227A/N: Hey all, just as planned here's the next chapter! I'd apologize for the cliffhanger in the last chapter but I'm not very sorry, oops. Big love to all the guest reviewers I can't reply to! Also, I'll casually pretend this isn't a week(ish) late going up.
DISCLAIMER: I am J.K Rowling and I do own the rights to marvel, I, J.K Rowling, do love writing silly fanfictions in a style unlike my own while I also juggle all my many charities. If the sarcasm wasn't strong enough, I own nothing.
Chapter 8
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
Triskelion, Fury's Office. February 17th, 2011, 1:22 PM
Fury held an air of satisfaction around him, and unseen to Hali, Natasha's mouth struggled to open into a scream but she couldn't move.
"How'd you get here?" Hali said, the Elder Wand finding itself in her tightly clenched fist. Hali's smile had wilted into a stunned face, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. He knew her name, or what might as well be her name – but she'd thought she was safe, Hel had told her it was safe! Why wasn't it safe?!
She exhaled shakily, thinking happy thoughts; cuddling Ginny, talking to Hel, Hogwarts, talking to Hel, her family, arguing with Hel, cats running into doors, yelling at Hel who lied to her how dare she – Hali cut herself off. Maybe that wasn't working too well.
"You'd be surprised what you can do when you want to visit a friend," Fury said, in a way that made it clear he was going the vague-answers-just-to-be-rude way of doing things.
"A friend? Funny how I don't recognize you," Hali said, trying to put as much righteous-anger into her voice as a six-year-old with an oversized shirt and toy cat could.
"I'm hurt," Fury said, or, well, Not-Fury said – something gave her the idea this wasn't the director of SHIELD.
"You don't seem like the sensitive type," Hali said, and in a quick motion she slashed her wand through the air, making a volley of metal birds torpedo towards him.
But they vanished on impact, and he glowed for a moment before suddenly they were hurtling back, Fury's face twisted into something ugly. Hali ducked her own projectiles, which had doubled, quickly gasping the incantation for a shield. The birds thudded against it a split second later, Hali flinching away.
"That wasn't cool of you," Hali said, the shield (not to be confused with SHIELD) flickering around her. "Well it was really cool, and I really want to learn that trick, but you know what I mean!"
Fury-Not-Fury's mouth twitched, and something about that should've been familiar, but it wasn't, not exactly. "You know," he said, conversationally, "I've wanted to meet you for a long time, and you're not what I expected."
"What'd you expect, then?" Hali asked, her shield dying out.
"A nicer welcome," Fury said, a smirking curling his lip, looking hauntingly close to someone else – someone Hali knew. But who?
Hali shrugged, "Oops," she said, then changed topics. "How're you doing magic, anyway? Fury's a Muggle, even under imperio that doesn't change – or, wait, is Fury a wizard? Woah that idea seems really weird, I dunno…"
Fury chuckled – Hali thought evildoers did that a lot, they never seemed to giggle or just laugh, always a deep chuckle in the back of their throat – but didn't give a good answer, only saying:
"Oh, no, this man is very… Muggle. I'm not the one performing the magic, so what is it of care anyway?"
A spell came from him that second, and Hali squeaked, dropping Nargles as she ducked low.
"Oh, come on!" Hali yelped, "How'd'you do that?"
Fury-Not-Fury chuckled, not twitching as Hali sent a rather nasty hex at him for surprising her, and it was shot right back at her, making her roll to the side.
From behind, she felt the faintest of disturbances in the air, like someone breezing past her, and her tense body whirled around, mind quickly working things out.
"Another person in the room, then?" She asked rhetorically, "I should've known, Cornelius Fudge!" She cried dramatically, pointing a finger at Fury.
He shook his head, and she scowled – that wasn't her best guest, Fury was too…. what was the word…
Capable.
Very faint, delicate footsteps went by her, and Hali pointed her arm high.
"Irrorogravis", she said, wand lighting up and rain pouring down from the ceiling, hastily making everyone wet. It's a completely useless party trick she and Ron had stumbled across when they studied for the Second Task, but it seemed to work.
