Disclaimer – Anything you see and recognise does not belong to me. Harry Potter is JK Rowling's; The Avengers and other related characters belong to Marvel. I'm simply playing in their sandboxes.

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Heroes Assemble!

Chapter 127 – The Master

Harry James Potter came to himself all at once. One second he wasn't, the next, he was.

Instantly, he bolted into a sitting position, his hands patting himself down before his eyes had even opened.

Head.

Chest.

Legs.

Arms.

Hair.

Stomach.

Hands.

It seemed that he was all here. Wherever here was.

Now that he'd determined that he was whole and hadn't been vaporised or whatever in Merlin's name had happened when that beam of purple power had hit him, he took a moment to look around.

And instantly groaned at the familiarity of the place.

Frickin' King's Cross Station.

And not the normal, drab, dirty, grungy one. The other one. The one where everything was pure, immaculate white. A train, not unlike the Hogwarts Express sat at the station although once again, this one was clean, gleaming as though it'd either been freshly built or cleaned and polished just a few seconds ago. To either side of him were a pair of benches.

Carefully, he stood up and nearly tripped over the hem of his Invisibility Cloak.

"What the …?" he muttered.

The last he remembered, his Cloak had been folded up and tucked inside its pocket on his belt. His initial reaction was to pull it off but on second thought, he decided to leave it, after all, it wasn't as though he didn't have plenty of practice moving about under it.

But if he was wearing the Cloak …

Harry stopped, half-standing and checked himself over once again. Yes, he was wearing clothes, just as he thought. And not just any clothes, but his Mage uniform, the same clothes that he'd been wearing back in Antarctica – pants, shirt, belt and his normal cloak. Just with his Invisibility Cloak draped completely over him.

Which didn't make sense.

The last time that he'd come here (and he had no intention of even thinking where here might be), he'd arrived completely naked. It'd only been by thinking of clothes that any had appeared for him to put on.

Something was different this time.

Out of habit, he flicked his wrist and caught his wand as it shot out of his wrist holster. The feel of it though …

Harry looked down at it and frowned. The Elder Wand, not his holly wand. Yes, he'd been using it during the battle; actually, he'd been using both of the wands but he'd only ever kept his holly wand in his wrist holster, never the Elder Wand.

A thought occurred and his eyes narrowed.

Cloak. Wand.

Slowly, carefully, he reached into the neck of his shirt and found a pair of necklaces and pulled them clear so that he could look down at them. The first was his Avenger tags, the same that everyone coming to the battle wore – an emergency portkey back to the island with the pass-phrase written on it for anyone to be able to say. The other was a leather thong that held within an elaborate knot a glowing, orange gem.

Cloak. Wand. Stone.

The three Hallows, united.

Suspiciously, Harry looked around the train station again.

Yes, it was just as he remembered it. Which was why he was consciously avoiding the benches. After all, the last time that he'd been here, the thing he'd seen under one of them wasn't particularly … pleasant. Not that it could be, it being a part of Voldemort, after all.

The train, though, something about the train didn't quite match.

He studied it, watching as people began exiting it. An elderly man who walked off stooped before stopping and arching his back, further and further, a huge smile on his face. A teen girl with a miserable look on her face, her arms wrapped tightly around her. A middle-aged couple who seemed delighted that they were together.

Harry watched them all, standing there in the open. Not one noticed him at all, which was unsurprising, he was, after all, still wearing his Cloak.

As each one walked off the platform and disappeared from his sight, it hit him.

Off. They were getting off the train.

The last time, he was offered the choice of boarding the train and going on. This wasn't the same platform. He wasn't sitting between life and death with the choice before him. This time, he'd already arrived at what came after.

Harry stared at where the people who'd left the platform had gone and a longing stirred in his heart. Out there somewhere were family and friends, all of those that had gone on before him.

His father.

His mother.

Sirius.

Remus and Tonks.

Fred.

Colin.

Cedric.

Mad-Eye.

Dobby.

The list that ran through his head seemed so, so long.

Instinctively, he took a step towards those people before grinding to a halt.

As much as he longed to go to them, to run to them, he knew that he still had people waiting for him back home.

Daisy.

Ted.

Doreen.

Peter and Gwen.

Hermione.

Luna.

Daphne.

Lavender.

Steve and Nat.

