D
"Master! Master must wake up!"
Harry blearily opened his eyes before startling backwards on his bed, his heart suddenly rocketing in his chest.
"Kreacher! Don't do that!" Harry admonished the elf who was still standing right beside his bed, his ancient, bulbous nose only a bare inch from where Harry's head had been a moment before.
"Yes, Master," an unrepentant-sounding Kreacher replied.
"Is there a reason you're waking me up at ..." Harry cast a quick, wandless, wordless tempus, "two thirty in the morning!"
"Yes, Master," Kreacher replied. "Master has a floo call."
Harry stared at the elf. This had better be good.
"Who is it?' he near-growled.
"Auror Robards," Kreacher replied.
Instantly, Harry was rolling out of bed and moving towards the door.
Old habits are hard to break, he grouched to himself.
Indeed, when he was still an auror, there had been numerous times when he'd been awoken in the middle of the night by a floo call from Robards. Then, as now, he'd hurried to answer it; more often than not, this proceeded a return to duty, hours before his shift was due to start.
"Robards," Harry greeted the head floating in the fire.
"Potter. Took your sweet time getting here," Robards retorted.
"I'm not one of your aurors anymore," Harry reminded him.
"There's been an attack," Robards stated, ignoring Harry's comment. "Shacklebolt tells me that you have jurisdiction."
"What?" Harry asked confusedly. "What do you mean that I have jurisdiction?"
"Just what I said," Robards repeated. "I strongly suggest you get down here ASAP."
Harry gave an absent nod and Robards cut the connection. Exactly what kind of attack would give him jurisdiction over the DMLE he couldn't fathom. Unless ...
His eyes widening, Harry took off in a dead run back towards his room.
ooo00ooo
As Harry strode into the offices of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, he was met at the door by a young auror, a trainee, judging by their robes.
"Mister Potter," the trainee auror said. "I've been instructed to bring you straight to Interview Room One B."
Harry gave a nod. "Thank you."
Although he could find his way there himself, he let the young man lead him. Interview Room One B was actually a small room to the side of Interview Room One that had special charms placed on one of the walls allowing anyone in the 'B' room to see into the main room without being seen themselves, much like a one-way mirror in a muggle police interview room.
A quick glance as he entered showed Harry that a female auror was sitting with a young boy in the main room, whether or not they were talking was unknown – the silencing wards seemed to be engaged.
The 'B' room was occupied by three people and, although Harry expected two of them, the third wasn't a complete surprise.
"Chief Robards. Kingsley. Susan," he said, nodding to each.
"Thanks for coming, Harry," Minister Shacklebolt replied.
"Hi, Harry," Susan Bones replied with a small smile.
Robards simply gave a grunt, a grunt that Harry interpreted as being dissatisfied with Harry's speed in getting there. Nothing much had changed, it seemed.
"Earlier tonight there were a number of attacks," Robards began the briefing. "All against muggleborn families. The only survivor was young David Harkwood. His parents managed to smuggle him out a window and told him to run; gave him a portkey to the Ministry that activated as soon as he was clear of the anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards that had been raised."
Harry glanced again at the boy in the other room. He was small, maybe seven or eight, he guessed, with mousy brown hair and still wearing his pyjamas. Tear tracks were clearly visible on his face as he leant up against the female auror, her hand around his shoulders.
"I'm guessing that there was more to this since you called me in," Harry stated.
"My team and I were the first on the scene," Susan replied. "The house had been pretty much destroyed and we found his parents' bodies inside. They'd been killed by something that we couldn't identify – it didn't look like any sort of spell that we'd encountered before. Our first guess was some kind of blasting curse, but it just wasn't quite right."
"Reports came in of two other attacks," Robards picked up. "Both families were killed, a total of eleven, including five children under Hogwarts' age."
"We managed to get young David in there to give us his memory of what happened," Susan said, indicating the pensieve on the table behind her.
"As soon as we saw what happened, I asked for you to be called in," Kingsley concluded.
"May I?" Harry asked, indicating the bowl.
Kingsley simply waved his hand and Harry stepped forward. Placing his finger into the silvery liquid, he felt himself drawn inside.
