm around his waist, a body pressed against his back, and teeth digging into his neck as Loki sucked a hickey into his skin. The mix of pain and pleasure had him once more melting, head tilted with a confused mewl of sound, then Loki stood him up straight, held him like that till he regained his balance, and smirked as he left.  

"What-... What just happened?" He asked no one in particular. Since he hadn't really expected a reply, the one he got startled him. 

"Your mate, in this case mates, have been chosen, Master. I will not truly claim them until after you part from this world." Death, a cloaked being of indeterminate gender, though Harry always thought it was a male, swept a shallow bow toward his master, then raised back up. "You will need to wait one half hour before closing the portal, Master, as there are some fated to die this day, but not after that time." 

Harry nodded and waved Death away, then turned back to the tesseract, intending to ignore all that had just happened until he absolutely had to face it. Instead, he focused on reading and translating the strings of magic coming from it. They still absorbed into him, leaving him glowing and radiating enough magic to rebound Chitauri weapon blasts but he could hear them, almost like the veil of Death from the Ministry in his old world. 

A thrum from the cube had him looking up, then he stared, wide eyed, as huge, segmented beasts that flew came from the portal, roaring their challenges and dropping more Chitauri soldiers when they swept closer to the ground. There were still people screaming below him, on the streets, and the cries of the Chitauri who came close enough to disintegrate seemed to ease something in him, but all Harry could see was the destruction, the chaos, the kind of damage that would leave scars on the people for years to come. That was all he could see, and he wanted it to stop, but he couldn't. Death had its place, as well as Life did, and while he was Master of Death, he didn't want the power, didn't want the ability to bring back those he loved or his friends' loved ones, didn't want to use it and then grow addicted to it, and that meant letting this play out. 

Bruce arrived sometime after the second or third leviathan, puttering in on his motorcycle, and looked around at the devastation before meeting the team's eyes. "So... This all seems... horrible." 

Natasha gave him a wary look and nodded, then disagreed. "I've seen worse." 

The comment made Bruce smile slightly, though it was all anxiety and nerves. "Sorry..."

The red head smirked and shook her head a tiny bit. "No, we could use a little worse." They needed all the man power they could get, and if the Hulk joined in, then the fight would already be half won, she could feel it.

Steve contacted Tony through the comms, Tony quipped something idiotic, earning a sarcastic reply from Natasha, then Bruce stepped toward the oncoming Leviathan and sighed inwardly. Time for you, big guy. Make it count.

A bit of flashy transformation later and the leviathan had exploded into chunks of alien meat and bits of metal, the Chitauri screaming and yelling war cries from their perches. It was a daunting sound, being as there were so many of them, but then things got worse. There were more leviathans, more Chitauri, more screams, more death, just more. Steve took charge of the group, sending Hawkeye to cover them from a nearby rooftop, Tony was given the perimeter, Thor was tasked with clogging up the portal while Tony flew Hawkeye away, then Steve turned to Natasha, who he wanted sticking close to him. They made an effective combo, after all. 

Turning at last to the Hulk, Steve smirked. "And Hulk...?" The green guy looked at him quickly, looking anxious for something to do. "Smash." 

No more words were exchanged, Hulk just went on a rampage, leaping around and crushing Chitauri under his feet or in his hands. 

"Sir! The council is on." Agent Hill's words got Fury's attention easily, and he bit back irritation at being summoned in the middle of a crisis. There was a lot of back and forth until the Councilwomam spoke, sounding final. 

"Director Fury, the Council has made a decision."

Fury glared at the screens surrounding him. "I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."

"Director, you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet-"

Fury snapped and interrupted. "That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against the civilian population." 

A voice drifted to his ears, one that nearly made him shiver with the power behind it, and Fury barely refrained from reacting. 

"Send them. Send them or the Councilmen will go behind your back. Send them, but order them to fire into the hole." 

Fury tuned back into the conversation, made some excuses to send out the jets like he'd been ordered, then cut the call, feeling Hill come up on his side. 

"Sir, are we really sending the jets?" She asked nervously, pacing beside him as he moved away from the control panels. 

"Not as the council intended." Was all Fury would say, expression blank as he stepped back to the control panels and sent out the order. They were to fire only into the portal, not at the civilians, and he left it at that. 

Harry was lost to the whispering and power of the tesseract, arms held slightly out to his sides and eyes staring blankly at the shimmering force field, and his skin glowed bright enough that Natasha had to shield her eyes when she looked at him. It was almost like staring into a fluorescent lightbulb, and he barely twitched toward her when she stepped up beside him. 

"Harry... Harry, we need to shut it down. Come on, Harry." She coaxed, keeping her voice soft. Selvig had woken nearby but couldn't move from his position against the ground, flat on his back. 

Humming softly to the whispering of the cube, Harry barely managed to hear Natasha, but he shook his head. "Not yet. The Council seeks island wide destruction, Fury sends salvation, and the time is not right. Death must take his due or the balance will be broken. Death must come, or the world will end." 

To say that Natasha was freaked would be putting it mildly, especially as Harry's eyes never strayed from the cube, and his voice never lost the soft monotone that was barely audible over the sound of power humming from the cube. She didn't understand magic and gods and aliens, though, so she didn't question it, just updated the team on what had happened and waited for when Harry shut the portal down. Nerves began to catch up to her as she watched the destruction spread, seeing the tiny forms of her teammates falling further and further behind, and she anxiously asked Harry again to close the portal, but all he would say was "not yet". They were getting hammered, desperately needed assistance, and just as she was about to pester Harry for the fourth time in as many minutes, there was the rumble of jet engines and the scream of bombs whistling through the air. 

