Tony bursting through the door to the lab was enough to almost make Harry sigh in relief.
"There!" Harry exclaimed, pointing to the console that Sterns had been working at before Harry'd stunned him.
It took Tony bare seconds to divest himself of his armour and to race across to the indicated console.
Really, this shouldn't have happened. Stopping to 'talk' was a rookie's mistake. When it came to the bad guys, Harry knew better – he should have learnt that lesson all the way back in the second Wizarding War – stun first, question later. The only thing that he could put his mistake down to was the technology involved. Even after all this time knowing Tony, Harry still didn't have that great of an understanding of what it could do. And who knew that pressing one button could set something like this in motion?
"J, plug in and get me through whatever firewalls are in place," Tony ordered his AI even as his fingers began flying across the keypad.
Harry stalked across the room to peer over Tony's shoulder while making sure that he stayed far enough back so as to not get in the tech genius' way. A deep rumbling coming from somewhere under their feet deeper in the base had both Harry and Tony looking up.
"Guys, I'm seeing movement below," Hawkeye announced.
"What is it?" Steve asked, "more soldiers."
"I don't think so. Looks like a second ICBM moving into position," Hawkeye replied.
"Get me in, J; looks like we're running out of time here," Tony stated.
"I'm sorry, Sir, I cannot break in, not in the time required to stop any more ICBMs launching," Jarvis replied.
"How many of those things does this base have in its arsenal?" Natasha asked.
"Five," Hill replied. "One of which has already launched."
"What's the problem, J?" Tony asked.
"There appears to be a twenty-three digit code that is rotating at a random interval blocking my efforts to break into the program," Jarvis replied.
"How long until that next missile launches?" Steve demanded, entering the lab at a dead run, Thor at his back.
Tony's fingers manipulated the console before he looked up with a frown.
"Ninety seconds," he replied.
"What are their targets?" Thor asked.
"No idea," Tony replied. "That info's locked away in the programming that I can't access."
"Judging by its trajectory, I'd say that the one in the air is heading for the east coast of the United States," Hill added.
"What about him? Could we get him to stop this?" Steve asked, gesturing at the unconscious Sterns.
"Doubt it," Tony replied. "Super villains don't really like having their plans thwarted. Not to mention that he's unconscious right now."
"Leave that to me," Harry stated grimly.
He knew what he needed to do. There was one spell which could solve all their problems. Really, there was no alternative. The only problem was that the one time that he'd used this spell in the past, he'd hated himself for years afterwards. An Unforgivable; it wasn't called that for nothing. But this wasn't an ordinary time and if it would save lives ...
Even as he strode towards Sterns, Harry's wand was in motion. A vicious jab rennervated Sterns.
"Imperio!" Harry whispered.
Sterns' mind was strong but hitting him when he was still regaining consciousness was enough for Harry to batter his way in, through the man's defences and to take a firm control of him.
"Get up!" Harry commanded and Sterns complied, standing there slack jawed and with his eyes glassed over.
"Tony, move out of the way," Harry ordered.
"Harry? I don't think giving the bad guy access to the computer is a good idea," Tony countered even as he took half a step backwards.
"It is if we want to stop this," Harry retorted. "I've got him under a spell. He'll only do exactly what I tell him to do, nothing else."
Harry noted the stares directed at him by both Steve and Tony as well as the way that Thor simply nodded in understanding or agreement. Movement in the doorway had Harry glancing that way to see Bobbi standing there.
Suddenly, the rumbling under their feet stopped.
"The second ICBM's in place. It's getting ready to launch," Tony stated.
"Stop the launch of any more ICBMs," Harry ordered Sterns.
Harry felt the scientist's mind focus on the task and he grimaced as he exerted his will, ensuring that he didn't lose his 'grip' on Sterns. The man's fingers began to move albeit nowhere near as fast as Tony's had been mere moments before.
A loud roar told everyone that the ICBM's engines had ignited and their heads followed the sound as it rose through the Base.
"We have a second bird in the air!" Hill reported.
Half a minute later, Sterns' fingers stilled.