He landed in what was obviously a child's bedroom. There were toys – blocks and action figures predominantly – scattered around. A small light globe, obviously the magical version of a night light, hovered in the corner above the bed where the boy, David, was sleeping.
Suddenly, a loud noise, an explosion, rocked the house and David shot up in bed. Ignoring him, Harry crossed the room and stuck his head out through the curtains. A second explosion preceded David joining him there, a look of terror on the boy's face.
"Dark Elves," Harry growled.
Obviously, he hadn't gotten them all – he'd thought that he'd come up short when he was rounding them up.
There were eight of them, all holding some kind of alien weapon that they were firing at the house. Their behaviour, though, was different to what he'd seen in Greenwich. There, the Elves had preferred to rush their opponents, to fight more hand to hand. Here, they stood in a slight arc, equidistant apart and shot from a distance. The position was eerily familiar, but not one that he'd seen since the war. And when combined with the anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards that had been mentioned ...
On impulse, Harry willed himself from the second story window down to the ground amongst the Elves.
With humans, it was possible to tell by looking in their eyes if they were being controlled, but even stepping up so that he was basically nose to nose with one of the Dark Elves, Harry had no idea if what he was seeing was normal or out of the ordinary. Instead, he began searching the outer reaches of the area.
And then he found it. A single wizard was standing under a copse of trees, hidden in the shadows. If Harry hadn't been specifically looking for them, there was no way that they would have been noticed. Unfortunately, it was simply too dark to be able to distinguish any features.
Ignoring the fact that the memory wasn't over, Harry willed himself up and out of the pensieve.
"You see why we called you in?" Kingsley asked.
"Yeah. Dark Elves," Harry said darkly. "Being controlled by a wizard."
"What?" Susan and Kingsley asked, clearly startled.
"Are you sure?" Robards added.
"Yeah. Saw them there. Standing under some trees. Too dark to make out who it was, though," he replied.
"Harry, judging by the time of the reports, we think that there's at least two groups of them," Susan stated.
"Merlin," Harry hissed. "That's not good. Especially if they're being controlled by a wizard."
"You're the expert, Potter, what can you tell us about them?" Robards asked.
Harry shook his head. "I'm not exactly an expert. I've only encountered them the once and they acted completely different then."
"We've got to find them and quickly before there's a panic," Kingsley stated.
"I might know some people who can help there," Harry promised. "Give me a few hours and I'll get back to you."
ooo00ooo
Harry waited until he was out of the Ministry and leaning against a wall in a nearby alley before pulling out the mobile phone that Tony had given him. For half a second, he debated which number to call first, but ultimately, considering the time, he didn't think that it mattered all that much.
The phone rang half a dozen times before it was picked up.
"Morse."
"Hi, Bobbi, it's Harry," he said.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" she snapped.
"I know what time it is here, but considering that I have no idea where you are, I don't have a clue what time zone you're in," Harry replied.
Silence reigned on the other end of the phone for a few seconds.
"Considering that it's the middle of the night where you are, I'm guessing that this is important," she said.
"Yeah," Harry replied. "I need to get in contact with Coulson's team," he said.
"Why?" Bobbi snapped. "Fury told you to stay away from them.
"True," Harry agreed. "But he also said that that's the S.H.I.E.L.D. team that deals with the extraordinary. Which means that they're the ones that I think can help me."
"What's happened?" Bobbi asked.
"Apparently, I didn't find all of the Dark Elves to send back to Asgard," Harry said. "There's been some attacks tonight. Looks like there could be somewhere between one and two dozen of them being controlled by one or more magicals."
"I'll contact Fury and get back to you," Bobbi stated, all business.
"Thanks, Bobbi," Harry said before the line went dead.
Pressing the appropriate buttons, Harry then dialled the next number.
"Good evening, Mister Potter," a cultured voice said after a single ring.
"Hi, Jarvis."
"Would you like me to connect you through to Mister Stark?" Jarvis asked.
Harry paused, considering the idea; after all, Tony himself had been told off for acting the hero without backup not that long ago.
