Capítulo 42: *Chapter 42*: Chapter 42
Thor's POV:
Thor was pushing his way through the red field the Aether fueled dark elf had surrounding him. The past week had been…trying, even by a god's standard. His lover, Jane, had been possessed by the reality infinity stone that powered the Aether. He had taken her to Asgard to be healed and even introduced her to his mother and father. If only he had known how terribly things would go from there. His mother…his beautiful mother who had always been by his side and wisdom in his ear whenever he had needed it. His mother who had raised him for so long and been a major influence on the man he had become today. She had been take from him. Taken by a madman who wished to plunge all the universe into darkness.
It had not ended there. Just when he had thought it could not get any worse, his brother was injured and left in a critical condition. His brother and him had not been on the best terms but after the healing of his mind, Loki had made an effort to mend the damages he had caused. That's how they found out about Thanos in the first place which had caused Thor to personally have the rumor investigated. He had been horrified to find out the truth and even more so to find that the Mad Titan was on his way to Midgard. Had it not been for Loki then they would have never known this information in the first place.
Now they were facing a threat that had the potential to take over all the universe if left unchecked. Thor admitted to himself that he was not the brightest tool in the shed, as Jane had once told and then explained to him, but even he found it suspicious that the Dark Elves would suddenly become active and Jane would find the stone in the first place. He could not prove anything but he believed the Mad Titan was somehow behind all this. The timing was just to terrible to be a coincidence.
"Thor, prepare yourself, I will make an opportunity. I estimate you will have 5 seconds to make your move."
Thor's eyes widened when he heard the familiar voice speak in his mind. Just as the voice finished the Aether parted in front of him with a direct path straight to Malekith whose eyes had widened upon seeing him. Thor immediately sprung into action as he rose his hammer into the air and summoned as much lightning to it as he physically could handle. He then leapt at the dark elf and smashed Mjolnir directly into his mother's murderer. He watched as Malekith screamed in either pain or range as the lightning coursed through his body and reduced him to ash in less than a second. As soon as he died, the Aether receded into a small almost innocent looking red stone that sat in the middle of what was left of Malekith. Thor frowned and reached for it.
"I wouldn't touch that with bare hands if I were you." Thor looked to his left and saw the owner of the voice to be a friend of his which caused him to smile.
"Ah, Wolfe. It's good to see you my friend. I thank you for the assistance you gave me as I assume it was you who parted the Aether to let me give the final blow. Harry smiled slightly at him in return.
"Hello Thor. Glad I could help. I actually came to ask you some questions and you just happened to need help with whatever was happening." Harry explained to him as he nodded his head to the small pile of ash with the beautiful, red, glowing stone in it. Thor grew more somber as he was reminded of his battle.
"Yes. Malekith was a tricky opponent and unfortunately needed to be stopped for the good of all worlds. Not a decision I had wished to make but still." Thor said. While he had killed in the past many times, Thor had grown to detest it when not necessary. To take a life seemed so…permanent. Still, sometimes there was some things that needed to be done to protect those who could not protect themselves.
"You won't find judgement from me." Harry told him as he looked at the pile as well, "Make sure you don't make direct contact with whatever that is. It's power feels similar in strength to both the tesseract as well as the scepter your brother used in the invasion."
"I will keep that in mind. You wished to speak to me about something?" Thor asked. Harry just looked around at both the damage and people still running around.
"Not here. Finish up here and then we will talk. Here, take this necklace. When you have a chance to talk, hold onto the pendant and say my name. I will come to you as soon as I can." Harry said to him. It was when he handed the necklace to him that Thor noticed something off about his friend.
"You look unwell. Is there some affliction that ails you?" Thor asked. His friend looked paler than usual and seemed like he had not gotten a full nights sleep in a long time if the dark bags under his eyes were anything to go by. Harry just smiled at him.
"I've just been very busy is all. Perhaps I can explain more when we talk. I shall see you soon." With that, Harry disappeared in his customary, silver flash.
"Thor!" Thor immediately turned and saw the woman he loved running at him with both concern and hope in her eyes. He felt a great weight lift from his shoulders as he saw her running towards him and smiled at her as she did so.
For now, he would take a moment to himself.
One Day Later
Thor sat across from his friend Harry at a small café in somewhere called the 'Caribbean', wearing common clothes of Midgardians that Darcy had offered to him. If anything, Harry looked even worse than he did yesterday to Thor. He must have been very concerned about the Thanos threat. While Harry wasn't someone who he knew extremely well, he has always thought the young man extremely calm and collected about almost everything that took place around him. Even during the Chitauri invasion, Harry had not batted an eye as he had immediately jumped into action. He did find it strange how worried Harry was about an entity he had never even met though.
