Being a mutant, Lightning decided as he soared alone high above New York City, was better than being a wizard. As a mutant, and a famous one at that, he could go flying in public and, unlike in the wizarding world, no one would say anything about it except for maybe "hey look! That guy's flying" or possibly, if he was recognized, "it's Lightning of the X-Men!" He had a secret hope that someday he would hear someone yell "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's..." but it hadn't happened yet. It was even better that he was in New York, a city that had a bunch of other superheroes who could fly so he was just one of several rather than being completely unique with his flight ability.
When he'd been living with the Dursleys, and later on at Hogwarts, Harry had sometimes wondered what he'd be when he grew up. He'd thought of several possible jobs and careers he might take up like healer, lawyer, teacher, or even professional Quidditch player to name a few. Becoming a superhero had not been one of them – yet here he was, part of an established team that was already famous all across America and far beyond.
He didn't mind being famous as Lightning. Unlike with the whole Boy-Who-Lived fame as Lightning he was famous for stuff he actually remembered doing, and it wasn't just his fame either since he shared it equally with his teammates. He did find fans to be overwhelming at times, even creepy, especially if he ran into a lot of them at once but at least when that happened and he needed to escape he could fly away. Best of all when he took off his uniform and became Harry Potter again no one knew he was Lightning.
He'd been doing more flying than usual lately. Ever since his experiences on Asteroid M he'd needed to get outside more often. Professor Xavier said that it was most likely a reaction to being Magneto's prisoner and suffering the torture that he had. He needed to reassure himself that he was free and flying was the best way he had to confirm it.
Besides, flying was awesome. It had been wonderful ever since he first got on a broom during his first year at Hogwarts. Now that he was able to fly under his own power without a broom it was absolutely amazing and he couldn't get enough of it. Angel often flew with him since he loved flying as much as Lightning did. In addition sometimes Sirius flew with him on his broom using the same disillusionment charm as when they first went flying together after the New Year. Lastly Hedwig was almost always there to see him off from the mansion when he left and welcome him back when he returned. On occasion they took longer flights together and Lightning enjoyed that very much.
Lightning heard a rumble above him and saw that it had clouded up while he'd been out and he hadn't even noticed. From the looks of things a thunderstorm was on its way. Just great. He'd better find some place to set down and take shelter. He wasn't worried about getting hit by lightning as he was immune to that, however he had no desire to get soaked. That would really suck. It wouldn't harm him; getting soaked wouldn't "short him out" like one might expect. He was lucky in that regard, unlike that new super villain Electro that he'd heard of recently who had been beaten by Spider-Man with a blast of water from a hose. Sirius theorized that his magic protected Lightning from such a weakness. Lightning figured that was as good an explanation as any. Whatever the reason he was thankful that getting soaked wasn't something that would work on him. However, it wouldn't be comfortable and he'd prefer to avoid it if he could.
As he was starting to head downwards he saw someone flying upwards in his direction. This was such a surprise that he stopped and hovered where he was and watched the figure approach. As soon as he got a good look at the person he knew who it was. The armor, red cape, pointed helmet, and above all the big hammer held out in front of him declared it to be none other than the mighty Thor the god of thunder himself. Lightning gulped a bit. He did want to meet Thor but not necessarily like this. There was no help for it now as Thor had obviously seen him. He'd just have to make the best of it and hope it went okay.
Seeing as Thor was headed his way he decided to save them both some time and flew downward towards him. To make sure that the thunder god didn't think he was being attacked Lightning held his hands out in front of himself, palms forward, as a sign of peace. When the two of them were only about fifty yards apart Lightning stopped where he was and hovered in place waiting for Thor to arrive. He didn't have to wait long.
"Greetings young hero" said Thor when he arrived hovering just a couple of meters away from Lightning.
"Hi" said Lightning feeling both a little intimidated and a bit starry eyed. He may be famous as Lightning but this was Thor talking to him, "you're Thor!"
"Aye, that I am" said Thor with a chuckle as if he often got this sort of reaction from fans which, Lightning thought, he probably did "I am surprised to see anyone up here at this time."
"Yeah, well the storm snuck up on me" said Lightning slightly embarrassed, "I was just heading down to take shelter."
"A wise precaution" said Thor, "lest ye be hit by lightning."
"Lightning doesn't harm me" said the youngest X-Man, "however I'm not immune to getting soaked and would prefer to avoid that if possible."
"Come with me" said Thor motioning for Lightning to fly beside him, "I will take you to shelter. The storm will not hit until after thou are safe."
"Wow, thanks" said Lightning as he flew next to Thor, "but why? We've only just met."
"Aye" said Thor, "but I recognize thy garb. You are one of the X-Men, are you not? I know of you and heroes must support each other."
