A small herd of elephants and rhinoceroses stampeding through a forest was enough to give anyone pause, to capture their attention and Mage smirked.
Apparating into the midst of a group of four HYDRA soldiers, his wand flashed. In seconds, all four were unconscious, bound and gagged.
The whine of an energy weapon from overhead had him erecting a shield above him on pure instinct. Looking up, Mage saw one of the HYDRA suits of flying armour, glowing an eerie purple, hovering just below the canopy of the forest, firing at him. Using his off-hand, he sent a burst of pure magic at him. A startled scream told him that, once again, he'd 'shorted' out the suit. A piercing hex took care of the soldier even before he hit the ground.
Spinning about, Mage tried to see what had become of the rampaging herd that he'd transfigured from a pile of boulders that he'd found not long after he and his teammates had arrived.
Sokovia. They'd received intel that HDYRA had a base here. A base that had a good chance of holding Loki's Sceptre in it. And judging by the heavy resistance that they'd almost immediately encountered, it was a fair bet that it was, indeed, here.
Dotted all over the forest were bunkers with high-tech cannons that shot beams of purple energy (eerily reminiscent of the Chitauri weapons), towers full of soldiers that could snipe at them from up high and tanks. And that wasn't even taking into account the dozens and dozens of soldiers that had appeared, both on the ground and in the air, wearing the mock Iron Man suits.
Almost instantly, a Code Green had been called and Mage, seeing the nearby boulders, had decided that some extra 'reinforcements' of their own couldn't hurt, as well as the Hulk himself.
The startled scream and rapid gunfire from his left caught his attention and he turned towards it, his wand raised.
The herd had found a group of soldiers, all of whom were swiftly backing away, their guns flaring as they fired at Mage's herd. Already, one of the rhinos was down; indeed, even as he looked, it morphed back into the rock that it come from.
With a snap of his wrist, he unleashed an arc of deep blood red. It swept across the space, slicing through a tree and continuing on, impacting the soldiers, dropping them in a bloody mess where they stood. Screams and the sound of wood splintering and crashing towards the ground caught Mage by surprise and he looked up. The tree that he's thought that he'd just sliced in two, wasn't. Instead, one of the crude towers had had one of its legs sliced off and was in the process of toppling to the ground.
A great green behemoth, snarling and roaring its defiance landed on the tower out of nowhere, splinting it and smashing it to pieces long before it'd completed its decent.
The flash of purple energy washing past Mage had him turning from the Hulk, spinning in behind a tree. A quick peek showed him that one of the bunkers had fired on him, only just missing him. It was fairly small, maybe five metres square but made of concrete, a turret with a gun that shot that annoying purple energy perched on top.
With a frown, Mage summoned on of the 'animals' that he'd created. He blinked in surprise as a yak came soaring through the trees, conveniently knocking a further three HDYRA guards out in its flight. A yak? He didn't remember transfiguring one of the boulders into that animal. Ignoring the irregularity with a shrug, he instead focussed on the threat.
Lining up his shot, he whipped his wand towards the bunker. Instantly, the flying yak altered course. Following up with a couple of banishers had the yak hurtling towards the bunker. Someone like Tony or Bruce, someone who knew physics, would be able to calculate what force a three hundred kilogram mass of yak impacting a bunker at speed would be. All Mage knew was that it had the desired result: both yak and bunker were no more, totally destroyed by the collision.
"'Finally's' taking a little long, boys," Widow stated over comms.
"Yeah, I'd say we lost the element of surprise," Hawkeye added.
"Loki's Sceptre must be here," Thor said. "HYDRA could not mount this defence without it."
"Agreed," Cap said. "There's a lot of Phase Two weapons in play. And a lot that reminds me of the Chitauri as well."
"We need to infiltrate the main building," Wolf stated with a grunt.
"Heading in now," Iron Man told them. And then, a few seconds later, "shit!"
"Language!" Cap admonished. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"
"The main building seems to be surrounding by some type of energy shielding," Jarvis replied.