Two shimmering forms could be barely seen, rain sliding down their invisible bodies, and it was like they were made of glass, letting Hali know where they were. She quickly shot a spell at the one running towards her, the person having seen figured what her plan was. Her attacker, water dripping around them, halted right before the long business table, and their body seemed to shudder as they struggled to free themselves from the tar that appeared around their feet.
Hali darted for the other figure, sending a spell over her shoulder at the other one, a boy by the looks of it, which would hopefully make him visible. It missed, and she sent another to the unclear silhouette of Romanoff, which hit its mark and she melted into sight.
"Don't be dead!" Hali whispered anxiously when she reached her. She tried to look for signs of damage, but she seemed ok, if Hali discounted the petrificus totalus the redhead was under, and her mild case of floating.
Hali tried to perform the counter spell, but a hand yanked her arm off course, and the light red spell fired into the ceiling, dissipating. Her other arm was grabbed, and she struggled as she was dragged away from the SHIELD Agent.
Romanoff's eyes followed her, darting everywhere in an attempt to tell Hali something, but the Mistress of Death had no idea what she meant. Hali tried to free her arms, but the grip was too strong, the boy twice her size.
It was very weird getting pulled around by something she couldn't really see, and she threw all her weight backgrounds, into the person. They didn't expect that sudden change over direction, stumbling into one of the spinny-chairs around the table and falling over.
Their grip slipped, and she wrenched herself free, jumping to her feet and dodging an office chair sent a-spin. Hali, black hair shining with rain, changed tactics. The room was large and modern, which meant there was no color and not much furniture.
The bright red fire alarm was a beacon to her.
She ran, leaping over a black set of armchairs and rolling, scarcely missing the spell flying over her head.
She squeaked, chancing a look behind and seeing that all the trinkets were now soaring in the sky. They shot towards her, and she transfigured the books sent her way into handkerchiefs, wand somehow remembering things she hadn't done in ages. A mug slammed into the wall in front of her, dark brown coffee mixing with the rain coating the now slippery floor.
A table levitated to her at her wand's command, acting as a shield to block the dangerous projectiles. It worked against the books and paperweights, but then there was a scraping sound. The sound of something big sliding on the ground.
Next thing she knew, an armchair was knocking her feet out beneath her, knee's buckling. She climbed up, face scrunching up with pain. That was going to hurt the next morning, but more importantly it hurt like hell right now – which, she supposed, was a nasty way to use Hel's name.
Tony had been right, they sounded the same.
The chair had sent her closer to the wall, and to the alarm, which she jerked down. A very loud, wailing noise came from all directions, and her very body seemed to buzz with the noise.
The sprinklers in the ceiling sprayed even more water down, which meant Hali might as well have gone swimming, she was so wet. People were knocking on the door, clearing knowing where the fire alarm that'd been set off was. Concerned and downright aggressive voices argued on the other side, and someone yelled a warning they'd be coming in with guns drawn. A muffled voice asked, "Why's the floor so wet?"
Hali only had a moment to listen, since right then everyone's favorite invisible nuisance caught her unaware. He grabbed her, iron grip not letting her much movement. She bit at his arm, and he dropped her, Hali scrambling backwards to stand up. A protego blocked a curse Hali aimed for him, and she nearly groaned in frustration.
She transfigured an armchair into a red-eyed boar, who frothed in rage. The beast squealed and charged him, but the boar was transfigured into a spiked bat before it could do anything, and the dangerous weapon swung at Hali, who had to drop to the floor.
She leaped to a crouch a second later, but the next curse hit her dead center, and she felt like she was moving through something thick, the air around her compressing, and every movement took seconds to do. She tried to move her mouth, but the muscles were now sluggish, and a single syllable seemed a world away.
The Amazing Invisible Jerk was able to easily pluck her up and hold her arms down while Hali couldn't do a thing. The moment he did so, the air loosened, and she panted for air she hadn't realized she was missing.