"Oh, I'm sorry" said Lightning realizing that he hadn't introduced himself to Thor, "my manners seem to have disappeared with the sunshine. Yes, I'm the youngest of the X-Men. I'm called Lightning because I have control over electricity."
"Hence lightning cannot harm you" said Thor, "as it cannot harm me."
"Yeah" was the reply, "but unlike you I don't have any control over the weather."
"We all have our limitations" said Thor with a smile, "but that is not thy only ability, is it?"
"You're right" said Lightning, "I'm also telekinetic. That's how I can fly. I, well I love flying and I got caught unawares by the weather because of it."
"Flying is glorious" said Thor, "is it not?"
"Oh yeah" said Lightning with enthusiasm, "there's nothing like it. By the way where are we going?" As they had been talking they had also been descending rapidly. Now they were flying east over Central Park not more than 100 feet in the air. Thor pointed.
"There" he said. Lightning looked ahead and saw that they were heading to a familiar large mansion right outside of the park on 5th Avenue.
"We're going to Avengers Mansion?" he asked Thor in amazement.
"Indeed" said Thor, "where else would I take one such as you?" Lightning remembered having been there on his birthday the previous summer before the Avengers had formed when it was still Stark Mansion. It was said that after giving it to the Avengers Tony Stark had gone to live mainly in Stark Tower when he was in New York but that he also had several other places in the city where he could stay. Lightning wondered if he would see any differences in the mansion from when he was last there.
"I'm honored" said Lightning to Thor, meaning it "thank you."
"Think nothing of it" said Thor as he guided Lightning to the roof of the mansion before opening a door. Behind the door was a small landing followed by steps leading down into the building. Thor ushered Lightning inside. Almost as soon as the door was shut behind them they heard a big thunderclap followed by the sound of rain hitting the door behind them.
"Good timing" said Lightning knowing perfectly well that Thor had stopped the storm from breaking until they were inside the building.
"Come" said Thor heading down the steps, "the storm will not last that long and until then you are welcome to our hospitality."
"Thanks" said Lightning as he followed Thor down the stairs. As he went he thought 'I'd better let the professor know where I am.'
"Professor" he called.
"Lightning?" was the reply, "where are you? Are you on your way back?"
"No, sir" Lightning sent, "the storm caught me by surprise but I'm okay. I met Thor and he's taken me to Avengers Mansion until the storm passes. He says it won't be long. I'll fly back when it's over."
"All right" said Xavier, "thank you for letting me know. I'll see you when you get back."
"Got it" said Lightning, "would you please tell Sirius that I'm fine so he doesn't do anything silly?"
"Yes but I'm not sure I can stop him." Lightning grinned as they broke contact. By now Thor had led Lightning down into the mansion proper.
The stairs let out into a hallway on the top floor of the mansion. It looked like the floor was mostly bedrooms and storage. Thor didn't stop here but walked down the hall to another staircase leading down.
"Do you live here?" asked Lightning looking around as he followed Thor. He hadn't been upstairs at the mansion when he was here last time.
"Nay" said Thor, "only Captain America actually lives here full time. The rest of us come and go as we please or as needed. We all have rooms though." They descended down to the second floor and emerged in another hallway. There were more rooms on either side but not all of them were bedrooms this time. At the end of the hall was a sizable den with a big screen TV as well as a fully equipped stereo system, a video games console and many other things to make it a very relaxing and fun room.
There was one other person in the room who was watching the news on the TV. When he turned around to see who had come into the room Lightning saw that it was Captain America.
"Good evening Captain" said Thor greeting his fellow Avenger.
"Hello Thor" said the Captain, "good to see you. What brings you here tonight?"
"I was just going to pay the mansion a visit" said Thor, "but I found a fellow comrade up in the sky before the storm started and brought him here for shelter."
"So I see" said Captain America turning to look at Lightning whose eyes went a bit wider as the Captain held out his hand, "hello. Unless I miss my guess you look like one of the X-Men."
"Yes" said Lightning as he shook Captain America's hand, "I'm Lightning. Pleased to meet you." His voice was a little higher than normal due to mild fan-boy nerves but he couldn't help it. First he met Thor, then he was brought to Avengers Mansion, and now he was shaking hands with Captain America. Was he going to meet all of the Avengers tonight? He knew that the Hulk had left the team before Captain America had joined it but Iron Man, Ant Man, and the Wasp were all still members.
"Captain America" said the Captain, "welcome to Avengers Mansion."
"Thanks" said Lightning.
"Forgive me for saying this" said the Captain, "but you look a bit young to be in the superhero business."
"Maybe I am" said Lightning, "we're all young though. I may be the youngest of the X-Men but if you knew of some of the things I've had to go through you'd agree that I've earned my place on the team. Unfortunately that stuff is, well it's kind of classified."