"Not at the moment, but you can let him know that I called and may be calling back later," he hedged. "For now, I was hoping that you could give me some information?"
"Of course, Sir," Jarvis replied.
"Thanks. I need the address for Jane Foster here in London," Harry said.
"Certainly, Sir. I will text it you to momentarily," Jarvis promised.
"Brilliant! Thanks Jarvis," Harry said before hanging up.
ooo00ooo
"Well, look who it is, Mister Magic Man showing his face and everything," Darcy greeted as she opened the door.
"May I come in?" Harry asked.
"Yep, get your butt in here," Darcy replied, opening the door wider and gesturing.
"We're having breakfast if you want something," Darcy offered.
"You can cook?" Harry asked dubiously, noting that Ian was in the kitchen, Erik in the loungeroom and Jane sat hunched over a bowl of something at the table.
"Me? Are you kidding? 'Course not. But we have cereal. Or pop tarts," she replied.
Harry raised an incredulous eyebrow at her.
"Thor loves them," Darcy stated as though that was explanation enough.
A crack of thunder heralded everyone turning to gaze out at the blue sky past the balcony. And then a great swirling appeared on the balcony itself. Jane, predictably, was the first to move, racing outside, arriving just in time to leap at the arriving Thor and kiss him soundly.
Eventually, the two separated enough for Jane to grasp Thor's hand and to drag him inside.
"My friends. It is good to see you all again," Thor said as he stepped inside.
"Only two days away this time, good for you," Darcy beamed.
"Seidhr! I was not expecting to see you here," Thor boomed, striding across the room to grasp Harry's forearm.
"It's good to see you, too, Thor. And it's Harry, remember?" he smiled.
"Of course, my friend," Thor replied with a small bow of his head.
"Actually, I'm glad that you're here," Harry said. "We've got a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Erik asked.
"Apparently, I didn't find all of those Dark Elves," Harry admitted. "Missed one or two dozen of them and last night they attacked some magical families. From what I was able to work out, they're working with at least one wizard, most likely more; whether they're under a spell or not, I don't know."
"Dark Elves are not a species that will work willingly with another," Thor stated with a frown.
"That's what I thought," Harry frowned. "Do any of you know some way to track them?"
"Not that I know of," Jane replied. "Erik?"
"No, nothing like that's ever been invented," he added.
"I can ask Heimdell," Thor said, "but if, as you say, there are seidhr involved, it is quite likely that they would be hidden from his sight."
Harry frowned. "That's what I thought. Looks like we'll just have to wait until they surface again and go from there."
"You are not alone in this, my friend. It will be an honour to fight by your side to protect the innocents," Thor said, giving his hammer a swing for emphasis.
ooo00ooo
"What the hell?" Darcy exclaimed, shying backwards in her chair to the point that she fell to the ground with a thump.
Harry spun around, his wand instantly snapping into his hand. Across the room, Thor held out his hand, making Mjolnir fly across to him where he instantly held it up, ready.
The gleaming silver animal cantering into the room was enough to have Harry lowering his wand.
"It's okay," he said. "It's just a patronus."
"A what?" Jane asked, edging closer to get a better look.
"Harry. Hogsmeade is under attack by those alien creatures you told us about along with some wizards. Come quickly," the horse patronus said in Susan Bones' voice.
Standing, Harry fished his cloak out of his pouch and swung it on.
"What was that?" Jane asked, still staring at where the silver horse had just shimmered out of existence.
"Magical way of communicating; I'll explain later, if you like," Harry replied shortly before turning to Thor. "You up for some smiting?"
Thor grinned at him, giving Mjolnir a twist in his hand. "Always."
Wandlessly, Harry summoned the empty pop tart packet before tapping it with his wand, making it glow blue.
"Grab on, this'll take us where we need to go," he instructed. "Um, this could be uncomfortable."
Then, with that warning, he waited until his partner had taken hold before tapping the packet again.
Instantly, the world swirled about them as the portkey took them from London to Scotland. Landing on his feet, Harry noted that Thor looked quite at ease, glancing as he was around the deserted town street.
"No ill effects?" Harry asked.