The main building. Their target. It was all but a small castle or fortress, set above the edge of the forest on a hill, just outside Novi Grad. Their intel said that it was HDYRA's main base here in Sokovia.
"Um, excuse me," Iron Man said. "Is no one going to comment on the fact that Cap said, 'Language'?"
"I know. It just slipped out," Cap sighed. "Stark, can you disable the shield?"
"Working on it," Iron Man replied.
"Energy shield?" Mage asked even as he animated one of the trees into a parody of the whomping willow from Hogwarts, its branches flailing and whipping about, catching any and all HDYRA soldiers within its reach and pummelling them into the ground. "It's electrical based?"
"From what I can tell," Iron Man replied.
"I've got it," Mage stated.
Turning on the spot, he apparated to a point just outside the main building, far past the forest. Raising his hand and closing his eyes, he felt. There. A few metres ahead of him. That distinctive tang of electricity. It was stronger than he'd ever felt before, but he was sure that his idea would work.
Lifting his wand towards the energy barrier, he dug deep inside himself and released his magic, pouring it raw and pure into one steady stream. The golden arc impacted the energy shield and lit it up in a crackling field of blue. The longer that Mage held the magic stream, the more of the shield could be seen, its blue appearing wilder and wilder, flashing and flaring as his magic began overloading it.
A sharp thump impacted the middle of his back and Mage was sent stumbling forwards. Gritting his teeth, he turned his head, keeping the magic going.
There, hovering above him on purple energy, was one of the HYDRA agents. Before Mage could react, the flying-suited soldier fired again and Mage had no time to react. Thankfully, his dragonhide cloak was more than able to take the blast, even if it did hurt like hell. Twice more, shots impacted him as Mage held on, aiming to take down the shield guarding the building.
And then the call came that he'd been waiting for.
"Drawbridge is down, people!" Iron Man called.
Instantly, Mage switched hands. With his raw magic already swirling inside him, it was nothing to send it towards the annoyance that was shooting at him. Mage's magic simply absorbed the next shot even as it headed towards him and continued on. The suit was overwhelmed in a second, going completely dark even as the soldier was sent flying, tumbling through the air with a scream, a scream that was silenced when he hit the nearest tree.
Mage dropped to one knee, sucking in great gulps of air. Never before had he channelled his magic like that, so pure and raw and released it, let alone holding it for the couple of minutes that was needed to overwhelm the electrical energy of the shied. He felt drained but it was nothing that a quick pepper-up potion could cure.
Downing the disgusting potion in a single swallow, Mage pushed himself back to his feet, feeling his energy return and prepared to return to the fight.
ooo00ooo
Wolf was in his element. This was war, fighting, something that he knew instinctively, even better than he knew himself.
Block.
Block.
Strike to the throat.
Spin, knife up, slicing the next soldier's arm.
Backwards kick, slamming the first enemy into the tree.
Three rapid punches to the ribs of the enemy in front of him.
Duck.
Stab thigh.
Rise, leading with a left uppercut.
Finish with an elbow to the back as the enemy was falling.
Two quick shots from his side-arm finished the fight.
Wolf was about to move on when the purple glow of the rifle that one of the soldiers that he'd just taken out caught his attention. He'd seen it in action, indeed, he'd nearly had his head shot off by it. The damage that it'd done to the tree that it'd hit instead was impressive. Kicking the body of the HYDRA soldier off of the rifle, Wolf reached down and claimed it.
The crack of a gun firing had Wolf spinning, dropping to one knee in the process. In the same movement, his new rifle came up, centring on the enemy that Wolf was targeting and fired. The soldier jerked and dropped, taken from the fight and Wolf grinned.
ooo00ooo
"Clint's hit!" Widow called.
Cap turned towards where he knew his teammate was only for something to impact him. Cap was thrown into the sky. Twisting his body, he managed to land on one knee. His head swivelled about but he couldn't see any more than a blur racing off through the trees.
