The War of Titans-22

“Patch me through to Cameron Lewis ASAP.”

“Yes, Commander,” Hill nodded and swiped a finger on her tab, a beep sounding out from the device as a hologram of Britain’s flag appeared over his desk. Nick stared at the flag intensely, his fingers drumming on the report of dozens of suspicious deaths happening in the country. While SHIELD was quickly turning into a global agency, it was still most active in America, what with other nations too proud and hesitant to let what was essentially a foreign espionage and black ops group into its borders. As the flag of Britain was replaced by the disarmingly smiling face of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Fury decided to be blunt off the bat, “SHIELD requests access to the case of suspicious activities happening in London, especially the attack on STRIKE and MI6.”

Lewis’ smile didn’t waver in the slightest as his eyebrows knit together in a frown, and he leaned forwards on the table, “Truly? An attack on MI6? Where did you even hear of such things Commander Fury? And I certainly don’t remember any ‘STRIKE’ being a part of Britain in any way or form. Goo-”

“The situation is out of your control, Prime Minister,” Fury interrupted the man, his voice firm and unwavering as he stared at the shocked man with his single unblinking eye, “Please don’t try to insult SHIELD’s intelligence with such a flimsy excuse. We have reports of an unknown number of assailants attacking the STRIKE force, in which several metahumans under your service were kidnapped, and an untold number of lives were lost. At the same time, the headquarters of BI was also attacked, and MI6 was destroyed along with it too. The population might believe your statement of ISIS and Lashkar attacking your country’s eyes and sword, but I know that is not the truth.”

“What do you want, Commander Fury?” Cameron snapped suddenly, his smile evaporating in the wind to show the frustration and anger bubbling within him as he raised a folder, the stamp of top secret brightly visible upon it, “Ten minutes. It took ten fucking minutes to fuck Britain’s most revered and important security measure up in the arse! You weren’t there Fury! Innards and body parts were strewn about the ground, with marks of explosions and bullets all over the place! Of the five mutants that were alive, three of them died due to extensive bleeding and brain damage, and we have no fucking clue what the fuck is happening! Not even a single clue or print was left behind in that base, as if everything was done by magic!”

“Magic, you say?” Fury muttered, his eyes lowering down to his desk for a moment before he looked back up at Cameron, “Prime Minister Lewis, in accordance with the charter signed by the United Kingdom that authorizes emergency intervention from SHIELD in matters of global security, I am sending a team of twelve of my best agents to London. They will be there only to investigate what happened, and none of them will be authorized to take any action unless affirmed by my office and your own. However, none of your officials will have any control over them and their activities.”

“We are perfectl-”

“Respectfully speaking, Prime Minister Lewis,” he interrupted, taking control of the conversation once again, “No you are not. If you had been, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. This attack on your intelligence and secret services—after which several metahumans are MIA, has been given Global Threat importance. Which means it is perfectly within my right to send an investigatory team to London. Or you may find yet another buggering in your future, as you put it…Prime Minister.”

Disconnecting the call the next moment, Fury sighed and leaned back into his seat, looking up at the featureless ceiling of his office. “Call in Barton from Hawaii, and accompany him to London. Select nine other people to work under you, and make sure that each of them can take care of themselves,” he ordered, his eye turning towards his second-in-command. Maria nodded at his words, and Fury continued as soon as she opened her mouth, “As for the last member of your team, contact Agatha Harkness and ask for her aid.”

“You think sorcery is involved somehow.”

“I do,” he nodded, pulling up the recording of their movements from months ago in the Atlantic—when he and half the navy had entered the ocean for what seemed to be no reason at all, “Agatha Harkness was suggested to me by Reed Richards, because he thought that magic was involved in the memory and data wipe that we experienced that day. She performed some kind of magical examination on me and confirmed the existence of a modification done to my memories.”

“Were you able to get the…modification reversed, Sir?”

“I was,” Fury nodded, tapping the side of his head, “but it was partial at best. According to Madam Harkness, magic has several different kinds of methods, and the one used upon us was unknown to her completely. However, she was still able to get some of it off my mind, and I have…flashes of what actually happened that day. Random images with whole seconds between them, as if I am trying to remember some dream—but that is a discussion for another time. Take the standard team from the Level 8 and above agents, and don’t make contact with me until you are in a faraday cage and Harkness has drawn her circles and pentagrams around you.”

“Yes Sir.”

“I must admit, I am quite surprised there were no skulls or chalk in that ritual you just performed,” Charles chuckled as Harry started pushing his wheelchair toward the Mansion, “Or is it just a myth in the non-magical world here?”