Tony, Pepper and Morgan.

His brain ground to a halt. Tony. No one even knew if he was still alive. Nothing had been seen or heard from him or about him since the attack on New York. The odds of him even still being alive were slim at best.

But if he wasn't alive …

Harry's head snapped up from where it'd dropped to stare in the direction that those people had gone.

If he was right, then beyond the platform, where they had gone, was Death's own domain. The Afterlife. Heaven. Valhalla. Whatever you wished to call it, it was what came after.

Another person, this one a young man who kept looking down and pawing at his chest as though he expected something to be there, walked past Harry without acknowledging him or even glancing in his direction.

The Invisibility Cloak, it seemed, truly was a remarkable object.

Passages, phrases from the Tale of the Three Brothers came to mind. 'Cut from Death's own cloak'. 'Wherever Death looked, as long as he wore it, Death could not find him'. 'Finally, when he was an old man, the third brother passed on the Cloak and greeted Death like an old friend'.

Harry's hand reached out and touched the Cloak as he considered the possibilities. Surely, just having the Cloak wasn't enough to leave him clear-headed enough not to fall under the seeming compulsion to walk directly from the train off of the platform without stopping?

An image of Luna sitting across from his swam into his mind and he smiled. That girl, woman, was incredibly special and had such a unique way of looking at the world that it was astonishing sometimes. Not many hours before they'd been sitting like that and she'd postulated that being the Master of all Three Deathly Hallows allowed Harry some measure of control over Death's own Domain and the souls that it contained.

Once again, Harry looked at the Cloak draped over him, the Wand in his hand and the Stone on its thong against his chest.

Yes. He was the Master of all three Hallows. Whether that made him a Master within Death's own domain, though …

Well, he was here and he was known for jumping in with both feet. Although, usually, that ended in some kind of trouble that he had to get himself out of, but still.

Squaring his shoulders, Harry walked forward.

His foot hit softer ground and he looked down. Grass? But grass unlike any that he'd ever seen. It was rich, luxuriant and a green so pure that it seemed almost unreal. And it spread for as far as the eye could see across low, undulating hills.

Glancing back, Harry found a cloud of white directly behind him. On impulse, he reached out his hand and touched it, sighing with relief when his hand, hidden by his Cloak didn't meet any resistance at all, instead disappearing into it.

With a way back confirmed, Harry looked forward once again.

This time, he took a more careful look at what he was seeing.

His first look had showed him rolling green hills dotted with enormous trees with huge sprawling branches and a blue sky dotted with the occasional cloud. This time, he saw the people. There were dozens, hundreds of them all spaced about either seemingly enjoying the pure peacefulness of the place or clustered in groups either seated on the ground or standing together.

What was most interesting was the fact that it was only when Harry really focussed on them that he could see them properly, otherwise they were more concepts that you knew existed but couldn't really understand.

And now that he knew to focus on them, he could see that it wasn't just rolling green hills before him.

One group of people were clustered around an enormous red and white checked picnic blanket. A great array of food of all types was spread out on plates. Chicken, salads, roast vegetables, fruit of a dozen different kinds, bowls of ice cream, brownies, not to mention the jugs of whatever the dozen or so were drinking as well. Just looking at it was enough to have Harry's mouth salivating. The fact that every face there was laughing and smiling was pure joy to behold.

Another group of eight weren't standing on grass, instead a large patch of packed earth lay under their feet. Each of these men wore a tunic with leather padded armour, a helmet on their head and carried a shield and a sword. Harry watched as they took turns sparring, grunting with the effort they were putting in before stopping and laughing and joking with each other before the next bout would begin.

There were a multitude of others, some sitting by themselves reading or writing with great feathered quills. Sports and games weren't uncommon. Many others were feasting, mostly in ever larger groups either on the ground or more often than not, at gigantic tables that would put the House Tables at Hogwarts to shame.

It was one of these last that made Harry's breath hitch. Instantly, he focussed on it, his eyes drinking in what he was seeing even as they began leaking with tears. The table was a House Table. Of that, there could be no doubt. There was even a great Hogwarts banner flying above it, suspended from mid-air by the look of it.

But it was the faces at that table that really caught his attention.

A man with a face so very much like his own, except for the eyes but they were in the face of the beautiful red-headed woman seated right next to him. He'd never met them, at least, not that he could remember, but he knew them so very, very well.