"Will any more ICBMs launch?" Harry asked urgently.
"No," Sterns replied in a flat voice.
"Good. Now, destroy the two that have already been launched," Harry said.
"I cannot," Sterns reported.
The Avengers in the room stared at each other.
"Why not?" Harry demanded.
"They were programmed to not receive any radio transmissions once they had been launched," Stern replied.
"Where are they headed? What's their targets?" Steve demanded.
Harry was forced to push a little extra magic into the spell to ensure that Sterns answered.
"New York City. Washington D.C.," Sterns replied.
"What's their payload? How much damage can they do?" Tony asked.
"Each ICBM is equipped with thirty-five cruise missiles with a high-yield 'Phase Two' battery mounted behind modified repular technology. The missiles will launch five kilometres from their target. I have calculated that an area in excess of seventy-five square kilometres will be decimated in the explosion," Stern replied, still in that dead, clinical tone.
"He's created a sup-ed up Jericho missile," Tony breathed, taking a couple of staggering steps backwards.
"That's big enough to wipe the island of Manhattan off of the map," Steve near-growled.
"And then some," Bobbi added.
"Can we stop the weapons?" Thor asked.
"Not from here," Tony replied, "you heard him. We'd have to physically catch them and try to redirect them on the fly. And, to be honest, I don't know if we can."
"Tony, get in your suit," Harry ordered.
Dropping the imperius, Harry flicked his wand at Sterns, dropping him back into unconsciousness. A pair of pens caught his eye and he summoned them to himself with his off-hand. A quick tap of his wand to each pen turned them into porkeys.
"Tony, Steve, you two deal with the second one; Thor and I'll deal with the one headed for New York," Harry said.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Steve asked.
"Both of you hold on tight to this," Harry said, tossing one of the pens to Steve.
At the same time, Harry held out the second pen for Thor to grab hold of the end of. As soon as he noted that the other two were ready, Harry nodded.
"Activate!" he said, and the four disappeared in a multicoloured swirl of colours.
ooo00ooo
Steve and Tony landed hard and stumbled away from each other. It was only by a great force of will that Steve even managed to keep his lunch down, although he did need to take a number of deep breaths, his hands on his knees as he did so.
"What was that?" he asked.
Tony was currently patting his armour down.
"Well, how about that? No real damage, those magic counters must really be working," Tony was saying.
"Tony?" Steve asked.
"Hey, look! Magic Man sent us to the quinjet," Tony said. "Although this isn't the one that we came in on. Actually, it's better! Come on!"
Not bothering to waste his breathe, Steve righted himself and jogged up the quinjet's ramp.
ooo00ooo
Thor landed as easily as stepping from the rainbow bridge and looked around.
"We are at the Tower?" he asked.
"Yep. Figured that there was no way we'd be able to catch the ICBM. The next best thing was to get ahead of it and make our way back towards it," Harry replied.
"A sound strategy," Thor nodded.
"Hill? You got us?" Harry asked.
"Are you on the Tower's roof?" Bucky asked incredulously.
"Which way's the ICBM coming in?" Harry asked, ignoring the question and pulling his shrunken broom from one of the pockets on his belt.
"South-south-east," Bucky replied.
"Track us," Harry commanded. "Let us know when we're close."
"Roger," Bucky replied
With a swirl of his hammer, Thor rocketed into the sky, Harry on his Lightning Bolt right beside him.
ooo00ooo
"Give me everything that you've got," Tony said.
The sudden acceleration was enough to have Steve quickly grabbing a hold of a convenient handle to steady himself. The fact that several crates and a number of loose objects tumbled backwards told him just how fast the quinjet was going.
Plucking his shield from his back, Steve wedged it into the nearest nook before pulling himself forward and into the co-pilot's seat. A look at their speed had him raising his eyebrows.
"I didn't know that quinjets could go that fast," he commented.
Tony didn't even spare him a glance, instead being completely fixated on the holographic display projected onto the windscreen.
"Ordinarily, they can't," Tony explained. "But this one's different. It's been modified to go into space, thus the need for a few extra bells and whistles, including a super-charged engine to help us reach speeds that would get us out of the planet's gravity well."