"Not at all," Thor replied. "Your seidhr form of transportation is not unlike a crude form of the rainbow bridge."
"Glad to hear it," Harry replied absently.
A distant scream sounded, alerting the two to the direction that they were obviously needed. Looking that way, Harry could make out a column of smoke rising about the nearby buildings.
Sharing a grim look, Thor began rapidly spinning his hammer. At the same time, Mage produced his broom before enlarging it and mounting. Together, the two rocketed off, Thor allowing Mage to take the lead.
From the air, it was easy to see the battle lines that had formed.
A dozen red-robed aurors were fanned out across a street, houses to either side of them. On the other end of the street, almost like an old-time western, were the 'bad guys' – in this instance, made up of a combination of Dark Elves and black-robed wizards, more houses and the occasional shop to either side and behind them. These, though, had all suffered damage – windows blown in, facades destroyed, doors hanging from hinges, multiples of them ablaze.
The combination Elf/wizard forces seemed to have been split into three groups. The smallest of them, only containing five Dark Elves, stood in the middle of the street. The other two groups, each with half a dozen Elves, were close to the buildings, using rubble from the partly destroyed buildings to guard their flanks.
What really caught Mage's attention was the fact that for every Dark Elf, there was a wizard at their back, shielding them from the spells that the aurors were throwing at them.
Seeing the danger that the aurors were in, being so vastly outnumbered, Mage dropped into a dive, only pulling up at the very last moment, a shield charm already cast, and catching a pair of dark red bolts of energy shot from the Elves' blasters at the aurors.
Barely without a thought, he jumped from his broom, shrunk it wandlessly and put it away, all while catching another bolt before recasting his shield to stop another pair of bolts from hitting the aurors behind them.
To his side, Mage could see Thor a short distance away, catching bolts with Mjolnir before striking back with a jet of white-hot electricity. A pair of wizards and an Elf went flying and Mage took the opportunity to let loose with a plethora of spells and curses of his own into the breach that Thor had created.
Only Mage's amazing peripheral vision, forged from his years of Harry Hunting and perfected on the quidditch pitch, saw the small, silver sphere heading his way. Snapping out his wand, he batted it away with a spell, making it flying past erratically.
A sudden explosion and a great gust of wind ripped into him from behind. Feeling his feet beginning to slide out from under him, Mage dug his heels in and glanced back. What he saw had him dropping to the ground and digging his fingertips in to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere.
A great ball of swirling energy was sucking everything that it could into itself, including the forms of four aurors. The men flailed around in mid-air before the ball of energy suddenly imploded, taking the men with them into nothingness.
A jet of energy fizzed past his hair, crackling the air with its energy and Mage instantly flung up a shield before leaping to his feet. Glancing to either side, he noted that only five of the aurors remained – those that hadn't been sucked into nothingness by the strange silver device lay unmoving on the ground.
Suddenly, Thor took a mighty leap upward, Mjolnir raised high before he brought it crashing down into the ground sending a shockwave straight down the street. Elves and wizards alike toppled like bowling pins but before either Thor, Mage or the remaining aurors could capitalise on it, an indecipherable order was yelled from one of the wizards and every one of their foes vanished into the mulit-coloured swirl of multiple portkeys.
Mage straightened, his wand loose in his hand. Looking across, he shared a grim look with Thor before the two stared at the devastation around them.
ooo00ooo
Tony checked the Heads-Up Display in his helmet. As expected, the two he was tracking were dead ahead. One, of course, was moving swiftly along the rooftops, leaping gaps as needed. The other moved in a pendulum-style down the centre of the street, a slight shift to either side on each swing.
Plotting a course, Tony fired his thrusters, accelerating past Spiderman, the startled web-head giving him a wave with his free hand. Now that he had the attention of one, Tony shifted trajectory until he was able to rocket over the blood-red clad Daredevil. Noting that the vigilante had shifted as though looking up, Tony knew that his objective had been achieved.
Deftly, he landed on the roof of the next building over and waited. Spider-man was the first to arrive, acrobatically flipping up over the edge of the roof, summersaulting and landing in a crouch before straightening. Daredevil simply landed from his last jump and jogged across the intervening distance.