"I don't mean any offense" said Captain America, "I was just surprised. I know very well that heroes come in all types" he looked pensive for a moment.
"Aye" said Thor, "the biggest, strongest man may be a coward and the smallest, weakest one the bravest. As long as you're here young Lightning why don't you show us your skill?"
"In here?" asked Lightning, "you want me to destroy the room?"
"No" said the Captain with chuckle, "we can go down to the training room for that." He picked up the remote to turn the TV off but nothing happened. "I guess the batteries finally ran out" he said.
"Here, let me" said Lighting. He took the remote, opened it and removed the batteries. He quickly charged the batteries up again, put them back in the remote and turned off the TV.
"Handy" said Captain America looking at this. Lightning grinned.
"It is" he said as the three of them began to walk, "I've saved a lot of money not having to buy new batteries."
"I believe it" said the Captain, "are you able to avoid power outages too?"
"Actually yes" said Lightning, "our neighborhood lost power a couple of weeks ago during that big blizzard but I was able to keep the lights on at my house until general service was restored."
Thor led the other two down to the main floor before leading them down to the first of the below ground levels. He led them into a big room that reminded Lightning rather strongly of the Danger Room.
"What do you want me to do?" Lightning asked them, "I hope you don't want me to spar with either of you. I may be powerful but I'm not stupid."
"No, of course not" said Captain America who touched a control. A bunch of targets appeared on the far wall, "why don't you start with that?"
"Okay" said Lightning. He held up his right hand and let tiny sparks of electricity dance around his fingers for a moment before turning to face the targets and letting his lightning fly.
Zap! The first target was hit dead center, as was the second one, and the third, and the rest of them all in quick succession.
"A good start" said Thor.
"Only a start though" said Captain America who adjusted the controls again. This time targets appeared for a few seconds before disappearing again. Without hesitation Lightning fired at them and hit them all again. Then they went up another level. Now targets began appearing all over the room. Lightning adjusted to this by shooting lightning about of more parts of his body than just his hands. It helped and he did well hitting the vast majority of the targets although he missed a few. Still, Thor and Captain America were impressed.
The next level had moving targets and Lightning had to concentrate harder to make a good showing on this level especially as the targets moved faster and faster the longer the exercise ran. He managed it though and only missed one or two.
"Well done" said the Captain as he turned off the room controls, "normally the next level would have the targets start to shoot back but we're not going to subject you to that, although you'd probably do just fine."
"You're our guest" said Thor, "instead let us go up back upstairs and have some refreshment if you would like it while you're here."
"Well" said Lightning, "I wouldn't mind something to drink, maybe a soda, or some chocolate milk, or some orange juice if you have it."
"We'll ask Jarvis" said the Captain as they walked back upstairs where Thor rang a bell. Jarvis soon appeared. He had stayed on as the butler to the Avengers after Tony gave them the mansion and he now looked after the team. The two Avengers and the X-Man followed him into the kitchen, a room which Lightning noted had not changed, where he served them all something to eat or drink. The three heroes then sat at the kitchen table for a while and talked, well the two Avengers did most of the talking while Lightning mainly listened. They were both fascinating people that he looked up to a lot and he was sorry when Thor told him that the storm had ended.
Lightning thanked the two Avengers for letting him stop at the mansion during the storm.
"Twas a pleasure" said Thor.
"Yes" said Captain America, "feel free to drop by again anytime."
"Thank you, I will" said Lightning with some amazement at the invitation, "next time maybe you can introduce me to the other Avengers."
"Maybe" said the Captain, "perhaps in the future we'll even fight side by side."
"That would be awesome" said Lightning as he shook hands with both of them before Jarvis showed him out the front door.
The rain had stopped and the sky was clearing even though it was still very humid. Lightning didn't hesitate to take off at once and begin flying home. He sent his thoughts ahead to Professor Xavier to let him know that he was on his way back. As he flew he thought over his meeting with the two Avengers. He was very glad to meet them, even a bit fan-boyish although hopefully not too much. It was rather ironic, he thought, that he reacted that way to anybody considering his own experiences with fame but he supposed that was only, well normal. He did have his own heroes and they were two of them. What he was happiest about was that they treated him as a peer. Maybe not quite their equal – almost nobody could be that – but still with the respect that one hero gives another without any condescension. They took him seriously as a fellow superhero and he really appreciated that.
When he finally returned to the school it was getting on towards evening. After being greeted as usual by Hedwig he landed at the front and went inside to find everyone else just heading in to dinner. He pulled off his mask and went to join them.
"Where have you been?" asked Sirius when he saw his godson enter the room. Harry looked at everyone and smiled.
"Well" he said in a still slightly amazed tone of voice, "I met two of the Avengers today."