And there were Sirius and Remus; Remus laughing so hard that his shoulders were shaking and tears were streaming down his face while Padfoot sat at the table, begging for food and getting it too as Tonks threw him strips of bacon to catch in his mouth.

Colin was happily snapping picture after picture with his camera making great purple clouds of smoke billow upwards. Dobby looked as proud as punch that he was sitting at the table with everyone else, a multitude of different coloured tea-cosies on his head.

More and more faces that he knew, some that he hadn't even realised had died.

Instantly, without even thinking, Harry started towards them, his feet moving faster and faster with ever step he took. The distance meant nothing; his eyes simply stayed fixed upon them.

Clink.

Clink.

The sound was incongruous with the peaceful setting and Harry frowned even as he kept running, doing his best to ignore it.

Clink.

Clink.

Metal on metal. The sound was unmistakable. And annoying as hell. Harry had no idea why the others were ignoring it. Perhaps they were too far from it? It didn't matter. If they could, then he could too.

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

Whatever it was, it was starting to grate on Harry's nerves. Angrily, Harry spared a second to glare at whatever it was. And almost tripped over his own feet with how quickly he stopped.

A man. A very familiar man, wearing just a Def Leppard t-shirt that was coated in sweat, a glowing circle visible through it, was standing at a workbench. A forge was to one side of him and a bucket of water on the other. He was simply working, focussed on his task, his hammer rising and falling with meticulous regularity as he worked on whatever he was creating.

Harry stared at the man's face, taking in the slightly messed up hair and the impeccable goatee. His eyes were focussed and hard, as though this was the most important task in the entire universe and he was going to get it right or die trying.

Which, in itself, was ironic.

"Tony?" Harry asked, not even realising that he'd spoken out loud.

Tony, though, stopped, his hammer paused in mid-strike as he looked up and around, a frown clear on his face. It was clear that he'd heard Harry; he simply couldn't see him. And, not seeing anyone caused Tony to simply shrug and go back to work.

Clink.

Clink.

Harry stood there, watching his friend. This was the man who had a wife and baby girl back home. The man who had worked so tirelessly to turn his life around from the mess that it had been to become one of the greatest men that Harry knew. He was an Avenger, an innovator, an inventor, a man who cared, albeit in his own unique way.

He'd gone to space. He'd fought aliens. He'd put aside his ego – well, as much as Tony ever could – to work with a team and to form that team into a family. He'd built Aeros City, a place that was designed for those who were unique in the world to have a place where they could be safe and live their lives on their terms, just as he did.

This was Tony Stark.

Harry had no concept of how long he stood there watching Tony hammer away at whatever he was building. It was only when Tony grabbed up the piece of metal with his tongs and plunged it into the bucket of water that he understood.

A facemask. Iron Man's facemask.

Comprehension dawned. Even here in paradise, Tony was searching for a way home. Home, where Pepper was and especially where Morgan was, that was paradise for Tony. And when Tony had a problem, he reacted in one of two ways – build something that would solve the problem or blow it up. An Iron Man suit would do both of those things.

Finally, Harry tore his gaze away, back to his own family and friends, the ones that had died, at least. They were still there, eating and laughing and enjoying their time together. He longed to join them to feel their arms around him, to hear their voices saying his name.

But something held him back.

Tony. And what he represented.

The facemask that Tony was working on wasn't just a piece of metal. It represented home. Tony already knew that.

Home.

Daisy.

Ted.

Doreen.

Peter and Gwen.

Hermione.

Luna.

Daphne.

Lavender.

Steve and Nat.

And all the rest of them. Avengers, Runaways, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, no matter what, they had banded together to protect the innocents, to protect Earth. But not just Earth, the galaxy as a whole.

Thanos and his army threatened everyone. The Heroes of Earth were so close to getting that Gauntlet, to getting the Infinity Stones away from Thanos.

The job wasn't yet done.

Absently, Harry reached up and touched the Soul Stone, the Resurrection Stone that hung around his neck. Going back would put it back within Thanos' reach. Not that Harry thought for one second that the Mad Titan would get it; the Heroes of Earth were already too close to winning.