"Hi guys," Tony said, having flipped his face mask up.
"Mister Stark," Peter replied.
"Tony," Matt said with a nod.
"You two seem to be having fun," Tony remarked.
Peter shrugged. "Yeah, you know how it is – beat up a few bad guys, leave them for the police and look for more."
"Crime has been dropping," Matt remarked. "I think the 'bad guys' as Peter calls them, are starting to learn."
"Well, it seems I came to the right place," Tony grinned. "How would the two of you like a trip to jolly old England?"
Matt and Peter shared a look.
"That's where Harry is," Matt stated.
"Funny you should say that," Tony replied. "I'm assuming the two of you have been keeping up with the news?"
"You mean those aliens that wrecked part of London?" Peter asked eagerly.
"Yep. Seems that Point Break and our resident Merlin missed a couple on their clean-up and now they're causing a bit of trouble in the magical world," Tony informed them.
"You mean not only would we get a trip overseas but we'd also get to see some more magic?" Peter asked eagerly. "Count me in!"
Tony looked expectantly at Matt.
"I guess that I could take some time off," he said.
"Excellent. The quinjet'll be leaving the tower at eight tomorrow morning. Bring a couple of changes of clothes and whatever else you need," Tony said.
With that, he gave a nod, flipped his facemask closed and rocketed off.
"I shall have the quinjet prepped for launch for the three of you," Jarvis stated.
"Better make it five, buddy," Tony said, noting the heat-signature that had stayed just out of sight of their conversation, but not, he suspected, out of everyone's senses.
ooo00ooo
Jennifer Walters woke up in a blind panic, her eyes snapping open and her arms and legs scrabbling about as if to gain purchase. When it became clear that she wasn't in any danger, she relaxed slightly. But seconds later, she was holding her hands up in front of her, turning them over, running her hands over her arms and examining them minutely.
Aggravatingly, they still looked completely abnormal. Still that same jade-green colouring from the night before. To make sure, she examined both legs and even her stomach through the torn hospital gown that she still wore.
With a sigh of frustration, Jennifer took in her surroundings. She was in a small park, it seemed, at least judging by all of the greenery around her. The fact that she was in a bit of a gully hindered her view, though. Standing up, she raised her bent arm and trailed a hand on the underside of the stone bridge that she was under.
"Guess I'm in the right place if I'm some sort of troll now," she muttered.
The slight breeze that filtered down, ruffling the no-longer-white gown reminded her that she was all but naked. Cautiously, she made her way up the side of the gully. Her gaze raked the park in all directions and she sighed with relief at realising that she was totally alone.
Through a gap in the trees, she could make out the skyline of Los Angeles – a lot further away than it was supposed to be, which wasn't overly surprising considering the memory of running and running in the dead of night that she had. She knew that in her strange, altered state, she'd been much, much bigger and had been able to run incredibly fast, accounting for how far she'd come.
That, of course, led her heart to start beating wildly again as she panicked.
What was wrong with her? Why'd she become some green female Hulk-like thing? And worse yet, how long was it going to last?
Jennifer knew that she needed answers. Never before had she heard of this happening to anyone, well, apart from the Hulk himself.
Thrusting her hands into the pockets of her hospital gown, she startled as they scraped against something unexpected. Closing her fists around them, she pulled it out to see what she'd brought with her.
Her watch, she held in front of her, noting how very early it was.
Her purse, after checking exactly how much money she had, plus that her credit cards were in there, went back into her pocket. The get well card from her father promptly joined it.
But it was the last item, a piece of paper that caught her attention. It took her a number of minutes of frowning at it before she worked out what it was: the name and address of one of cousin Bruce's friends in New York. Someone who would have a way to contact Bruce. And considering the fact that Bruce had given her some of his blood, not to mention the fact that, even though he was a physicist, he dabbled in genetics and had an ... issue of his own, according to the latest newspapers, meant that he might have some answers for her.
Yes, she decided, with whatever it was that had happened to her, it was imperative that she find Bruce and work out what was going on.
Firstly, though, she needed some clothes.