Chapter 24
Harry didn't care about Fury's talk with Loki (though he did still watch it as he took off the suit). All he cared about was Loki keeping his mouth shut because he had said too much on the jet. He hissed as the suit eased off him and frowned as he caught a look at his reflection; the lines from his chest were slowly edging out of his undershirt.
He had three cores with him, and he hoped that would be enough. He would have rather held out, but this one was giving signs and the last thing Harry wanted to do was walk into a conference weak. Taking a deep breath, he reached in and quickly changed the reactor, glad that he had at least gotten that process down fast.
Harry was just pulling on his jacket when Agent Coulson stepped into the room. Harry flashed him a smile, put in the earpiece for Edwin, and approached him. “Agent.”
“Mister Stark. We didn't expect you so soon.”
“Always like to make an entrance. You just can't keep away from Norse Gods, can you?”
Coulson smiled and Harry felt better to see it there. “I guess not. Shall we?”
“Lead the way.”
They walked in slightly uncomfortable silence, broken only by the discussion between Loki and Fury that was being broadcast. When it got to Loki's quip on warm lights, Harry had enough. He turned to Coulson and cleared his throat.
“Do you have anything on Clint?”
The corner of Coulson's mouth twitched and that was the only indication that he was affected by this; Harry figured he would make a decent Slytherin. “Agent Barton led the attack behind the scenes. That's all we know.”
“Right, okay. Damn.”
“We were all hoping for more, Mister Stark. This isn't just about you.”
Harry smiled as they made their way into the bridge, where everybody else seemed to be gathered. “Isn't it always?” he asked before turning to see the people Fury decided to call in.
The first person he saw was Bruce, who looked up from the feed and stared at Harry. He recognized the scared look, the one that screamed “I want to run away” - running was the last thing Harry wanted his friend to do. He didn't blame him for leaving after the Ross incident.
Harry gave Bruce a smile and immediately walked to him, ignoring the shocked looks on some of the Shield agents' faces. “Doctor Banner!”
“Mister Stark?”
Harry reached out for Bruce's hand, holding tight once he held it. “It's great to see you again. Call me Tony.”
It was nice to see how Bruce visibly relaxed, a shy smile forming on his face. “Call me Bruce.”
“Fabulous. Now, what are we talking about?” Harry turned to the others, avoiding looking at Captain America. “I might have missed some of it.”
“We're trying to figure out why Loki needed Iridium. It was stolen last night in the chaos.” The woman who said that looked stern, and a little pissed off. Harry recognized her as Maria Hill and he held back a sigh. This was the woman who knew all about him, and she had the look on her face that clearly said she was disappointed. Too bad for her.
And thank Merlin for Edwin in his ear or Harry wouldn't know what the hell she was talking about. He listened for a moment before shrugging. “Stabilizing agent.”
Bruce's eyes widened and he stepped closer to the group, tapping his glasses against his chin. “Which he would only need if he intend to do major damage.”
“Exactly, keeping the portal open for whatever he has planned.” Harry patted Bruce's shoulder before wandering around the room.
“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked just as Edwin said the answer in his ear.
Bruce was one step ahead of him and Harry was glad he didn't need to spout out everything. “Unless he's figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect, he'd have to heat the cube quite a bit.”
“A hundred and twenty million kelvin, yes,” Harry agreed, hoping Edwin was right. “That would be enough to break through the Coulomb barrier.”
“And if he could do that, he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.”
Harry stared dumbly at Bruce for half a second before Edwin snapped arrogance in his ear. The smile came on and he motioned toward Bruce, looking around the room as he did so. “Finally someone who speaks English.”
“Is that what just happened?” Steve asked as Fury walked into the room. Harry felt for him because, honestly, he barely understood that as well.
“Doctor Banner is here to track the cube and nothing else,” Fury told them. “Stark, I was hoping you could help since you might be familiar with it.”
He meant magic, and Harry knew that, but most of the people in the room didn't. “Bruce and I need to catch up anyway. Are we done here?”
“Consider this your first team briefing. Sit down, Stark.”
Harry refused and simply crossed his arms over his chest, arching an eyebrow. “So let's make this as brief as possible. Where do we start?”
“I'd say we start with that stick of Loki's,” Steve said, turning in his chair to face Thor and Fury. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”
Edwin murmured a soft, “World War II enemy” into his ear. Harry really needed to raise his pay. “Are you saying HYDRA was a bunch of wizards?”
Fury shot Harry a look before focusing his eye back on Steve. “I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube.” He glanced to Natasha before looking directly to Thor. “I'd just like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”
Thor furrowed his brow and, for a moment, Harry wanted to laugh as he said, “Monkeys? I do not understand--”
“I do!” And then Steve had to jump in, his face far too open for what Harry was used to in a soldier. He had a proud smile on his face as he looked around. “I... I understood that reference.”
Harry didn't bother hiding how ridiculous this was. He rolled his eyes and tried to remind himself why he was here, in this 'briefing,' when there were more important things to attend to.
Now that he had Bruce again, maybe they could figure out what to do about the rapidly expanding poison in his system.
“All right, I think I've had enough of this,” he said before turning to Bruce. “Shall we go find their toy now, Bruce?”
Bruce's lips quirked and Harry counted that as a victory. “Yeah, let's. I think the lab they offered me if better than yours.”
“I highly doubt the truth of that, but go ahead and try to prove me wrong.”
Bruce's laugh caused a few people to turn and watch them, but Harry ignored it. If they wanted to be scared of him, that was their problem. He rested a hand on Bruce's shoulder, squeezing it softly, and followed him down the corridor.
“I'm sorry,” Bruce said once the door slid shut. “I know you were counting on me to stay and help, but I had to leave.”
“It's okay, Bruce, I understood.” Harry leaned forward, trying to give him a smile. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”
“I hardly consider it a vacation.” Bruce motioned toward Harry's chest. “Open it up, I want to see how bad it is.”
“To be honest, I haven't looked at it in a while. I try not to.” Still, Harry pulled up on his shirt to expose his chest to Bruce. He murmured a soft spell as he did, making sure that anybody that tried to come in would suddenly want to be somewhere else.
Bruce frowned and reached out, tracing a few patterns on Harry's chest. “Does it hurt?”
“Occasionally. What's it like?”
“You seriously haven't seen it?” Harry shook his head and Bruce sighed. “You can see almost every vein extending from your heart because it's turned black. Tony... Have you even looked through my notes?”
Harry pushed the shirt down, frowning. “You know I can barely understand all of that. Edwin and I were just getting started on it before this happened.”
“Well, once we get the machines set up to find their stupid Cube, we can get down to fixing you.”
“I'm not that broken. I'm just--”
“Dying, Tony. You're just dying.” Bruce frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let that happen.”
Harry gave him a small smile, leaning back against the nearest counter. “You can try your hardest, Bruce, but right now we need to stop Loki.”
Bruce nodded, glancing toward where someone had left Loki's spear. “Something tells me that he isn't done yet despite the fact that he's here.”
Silently, Harry agreed, but he didn't voice it out loud. The last thing he wanted to do was admit that he had seen Loki's kind before, he had fought Loki's kind before, and not everybody came out of that battle sane..