Why was it that all the evil people knew so many wicked spells?
Her attacker reached a rippling arm up to tap their head, and the disillusionment charm faded away, revealing who was underneath it.
"No way," Hali gasped, twisting in his iron grip to look at him, disbelieving. She struggled harder, opening her mouth to say some very inappropriate things, but he waved an annoyed wand and she was gagged the next second.
"I'm going to kill you!" Hali said, but it came out more like "mm gnnnoo mmhm mmo,"
He held her arms down, plucking the Elder Wand from her hand, looking at it distastefully before pocketing it. Hali gasped, the sound muffled by the tight gag – oh no he didn't, that was a weapon of extreme power and was probably not supposed to be stolen. Hali kicked against him, but with another wand trick her hands her tied as well.
"oU MmMMM!" Hali said intelligently.
Draco Malfoy chuckled, giving a faux yawn. "You're being more inarticulate than usual, Potter,"
"MMMMMMM gHMMM MHH!" She screeched, and tried to bite him, but only succeeding on chewing her gag petulantly.
He hauled her away, and, for a moment, she made eye contact with Romanoff, who was still floating, locked in a full-body-bind curse. Hali wondered, rather absently, how many Statue of Secrecy laws she'd snapped in half by now. More would break in a minute, when the door opened and more Muggles poured in.
But she couldn't bring herself to care much, and really who would if Draco Malfoy decided to visit them across universe's – and it was her universe's Draco, it had to be, this universe's Draco was significantly smaller, with plump cheeks and missing teeth. He was disgustingly cute.
Fury tsked, "Now then young Malfoy, you mustn't damage her. I can only imagine what she'd do to me if I harmed her precious pet project."
Hali's first thought was of Lily, and her heart ached for a moment, wondering if her family had realized she was gone. She figured it would take them a while, but with any luck they wouldn't worry much. However, that didn't seem right – how did he know her mum? Who was he talking about?
Draco broke her thoughts by, rather uncarefully, shoving her around. He was sneering – Hali could tell without facing him, since spit flew out when he sneered, experience had taught her that. Then he moved a bit to the right, and the black-haired girl thought she saw a piece of tape he was standing on, like the ones people in plays used to find their spot.
She didn't get a chance to be suspicious, since the door burst open, and fully trained SHIELD Agents came in, very large guns drawn and wearing vests emblazed with SHIELD's symbol. They paused a split second upon seeing the wreck the room was in, and Hali herself was impressed they'd made that much of a mess in the four minutes she'd been in here.
It was still raining, and the agents were sloshing the water as they walked. Every throwable item – and quite a few ones that shouldn't be thrown – had been tossed around, the wall was stained brown, Natasha was floating, Fury looked downright sinister, and a teenage boy was holding a child hostage with a stick.
Which was actually working.
Really, what better moment for Stark to burst through and save the day, it was textbook.
Everyone in the room glanced at the door, but he wasn't there. It was a split-second thing, but even Evil-Not-Fury looked over. Then, as one, they went back to eviling, or goodguying, collectively wondering where he was.
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
Cupboard (Not Underneath Any Stairs). February 17th, 2011, 1:26 PM
Tony was in a bit of a pickle.
The pretty lady who'd promised to take his suit off had taken it off him, yes, but afterwards she locked him in the supply closet, which was degrading in so many ways. Mostly because he actually couldn't get out of the supply closet. He was Iron Man, he was the CEO of Stark Industries, he was a genius, he was able to build a suit of extremely complicated engineering in a damn cave.
And he was stuck in a cupboard.
An alarm was going off, there was commotion outside, Hali was probably in danger, and worse yet, the SHIELD lady hadn't let him use the bathroom before sticking him inside a closet.
It was sad how he fell for the easiest trick of them all, but in his defense SHIELD was weird, for all he knew they really did have candy inside their cupboards.