Harry smiled at the sound, sensed the death coming for the Chitauri, and began swaying a bit more in place as the tesseract began to sing to him. The song told of power enough to wipe out the Chitauri, of how he could do it so easily, but he'd been tempted with power often enough to resist its allure and clamped down firmly on the energy swirling within him. Bombs whistled past, into the portal, and he saw it like an overlay to his eyes as the explosions caused destruction, chaos, and Death. He saw it, felt it, and knew the time had finally come, so with gentle hands, he reached through the barrier, ignored the pain in his skin as it began disintegrating, and plucked the tesseract from its temporary home. Once it was free, the power to the portal cut, and with it, the connection the Chitauri had with anything resembling their hive mind, and Harry's connection with the tesseract. 

He dropped; the tesseract fell from numb, regenerating fingers and Natasha was quick to catch him, then nudge the tesseract with a piece of rock over to a safer part of the balcony. Once it was secure, she laid Harry down and brushed the hair out of his eyes, glad he'd stopped glowing so intensely but worried about how abrupt it had been. Thor and Loki each landed nearby, rushing over to kneel beside Harry and check him over, and Natasha took the chance to move inside where she grabbed a pair of tongs and used them to transport the cube to the counter. Away from the trio, she contacted the team through the comms. 

"Harry closed the portal and he's out, but he's being looked after. I have the tesseract inside. How is everyone?" She called, receiving an array of answers. Hawkeye had been shredded by glass, Steve was barely standing, and Tony's stunt with the leviathan had ended with his suit barely working. Hulk was still Hulk, and likely would be until the adrenaline wore off a bit, and Thor and Loki had quickly moved Harry inside where Loki monitored the man's vitals and Thor stood guard, wary despite the apparent safety. 

Tony had also, at some point, managed to end up knocked unconscious, though it hadn't lasted long and the entire group made their way up to the penthouse suite, Hulk relegated to climbing the tower from the outside while Hawkeye, Tony, and Steve took the elevator. Then they arrived and saw how Harry was unresponsive and the joy of victory felt the slightest bit hollow. 

Three days later and survivors were still being interviewed to... mixed results. The majority were thankful for the Avengers, but some wondered at their power if they could defeat an alien invasion with only eight people. Fury, on the other hand, had to deal with the Council and their potential treachery. 

"Where are the Avengers?"

Fury raised a hairless eyebrow, arms folded over his chest, and stared down the councilman. "I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."

"And the tesseract?" 

"The tesseract is where it belongs." With someone who could control its power without being destroyed by it. 

"That's not your call."

Fury snorted mentally and shook his head minutely. "I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did." 

"So you let him take it, and the war criminal Loki who should be answering for his crimes?"

"You mean his victimized brother and his rightful property? Yes, actually. Loki could have destroyed this planet ten times over if he'd been serious, but he let himself be caught. That's the only reason Earth stands whole." 

"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous." 

Nodding, Fury smiled pleasantly. "They surely are, and the whole world knows it. Every world knows it." 

"Was that the point of all this? A statement?"

"A promise." Turning, Fury left the room behind, headed to check on the bridge. 

A few moments after he arrived, Agent Hill stepped up next to him and kept pace. "Sir? How does it work now? They've gone underground, so to speak, some even leaving to travel. If we get into a situation like this again, what happens then?" 

"They'll come back." He said simply, not worried in the least. 

"Why are you so sure about them? 

Looking over his shoulder, Fury locked his eye on her before looking back out through the glass. "Because we'll need them to." 

Appeased, Hill left.

At the tower, Harry slept, and as he did, he dreamt of the lullaby of the power stone, of the death stone, otherwise named the soul stone, and of their brethren. Death visited his dreams to speak with him, telling him of the mad Titan Thanos and his greed for Death's own hand, how Thanos had a greater army of 'children' more powerful than the Chitauri. He warned Harry to build his strength, his team, his tolerance for the power stone itself, because soon he would need it. Soon, Death said, soon Thanos would come. And when he did, Death would follow. 

Harry woke with a gasp, bolting upright in the bed, and immediately was wrapped in soothing arms. The crackle of chaos and lightning comforted him as it tickled along his skin, and after a moment, he managed to focus, one hand reaching up to lightly touch each of their arms. "He comes. Soon, Thanos will plunge the worlds into chaos and destruction and Death. Preparations must be made, people gathered, resources obtained. Thanos must be stopped or the worlds will end. Ragnarok comes for Asgard and Earth is the last stronghold against his might. When the path twists we will fight, then fight again." 

Loki caught Harry as he slumped, eyes fluttering shut then slowly opening. With a groan, Harry pressed a hand to his forehead, right over where his curse scar had been in his first life, and huffed. "I hate when Death speaks through me... It doesn't happen often, but I still hate it." 

Thor gently reached forward and brushed soothing fingers over Harry's forehead, easing the pain just by his touch. "Fear not, you will not be alone. Asgard's Princes stand by you, Harry Potter, Avatar and Master of Death." 

He smiled at both of them, then rubbed his face and looked around. After three days of laying in bed he needed exercise.