The two travelled in near silence then for a number of minutes. Thankfully, the quinjet could hit its top speed straight from the get-go, whereas the ICBM had to work its way up to its top speed. That, combined with the fact that this second one, the one that they were chasing, didn't have much of a head start before they'd begun their chase, meant that they were quickly closing in on their quarry.
"So, what's the plan?" Steve asked.
"We can't simply shoot that thing out the sky, not without killing ourselves in the process," Tony replied. "Nor can we allow it to hit the ground."
"No, the fallout could kill thousands, let alone the millions if it hit D.C.," Steve agreed.
"So, I thought that we'd take it for a little jaunt to see the stars," Tony replied. "Yes, I know that night's already falling and the stars are starting to appear, but something like that really deserves a much closer look, don't you agree?"
"You're not seriously thinking of carrying that thing on our back, are you?" Steve asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," Tony replied, glancing at his companion. "The quinjet's equipped with a grappling line with an electromagnet to catch stray metal. We'll use that and simply tow it up into space."
Steve opened his mouth to voice the obvious concern but simply closed it again, carefully refraining from shaking his head. If Tony wasn't going to mention the fact that hitting the ICBM with a cable had the potential of setting the thing off, then he saw no reason to either.
"Thar she blows," Tony stated.
And there it was. The long, grey cylinder would have been hard to miss in the dying light if it wasn't for the great plume of fire pushing it along.
Tony manoeuvred the quinjet up and over the ICBM, their speeds so close now that it took minutes for them to inch their way past it. As they started to pull ahead, Tony's hand began hovering over one particular switch.
"Almost there," Tony murmured. "Almost there. Now!"
With that, Tony flicked the switch.
A soft whump sounded from the underside of the quinjet.
"We have a lock!" Tony exclaimed and the two shared a grin. "Now, let's ease her up and away."
Pulling back on the wheel, the quinjet's nose began to climb and more and more stars hove into view. Somewhat expectedly, the quinjet shuddered when the cable reached its maximum length and it took Steve adding his efforts at the wheel from the co-pilot's station before the quinjet finally managed to overcome the ICBMs programmed trajectory and to pull the thing up and away from the Earth below.
As the atmosphere thinned, the black of space began to dominate. Pinpricks of stars blossomed everywhere, except for where the waxing moon filled the view before them.
"I'm calculating a trajectory to make sure this thing doesn't end up caught in the gravity well and fall back to Earth," Tony said.
"See if you can aim it towards the sun," Steve suggested. "It shouldn't cause any harm out that way."
"I'll see what I can do," Tony replied.
The quinjet continued its ascent, passing the point that Steve would have expected gravity to disappear, when it didn't, he assumed that that had something to do with Tony's 'bells and whistles' that he'd mentioned earlier.
"Sir, as requested, I have been conducting the diagnostic tests on the new systems during our first space flight," Jarvis announced.
"That's good," Tony replied, but it didn't sound as though he was paying a great deal of attention.
"I have detected an unknown emission coming from the moon," Jarvis continued.
"Probably some old rover or satellite," Tony commented. "Log it and I'll look at it later. Right, think I've got it. Releasing the grappler in three, two, one."
After flicking the switch, Tony and Steve watched and waited. And then they saw it, the ICBM sailing away from underneath them, headed away from Earth into the safety of the depths of space.
"Well, that's done; probably not the time to do some sightseeing either, I'm guessing. Jarvis, plot our course home," Tony said with a satisfied smile on his face.
ooo00ooo
Harry had never pushed his broom this fast before. Come to that, he'd never pushed any broom this fast before. Or for this long. Oh, sure, way back when when he was still in Hogwarts and playing Seeker, he'd played quidditch games that lasted for hours but then, it'd simply been a lot of slow to mid-level flying punctuated by a rapid chase at the end. This, though, this was a full our race after a long, long day and Harry was getting tired.
Reaching into his belt pocket, he plucked out a pepper-up potion, pulled the cork with his teeth and slugged it back. Ordinarily, he knew, such a potion usually produced steam from one's ears; whether or not it did this time was lost to Harry. Especially as the red flames of the ICBM appeared on the horizon, rapidly closing on them.