“It is not a myth, to be honest,” he grinned, raising a finger and repairing the damage he caused to the ground during the ritual, “But skulls are mostly used in the magics that summon spirits and ghosts, and almost all of them are performed either in Africa, India or the old Mesoamerican tribes.”

He hummed in response, his mind wandering back to the days when he had served in the final days of the Vietnam war alongside his brother. They had seen several such spots in those forests, where skulls and tribal writing was present around a fire. And now decades later, Charles couldn’t help but wonder whether it had been just a charlatan or a real sorcerer. “There are a few hours more until Logan finishes with a little preparation on the Blackbird, and everyone has a little rest. I suggest you do the same Harry, your day has certainly been nothing less than trying and tiring.”

“You sure we can afford to wait after we just saw?” He raised an eyebrow, nodding his back to the spot which soon disappeared behind the Fidelius, “That witch is powerful, and I assure you, now that she knows that we know something, the longer we wait…the worse it will be when we get to London.”

“And it will be the same we go there now with half the team still reeling from all that has happened this evening,” he shook his head, sending a glance at the wizard walking beside him. “Our unit’s Captain always told us that while we should be alert, we should never walk into enemy territory with nothing but a firm mind.”

“War has a way of teaching you life lessons,” came the words from Harry as he heaved a sigh, and Charles was once again reminded of the fact that behind the friendly, smiling demeanor was a wrathful, slightly unhinged general—who was going murder hundreds more with his own hands for getting his revenge. Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts that had no meaning or importance right now, he hummed and leaned his head back against the headrest, staring at the slight dusting of stars in the sky. A moment later, Harry broke the silence as he continued in a mirthful tone, “Did you know that vampires themselves spread the myth about garlic, all because it somehow made them feel pleasurable when garlic entered their nose or bloodstream.”

“You are joking…right?”

“Of course I’m not,” Harry raised an eyebrow, smiling down at him as he slowly rose up into the air, “I did say life lessons, did I not? Anyways, I am going out into the city for a few hours while everyone rests. Just contact me when you have decided who all are going to go to Britain.”

“Merlin’s balls, you really are made of stone!”

Ben grunted at the voice, lifting the overturned bus on his shoulders as he turned around to look at the speaker, only to blink twice as he saw the Ravager floating a few feet above him. The man was dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans, and now that he was close enough to see the specks of black that were present in his emerald irises… Ben was taken aback by how young the mutant—and wizard—actually was.

“I am,” he nodded, his voice gruff and rumbling as it had been now for several years. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the younger man. “Not as weird as being able to turn into two animals and reanimate the dead though.”

“...I can agree with that,” Harry nodded after a few moments, touching down on the road as he looked around himself. “So, where are the rest of your teammates? Helping out with the rubble and debris?”

“Yeah,” Ben replied, pointing at the ablaze form of Johny as he streaked through the sky above them, “Flame-boy is handling the rubble and survivors in the buildings, Susan is supporting the unstable structures at the foundation while the response teams are using Reed’s machines to fix them temporarily. And Reed is helping with the rescue effort like me.”

“Why are you here?” He asked when Harry just hummed in response, turning around to continue his work. “Say, what is your name pipsqueak? I can’t keep calling you Ravager in my head now can I?”

“Call me Peverell then,” he answered, walking forwards to look at the orange rocky surface that acted as the skin for the Thing, “So, are your insides still human? I mean, do you still have the same organs as you did before the transformation occurred?”

Ben stopped for a moment, looking down at the unblinking gaze of the mutant blankly. After a silence of a few moments, he snorted and shook his head, lifting the piece of wall from the entryway of the building. “You are not very subtle are ya?” He asked amusedly, waving a hand at the rescue teams standing a few meters away, before he looked back at ‘Peverell’, “Yeah, my insides are still human as you put it. Though they are much stronger and heartier than any human, so that they don’t get squished by my skin whenever I so much as bump into something.”

“Huh? So you don’t eat rocks and sand?”

“Why would I eat rocks and sand?” He blinked bemusedly, stopping for a moment as he once again looked at the man beside him. “I did just say that my insides are human, didn’t I?”

“Eh…some kids at the Mansion were wondering about it,” he shrugged, pointing his thumb back in the direction of the said mansion. “Some thought you chomped sandstone and shat granite, while some said you drank magma instead of water.”

Ben just sighed at the words, having long since gotten used to such theories and thoughts about him and his morphed physiology. “Yes well, you can tell those kids that my favorite place to order is the Burger King down by Times Square, and no, my stomach and intestines aren’t a furnace that will turn sand into stones.”