Once again, Harry's eyes were drawn to his parents, to Sirius, Dobby and all the others. Here. Here was his reward. He'd already saved magical Britain from a Dark Lord, being hit by the killing curse not once but twice in the process. He'd found himself in the middle of a battle for the planet and done what he could. He'd become an Avenger, protecting innocents, teaching and mentoring Ted and Peter and Doreen and Nico and all the others. He'd given his all. Hadn't he? He deserved his reward.

Clink.

Clink.

Tony's annoying hammering cut straight through his thoughts and turned his head back once again.

Yes, he may have done all of those things and more but he was still young with a gorgeous, brilliant, amazing wife waiting for him. Their future together had just begun. There'd even been some talk of kids in the not-so-distant future. There was so much of his life still ahead of him.

Not to mention that the job wasn't done. Thanos still had half of the Infinity Stones, including the single one that had already destroyed two planets and one he seemed on the precipice of using on Earth.

"I'm sorry, Mum, Dad," Harry whispered, looking back at them for the last time, tears streaming down his face. "We're going to have to wait a little longer."

Then, taking a deep breath, he gathered himself and squared his shoulders. He was Harry Potter and he still had a job to do. There were lives to be saved and he would be damned if he simply stopped and gave up.

Taking that first step towards Tony was the hardest thing that he'd ever done, but take he did. And the second one. And all the ones after that.

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

Now, that hammering wasn't quite as annoying. Instead, each and every stroke bolstered his resolve in what he had to do.

"Tony," Harry said from just the other side of the workbench. "It's Harry."

This time when he spoke, Tony was clearly startled for he jerked backwards slightly and nearly dropped his hammer.

"Harry?" Tony asked.

"I'm here, Tony. Under my Invisibility Cloak," Harry told him.

"It's really you?" Tony asked suspiciously. "Tell me something that only Harry would know."

Harry grinned. "You make an adorable-looking duck."

Instantly, Tony's face scrunched up in annoyance at the memory from so long ago before morphing into one of pure joy.

"Gandalf! It really is you! What are you doing here?" Tony asked.

"Long story," Harry replied.

"Then give me the footnotes. The last thing I remember before waking up here is seeing a whole mess of missiles headed straight at me and the city," Tony said.

"Right, the condensed version," Harry nodded. "Those missiles were fired from space. New York's gone, Tony. All of it. The entire island of Manhattan was blanketed. Millions died. Including you, it seems. The Compound's gone as well. We gathered everyone – Avengers, Guardians, X-men, Inhumans and the Fantastic Four and we fought back. I think we were really close to winning. We had Thanos down, at least."

"But something went wrong. Obviously. You wouldn't be here, otherwise,' Tony replied, looking slightly off to one side from where Harry truly was.

"Yeah. Yeah," Harry replied, running a hand up under not only his Invisibility Cloak but also his regular cloak to reach the back of hair. "Thanos used the Power Stone. He intended on destroying both Steve and I but I pushed him out of the way."

"So, you're dead," Tony stated bluntly. "I can't see exactly how we're going to help from here. It's a one-way deal. Believe me, I've tried."

"That's not exactly true," Harry replied. "Not for me, at least."

Tony's gaze instantly became more intense than Harry'd ever seen it before.

"You can get out of here? Go back?" he asked incredulously. "Then what are you waiting for? Get going! Get back to that battle and finish the job. There's people back there counting on you."

Harry shook his head, forgetting for a moment that Tony couldn't see him.

"You don't understand," he said. "Because of my Cloak, I think that I can get you out of here too, get you back home."

"You can?" Tony asked, dropping the hammer and tongs onto the workbench with a clatter and coming out from behind it. "What do we need to do?"

"Crouch down," Harry instructed.

For once, Tony didn't complain or have a snarky comment or wait to do it in his own time. He simply did it. As soon as he was down, Harry shuffled up right beside him, grabbed the edge of the Cloak and, as fast as he could, he lifted it and dropped it over Tony.

Looking down, he saw a startled-looking Tony staring back up at him.

"Good to know you aren't really a figment of my imagination," Tony said.

"Right, carefully stand up. We need to make sure that the Cloak keeps us both covered. I'm not sure exactly what'll happen if we're spotted but I suspect that it won't be anything good," Harry told him.