Seeing it coming, Harry spun his broom around and rocketed off away from it. There was no way that he'd be able to catch something coming that fast in the ordinary way. Instead, he intended to 'reduce' its relative speed by having it gain on him.
Twisting his head, he watched as it approached from behind. Slightly adjusting his grip, Harry lined himself up. He knew that he'd only get one shot at this. He'd already applied the sticking charm to his feet – the next thing that they touched, they'd stick to. A bubble-head charm took care of the rushing wind, allowing him to breath.
And then the nose of the ICBM appeared underneath him, moving up fast.
Immediately, Harry dropped down on top the thing, his shoes gripping as expected. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought about his broom being stuck between his legs. There was simply no time to shrink it or do anything with it. Instead, he simply let it go. The Lightning Bolt whipped out past his legs, whether to be burnt up in the rocket's fire or lost forever below, he knew not which.
An extra sticking charm aimed at his off-hand gave Harry a little extra purchase, especially when he got his body down as close to the ICBM as possible to eliminate as much wind drag as possible.
And then his wand went to work, blurring its charms and transfigurations in his haste to cast them.
An arresto momentum followed by a feather-light charm were his first choices. The fact that the wind seemed to die down a miniscule amount told him that he'd done something right.
The fuel, he knew, was somewhere beneath his body. A drilling charm produced a hole wide enough for him to get the tip of his wand into, albeit at an extremely awkward angle. And then it was transfiguration after transfiguration. As fast as he could, he changed the liquid fuel into simple water.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. And then he felt it, the ICBM seemed to stutter in mid-flight. Twisting his head around, Harry saw the flames of the rocket die for a second before flaring back on. A second and third stutter, each one longer than the last, told him that the water was getting into the fuel line.
And then it happened.
The flames went out and didn't come back on again. And without that constant forward thrust, the nose of the ICBM dipped downwards. Peering to the side, Harry saw that Thor was moving in, ready to do his part.
With that, Harry cast three last spells, finite incantatums, all aimed at where he was sticking to the missile. The wind whipped at him and he allowed it to pull him away.
As he tumbled through the air towards the ground far, far below, Harry focussed on keeping his wand clutched firmly in his hand and his mind conscious. After all, he still had to survive the drop and the only way to do that without his broom was to change into his sparrowhawk form once he got close enough to the ground.
ooo00ooo
The portkey landed Harry back in Brazil in the middle of Barracuda Base. He stumbled as it released him and he dropped to one knee. Pepper-ups were great at keeping one going, right up until the potion wore off and left you feeling like you could sleep for a week and Harry was very close to feeling that now.
"You're back. How'd it go?" Natasha asked.
Harry nodded at her. "All taken care of."
"Good. I'd hate to see how you'd look if you'd lost," she replied.
Self-consciously, Harry ran a hand through his hair and sighed at finding that it was sticking up all over the place.
"Harry? You back? Only we need you over here," Sam called over the comms. "Two of your dragons are hurt pretty bad and they won't let any of us near them."
A nod of Natasha's head towards her left told him which way to go.
"On my way," Harry called.
It was dark here in the jungle valley and only the bulky shadows of the dragons told him were they were. Sam and Peter met him just the other side of Barracuda's fence line.
"Osborn hit two of them with mini-missiles from his glider," Sam reported when Harry joined them. "The biggest one got hit in the chest and the smallest one got hit in the side. That one's bad. The blow-back tore up its wing membrane."
"What happened to Osborn?" Harry asked as he strode towards the downed dragons.
"The last one grabbed him and bit him; pulled one of its fangs right out of its mouth," Sam replied.
"So, he's dead, then," Harry stated.
"Nope," Peter replied with a shake of his head. "Looks to be in a lot of pain though."
Harry stopped and stared at the two.
"Osborn's alive?" he asked incredulously. "Vipertooths are poisonous! Nothing and nobody survives long without the antidote after they've been bitten by one."