"We have an enhanced in the field," he alerted his teammates.
"The last time we heard that was during New York," Iron Man stated. "This one a friendly like Sparrowhawk?"
"No," Cap replied. "I'd say the rumours are true: HDYRA's been experimenting on people here, just as they were in Germany. This one's a blur. Keep your eyes open."
ooo00ooo
"J, give me an IR of the room," Tony instructed.
The small, stone room was instantly bathed in the light from a hard, red line that swept from one side of the room to the other from the Iron Man armour. Every desk, computer, chair, cabinet and wall was analysed as Tony watched.
"The wall to your left," Jarvis announced. "I'm reading steel reinforcing. And an air current."
"Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door," Tony chanted as he crossed to said wall and pushed on it.
The grinding sound of a section of the wall moving inwards and away was music to Tony's ears. Stepping in, he found himself atop a set of stairs. Without a second thought, he quickstepped his way down.
Workstation after workstation, all the size of a hospital bed, as far as the eye could see in the vast, dimly-lit room, instantly caught his eye. The hardware on the closest caught his attention, as one would expect, it being composed of dozens of pieces of robotics, including what looked like pieces of arms, legs, even helmets. His eyes flitted from table to table only to see that each and every one contained the exact same thing.
And then he looked up and instantly flinched, his head ducking and his mouth going bone dry, even as sweat began pooling on his brow and back.
A skeleton. A huge, menacing skeleton was wired to the roof above. And not just any skeleton but that of one of the Chitauri leviathans. Exactly how it had gotten here, to Sokovia of all places, was anyone's guess. The fact that it was there, staring at him with its sightless eyes was enough to have his heart racing. The last time that he'd seen one was at the Battle of New York.
And then he was there!
The sky above him was the black of the depths of space, but that wasn't what had his attention. No, it was the scene in front of him. A small hillock made of the sharpest, hardest-looking rocks that he'd ever seen. And covering them were his friends, his teammates, the Avengers.
Hulk was at the top, lying on his stomach, half a dozen wicked-looking spears piecing his body, green blood oozing from every mortal wound. Nat lay flat on her back, her eyes staring upwards, unseeing, unblinking. Clint was slumped over, his bow fallen from a limp hand. Thor, too, was clearly dead, thick red blood matting his normally blonde hair. What remained of Mage was a mass of blue-grey cloak pooled on the ground, a singular foot sticking out from under it.
Peter, too, was there, half of his mask shredded, his face a pulpy mess. Rhodey was missing a leg; Sam was face down, both wings from his pack torn off, tossed carelessly away. A small, furry lump could only be a squirrel, a hand reaching out towards it, the rest of the body hidden under a pile of rocks.
And then Tony saw Steve, his face bloody, his shield torn in two lying beside him. Instantly, Tony was by his side, checking for a pulse, despair welling up inside him at not finding it.
Steve's eyes snapping open, his hand grabbing Tony's own, startled him.
"You could have saved us all," the dead man accused before slumping back down once again.
It was only then that Tony noticed what was happening above him. Chitauri leviathans by the dozen, each surrounded by hundreds of chariots, streamed towards the portal in space, a portal that clearly showed a very familiar image: Earth.
And then Tony was back, back in the underground lab in Sokovia, blinking profusely.
Tentatively, he looked up, checking and double-checking to ensure that the skeleton of the leviathan above him was indeed dead. It was.
And then he saw it.
"Guys, I have eyes on the prize," he announced.
"About time. We're all locked down out here," Nat stated.
Holding his hand out, Tony walked towards Loki's Sceptre. Just before he reached it, the gauntlet of his Iron Man armour arrived, instantly attaching itself to his hand and forearm. And then, in one movement, he grabbed the sceptre, snatching it from the tech that surrounded it.
"Tony!"
At the sound of his name, Tony spun, bringing up his other hand, only to grimace at the realisation that it was just a hand, a hand without any armour on it.