Tony sighed, leaning against the narrow shelf filled with cleaning supplies and rubbing his sore shoulder, having rammed it against the door so many times it was hurting. The alarm continued to screech, and he kneaded his forehead. Whoever that lady had been, she wasn't working under SHIELD's orders, but she was mean, so she might as well be. Because he really didn't think that SHIELD would go low enough to plonk him in the nearest cupboard to get him out of the way, that was unusual, even for them.
He pressed his head to the door, not able to see anything in the pitch dark, and craving some light.
"Let." He slammed his head against the door – THUD. "Me." THUD. "Out." THUD.
The door clicked open, and he nearly fell over, not expecting that to actually work. A janitor was staring at him, woeful blue eyes squinting in confusion.
"Wha yer doin with my cleaning things?" He grumbled, brushing past the superhero to grab his mop, and Tony didn't really have a good excuse, so he said:
"I was trapped in there with lures of candy. Anyone would've done the same."
The Janitor grumbled, waving away the excuses as he shuffled to find his mop. Tony didn't bother saying goodbye as he sprinted down the hallway, regretting having the suit taken off. He shouldn't have listened to her, but he didn't know where she'd taken it, and if it came to it he could self-destruct it so SHIEL didn't get their ratty fingers all over it.
However, he wasn't entirely useless without it – something he was very smug to admit.
As he ran, passing by numerous agents dashing here and there, he pulled a small red and gold hexagon from his suit pocket. He ran his hand over it, before tapping thrice, the piece of technology reading his fingerprint and giving a little click. It folded open and into itself, squares of metal rearranging to make the shape of a gun as he found the lobby.
He looked around for a second, spotting the elevator and sprinting over, leather shoes squeaking as he skidded to a halt in front. As he repeatedly tapped the holographic button to go up, the last shiny piece of metal found its spot, finishing the gun.
Right before the elevator started, the same lady who'd locked him in the storage slid in, narrowing missing the closing doors.
The elevator started its way to the highest floor, a glowing indicator mindlessly telling which floor they were passing through. Tony took a step away from the woman, cocking his propulsion gun.
"Fury ordered me to, so I did," she said simply, looking for a nonexistent flaw with her shiny blue nails as she spoke. Tony felt rather ruffled by her lack of interest in him, and his spectacular jailbreak. She wasn't even asking how he got out!
But Tony didn't lower the gun. "He ordered you to lock me in a supply closet?"
She shrugged daintily, now fixing her hair into a tighter ponytail. "Yes, but now there's a hostage situation in Fury's office, with Fury as the perpetrator, so that command is null,"
"A what?" Tony said in a brave voice – not like he yelped it or, or anything ridiculous. A small part of his mind realized he'd been wrong, they were low enough to shoo him into a cupboard and call it a day. Jokes on them he escaped with an outside confident – kind of.
She pulled her own gun out, just as the elevator dinged! and they stepped out. "Exactly, so we should hurry," and with that she ran up to a superior standing in the middle of the large hallway, relaying something or another. A dozen agents geared with weapons were ready to supply backup, serious faces and hushed conversations being exchanged, but even SHIELD subconsciously cleared a path for Iron Man as he walked out of the elevator with a path in mind.
Tony found the most intimidating, muscular woman there and asked for a quick rundown, even though every instinct was screaming at him to charge in and figure it out that way.
"Well," she started.
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
Fury's Office. February 17th, 2011, 1:31 PM
Draco knew her enough to clamp a bracelet etched with runes around her wrist, which Hali detested. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to do, because she couldn't think clearly. Every time her mind tried to craft a way out of here, everything jumbled up, like someone rooting for toys in a toybox, and tossing all the others out as they went.
Hali frowned deeply, angrily kicking against Draco, nailing a hit on his knee. He grunted, but otherwise acted like she hadn't done anything.
"MMmgg MMGG!" She shouted, really relating to Natasha floating around not being able to do anything.
"Let her go," one of the angrier looking SHIELD agents said, and Hali also related to that. She was mad, both at herself for getting into this mess, and Draco for having the audacity to cross universes just to pester her. For a moment, she wondered how she got to a point where someone holding a wand to her neck was considered pestering, but was distracted by her annoying kidnapper pressing the wand harder, and she leaned away, trying to keep the wooden tip in sight.
