章 23: Chapter 23: One down Five to go
November 12th, 2013:
I wake up, about half an hour after starting my nap. I look around and see that Jane was lying down on the ground with Darcy sitting next to her, and had a blanket put over her.
Where the fuck did the blanket come from?
I continue my scanning and see that Thor had Loki by the throat, Loki probably said something to piss him off.
They both smile suddenly and move apart. Thor turns to Jane and softly says, "I wish I could trust you."
Loki speaks up from behind Thor, "He hurt mother. Trust my rage."
I get up from the ground, where I was sleeping, and after getting rid of the kinks in my body, turn to Thor. He smiles at me and says, "We'll move from here soon. We have to find a spot that's open enough to plan something."
I nod, and we soon gather Jane, back on the chariot, and make a move.
About 15 minutes after moving from the place, and still driving, Jane suddenly gets up, eyes red, and looks up. We all realise that it was not Jane, but somehow the Aether, that was controlling her body.
Thor calls her out, to gain her attention, "Jane?"
Jane simply replies, "Malekith."
We all look above and see a ship entering the atmosphere of the planet. It travels a few ways ahead of us and lands right in the clearing ahead of us. We land the chariot and get off.
"Loki, you know the plan." Thor says, and almost orders his brother.
Loki nods. Jane had by now regained control of her body and she shakes her head.
"Are you ready?" Thor asks. We all nod, saying yes. So he says again, "Whatever you see. Do not interfere." This time, we nod a little bit hesitantly.
"Wait." I say suddenly. I bring out a Berserker's staff, along with the wristband, keep the Vibranium suit on, and say, "Venom, protect Darcy."
Venom, without saying anything, separates himself from me, leaving the suit behind, and forms a temporary bond with Darcy. She wouldn't have to live through all his memories, but will be able to use his powers. Including a Vibranium suit if needed.
"What? Why?" Darcy asks.
"Jane has the aether to protect her. Thor, me and Loki are strong enough that we won't need an armour. I can protect myself just as easily without Venom. You need him. I don't want you to die because I was selfish with power." I simply say, and shrug.
Darcy looks at me and smiles in appreciation. Jane, Thor and Loki were all amused.
Thor suddenly gets serious. "Harry. Stay hidden until the signal is given. Please, trust me." he says, holding me back. I hesitantly nod and pull Darcy down with me, hiding behind the edge of the mountain. Venom brings out the stealth tech in Darcy's hand, which I activate. The cloak covers both of us and makes us invisible. We stay behind and watch the show.
"Now, let's go." Thor says.
Loki and Jane follow him to stand near the edge of the hill we were on. Malekith and the rest of the Dark Elves see them and turn to face them, waiting for Thor to bring Jane down.
Loki asks, "You know, this plan of yours is going to get us killed?"
Thor nods, and says, "Yes. Possibly."
Loki gives his still shackled hands to Thor to unlock, who just stares at them, weary. Loki asks, "You still don't trust me, brother?"
Thor unlocks his shackles and asks, "Would you?"
Loki suddenly smirks and says, "No. I wouldn't." Suddenly Loki brings out a dagger and stabs Thor in the stomach, and throws him down.
"Thor! No!" Jane yells and starts running after him. Malekith sees this and starts walking leisurely towards Thor, with the rest of the Dark Elves following behind him.
Loki follows after Thor and taunts him about his mother. I pull Darcy down, as she was about to run into the front.
"Let me go! Harry! Thor's in danger!" Darcy furiously whispers.
I don't let go and say, "Darcy! Thor told us not to interfere no matter what we see. He meant it by this. Those two idiot brothers must have cooked up this plan. If he wanted to betray Thor, Loki would have mentioned us by now."
Darcy struggles for a minute but then nods, accepting it. We look ahead and see Thor attempting to call his hammer to him and getting his hand cut off by Loki.
Darcy winces next to me and starts crying softly, so I whisper, "Illusion, Darcy. Just an illusion. Probably."
Loki picks Jane by her hair, says something to Malekith and throws her down towards his feet. Malekith consults his Kursed and continues forward. He stops near Thor, taunts him some and then turns to Jane.
"Be ready." I whisper to Darcy. Darcy just nods, too emotional to say anything. So I say, "Venom, stay out if the fight, but if you do come to fight, be focused on the smaller soldiers. Don't go anywhere near the big one or Malekith." Darcy nods, telling me that Venom got the message.