"Don't do that!" he admonished Harry who was currently facing the opposite direction, a flash of some kind of spell shooting across the room at the far wall. "You're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days if you keep that up."
"Did they hurt you?" Harry asked urgently. "What'd they want?"
"Who?" Tony asked, his narrowed eyes taking in the deserted room.
"There was two of them. Male and female. I'm guessing that you didn't see them?" Harry asked.
"Are you sure that you're not imagining things?" Tony asked.
"No. I didn't," Harry replied. "They were there. I think the guy grabbed the girl and they disappeared."
"Like you?" Tony asked.
Harry shook his head slowly. "No. More like ran off in a blur. My spell to stop them was too slow."
"Something to keep an eye out for then," Tony said. "Come on, let's get this thing to the quinjet and stop Point Break from wearing a hole in the deck plating with his pacing."
ooo00ooo
The tide pool was large, easily fifteen metres long and half that wide. It was relatively deep, too. At least, it was deep enough to have captured some tiny fish after the tide had gone out, in conjunction with its usual inhabitants – hermit crabs of various sizes.
Skye eyed it almost warily. Here, sheltered as it was by the high cliffs from the wind, the water was still as glass, perfect for what she wanted to attempt. Well, wanted may not be quite the right word. Needed might be closer. Somehow, she'd developed these ... powers. Powers to feel vibrations in objects, powers to create vibrations, to manipulate the natural vibrations.
And it was damn scary. To know that if she wasn't keeping herself calm and in control, that a mini earthquake could occur. Indeed, that had happened more times than she cared to count – usually at night when she'd been asleep and lost control and had to have someone (usually Harry) wake her, to calm her down in order to stop the entire building from shaking.
It was imperative that she get a handle on things. Especially if she ever wanted to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent again. She knew the protocols: any 'powered' individual needed to be 'indexed', to be documented and probed and subjected to a multitude of evaluations before they'd be deemed 'safe' enough to continue working for the organisation.
Taking a deep breath, Skye centred herself, forced herself not to grimace at the constant feeling as though a swarm of bees were buzzing just under her skin and prepared. She lifted her hand towards the rock pool and concentrated.
At first, there was nothing. Concentrating deeper, Skye searched for the vibrations.
There. The rock on the beach. She could feel it, its natural vibrations connecting it to the greater island. With a frown, Skye concentrated further, allowing the singular large rock that she was feeling to fill her, for the other vibrations to drift away.
And then, once she had it, she twisted the vibrations, amplified them somehow, not that she could explain exactly what she did, just that she knew that that was what she was doing.
Ever so gently, ripples appeared on the water.
Smiling at her achievement, Skye took a single step forward and amped up the vibrations.
Ripples turned into small waves. Small waves became larger until water was splashing out and over the rocks.
Pleased with her achievement, Skye allowed the vibrations to taper off, to return to normal.
"Not bad," a voice said as she lowered her arm. "Looks like you're getting the hang of it."
"Bobbi," Skye said, having turned to see the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent standing behind and a little to the side of her on the sand.
"You keep going at the pace you're going and you won't be waking the entire island up at night anymore," Bobbi said as she walked towards Skye.
"That's the plan," Skye said. "I can control it enough for smaller things now. Well, smaller than the whole island, at least."
"It hasn't exactly been that long, the finer control will come in time," Bobbi said. "If you like, I can help you train."
Skye cocked her head at the other woman.
"But you don't have powers," Skye pointed out.
"I don't, not that that's stopped me before," Bobbi replied. "But I'm not just talking about controlling your powers. Somehow or other, I ended up as the Trainer for the Avengers Academy. I teach all kinds of fighting skills – hand-to-hand, weapons, how to use your powers effectively in combat situations – as well as tactical awareness, how to fly a quinjet, you name it."
"But I'm not an Avenger, I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Skye pointed out.
Bobbi simply shrugged. "You're powered now, you might not find that S.H.I.E.L.D. is the best fit for you anymore. Not to mention that it'd give you more time to spend with Harry. Something to think about."