Way back when he'd first been given the Cloak, it'd been large enough to fit three preteens under it. By the time that the infamous 'camping trip' had occurred, that number had been reduced to two near-adults. Getting both of them under it while they were standing meant that they had to get incredibly close, much closer than Harry was comfortable with.

"Well, this is snug," Tony commented.

"Turn around so we're both facing the same direction," Harry instructed, ignoring Tony's comment.

Again, surprisingly without any additional comment, Tony did.

"Now comes the hard part," Harry said. "We need to head that way. Can you see that patch of white cloud just hanging there? That's our way out."

"Right," Tony nodded and started off.

Instantly, Harry grabbed both of his shoulders and held him fast.

"Not like that!" he admonished. "Slowly or we're going to trip each other up and the jig'll be up."

"Right, slowly," Tony nodded.

This time when he started, his steps were shorter and there was almost a miniscule pause between them. Not exactly the easiest way to walk but Harry knew from experience being under the Cloak with Ron and Hermione that walking like this wasn't easy. It was dead hard, in fact. And slow.

And slow it was.

Both men were panting and needed a rest by the time that they'd just passed half way. It wasn't a long one, though, not with both of them eager to get out of there and back home.

Finally, they reached the white cloud-like portal out of there.

Just as he'd done before, Harry tested it by putting out his hand and reaching through.

"Now you," Harry said.

Tony gave a brief nod before stretching out his arm, keeping it within the Cloak just as Harry had done. It, too, passed into the portal.

"It didn't do that the last time I tried it," Tony commented.

"The benefits of being with me," Harry quipped.

"That sounds like something I'd say. Have I been corrupting you?" Tony asked and Harry could hear the smirk in his voice.

"From memory, there's a slight step just here," Harry said instead of answering. "So, be careful."

Together, they inched forward. Harry felt Tony take a step up and nodded. A second later, it was his turn. The passage through the portal was brief but incredibly disconcerting. And then they found themselves back on the platform facsimile of King's Cross Station.

"Now what?" Tony asked.

"The last time that I was here, it was simply a case of boarding the train and letting it take me back to the land of the living," Harry replied absently.

"The last time you were here?" Tony spluttered. "Exactly how many times have you died?"

Harry shrugged. "I can remember one, although I was hit with the killing curse twice. So, either two or three. Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?" Tony repeated incredulously.

"No, it doesn't," Harry replied. "What does matter is that we're going to come out at the exact same place as we went in. Well, as I went in, since you're now with me. At most, a couple of seconds should have passed."

"A couple of seconds?" Tony asked.

"Time works differently here," Harry told him.

"Hang on, we've got a problem," Tony stated. "You were in the middle of a battle when you were killed. Which is fine for you, with all your wizard hocus pocus stuff. But I'm going to be arriving there without my tech."

"That won't be a problem," Harry replied before quickly explaining what he meant.

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Captain America twisted around on the hard-packed snow where he'd ended up sprawling after Mage's shove. It had to have been magic-enhanced. There was no way that Mage could have pushed him aside otherwise.

His eyes roved over the area where Mage should be.

Nothing where he'd been running.

Nothing on the ground either.

All that he could see was a light sprinkling of black dust motes drifting lazily in the breeze towards the ground.

Thanos' laugh whipped his eyes back towards the Titan where he still knelt there, his fist that held the Power Stone still extended towards where Cap and Mage had been mere moments before.

"Now you see the might, the power that just one Infinity Stone holds," Thanos boasted. "And it is mine to command. As all the Stones should be. I, alone, know how to help the galaxy, how to give it the relief that it needs from the excesses that it suffers under. One last time. Hand over the Stones that you have and what just happened to your friend doesn't have to happen to your entire planet."

Slowly, Captain America got to his feet, his eyes firmly fixed on their foe.

"We don't like bullies and we will stand up to them all day if we have to, no matter if they're ordinary people or someone not from around here," Cap stated.

Around him, he sensed his fellow heroes gathering. He knew that it was time, that they were all in place.

Avengers, Inhumans, X-men, Fantastic Four, Guardians, they were all gathered. Even one of Tony's Iron Man suits was hovering a few inches off of the ground not far away.

This time, there was no cue, no grandstanding. It was simply time to put a stop to Thanos and to get that Gauntlet and those Stones away from him.

Cap charged and found that everyone followed his lead.