Malekith lifts Jane into the air by a hand gesture, and red mist starts getting pulled from her, through her face. She doesn't look like she was hurting so no one interferes. When the aether is completely out of her, Jane drops down to the ground.
As soon as Jane is free of the Aether, Loki points his arm towards Thor, who suddenly doesn't look that beat up anymore and his arm was fixed too. Thor calls Mjolnir to himself, and charging it full of lightning, blasts it at the Aether. The aether gets lifted off into the air, slowly rising upwards, pushed by Thor's lightning.
We all watch in anticipation, but I knew that it won't be destroyed that easily, so I hold Darcy back, making sure she doesn't jump in too early.
The Aether and Thor's lightning, explode in a brilliant explosion of red mist, spreading the Aether everywhere. Everyone was silent.
I jump in and start running towards Malekith as fast as I can. But before I can even take one step towards him, the red mist, that had fallen down on the ground in the form of small crystals, slowly starts rising and moves towards Malekith.
"Damn it!" I say. I charge the staff with my Venom blast and throw it towards him, as I was still pretty far away from him.
Malekith simply swats the staff away from him, like an annoying fly. The venom blast, blasts on his face, but does not faze him other than pushing him back a few feet. He looks at me, now visible, and then ignoring me, starts slowly walking towards his ship.
I call back my staff, which comes back immediately and start attacking the soldiers that were standing in my way. I see Thor doing the same, with Loki defending Jane.
The Elves were weaker than the Kursed, so I didn't worry much. I kept on killing them.
Feeling the staff didn't do a good job at killing them quickly, I shout, "Venom! Stormbreaker!"
Venom quickly brings out the Stormbreaker, the Battle axe like the one Thor had had made right at the end of Infinity War. (I had loved it so much that after being reborn, I had drawn a picture of it in the Black Book!)
He throws it towards me, from where he and Darcy were slowly coming towards the fight, and I catch it, throwing them the staff in return. Attracting the axe with the wristband, I catch it and start attacking again. I cut, I smash and I kick every Dark elf I can get my hands on.
I see the Kursed throw something at Loki and Jane. I move to intervene, but Loki pushes Jane away from there, himself, so I stop.
The thing that the Kursed threw at Loki turns out to be some sort of Black-hole generating implosive device. It starts pulling Loki towards itself. Loki gets an alarmed but resigned look on his face. Thinking it's finally his time.
But Thor jumps, using his hammer to fly towards Loki and pulls him away from the implosion. The black hole disappears instantly. The soldiers that were left behind by Malekith were all dead, so we turn towards where the ship is and see Malekith and the Kursed, along with a few more soldiers climbing the ship.
Charging my version of Stormbreaker with my Venom blast, I try once more. I spin the axe like a hammer around my body, and throw it with all my considerable strength at the duo.
Apparently Thor had a different idea. He spins his hammer in his hands and throws it towards Malekith, holding the hammer so he goes with it.
"Idiot." I mumble and start running towards them. Venom knows not to interfere after this point.
The Kursed gets hit by my blast charged Stormbreaker, which throws him backwards and the blast literally destroys the other foot soldiers, but doesn't harm Malekith other than a few scratches on his face which heal quickly.
Thor, who had aimed for Malekith reaches him, but gets swats aside by him towards the Kursed. I use my wristband to call Stormbreaker towards me and continue running. Unfortunately, I'm late, I see as the ship takes off and leaves, becoming invisible on the way.
I yell in frustration, "AAARGHHH!" and turn to where Thor was battling the Kursed elf.
This guy. He's the reason Malekith got away to attack MY PLANET! Malekith could have died in Asgard if this one wasn't present.
I run towards Kursed, as fast as I can without Venom's help, I charge the axe with my Venom blast and hit the Kursed on his head, away from Thor. He gets thrown more than 100 yards away from us and lands with a thud, making a crater in the ground.
I give Thor my hand to help him stand, which he does and calls back Mjolnir towards himself. He looks at Stormbreaker and says, "I like the axe."
I smirk and say, "Thanks, Thor. We'll talk about it later. Let's deal with him first."
I turn towards where the crater was and see the Kursed slowly standing up, getting out of the crater. He shakes his head, looks at us and starts running towards us with heavy footsteps. So heavy that the ground shook with his steps.