"Well, Osborn has," Peter replied. "Could be that suit of his. Tony thought that it had some sort of healing or regenerative ability to it."
Harry shook his head and pushed Osborn from his mind – the dragons were the most important consideration at the moment. Flicking his wand, Harry produced a great ball of light and sent it hovering above the downed dragons.
"§Speaker§?" the uninjured dragon said, stepping forward between the approaching humans and the injured dragons.
"§I'm here. Will you let me pass? I'd like to see if I can help your friends§," Harry asked.
The dragon lowered her head slightly.
"§You may. I will trust the two-legs with you as well§," she said.
"§Thank you§," Harry replied with a respectful nod and gathered the other two with a wave of his hand.
Harry's first stop was the largest of the dragons, the male. He was currently resting with his four legs tucked under him, his wings furled up to his sides.
"§I came as soon as I could. Are you injured§?" Harry asked.
"§Speaker. It is nothing. Some pain in my chest. My mate was hurt more seriously by the two-leg§," the dragon stated.
Just as Harry began to turn away, a darker splotch of colour under the dragon's neck caught his eye. Lighting his wand, he stepped closer. A patch of thick dark red blood stood out in stark relief to the dragon's copper skin. Stepping closer, Harry noted a cut, about a handbreadth wide.
"§You are hurt§!" Harry exclaimed. "§May I look closer§?"
"§As you wish, Speaker§," the dragon replied.
Harry moved close enough to gently press a hand to the dragon's hide beside the cut. Really, it was amazing that it was there at all; dragonhide was one of the thickest, hardest, most durable of all natural elements. As the dragon breathed, Harry's hand shifted with the dragon's chest and the feel of something akin to gravel rubbing had him cocking his head.
A broken bone? he wondered, not that Harry could confirm it, it wasn't as though there was an x-ray machine around here.
And then he froze, his eyes widening. Quickly, he dug into one particular pocket on his belt until he pulled out a pair of fluorescent yellow glasses and quickly donned them.
"What are those?" Peter asked.
"ExpectaVision Goggles," Harry replied. "My friend George created them. Let's you see through things, right down to the bone."
Aiming them at the dragon, Harry took a close look. The dragonhide itself was simply a dark blur but the cut, the cut was enough to let him see inside the dragon. Not much, mind you, but enough to see that there was a bone in there that definitely looked to be snapped in two.
Peeling off the glasses, Harry stepped back to think. If it had been a person with a broken bone, then some skelegrow would do the trick but he had no idea if that would work on a dragon. Thankfully, he knew someone who did.
"Sparrowhawk," Harry said, activating his watch. "Call 'Marauder'."
It was a few minutes before a tussle-headed Teddy appeared in the holographic display projected above the watch.
"Uncle Harry?" Teddy asked. "How're things? Did you win? Is everyone alright?"
"We're fine; I'll give you the details later," Harry said. "Right now, I've got an emergency. I need you to put Hagrid on the line."
"Hagrid?" a confused Teddy repeated. "What for? Never mind, you said that it was an emergency. There's a problem, though."
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"It's after curfew," Teddy stated.
Harry blinked. He hadn't realised how late it had gotten, not to mention the time difference.
"Sorry, Ted, I'm going to have to ask you to do it anyway. If anyone catches you, tell them that I made you do it, it's an emergency and that it involves dragons."
"Dragons?" Teddy near-yelped. "I know, you'll tell me later. Don't worry, I'll get Hagrid for you. Give me ten minutes."
The connection closed and Harry decided to check on the other dragon while he waited.
This dragon was lying on her side, her injured wing spread out on the grass and small noises that could only be pain almost constantly rumbling from her throat.
"§May I look at where you're hurt§?" Harry asked.
The smallest movement of her head was his only answer, an answer that he took to be affirmative.
The wing looked horrible. Nearly two-thirds of the thin membrane between the wing bones had been burnt away, leaving scraps that flapped in the soft breeze. Checking her side where the missile obviously hit, judging by the blacked smudge in her bronze hide, Harry was thankful to find no cuts. Whether or not that meant that her bones were all intact or if there weren't other internal injuries, was anyone's guess.