Slowly, Skye nodded her head. Spending more time with Harry did sound good. What they had was fast becoming the best thing in her life, especially now that her questions about her parents had been answered.
"One thing, though," Bobbi said, holding up a finger. "You'd best think of a code name. If you're going to hang around here, you'll want one, especially if you go on any missions with us. And believe me, Tony has an annoying habit of coming up with names if you don't do it yourself."
"Thanks, I'll definitely give it some thought," Skye replied.
"Good. Now, let's see exactly how well you can control this power of yours," Bobbi said. "You see that coconut tree over there? Make it drop a nut."
Skye gave her a confused look.
"What? I'm hungry," Bobbi retorted. "Now, get to work."
ooo00ooo
"Merlin's balls!" Ted groused under his breath.
He'd just found the second to last star of the night, having spent ages trying to centre it in his telescope when his watch had vibrated, making him jerk and send his telescope slewing across the night sky.
His hand wrapped over his watch, muffling the slight buzzing sound that it was making. It wouldn't be Doreen or Uncle Harry, Ted knew – they both knew his class schedule and that he'd have Astronomy on that night. Therefore, by process of elimination, it had to be one of the others.
Glancing around surreptitiously, Ted made sure that he wasn't being observed. Professor Sinistra was on the far side of the tower, giving him just the opportunity that he needed. Pulling up his sleeve, he muttered the pass-phrase, unlocking the watch for use.
It wasn't a call, though, just a simple message and by the looks of it, it hadn't even been intended specifically for him – just a general call to every Avenger.
Party. The Tower. Saturday. 7pm. Revels to celebrate finally getting the sceptre back. Be there or be square.
Ted cocked his head at it. Obviously, the Avengers had still be going on missions while he was stuck here at Hogwarts. And by the sound of it, they'd had another successful one. Tony, he guessed. That's who'd most likely sent it. And it had come to him, therefore he was invited too.
For now, Ted pushed the thought of what Uncle Harry would say about him turning up far away. No, it was much better to think about Doreen's response to his surprise. Not for an instant did Ted even consider the idea of not going.
Seven o'clock. With the time difference, that meant he'd have to portkey out at ... eleven. Doable, especially with the Map to help him get out of the castle.
Noting that Professor Sinistra was beginning her circuit back towards him, Ted closed the message, slid his sleeve back over his watch and spun his telescope back to the right area of the sky. The party wasn't until Saturday, he had time enough to plan later.
ooo00ooo
"Greengrass and Cho are all set up in the medical wing for Barton, Boss, and Lavender has already given a statement to the press outlining the Avenger's actions in Sokovia," Maria Hill stated as she ascended the quinjet's ramp. "She's declared it a major victory in the fight against HYDRA – one of the Leaders captured and handed to NATO, the major weapons and research and development facilities shut down and a major Asgardian artefact recovered."
"That's great, but I'm not the Boss; he is," Tony stated, pointing at Steve. "I'm just here to pay for everything and to make everyone look cooler."
"And you do a bang-up job of it, Stark," Steve acknowledged. "It would have been nice if we'd managed to capture List as well as Strucker, but I'm sure that he'll turn up again. Where are we with the enhanced that we encountered?"
"Much of the data that Stark was able to recover was corrupted," Maria admitted. "However, we were able to reconstruct and extrapolate on some parts of it. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, twins. Orphaned at age ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia has had a ... rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."
"Their abilities?" Steve asked as the two exited the quinjet.
"He's got increased metabolism and improved homeostasis. Her thing is neural electrical interfacing, telekinesis and mental manipulation," Maria replied. Seeing Steve's confused look, she simplified it for him. "He's fast and she's weird."
"Mutant weird, magical weird or something we haven't seen before?" Steve asked.
"The latter, I suspect, considering the little data we recovered indicated that their powers are a result of some experimentation related to the sceptre," Hill replied. "Although why they agreed to having their genes rearranged like that is beyond me."