I get on my guard, and so does Thor. The Kursed comes closer to us, I swing my axe at him, hoping to at least cut off his hand, but he dodges the swing, picks me up by the leg and throws me towards Jane and Darcy, with Loki nowhere to be seen.
"Aargh!" I yell out in pain, as his hold had crushed my left leg through the Vibranium mesh weave. I feel the Extremis in my body working hard to fix the damage done, but it was slow.
Venom quickly leaves her body and enters mine, sensing my need for him, and I instantly feel a little stronger and healing a little faster than before, not enough to make a difference though.
I see Thor get thrown in a mountain, so I start stumbling towards him, to help. The Kursed was standing above Thor, punching him in his face, again and again, with punches about as strong as Hulk's. My leg was still hurting so I couldn't run.
But I didn't need to go there, I think, as I see Loki piercing the Kursed elf with a sword. I stop and smile, thinking it's finally over. But the Kursed elf just stops punching Thor, turns around and pulls the still standing Loki towards himself, piercing him with the same sword.
"NOOO!" Thor yells out, in anguish, even I get sad for a second, and hear a faint a beeping, which brings me back to the situation.
Then Loki says, "See you in hell, Monster."
The Kursed looks at his belt, and we follow his look. The Implosive device was the beeping that I had heard.
"Oh." I say, and see the bomb burst, imploding on itself, creating a miniature black hole. The black hole pulls the Kursed towards itself, it's gravity too strong for even him to resist. He gets stretched from all sides, pulled by his feet, hands and his head into the same spot.
It was... Ugly. The Kursed was no more. Finally this one fight was over. My leg heals up then, completely.
I look down towards my leg and whisper, "Oh, now you heal?"
I shake my head, questioning my sanity for a second and start walking towards where Thor was cradling his brother.
"I didn't do it for him." I hear Loki whisper and he stops breathing, his skin turns blue. And Loki dies.
"NOOOO!" Thor screams out, anguished at the loss of his brother. He starts crying, not taking care who was seeing, just letting out his feelings.
Suddenly determined, Thor looks up. Jane and Darcy were there too. They had come while Thor was grieving. No one says a thing.
Jane simply goes and hugs Thor, because she knows that even if Loki was an evil asshole, he was Thor's brother.
Thor stands up and Jane stands with him. Thor calls back his hammer, and I absorb my axe back into myself.
"What do we do now?" Thor asks us. I shrug, not knowing the answer.
But Jane answers, "I saw him. On Earth. When he pulled the Aether out of me, I saw him use the Aether from Earth to start everything."
I ask, "So we have to go back to Earth. Great."
Darcy smirks and says, "Real good thing we already have a portal here somewhere. Just.. have to.. find it."
I shake my head, and the others all nod. They were about to start walking towards a random direction, so I speak up, before they can leave, "Would you mind leaving me here alone for a while?"
Jane and Darcy look at me questioningly and Thor asks, "Why?" a little suspicious.
I look at Loki's body and softly say, "I may have hated him. But he fought alongside us. He earned my respect for that. I'd like to pay it." I then turn towards Thor and say, "You have my word, I won't harm his body."
Thor nods and starts walking again with Jane following right beside him. Darcy looks at me in concern, but I just nod at her to ask her to go. Darcy nods and starts walking towards Thor and Jane, who were now just randomly checking caves in the mountain we were on.
I sit down on the ground near Loki's body, holding his hand, bowing my head in respect. About 5 minutes later I snap my head towards him and say, "Okay, they're far enough. Drop the illusion, Loki."
Loki's body doesn't move, not even a little for close to a full minute, I just raise my eyebrow and look at him, then the illusion drops and he's still there, laying on the ground, with the sword injury still on his guts, slowly but surely healing up, little by little.
"How'd you know?" Loki asks, not moving even a little, probably fearing that someone will come back.
"You forgot your heartbeat. Dumbass." I say and shake my head at him.
He raises an eyebrow at me, so I explain, "You can fool sight, smell and even hearing. But you can't fool the touch. I felt your heartbeat. Plus my spider like senses knew it was an illusion the moment you turned blue."
"I'm impressed. Not many people can recognise my illusions. So why didn't you tell Thor that I'm alive?" He asks me. Still calm.