"Uncle Harry?" Teddy's voice said from his communicator watch.
Quickly, Harry activated it to see his godson's worried face looking at him.
"Teddy. Did you get Hagrid?" Harry asked.
"I'm righ' 'ere, 'Arry," Hagrid's booming voice said even as Teddy obviously angled the watch to show Harry's oldest friend. "Right good to see ya, 'Arry. 'Mazing what those muggles can do, ain't it, lettin' us talk like this."
"It's good to see you, too, Hagrid," Harry smiled. "Look, I've got a couple of injured dragons and I need your advice."
"Dragons, ya say?" Hagrid said. "Young Teddy said as much. Wha' kind do you 'ave there?"
"Peruvian Vipertooths," Harry replied.
"You'n be careful aroun' them, 'Arry, them's dangerous," Hagrid warned.
"Not to me, Hagrid," Harry replied. "I can understand them using parseltongue."
Hagrid's booming laugh from the communicator startled a small flock of birds in some nearby trees.
"Only you, 'Arry, only you. Tell me what's wrong with 'em," Hagrid said.
"The biggest one, the male, he was hit by a muggle weapon in the chest. It's cut him and he's got a broken bone," Harry said. "If it was a person, I'd give him some skelegrow."
"And ya wanna know if'n you can give it to yer dragon frien'," Hagrid finished. "Well, it won' do 'em any 'arm. Amazin' healin' powers dragons have but a little extra 'elp's always nice."
"How much should I give him?" Harry asked.
"'Ow much you got?" Hagrid asked.
"Six vials," Harry replied.
"Well, considerin' the size of 'im, I'd say give 'im the lot," Hagrid advised.
"Good," Harry said. "The other one, one of the females, was hit in the side. I think her bones and everything are okay, but it's her wing. Here, take a look."
With that, Harry turned his watch around so that Hagrid could see the dragon's wing for himself. When he was sure that Hagrid would have had a chance to see it properly, he turned the communicator back around.
"What do you think?" Harry asked anxiously.
Hagrid simply shook his head.
"That's bad, 'Arry, I don' know that it can be 'ealed at all," Hagrid said sadly.
"What about phoenix tears?" Harry asked. "Would that work?"
"I don' rightly know," Hagrid said. "Can't say that I've 'eard of anyone usin' phoenix tears on a dragon b'fore."
"Is it worth a try?" Harry insisted.
"If'n you've got some handy an' are willin' to try, then I'd say 'yes'," Hagrid replied.
That was enough for Harry. Pulling out the special crystal vial, he moved closer to the injured wing and knelt down beside it. Ever so carefully, he pulled the stopper and tipped drop after drop near all of the major burn points. Twenty-nine drops was a lot to use on a dragon, but Harry thought nothing of it. These three had agreed to come and help him. Yes, for a price, but still. And if there was something, anything that he could do, then he was willing to do it.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. The absence of the dragon's moans, though, was the first indication that it was, in fact, helping. And then, like the smallest of spider-webs, tiny filaments of wing membrane began to regenerate near the points that Harry had dropped the phoenix tears.
"It's working, Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed. "It's starting to grow back!"
"That' great, 'Arry!" Hagrid boomed back. "Thank ya, thank ya for what yer doin'."
"It's my pleasure, Hagrid. Thank you for your advice," Harry replied.
"Any time, 'Arry, any time," Hagrid replied.
"I'll call back in the morning and let you see how she's doing," Harry promised.
Then, after shutting off the communicator, Harry once more approached the largest of the dragons.
"§I have some medicine which I think will help you heal§," Harry told the dragon.
"§Thank you, Speaker§," the dragon replied and opened his mouth wide for Harry to pour vial after vial of potion into it for him.
"§Speaker? Your promise§?" the dragon asked.
"§I haven't forgotten§," Harry replied and glanced at the injured female. "§In the morning. Neither you nor your mate are in any shape to move right now. But I promise that in the morning I will fulfil my end of the bargain§."
"§Thank you, Speaker. At first light, then§," the dragon agreed.