"So, what is it you wished to discuss?" Thor asked as he ate what was known commonly as an omlette here. It was extremely delicious. Harry leaned in with a most serious expression.
"I don't actually have much to ask but what I do ask will be important with how I deal with Thanos." Harry said as waved his hand. Thor was not nearly as adept with magic as his younger brother but he was pretty sure that Harry just used some sort of anti-sound charm. Thor looked back at Harry and nodded as he took a moment to put his fork and knife down.
"Ask me anything and I will answer as best I can." Thor responded.
"Good and thank you. My biggest question of course is Thanos's power. Do you know any further details about it that you could possibly tell me?" Harry asked. Thor thought on what the man said before he remembered what his brother had told him about the Mad Titan.
"Loki once told me that Thanos uses something similar to magic though not quite the way you and he do it. Where you and my brother guide and direct magic upon the correct path you wish it to go, Thanos grapples it into submission and forces it. He uses it like a blunt instrument. He cannot do precise things like you in my brother but it suits his needs to kill masses. He is like a hammer and uses his power to smash you to pieces." Thor tried his best to describe to his friend and recall what Loki had told him recently. Harry seemed to take a moment to think on what he had said to him.
"Hmm. That could be good and bad I suppose. Good because it limits his abilities, bad because he is probably going to try and crush us with raw power which is very hard to combat." Harry said in a murmur almost to himself. Thor nodded in understanding. The thoughts of Malekith with the Aether immediately came to his mind when thinking of combatting raw power came up.
"I believe Thanos relies mainly on his strength and power to finish battles. He then uses his armies to conquer the worlds and help dispose of the masses. Perhaps we should find a way to combat his advantages." Thor said as he thought on the matter. Harry seemed to nod in agreement with him which was nice to see.
"I will have to think on neutralizing his strengths somehow. If at all possible. Any idea of his strength and power levels."
"Both are extremely high. I am not sure on his power but his strength is said to be able to cause small earthquakes." Thor said lightly as he picked back up his fork and continued into his omlette.
"That's….not great." Harry said quietly as he thought some more, "Tell me more about his character."
"His character?" Thor repeated in confusion. Harry gave a nod.
"Yes. Is he twisted and willing to use any means to hurt his opponents? Is he more of a noble evil that will seek to take us out in open combat? That sort of thing." Harry explained.
"Ah. I'm not sure if you could say either. He is most certainly smart and is willing to do almost anything to kill his enemies." Thor said back.
"So, twisted smart evil then. I hate that kind. Do you know if anyone else has ever come close to matching him?" Harry asked. Thor thought deeply on if he could ever remember such a person from Loki's speeches.
"No. I do believe he has had those who have given him challenge but none have ever bested him." Thor said darkly. Harry nodded as if he expected such a response.
"I see. Well that was all I wished to know Thor. Thank you for the time but I need to get back to training. We only have two weeks until the mad fucker is expected to arrive." Harry said as he stood up. Thor to stood even though he had not finished his food. He reached out and shook Harry's hand.
"I wish you the best in your training my friend. I too shall increase my training in preparation for the oncoming attack. We shall make it through this. I know we shall." Thor said confidently. Harry smiled but did not look exactly like he believed him.
"Thank you, Thor. We shall see each other soon. Goodbye for now." Harry said to him and disappeared. Thor looked at the spot he had disappeared from before looking around the café they were in. No one had seemed to notice the display, probably thanks to something Harry had done to prevent them from being noticed. Thor left after putting down the money on the table. He wasn't sure the amount but Jane had assured him it would be enough to cover whatever he ate from here. He then left the restaurant before going out to a field and summoning the rainbow bridge and disappearing.
Third-Person POV:
One, Harry Potter, stood on the beach eating a suspiciously grey food substance that looked more like sludge then anything. Judging by the small grimace, he didn't enjoy.
"Still not used to my meals huh?" A female voice originating from a brunette woman known to most as 'Sammy' said as she walked towards Harry.
"I don't think I ever will be." He commented back lightly as he dropped the rest onto the floor and watched it seem to melt away.
"Did you find out what you wished to know?" Sammy asked.
"I did. It's like I guessed. Asshole willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. I have no doubt he will do whatever it takes to get to me." Harry said to her.
"What about your other goal?" Sammy asked. Harry nodded in confirmation and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a glowing red stone that almost seemed to pulse with power.
"He didn't notice you took it?"
"Nope. I replaced it with another similar stone and just flooded it with magic. It will run out sooner or later but it'll last until we deal with this problem.
"Hmm. If you say so. I still think it will be unneeded." Sammy commented as her eyes never left the stone.
"I hope you're right, I really do." Harry said as the stone flashed and disappeared from his palm.
"Are you going to go through with your thought from earlier?" She asked as she shed a jacket she was wearing which left her exposed in a black sports bra.