I think for a moment, really think, and say, "You will be a better King for Asgard's people than Odin was. You might be a drama queen, but people will stay happy under your rule. I know you plan on somehow overthrowing Odin and taking his place on the Throne. But I have a favour to ask of you in return for not warning Thor that you're alive and planning treason."
Loki smirks, impressed and says, "Go on. Ask."
"In about a years time, start moving Asgardians and the treasures on some other planet, preferably uninhabited, starting with the civilians. And keep it out of other planets' notice. Asgard will be destroyed after Odin's death. And saving as much civilians as possible is important." I say, grimly, not lying.
I'd rather have him save as much Asgardian civilians as possible, while the treasures are simply too important to lose. The orb of Agamotto? Tesseract? The eternal flames? Well the last two will be destroyed either way, but this way at least the orb and the other treasures will be safe.
"What happens after Odin's death?" Loki asks, now serious.
"Ragnarok." I simply say.
Loki gulps. He thinks on it for a minute and then says, "Fine. I will grant this favour. I will find a habitable planet and start colonizing it, while keeping the rest of the planets neglectful." He then pauses a bit and asks, "You won't tell me how you know all this, will you?"
I snort and shake my head, "Only if my life depended on it, which it currently does not." I turn to the direction the others went in and say, "I'd love to sit and chat some more, but I have a Universe to save from a megalomaniac with a fucking Infinity Stone. So goodbye. Happy death day Lokes." I say and turn to walk away, but his voice stops me.
"You have somehow seen these events happen already haven't you? Or you've lived this life before, but not the same way. No. You only know a few things, like I was still alive and planning to overthrow Odin, probably even my attack on Asgard and the Destroyer's attack on Midgard. As you were present both the times." He pauses.
I turn towards him and raise my eyebrow in challenge. He's good, to figure out this much in just one conversation. God of Lies and trickery indeed.
"You've changed things so they better suit you. You stayed with Frigga even after she ordered you to leave. She was supposed to die, wasn't she? Well, thank you for saving her life.
"But not much was changed probably. For you to know I faked my death here, my attack on Midgard was always doomed to fail. The way you figured out that I was hiding from Th... Someone, means you know who that is too. So does he? Does he destroy Asgard?" Loki rambles to himself, and is almost in tears at the possibility that his mother could have died as well as the possibility that Thanos could attack Asgard. And win.
I shake my head and softly whisper, "He didn't. You did."
Loki looks alarmed and betrayed. He asks, "Me? Why me? Why would I destroy Asgard, the one thing I've wanted ever since I was born?"
But he knows I'm not lying, the god of lies can tell that much. So I answer honestly, "To save it. You'll know it when it happens, Loki. Don't question the future or you will endanger it. I'm already toeing the line in telling you this much." And I start walking away from him, leaving him to reapply he illusion and think.
Did I do the tight thing? Letting him figure it out? Would he change anything? Probably. He'll save a lot of lives by moving then off world. He might even manage to keep the space stone out of Thanos' hands.
I track Thor, Jane and Darcy to a cave at the top of the mountain, just sitting there, so I ask, "What happened?"
Darcy jumps up and yells, "Harry!" and runs forward to hug me. I hug her back, wearily and look at Jane questioningly.
Jane just shrugs, having no idea for such excitement, while Thor was still upset.
Darcy separates from me and softly asks, "Did you have a nice talk?"
I almost widen my eyes, but control myself, understanding late that she's talking about talking to the dead, like a eulogy. So I nod at her and ask, "Did you find the portal?"
Darcy nods at me and gestures towards the inside of the cave. I see on the floor and sure enough, there were a few of the things we threw from the factory, including the shoe. Jane shows the car keys she had found.
Thor sniffles and says, "We have to go fast. We still need to find out where the convergence will happen."
I nod and we follow Thor through the portal. We come out of the portal, with a voice that sounded almost like I was going through a layer of water, on the other side of the portal, was the Factory, on Earth!
I say, with as much emotion I can muster, "I missed you Earth."
We walk towards Ian's car, which was still parked near the factory and all get in.
Darcy rides shotgun, while Thor and me ride in the back. On the way, I call Peter. He picks up the phone, "Hey, Harry. You back?"
I laugh and say, "Something like that. Listen. Go to my house and tell Siri to bring you to my location. Take the jet, and be quick about it."
Peter sighs and asks, "What now? You always bring problems with you Harry!"