Hali tried to rub the bracelet against her hip, maybe the friction would get it off, but it didn't work. Draco still had her hands tightly controlled, so the most it did was make him vaguely disgruntled. The Girl-Who-Lived might not know what it was, or what it did, but she knew she didn't like the stupid bracelet.
Maybe wandless magic would help, maybe – her thoughts scrambled, and she couldn't remember what she'd just been thinking. It felt important though, and she could feel a headache coming. If Draco had made her scar-aches, as Ginny called them, start up again she was going to – her thoughts jumbled up like clothes going through a washing machine.
The Angry Guy, as Hali liked to think of him, took a step forward, raising his gun threateningly when Draco made no move to let her go. Angry Guy's teammates practically tackled him, shushing and whispering furiously as he straightened back up, significantly wetter
It was still raining, and Hali dramatically wondered if she'd ever be dry again. Probably not, they were in this room for going onto ten minutes. Did it really take that long to handle a hostage? It was just her, and while it was bothersome, and while she was definitely taking the route of blocking out the fact that people from her old world were here, it shouldn't take that long, if she died it wouldn't matter.
But, she supposed, the negotiators didn't know that small detail.
"IM IMMOOMOO!" she said, but she didn't think any of them knew she was saying "I'm immortal!" and not "Help me!".
Turns out she didn't need to watch any more of them bartering with Fury – who was looking more an more unamused by the second – and sneakily asking questions, since Tony chose that moment to burst in.
And he was onlyfive minutes late.
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
The Streets of Washington. February 17th, 2011, 1:31 PM
The motorcycle ride went smoother than expected, because Sirius had a bright idea. It was seriously alarming that he had this moment of brilliance, and without doubt he'd be bragging for a very long time. He had duplicated the motorcycle, which they managed to steal off the sign with a confusing amount of ease. They only had to deal with a very angry old woman who could only speak some foreign language no one had ever heard of, but after dropping some galleons in her wrinkly hand she let them take it.
Mind, his duplicating skills weren't the best, but they were drivable.
Which was well more than Lily had expected.
There was a slightly manic grin on her face as she leaned over the handlebar of her bike, cars around her and the wind in her hair. She stomped down hard on the gas the second the light before her turned green, and with a squeal of tires on pavement she was in motion.
James was clutching tightly to her waist, palms sweaty and a terrified expression on his face. Lily thought he was overreacting, there was nothing to be afraid of, she was following the traffic laws! Or at least she thought so, that was the only reason Lily hadn't run the light, because the police might be a teensy bit annoying – it might even delay them for a few minutes. But she had been very young when her dad taught her about motorcycles and laws, so she'd forgotten a couple very small things: like how to tell the speed limit.
At least this way she'd be seeing Hali quicker, though not quick enough for Lily. Her stomach flopped like a pancake being flipped by a mediocre chef thinking about her precious daughter. She squeezed the handlebars enough to make Sirius's crummy work whine under her. When she finally saw her Hali, Lily was going to hug her tightly to her chest and whisper how much she loved her into her ear. In part so she can't see her snatchers being violently incinerated by the rest of their family.
Sirius was driving right beside her, recklessly swerving between cars to keep up, the two of them following James yelling directions.
"Left!" James hollered in a terrified tone.
"My left or your left?" Sirius yelled back.
"They're the same!" Remus interrupted, clutching Sirius, all of them yelling over the loud engines of the motorcycles.
Lily growled, not patient enough to handle their shenanigans, and took a sharp left turn, engine rumbling louder still.
Peter was a bit further back, having had trouble staying upright, but was quickly speeding to meet them. Lily yanked the motorcycle to take a shortcut through a large park, and even Sirius was surprised at her gall.
"Nice one, Potter!" Sirius said, his bike cresting the small grassy hill behind the Potters, bumping along the grass.
James looked surprised, briefly forgetting he was scared for his life.
