23 23. INTERVAL.........

"As for how he got away, I got knocked about when the whole place exploded, and he scampered out a hole in the wall. I tried to follow but then found Dr. Banner playing tag with Black Widow and got a bit distracted."

Fury turned to where Banner was working, helping the medics and nodded at the man.

"Good to see you being you, doctor."

The man in question waved back timidly.

"So what's the situation?" Harry asked as he moved to another injured man.

"Most of our systems are down; Stark and Rogers are trying to fix the rotors so we don't crash into the ocean."

Harry nodded.

"Thor is checking on Loki, and Black Widow is hunting Barton." Harry offered.

"Sir! The drop pod has just disengaged!"

Harry quickly stood up and spun in place, apparating into the containment area.

The place was a mess. Agent Coulson was on the ground lying in a growing pool of his own blood, cradling a dangerous-looking weapon in his lap.

"You've … got to stop … Loki."

"Yeah! I'll get on that in a moment. Just stay quiet while I try and stop you from dying."

Harry waved his hand frantically, using his most powerful healing spells.

"Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur."

Slowly, the bleeding stopped, the wound cleared, and began slowly mending itself.

"Damage is pretty severe, wish I had some potions. A couple of blood replenishers and a draught of living death would come in handy right now." Harry offered as he wiped the blood away to reveal scar tissue.

"You need rest, a blood transfusion, and some essence of dittany to soften up those scars, but you should live."

Fury rushed into the room at that moment with an exhausted-looking Black Widow.

"Barton and Loki managed to steal a Quinjet. Stark and Rogers are heading to the bridge. How's Coulson?"

"He'll probably live. He's short on blood and needs an infusion, and he'll be stiff and recovering for a while. Some essence of dittany will help with the scars."

Harry looked up to see an honest look of concern and relief flicker momentarily on Fury's face.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Thor. I got nothing for you."

Fury addressed Stark, Rogers, Banner, Hill, Romanoff, and Harry on the bridge

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could."

"I wasn't brought here to find the Tesseract. It's not me you wanted, just the … the other guy."

Harry turned to Banner who seemed to be trying to reign in his anger.

"A bit of both really. You really are the best person to track down the cube but I was hoping that if things turned out for the worse, the Hulk could show us his best. Unlike General Ross, I know I can't control the Hulk but if things get as bad as I think they will and if your control is as good as I believe …"

Fury let the sentence hang and dropped heavily into his chair.

"Ok so we need to stop wasting time and get a move on. We have a few things going for us. We know that they are going to set up somewhere related to Stark and …"

"Why are you planning? We've lost. SHIELD has lied and manipulated us…"

"And what? Let Loki enslave the earth? Because a spy agency didn't tell us all it's secrets and has been building weapons?" Harry abruptly cut off Stark. "I thought you were a genius! We're still alive. While we still draw breath, we haven't lost! Steve, please tell me at least you understand this."

"Harry's right. SHIELD should have been more open with us but the fate of the world is more important than a little thing like betrayal of trust."

Fury, didn't even flinch at the accusation.

"So like I was saying, we disrupted their plans so if we move fast enough we might be able to stop the invasion entirely. Wherever they are setting this up, it has to do with you Stark."

"Stark tower. It's powered by my prototype arc reactor, all the power they'd need to initiate another portal."

Harry watched as Iron Man flew off into the distance, heading back to New York, his armor moving far faster than a Quinjet ever could.

"So what's the plan?" Harry asked as Steve and Natasha maklde their way towards a Quinjet.

"Head off to New York and stop Loki."

"You are not authorized to be here…"

Steve interrupted the young pilot. "Son... just don't."

"Hey! Wait up!"

The trio turned around to see Banner running up to them looking nervous.

"Dr. Banner?"

"Not sure I should be doing this, last time Hulk visited New York we sort of broke … Harlem." Banner offered timidly as he gingerly approached the jet.

"Hopefully we'll be able to stop Loki before he has a chance to call his army but if not …" Natasha let the comment hang for a moment.

"And you're the only one other than Stark who understands the tech so having you around might be important." Steve added encouragingly.

"Ok, I'll head off to my office to pick up a few things and then I'll catch up with Stark. I'll see you there."

Cap nodded to Harry in response as Harry vanished with a soft crack of apparition appearing a second later in his bedroom.

Grabbing his cloak and his broom, Harry hesitated for a moment his hand hovering over the locked box containing both the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone.

After a moment of hesitation, Harry opened the box and withdrew both Hallows.

Transfiguring his padded leather seekers gloves to hold the Elder wand under his wrist and embedding the resurrection stone over the back of his hand.

The Elder Wand felt energised and eager, resting in it's holster, as if it knew what was to come.

Harry then quickly donned some of his seeker gear hoping the slightly enchanted padded leather would offer some extra protection and then draped his invisibility cloak over his shoulders and strapped the sword of Gryffindor to his back.

The entire kit looked, amazingly enough, rather impressive, the cloak gave him the appearance of being out of shift with reality as the invisibility effect was incomplete when the cloak was not fully covering him.

Rushing out the apartment to the office, Harry found Domino napping at her desk.

"DOMINO!"

"WHAT?! WHO!?" the girl cried as her chair fell backwards.

"Grab any money we have handy, jump on the Triumph and get as far away from New York as you can!" Harry blurted out as he helped the girl stand up.

"What? Wait … WHAT!?" she asked in confusion.

"Loki, the actual Norse god of mischief, has an alien army on the way to invade Earth. New York is going to be the front line of an alien invasion so take the Triumph and get out of here as fast as you can, fly it out of town if you have to. Be careful."

"Do you know how insane that sounds?" Domino asked as she accepted his wallet.

"Crazier than fighting a demon who hunts you in your dreams?" Harry asked.

Not giving her a chance to react, Harry spun in place and apparated from his office to Central Park, a location he had a lot of practice apparating to.

Harry leapt onto his broom and took off in direction of Stark Tower.

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(edited chapter.)

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