I snort and say, "Just.. get here. Aliens will be attacking soon, but we don't know where."
"Alright! Fine. I'll tell her." Peter says and cuts the call.
Jane stops the car in front of what I know is Selvig's house. We enter the house without knocking and see that Selvig was roaming the room in his underpants, while Ian was helping him with something.
"Jane! Where the hell were you?"Selvig asks, as soon as we were inside.
"Erik? Where were you? We were looking for you!" Jane asks in return. We all watch and hear the conversation, silently, wanting to hear both sides.
"I was... Unwell. Your intern, Ian, he called the cops reporting you and Darcy missing after going inside a rainbow light. Agent Hill found him, and then she found me and he's now helping me with studying the convergence." Selvig explains with a big smile.
He then looks at her and Darcy's attire and says, "You've been to Asgard!" he suddenly approaches them and hugs Jane, not giving her a chance to escape.
"Umm.. Erik? Where's your pants?" Jane asks, a little uncomfortable.
Erik looks down at himself, while Ian says, "He says it helps him think."
Jane then goes into work mode and starts demanding the readings and all the work Erik had done on the anomalies. Erik complies and gives her everything he had, smiling. Jane gets to work with Darcy and Ian helping her. Thor and Erik were talking, and I was alone.
So I take the time to nap for a bit. The lack of sleep is really catching up to me, so I fall asleep almost as soon as I drop down on the sofa.
I wake up about an hour later catching a hand that was about to touch me. I open my eyes to see that it was Ian. I raise an eyebrow at him, with my suit, which is very intimidating, asking him, "What?"
"Um.. sir.. um.. We have to go? To Greenwich Village. Um.. your friend Spider-Man's here, with Thor and they're going to Greenwich to stop this elf." Ian fumbles with his words and explains.
I nod and wake up, not feeling tired, thanks to Venom, and join Thor and Peter, who were talking.
"Hey. When'd you get here?" I ask Peter while opening the fridge to find something to eat. There's only vegetables? Who the fuck keeps only vegetables in the fridge? Where's the fruits? Oh. There they are. I pick an orange and start peeling it.
"About 15 minutes ago. You were sleeping, and you rarely sleep. So I didn't wake you." Spidey explains.
I nod and ask, "So.. Greenwhich?"
Peter nods, while nursing a beer and says, "Yeah.. I called Tony but he didn't pick up the phone. Cap is still with Bucky, helping him, while the 2 agents are just that, agents, and they have missions."
I nod and start eating the orange, popping the pieces into my mouth, which was already open.
''Thanks Venom. That would have been really embarrassing.' I think.
"Dumbass."
I ignore that and we start making plans. Jane, Darcy and Erik already had their scientific stuff. We were going to kill the foot soldiers, and then take care of Malekith, together. Damn! Wish Banner were here.
About 10 Minutes after that, we start packing to leave. Me and Pete take the jet, taking Darcy and Erik with us, while the rest take Ian's car.
It was only 10 minutes journey, by car, so I take the jet super slow, to not get bored. We still reach there in about 2 minutes. I keep the plane above the library and picking Darcy, jump out of the plane, to the roof of the library. I really jump out of the plane a lot, don't I?
Peter takes Erik with him and slowly webs down. Huh. I should have done that.
But Darcy was excited, like she was at an amusement park, so I drop her down.
"Hey! I was enjoying the ride!" Darcy grumbles from the floor. I shake my head and ignore her.
We had brought a few of the tripods that Erik and Jane had made, theorising that they could control the anomalies to just create portals. It was a stupid theory, according to me, but they're the experts and I didn't exactly see the physics behind it.
We each take a tripod with us and go to the 4 axes of the library and start digging the tripods in. The rest 4, that Thor and Jane are bringing, will go to the sub axes.
The rest of the group appears about 5 minutes later, and me and Spidey take the tripods from them to speed the process.
We were inserting the last tripod, when a giant space ship, belonging to the Dark Elves, appears out of nowhere, right on the Library grounds, submerged into the Thames river. It moves forwards, digging through the earth and stops in the middle.
The people studying in the library are now running in every direction, trying to find shelter. Me and Spidey just swing and drop right in front of the ship, and Thor lands beside us.