“I figured that when the list of BaxtorCorp’s products didn’t include rocks and diamonds,” he snorted, and Ben guffawed loudly, his voice rumbling upon itself like boulders striking together. “So, any pointers to score points with the good Doctor?”

“Ehh, just don’t try to flatter him too much and stick to the point,” the large enhanced shrugged, moving onto the marked building—and Harry watched the orange-rock-covered man lift a partly destroyed tank out of the front without a single grunt of exertion. “Oh, and don’t hit on Sue. I guess other than that, Stretch is pretty easy to talk to.”

“Are they together?” Harry asked, wondering if making a favorable impression on Susan Storm would make his task easier or not. From what he had read on the net and heard from the mutants back in X Mansion, he had never gotten the feeling that Richards and Storm might be romantically involved. From what he had been able to gather, the two had certainly worked together long enough for it to be a common assumption—and of course, the fact that Susan Storm was a very beautiful woman might have also been a factor in that particular theory.

“Nah,” The Thing snorted, shaking his head as he bent down a little, whispering quietly the next moment. “Stretch is too busy with his tinkering and research to notice the looks Sue has been sending at him for years at this point. And the guy loves her too, but he is too blind and too busy with his labs to notice and speak that fact to her. “

Nodding along as if it made sense, Harry thanked the makers of the confundus charm once more as he cast it again, this time directing the large man towards his job of moving the rubble. So Reed Richards was a passionate genius, the kind of man who won’t even notice an admittedly sexy blonde coworker…who was mostly running around in a skintight suit. He could work with that, and with how literally out of the world his problem was, Reed would also love to work with him.

Skimming the mind of the nearest relief force worker, Harry gleaned the location of the eccentric scientist, and apparated to the location the next moment. His eyes widened a little when saw what looked to be a large, long blue rubber band wrapped around the whole building…while people and robots alike worked at the foundations. Applying a notice-me-not over himself before any of the policemen tried to stop him, Harry started to walk the Mr. Fantastic.

“Sir, I would have to request you to step away from this area,” a modulated voice spoke up from behind him, and he turned around to come…abdomen to face with a small, silver rover. “Civilians are prohibited from entering this area, since the danger of further structural damage has not passed, and thus, injury and loss of life may occur.”

“I am not a civilian,” he shook his head, and continued onwards towards the stretched-thin form of Reed Richards, the man holding back a ten-story building from falling over while some sort of foam was being applied at its base to fix it in place. Deciding to let a familiar voice announce his presence instead of disturbing the man as he was now, Harry turned towards the robot by his feet, “Tell Mr.Richards he has a visitor, and that he wants a chat right now.”

“Doctor Richards has forbidden any civilian contact to be made before 4 PM tomorrow-”

“Tell him it is related to Susan Storm” he interrupted, smirking as he enhanced his eyes and looked at Reed’s face, which was barely visible amongst the tangled vines of his own body. The next moment, Harry watched his face twist in alarm and surprise, and his neck stretched just a little more as his face turned towards him.  Waving a hand at the gobsmacked scientist, he started walking towards him—without interruption from the robot this time.

“Mr. Richards,” he greeted with a smile as he came to a stop right below Reed, his mind still unable to comprehend just how the heck did the man’s powers work—the normally almost six feet man was currently more than a hundred and fifty feet from his legs to head! “Are you available right now for a chat?”

“I am a little preoccupied with this building right now,” came the strained answer as Reed nodded at the area in front of him, “As you can see, it is taking quite a bit of concentration to keep myself like this, and those robots and men will not be done affixing the pillars and laying the temporary support for another twenty minutes. Still, what is it about Susan that you wanted to talk about?”

“I’d rather talk when you are not twisted and tangled up there,” Harry shook his head, before he eyes the smattering of people and robots scattered about the basement of the almost toppled building. “Order them all to move back, and come down. I don’t have the patience to wait twenty minutes when this can be done in a moment.”

“Wait what ar-”

Reed’s words were cut off as Harry flicked his left hand towards the robots and the humans in the ditch, a levitation charm followed by a mild banishing one sending them all out of the basement. At the same time, he raised his right hand and clenched his fist, focusing on the whole building and grasping it magically. He slowly tilted it back into position and teleported Reed off the building—simultaneously getting ready to cast a large-scale reparo on the foundation and the whole structure itself.