"Not you, you idiot! Your wife!" Sirius said, managing to roll his eyes even as tourists screamed and ran away from the rogue motorcycles.
"Duck!" Remus squeaked, and there was something funny about a werewolf squeaking, or at least Sirius's seemed to think as he laughed, ducking down by instinct.
In front of the bikes, a large family of ducks waddled from the glittering park pond, and Lily screeched around them, kicking up dirt as she twisted around the bemused ducklings, doing a full spin before gaining traction and taking off down the bike path, cyclers fortunately having a fair warning signal to get out the way. The signal being James' high-pitched screaming.
"Not that kind of duck!" Remus told Sirius, "Like, ducks," they, two, narrowly missed the swarm of ducks.
In her rearview mirror, Lily could see Peter coming up behind them, finally getting level with Sirius and Remus.
"Turn!" James gasped, following the red string of vague directions, "Turn right turn right turn right!"
"I am!" Lily snapped, blood-red hair flying around her as she ditched the cycling trail and vroomed up the hill so quickly they gained air going over the other side. She merged onto the busy road just over the crest, leaving the park behind and now ahead of scheduled arrive.
There were two more thuds behind her – the rest of her family doing the same, and then meeting on either side of her as they exceeded the speed limit together, weaving between cars to get to the island they could see just ahead. With no injuries, which was itself a miracle, they finally found themselves just a huge concrete bridge away from where Hali had to be held at.
They couldn't just drive in, because there were rather scary spikes to poke out their tires on the entrance. Next to that, a stout building housed a man, who tiredly let in a sleek black car, the spikes rolling down and the car able to easily enter.
They all looked at it, Lily putting her feet down to steady her motorcycle, brushing hair away from her freckled face.
"I got this, watch," James said, and everyone looked at him. Lily blinked, confused:
"James, you're not moving."
"I'm not?" He said, and looked down at his hands, still clamped around Lily's waist. "Oh, right," he laughed nervously and carefully let go of her, looking like he was certain she was going to start driving the second he did. With caution, he stepped off the motorcycle, and jogged up to building, striking a conversation with the man. They couldn't hear what he was saying, but he gestured to his friends and made big motions with his hands.
They watched what was going on with blank looks, smiling awkwardly when the guard peered over James to look at them. Then the guard, who had a thin face and a dimply smile, waved at them, laughing and shaking his head at something James was saying.
"Is he… persuading him to let us in?" Peter whispered, aghast.
"I think so," Remus said, equally shocked. He scratched at his faded brown hair, brow furrowed. "This doesn't feel right, that's your thing, Sirius!"
Sirius grinned, but didn't deny it. "Whatever he's doing, it's working, look, here he comes now! I don't see the guard, must be telling someone to put down those spikes!"
James walked back, seeming confused by the eager faces all around.
"Well," Peter asked. "What'd you do?"
"Told him a story about how we were supposed to start our new day of work, and how our ID cards got lost in the mail even though we sent in our forums three times, and he totally thought it was true!" James said, looking quite proud. Lily, however, frowned, telling there was something twitchy about the way he said that.
"Where is he now, then?" She asked.
James looked embarrassed, running a hand through his hair as he said "I stunned him. He asked too many questions, and how was I supposed to know what a "shield" means. Completely bonkers, that one. Now let's go, I pressed the button to let us in, but I expect an alarm to go off any minute now, this place is fricking crawling with cameras and security."
Like he said, the spikes eased into the ground, and, James jumping on the back and holding on tight, they sped over the bridge, the Triskelion – the guard mentioned it – looming above them.
X - X - X - X - X - X - X
Fun fact I spent far too long researching if SHIELD has fire alarms than I should've.
Leave a review telling me about your pets – or my story, that too! Constructive criticism is always nice to hear, and I love answering any questions you have!
The new chapter will be up next week! Next Friday to be precise. I've already got most of it done. Anybody have an idea who Fury really is? Or is the twist that he's been the real Fury this entire time? Find out next week onnnnnnnnn *peppy theme song plays*
THE CRAZY LIFE OF HALIMEDA POTTER