Malekith and his Dark Elves get out of the ship, and just stand there. I ignore the taunting and count the number of soldiers. There were about 50 of the Dark Elves there, not counting Malekith and only one ship. There was a portal opening on our left, into the sky, big enough to easily bring an armada through.
I say, "Spidey, let's kill all those foot soldiers first. Then we'll take the big guy together. Thor, can you hold him off?"
Thor opens his mouth to say something, but Malekith takes that opportunity to fire the power of the Aether at us. I quickly bring a shield made of Praedium in front of me to defend myself, Thor spins his hammer while Peter jumps away. Thor was hurt a little, but he could handle it. So I jump in the fray and start attacking the Dark Elves, while taking out my twin swords.
This was a time for quick, not for impressive. I start attacking a group who were firing their weapons at the crowd. I kick the ground hard enough that a few pieces of the ground crack and start coming up. I stick my sword into one of the pieces and throw the piece at the firing Dark Elves.
"Right. Gained their attention. Now kill." I mumble to myself.
I dodge a blast from their weapons and start running forward, dodging their blasts at the same time. Within a few seconds, I'm right in front of them, I cut one's head off, turn to the next and slice his hands off and then cut his head off.
I was right in the middle of the group now. So I charge my sword with Venom blast, jump high up into the air, and throw the charged sword into the ground. The Venom blast from the sword destroys the ground they were standing on and kills every Dar Elf there.
That's 7 down. I see Spidey taking on a group spectacularly so I turn to the next group. There were two groups who were both targeting separate civilians. So I say, "Siri, take care of those 8 guys. I'll kill the other group."
Siri brings the Jet, still invisible, over the ground and starts firing the guns at the Dark Elves. Fortunately, the guns were high calibre and still pierced their bodies. Within a few seconds, the group that Siri targeted were dead. So I say, "Siri take out any Dark elf that you can, without getting seen, and don't get too close to the ground."
I turn around and start going towards the other group. Within a minute, that group was dead too. I take a look around. A few civilians had lost their lives, along with a few cops. The library building was almost destroyed. Damn!
I see the portals getting bigger, and within those portals, a few other portals were lining up. The Convergence! It's here!
I run towards the portal, seeing that the Dark Elves were all getting killed and see a dark red cloud. On the ground. Going towards the portal, slowly. Thor was nowhere to be seen. So Malekith had released the Aether from his body.
"Damn it!" I say, and absorb the swords. I bring out Stormbreaker and start walking into the cloud, knowing that Malekith must be inside to cause the most damage to the universe.
The walk is really hard. I am getting pushed away from the centre, by a wind strong enough to affect me! Thankfully my suit did not affect my sticking powers. I was fully armoured, with one hand on Stormbreaker, the other in front of me, to not knock into something.
About 3 minutes of walking later, I see Malekith in the eye of the storm, releasing the Aether. Making it go into the portal. I can't let him do this!
I walk with even more determination, towards Malekith. I see that Thor had the same idea. He had a few of those tripod-spears in his hands.
Ah! So he wants to kill him that way?
Thor looks at me and I nod at him, telling him I kind of know the plan, or at least I suspect it is the plan.
Thor throws one of the spears at Malekith, who catches it. Suddenly, the spear, along with Malekith's arm, completely disappears. Thor throws another spear at him, Malekith catches it in his other arm, which disappears too.
I had still continued walking from Malekith's right, and I was now close enough to hear them speak. The aether was somehow messing with my hearing.
Malekith says, "... The aether cannot be deatroyed."
Thor says, "No, but you can."
Thor had one more spear in his arms. Taking it in his left hand, while calling for his hammer with his right, Thor starts running towards Malekith, knowing it's my chance to help, I charge Stormbreaker with Venom blast and start running too.
Thor and me reach Malekith at about the same time, Thor reaching about a second before me. Thor first pierces Malekith with the last tripod-spear. And then we both hit our charged weapons on him. He hits Malekith's chest with his hammer, while I hit his face with the sharp side of my axe, piercing it deep.
I'm not taking any fucking chances!
Both our attacks along with my Venon blast, caused Malekith to get thrown into his ship, and disappear immediately, along with a small part of the ship, thanks to the spear.
Thor was blasted back because of my Venom blast, but I was still in the centre of the aether cloud. Damn it! What to do about this?
Think! Think!
"Venom! Can you absorb the Aether?" I ask, fishing out ideas.