Reed wasn’t really sure just how the young man had passed through the policemen keeping the civilians away from him and his work, but the fact that he wanted to talk about Sue had piqued his interest. There was something familiar about him, but for the life of him, Reed couldn’t place those aristocratic features. The man was obviously trained in combat, and he was in peak human condition given that stature and the way his shirt showed off his physique—which given his age and how he had easily approached him, made Reed conclude that he was dealing with some metahuman.

But then, he had waved and flicked his wrist to send everyone in the basement out of the hole, and then he had suddenly found himself teleported off the building without any warning. By the time the world had swirled back into place, the man had somehow also used telekinesis to move the building back into place, while also using matter manipulation to fuse the foundation together.

“Who are you?” He asked the man as glass and plaster and concrete all flew back towards the building, losing and fitting back into place as if it was just a jigsaw puzzle. Within a few seconds, the building was as good as it had been prior to the debacle that had happened, and even the destroyed plants and the bench in front of the building were back in place, “Fascinating. I have never seen matter manipulation on such a level from a human, and with such finesse too—and you possess telekinesis too! How do they function exac-”

“Dr. Richards,” the man interrupted him, and Reed blinked as the normal clothes of the man were replaced by a familiar armor, and one of the emerald eyes blazed poisonous yellow for  just a moment. “I hope that will earn my words your full attention, and regarding my powers, well we can discuss that at a later date.”

“Right of course,” he nodded, awed and apprehensive at the same time as Ravager nodded at him. He hummed quietly, a certain tune meant to get his earphone to send out an SOS to the other three. “Now, Via told me that you had something to talk, and it was regarding Sue.”

“No it was just a lie to get your attention,” he shrugged, and Reed blinked at that, but before he could think anymore about the rather easy way to get him to drop anything, Ravager continued. “Do you know how I appeared from a wormhole that was created when Loki and the aliens attacked New York?”

“I do,” he nodded, his mind whirling with a dozen thoughts at once before he zeroed in on one. “You want to recreate it. A path back to your own world, and you want my help with it.”

“You have the most experience with portals on this planet, at least on the scientific side of things” he nodded, and Reed once again almost jumped in surprise as two chairs appeared beside them. “And while the means by which I arrived weren’t scientific completely, I am hoping that you might be able to help me with it.”

“I won’t deny that I have had quite a number of portal mishaps over the years,” he began, chuckling a little as he remembered the number of times he and his team had been to the Negative Zone ever since it had been first discovered by them. “But the Negative Zone is..sort-of like a parallel Universe, a layer that is connected to every Universe out there. It is more like a dimension in that regard, but it is accessible. What you are asking me to do is first find your Universe in the whole Multiverse, and then create a stable portal—which is so difficult and dangerous that a tiny mistake can have devastating consequences.  After that, I will need a stable power source, one which is capable of running entire cities if time and space are to be bent like this. A stabilizing agent of sorts, one which can bear the strain of reality trying to right itself and whole kilograms of Iridium to go align with it—while the tear between the Universes is maintained large and long enough for you to safely travel through.”

“Merlin balls, that sounds like a ‘the end of the world’ type of thing,” Ravager chuckled, which soon died out when he didn’t chuckle along with it, “Don’t tell me one of the devastating consequences you spoke of include that.”

“It does,” he answered, closing his eyes as he thought of all the ways this could go downhill, “Though, that feat is years away from now before it becomes even a distant possibility. Right now, I have only managed to achieve instantaneous teleportation of solid inanimate objects, and even then, I almost destroyed the whole Baxter Building twice. I don’t have the power, nor the materials, nor the data to create something even remotely capable of what you are asking. However, based upon how much power will be concentrated into that point, and erratic the time and space would be around that rip in reality…if it goes down, I could very well end up creating a black hole.”

“Of course it would, otherwise it would have been too easy,” Ravager muttered angrily, standing up and pacing around a little. He didn’t interrupt the mutant, knowing that frustrated over-thinking expression keenly after years of watching it in reflective surfaces—and a minute later, Ravager stopped suddenly, turning toward him, “Do you think studying that object which Loki used to create his own wormhole would help?”

“It would,” he nodded hesitantly. The bare minimum that he knew about Tesseract had helped him a lot with the teleportation he had developed, a chance to study it closely without any authorities n-oh. He also remembered what Stark had told him about the ‘Unlimited Energy Source’...that the Prince of Asgard, Thor Odinson had taken it back to his father’s realm, “There just might be a little problem with that.”

“What?”

“Stark told me that Thor Odinson took the Tesseract back to Asgard. Which means for me to get teh Cube so that you can get your portal…”

“I need to get in contact with Odin Borson,” he spoke up slowly, sighing heavily as he looked up at the stars, “Fuck my luck.”