"I am."
"She's not going to like it."
"I'm aware."
"….Well then we should get back to what we were doing." She said as she got into a stance. Harry groaned softly at the action.
"Fine." As soon as the word left his mouth, they were both charging at each other.
Tony's POV:
Tony was looking at the woman in front of him. He had met Daphne before as she was Harry's P.A. He used to suspect that they were in some sort of relationship honestly with how close they were but if what Harry had told him was true, that was not possible.
"So…. On his desk? Kinky." Tony said as he sipped some whiskey in one of his rare breaks from the preparations he had been making for the oncoming invasion. Daphne glared at him in response. He then yelped as he rapidly ducked under the lamp that just went speedily sailing over his head.
"I suggest you never bring that up again." Daphne warned dangerously as her eyes seemed to sparkle with electricity. Tony raised his hands in the universal sign for surrender.
"Woah! Ok, I surrender. Won't mention your fetishes again." Tony said. This time, he wasn't fast enough to dodge the book that nailed him in the head. He fell on to his back with a groan. Jeez, even Harry didn't treat him like this when angry.
"Are you done?" Daphne asked him. He just nodded knowing he wouldn't be able to hold back another shot at her. It was just too easy!
"So, what can I do for a lass such as yourself? Something from Harry I assume. How's he doing. Haven't seen the kid since the news of the evil mass murder. Thor said he saw him though." Tony asked as he picked up the spilled glass of whiskey and walked back over to his mini bar to refill it.
"He is well I assume, though I haven't seen him for weeks so I can't be sure. I actually came to check in to let you know what preparations we have so far done. Harry wanted you to know in case you had anything to add.
"I thought you hadn't spoken to Harry?" Tony asked.
"I haven't. I learned it from Ren who spoke to him before Harry apparently went to go train. He left specific instructions before leaving." Daphne said. Tony nodded and reached for his drink before hesitating.
"Do you….do you know if Harry has talked to Natasha recently? She came around the other day asking if I had heard from him. It sounded like she hadn't seen him for a while." Tony asked. He was a little concerned about his redheaded friend. Daphne shook her head in the negative.
"I talked to her yesterday and she asked me the same thing. She seemed more upset then worried to me. Harry will probably have to make it up to her somehow. Enough about their personal life. Back to the topic at hand. Here are the preparations that have so far been made. Anything you wish to add?" Daphne asked as she handed him a folder she had brought with her. Tony took it and opened it up. His eyebrows raised as he looked at the contents.
"You did all this in three weeks?" He asked with incredulity. Daphne shrugged.
"It's a lot easier to go through magical channels. Especially for Harry since he practically has the entire magical population by the balls with pretty much every advancement coming from his business. No country has the balls to not listen to him for fear that he will cut them off effectively leaving them in the dust of the other countries." Daphne explained. Tony gave a low whistle.
"Damn, he really has that much influence? Thought he was kidding." Tony said. He looked at all the air defenses Harry put all around the world. Magic really was an amazing thing.
"It's not just the company. As far as wizards go, Harry is leaps and bounds ahead of any other. None even come close to the amount of power he has, nor do any have his penchant for mass destruction. He scares or intimidates most with his very presence. A news article tried to trash his methods in our home country recently. Harry closed down shop in Britain immediately for all of three days before the government stepped in and put a lot of pressure for the outlet to retracts its statements. Harry didn't even have to say a word.
"Hmm. Wish I had the power to get News outlets to shut the hell up." Tony grumbled as he finished looking through the reports. "I think that Harry had the right idea, I'd expect they will come down through ships. I'll talk to Pepper about sending you some shipments of more air defenses. You may not have time to put up all of them but any helps I suppose." Tony said almost to himself. Daphne heard and nodded her head as she took the files from him.
"Well that was all I needed. You know how to reach me." Daphne said as she turned to leave. Tony had to actively try to not stare at her perfect backside. He would never understand how Harry did it. He was to distracted to notice the book flying to his head until it was too late.
"OW!" Tony yelled as it collided with him.
"You should probably practice some subtly. I'll do you a favor and not mention your staring to Pepper." Daphne said as she entered the elevator and clicked a button. Tony paled and yelled a muffled 'Thank You!' to her as she left. Once she was gone, he sighed and stood up. He made his way back into his lab and stared at the black metal suit he had been working on. It was originally a collaboration idea between him and Harry. It allowed him to take on more magical opponents with the use of several intricate runes that were lightly carved into the inside of the suit. It didn't really give him more power but it did greatly lessen the effects of magic on him as long as he was in the suit. It also drew power from the ambient magic in the air when in emergencies. A true work of art. Harry had insisted that it be black though. He didn't seem as big on red and gold as Tony was for some reason. Oh well back to tinkering.