"I can absorb it, yes. But I don't know if it will kill me or not!" Venom says.
Got it!
"Venom! Loki's spectre! Make a replica of the spectre with Praedium, make the head of the spectre with Vibranium. And start pulling the Aether into the spectre. We know the sceptre can contain one Infinity stone, let's just try it with this one then." I shout to myself. It was an idea, not a great idea, but an idea nonetheless.
Venom grumbles, but loosens a strand from us and starts moving it towards the aether cloud. I start walking closer to the cloud walls, to speed up the process.
As soon as I get near the wall, Venom starts up the absorption. It was euphoric, being so close to infinite power. The power to literally change reality to your wishes. But I was not alone. I had Venom to anchor me, and Venom had me to anchor him.
We grit our teeth, and clench our fists. Venom and me had to be one to get through this. We make up the Sceptre, almost similar to the one that houses the Mind stone, and keep pouring the aether into it. The strain was painful. Very very painful. But we tolerate it. We conquer it.
Soon the cloud starts receding and flowing into the Sceptre, through us. Thank God, we had Extremis. Or we would have died!
The Aether starts corrupting us. It shows us how to use it to bring the whole universe to darkness. How to make the whole universe OURS.
But we don't listen, we watch and we learn, but we don't fall into the trap. We have each other as anchors.
Soon, after what felt like years, the whole of Aether is into the head of the sceptre, compressed to a black-red liquid, which kept trying to escape the small Vibranium orb.
We store the Sceptre within our pocket space and start slowly walking towards Thor.
Taking two steps forward, we fall down on our face, on the hard, rocky, uneven ground.
"Venom? You alright, buddy?" I whisper.
"That fucking hurt, you dumbass! I can't even move!" Venom screams out, inside my head.
"Inside voice, Venom." I whisper. My whole body hurt, my head too.
"Damn. Alright, Venom, I'm sleeping. If you wake up before me, don't give the aether to anyone." I whisper. And then I go to sleep, right there.
I wake up, slowly, and for the first time since Venom bonded with me, a bit groggily. I use all my senses to find out where we are.
"We're in the Jet, dumbass." Venom says.
I open my eyes, and sure enough, we're in the Jet, sleeping on the bed that I had kept, for long travels.
"Siri?" I call out. I want to know what happened later.
"Yes, Sir?" Siri asks.
"Harry!" Peter yells out at the same time. He was on the pilot's seat, and comes running towards me.
"Inside voice, Pete. Inside voice. My head still hurts." I whisper. Damn! How much More of this will I have to tolerate.
Peter nods and softly says, "Other than that, are you okay?"
I check my body and say, "Think so. What happened, after I... Went to sleep?" I wince at that. Thankfully I was still wearing my Vibranium suit when I fell, so the rocks didn't hurt me.
Peter scrunches his face and says, "Well, Thor was knocked out too, he woke up in about 2 minutes. I and your jet had killed all the other Dark Elves, with the scientists helping too. We won, Harry. We won!"
I smile. We did, didn't we? We defended our planet against more advanced aliens, successfully, without much damage to us, relatively. Twice! Humans are awesome.
I ask then, "What happened to Thor? Is he still here?"
Peter shakes his head and says, " Thor went back to Asgard. He said he has some work left there. Said something about treason? I don't know."
I gulp. Treason. Thor, Sif and the Warriors three had committed treason against Asgard. Thankfully Loki was on the throne by now, probably. So he must have already taken care of the issue.
Wait a minute. I know he somehow puts Odin on Midgard. But now that Frigga is alive, what happens to her? Something to think about, I guess.
I shake my head and stand up. Looking around, I see that we're Still hovering over the library in Greenwich.
"Why are we still in Greenwich?" I ask Peter.
Peter looks uncomfortable and he says, "That girl, Darcy? She.. persuaded me to stop here. She asked us to stop by Selvig's house when you wake up."
I blink. The hell?
"How long was I out anyway?" I ask. Still thinking what she could want. Darcy didn't seem like the type to become too serious in a relationship. Was it a mask, or something?
"Only about 6 hours. I brought you here almost as soon as you got unconscious. And went back to help the people." Peter says, finishing the last part gravely.
The people. I'll grieve about them later, when I'm in my house. Right now,
"Let's see what the scientists want then, shall we." I say. Siri starts flying us to Selvig's house. It was about 5 PM now, the fight having taken in the morning.