Hulk, the Thing, the Black Panther and the Beast hit Thanos from behind, bearing him straight to the ground where they used their immense strength and weight to hold him there.

Mantis sprawled forward and crawled the last few metres to grab Thanos' head, her antennae lighting up and she told him to, "sleep." Charles Xavier, Cap noted, was not far away either, fingers to his temple, his eyes screwed shut.

Mister Fantastic latched himself around Thanos' left hand, holding it immobile while Spider-Man, Drax, Cap himself, Wolf and Falcon grabbed hold of the Gauntlet however they could and began tugging and pulling for all they were worth, trying to get it free.

As for the Titan's right hand, the hand that was possibly the deadliest part of him currently, Star-Lord and Gamora were joined by Squirrel Girl, Komodo and War Machine in an attempt to pry Thanos' fingers open to get the Stone loose.

Thanos, meanwhile, was not giving up without a struggle. Even with so many heroes clustered around him, he was almost impossible to hold still. He kicked and bucked, forcing both Hulk and the Thing to punch him in the back.

Finally, he stilled.

"We have him calmed but I do not know how long we can hold him," Charles stated.

"The Gauntlet's coming! It's nearly off!" Spider-Man exclaimed.

"Everyone, together!" Cap commanded. "One! Two! Three!"

It was enough and the Gauntlet slipped down to the very tips of Thanos' fingers. Cap gave one final grunting pull and crashed backwards, the Gauntlet clutched safe in his arms.

Without even getting up, he thrust it towards Falcon.

"Go! You know where!" he ordered.

Falcon nodded, grabbed the Gauntlet and vanished in a swirl of rainbow lights.

That just left the Power Stone that was currently clutched in Thanos' hand. And even with five people tugging and pulling at those fingers, they weren't having much luck.

"This is taking too long!" Thor growled. "Back!"

Cap scrambled to his feet even as those around Thanos' hand rapidly dispersed as the god of Thunder advanced. Lighting crackled from Thor's eyes and his hands and even from Stormbreaker's head as he stepped forward and swung the axe up and straight down.

Great gouts of purple blood spurted all over the ground as Thano's arm was cut off just below his elbow.

Mantis screamed as she was flung away. Charles, too, gasped before slumping over in his wheelchair. Even Hulk, the Thing and Beast struggled to keep Thanos flat on the ground, with the way he was thrashing about in pain, Black Panther having been sent tumbling away from one powerful kick.

But the big problem, the one that Cap was sure that Thor hadn't considered, was the fact that Thanos' dismembered arm simply hit the ground, causing his hand to open and the Power Stone to bounce out of it.

Cap's eyes widened in fear. That was the Stone that had already destroyed two planets and he had no idea what the cause and effect was. Was it intent based? Or did the Stone merely have to touch the ground.

Either way, he knew that they were all about to find out, for, as fast as he was, there was no way that he was going to get there in time to catch it. Nor would anyone else.

And then a red and gold blur flashed past, a bare six inches about the ground. He saw the suit's arm snap out and close around the Power Stone, plucking it out of the air.

"Thanks, Friday," Cap sighed in relief.

"That wasn't me, Sir," the AI replied.

Cap's head shot around, tracking the Iron Man suit to see it skid to a stop and then stand upright. The helmet retracted and Cap stared.

"You nearly dropped this," Iron Man stated, throwing the Infinity Stone up in the air and catching it again.

"Tony! You're alive!" Squirrel Girl squealed and leapt at him, wrapping him in a hug.

"Uh, yeah, duh," Tony replied. "Now if someone could answer a few questions for me, that'd be really helpful."

"Give me that!" Star Lord snapped, striding forwards and snapping a silver orb that he'd pulled from the back of his jacket over the top of the Power Stone.

Tony blinked at him, the orb, his empty hand and back at Star Lord.

"Uh, thanks?" he said. "Now, about those answers? The last thing I remember was being in New York and this is definitely not the suit that I was wearing then. Where are we? What's been going on? And who's that guy bleeding all over the place and making a mess?"

Cap blinked at him. "That's a long story."

"Then give me the footnotes!" Tony stated.

Cap turned at the unexpected laugh behind him to find Mage appearing from underneath his Invisibility Cloak.

"Don't ever change, Tony. Don't ever change," Mage told him.