"Exactly. What kind of person would allow a German scientist to experiment on them?" Steve asked sarcastically as he entered the Tower's lift.
"We're not at war, Captain," Maria pointed out.
"They are," Steve countered just before the doors closed.
ooo00ooo
Tony sat back in his chair, staring at the screen in front of him.
"Huh," he said.
'Unexpected' wasn't the word he was looking for. To be honest, it wasn't even in the same ballpark. He blinked, his mind going a million miles a minute as he comprehended the results.
Alien. The sceptre was alien. J had confirmed that with a simple metallurgical analysis, finding compounds that he couldn't identify. But the gem ... what it housed ... the possibilities were ...
Leaning forward, he tapped a series of commands into his computer.
"J. Get Banner and Parker in here," he ordered.
It was only after Jarvis had acknowledged the need that Tony had a thought. A glance at the clock showed him that no, Parker wasn't still in school. Not that that would have stopped Tony from getting him here anyway – this was simply too important.
"Tony."
Tony looked up to see Bruce entering the lab, Peter not far behind.
"Finally. What kept you?" Tony said impatiently before waving it off. "Come over here, I want you to see something,"
A tap of his computer projected a holographic representation of his computerised AI into the middle of the floor.
"Jarvis," Bruce greeted.
"Doctor," Jarvis replied, his orange matrix pulsing with his speech.
"Jarvis. Top of the line. The most advanced AI on the planet. He runs more of Stark Industries, not to mention Avengers Tower, than anyone except maybe Pepper," Tony elaborated. "Now, meet the competition."
Tapping the gem housed in Loki's sceptre with a specialised, programmed mini pad to capture a schematic of what it housed, Tony flicked it towards the centre of the room. A large blue hologram appeared, much larger and obviously much more complex than the orange Jarvis that it sat beside.
"If you had to guess, what would you say it was doing?" Tony asked.
"Thinking," Bruce replied instantly.
"It looks like a really big brain," Peter added.
"Exactly. It's like there's neurons firing all around it," Bruce said.
"That was in the gem? No wonder that the sceptre could overwhelm people and make them into zombies," Peter said.
Tony grimaced at the 'zombies' part, but he couldn't disagree with the sentiment.
"With this, I've gotta think that HYDRA was knocking on a very particular door," Tony said.
"Artificial intelligence," Bruce breathed.
"Goes with all of the tech that I saw there and there was definitely a lot of robotics," Tony said.
"How close do you think they were?" Peter asked from where he was crouched on the floor, peering closer at the gem's AI.
"Close, much closer than I'd have given them credit for," Tony replied. "Just think what robotics combined with computing power like this could be capable of."
Bruce's head whipped towards him.
"Ultron. You're thinking of Ultron, aren't you?" Bruce asked. "But I though Ultron was dead, a concept that was simply unfeasible."
"With yesterday's tech, it was," Tony agreed. "But with this ..."
"This coding has to be pretty dense," Peter remarked. "How long would it take to download it and modify it for use?"
"Thor's taking the sceptre back to Asgard in three days. There's no time," Bruce pointed out, his eyes narrowed.
"There is if we do it while we still have the sceptre," Tony said eagerly. "Just think, the Ultron program combined with this coding, using the Legionnaires, the world would finally be safe from whatever Big Bads are out there, just waiting to crash the party. Any aliens that turned up simply wouldn't be able to get past the bouncers."
"You want to go for full AI in three days? Without consulting the team?" Bruce asked incredulously.
"You don't want to tell everyone else? Why not?" Peter asked, looking confused.
"Because we don't have time for a City Hall debate. The 'man was not meant to meddle' argument. We have this opportunity to end the mission. For peace in our time. Imagine it. Three days. All I'm asking for is three days. Tell me you're with me," Tony pleaded.
Bruce and Peter shared a look and Tony could see the intrigue on their faces. Well, intrigue, interest and resignation. He could work with that.