We reach Selvig's house in about a minute. And drop down from the plane. Me and Peter, still in our superhero clothes, approach the door and knock on it.
Selvig answers the door, this time wearing his pants and yells out, "Venom! You're alright!" And then hugs me for an uncomfortably long time.
I return his hug and keep patting his back. Darcy and Jane come out to the door of the house, probably hearing Selvig's yell.
Darcy whispers, "You're alright." While Jane just nods, smiling at me. I can see that the smile does not reach her eyes. Peter closes the door and gets inside the house, so I will the suit away.
I nod at Jane, separate myself from Selvig and approach Darcy. I hug her tightly, which she returns. We might not be in a relationship or something, but we did sort of had a moment on Asgard. It still meant something.
"You okay?" I ask, still hugging her.
Darcy nods in my chest, separates herself from me and says, "Yeah, I'm alright. You dumb fucking moron. I was safe with Ian and Erik while you were doing god knows what inside that cloud. Are you okay?"
I nod and say, "Other than a headache, yeah."
I sit down on the table and ask what happened. Erik starts telling the story after which Darcy and Jane join in.
Turns out every Dark Elf was dead, thankfully. The ship in which we threw Malekith into was about to fall into me and Thor, but Selvig came in and sent the ship through a portal he created, probably to the Dark World. Peter brought me to the jet, Darcy threatened him to stay, Hill visited to start cleaning up the mess. But Thor left to Asgard almost as soon as he woke up. Probably to surrender after his treason. TheyThey then all came to Selvig's house, and Ian went home, a little excited after the events.
None of us got terribly hurt, which was good. They might need therapy for all they saw us do, but they'll manage.
I was sitting on the table, drinking the coffee Jane gave me, when a voice disturbs my musing, "Harry? Can we, like, talk?" Darcy asks, fidgeting from the door.
I nod, finish the coffee and stand up to follow her. This will be an uncomfortable talk.
We go to a bedroom, which looked like a guest room. Darcy locks the door and turns to me. I sit on the bed and wait for her to speak.
"Iwanttogooutonadatewithyou." Darcy blurts out.
I nod and say, "I understand, we were all emotional, and had a mom... Wait what?"
Darcy takes a deep breath and repeats, "I want to go out on a date. With you."
I blink. I blink again, and then ask, "Are you sure?" I thought she was trying to say what we did was a great big mistake or something.
Darcy nods, now a little confident and says, "Yes. Ya know, what we did? Right before Jane and that badass lady interrupted us? I want to try that again, but this time properly. Not only because we thought we were all going to die. So..."
I think about it. I nod and say, "I certainly don't find you unattractive." She gives me a look so I backtrack and say, "I find you really attractive, as I said back on Asgard. I find you cute, I like the way you talk, the way you're not afraid to say something if it doesn't agree with you." I stand up and approach her. Darcy now looks in my eyes.
"Yeah? What else?" Darcy whispers.
"I liked the way you kept your cool, when I told you Loki and Thor had a different plan that what they told us. That it was all an illusion. You also fought against the Dark Elves, using science. That was really badass by the way." I say and take a step forwards.
"Ya, I was scared shitless, but I knew Thor and You and Spidey would figure something out." She takes a step forward.
We were now very close, almost touching. So I say, "Are you free tonight?"
"What are we doing?" Darcy whispers, still looking in my eyes.
I glance at her lips and say, "Whatever you want."
Darcy smirks and says, "I like the sound of that." And leans forward. We both get closer and closer when a loud noise in the road breaks the moment.
"Goddammit Thor!" I yell out at Thor, who comes out of the Bifrost on the road.
Darcy just laughs at me and says, "So? Pizza tonight?"
I nod and say, "Definitely."
Darcy turns and walks away from me, almost skipping out. Well, my second try at dating. Hope this works out better than the last.
We stay the night in London itself, me and Peter sleeping in the Jet. Thor was here to stay, so there wasn't a rush to learn everything about what happened on Asgard.
One Infinity stone was mine, and the second will be with Vision soon. Hopefully without Ultron this time. Earth now has three infinity stones in jts possession. Now I'll have to somehow get the power stone before Thanos does and keep the space stone safe from him. How the fuck do I do that?
Damn! One problem has ended, but more keep on coming. Fucking hell!
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