Nick Fury POV:
If anyone looked at him at the moment, they would say that Fury was disturbingly calm. Of course he was, he was trained to be after all. No one would blame him if he started to freak out based off the fact that any day now a genocidal, galaxy-feared, terrorist was going to arrive. He had immediately gone to the world council about the issue. He immediately regretted doing so. Their response had immediately gone to nuclear warheads. The idea of using them did have merit but it also had a LOT of possible fallout. He had gotten some of his analyst to discuss the possible negative outcomes of nuking the enemy and the biggest thing they talked about was the debris landing on earth. Thor had mentioned that some of these ships coming would be kilometers in size and wouldn't break up when falling through the atmosphere. Anywhere ships of that size fell could cause an apocalyptic amount of damage, even if a nuke blew them apart. Stark had called him and let him know that he had some plans that wouldn't involve having to use a nuke but he wasn't going to put all his eggs in that basket.
His next problem came with the apparent target of this psycho killer. Harry Wolfe had been fully off the grid since the news got announced. He had immediately gone to Romanoff to get the kid back so he could grill him on what he knew. As he expected, she didn't tell him where the kid was though it seemed it was rather because she herself didn't know. He apparently had gone off on some training mission and so far, no once knew where he was and even Stark couldn't find him. He did appear to Thor around a week and a half ago from what his sources could find out. Tony had told him that the kid had put air defenses in pretty much every major city on the planet with weapons that his company developed. They were good to, not as good Starks but definitely better than average.
"Barton." He called out.
"Sir?" Barton said from behind him.
"Has Romanoff reported back yet?" Fury asked gruffly. He had for left the woman alone for the past few days to do her own training but he hadn't reported back in a few days now. He had assumed that Harry had come back for her and they were spending some time together before the invasion but she would have reported back by now to at least tell him not to worry about her. He still couldn't get in contact with Harry either still.
"No sir. Haven't heard from her in 3 days. I checked their apartment in New York and it didn't look disturbed in any way nor did it show any other signs of break in. It had looked like she had been there recently too. Should we sound the alarm?" Barton asked eagerly. The man had been pushing for an investigation into, at the very least, making sure that his partner was safe. Nick thought about it for a moment. It was concerning that one of his top agents was god-knows-where. On the other hand, with all the preparations being made all around the world, they didn't have the resources into a full investigation.
"We can't launch a formal investigation. On your free time, look into it subtly and put out some feelers. Start with the rest of the Avengers. If you also find Wolfe then all the better." Fury relented finally. If this turned out to be an actual problem then it couldn't be ignored. Wolfe would actually murder him if he ever found out. Unless he is the one behind Romanoff's disappearance which he wasn't fully willing to dismiss yet.
"Thank your sir." Barton said before immediately taking off towards the jet hanger. Nick sighed.
"Uh, sorry. I think we might have a problem." A man said to his right at a console. Fury strode over immediately.
"Report." He commanded.
"I think there's a problem with our sensors. The satellites we have in orbit are malfunctioning and possibly picking up ghost signals. Fury looked at the screen and watched it light up with activity before it would seem to all disappear and go back to calmness. Fury watched it for a moment more as it repeated itself.
"Pull up the sensors on the other satellites and see what they're reporting immediately." Fury commanded as he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The man nodded before quickly typing into the console and pulling up a grid of the different sensors that they had in orbit at the moment. He waited a moment and watched the other sensors light up with activity before all sensors light up as one with activity before disappearing.
"Check for any problems with our system or any other possible intrusions." Fury said as he continued watching the screen. The next time it flashed, the sensor in the middle of the grid didn't light up with the rest of them, in fact, it went fully black.
"Huh, that's weird. Satellite AX-105 isn't even giving a signal anymore. A virus in the system maybe?" The man asked him. Nick's eyes widened.
"What country was that satellite over?" Fury demanded.
"Not a country, it was over the Atlantic. It's actually the closest one to us-"
"EVERYBODY BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Fury managed to yell into his comm. No sooner did he say it, then a pillar of purple light smash into the front right propeller of the ship, destroying it completely. Immediately the ship started dropping out of the sky. He grabbed onto a railing as gravity threw everything not bolted down into the air.
"HILL, GET THIS SHIP SAFELY INTO THE WATER NOW." Fury screamed as he watched the Helicarrier pointed down and plummeted towards the ocean. He got no response.
Third-Person POV:
Sammy looked at Harry as she stopped staring into a bowl that seemed to be made out of pure crystal which contained an almost silvery liquid. If someone of magical blood looked into it at that moment they would see a fading image of what appeared to be a falling aircraft carrier.
"Well?" She asked. Harry looked at her and then looked in the direction he knew where Fury is. He sighed.
"Alright, let's go to work."
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