Hamburg Suburbs, Germany, 10:29 pm September 1st 2017
Harry Potter, The Man Who Conquered
It had been a rather tense trip back in the newly dubbed 'X-Com' aircraft.
The Asian woman's revelation about his intervention in saving her life more than once, though she seemed more focused on him taking her hostage for a whole 5 seconds, made the atmosphere aboard the plane more than a little subdued.
This mood was only emphasised by the corpses of their comrades, the remains of some of the German soldiers and the honest to Merlin aliens. The bodies were all stacked with varying levels of respect, the aliens being unceremoniously dumped in a pile on the other side of what he had heard was called the Skyranger.
Delta-2 had gone to sleep. The tall, broad shoulder Brazilian man looking like he could sleep for several weeks at least, though his sleep was very restless until Harry hit him with a light sleeping charm, whilst Delta-4/Kumiko was looking the other way.
Thankfully Kumiko didn't see the small flash of light that was the result of his spell, though Harry knew that if he was going to stick around for a while, he would need to work on lessening the visual part of his magic. Given the whole alien thing, it was unlikely that this X-Com group would take kindly to his magic, especially if he was using it on their operatives.
It wasn't a long trip thankfully, just short of an hour's flight. That meant they were probably somewhere in Central Europe still, otherwise Kumiko would have probably bumped into him, in what was obviously meant to be her 'subtle' pacing of the entire cargo bay. Whether she actually suspected he was there or not Harry wasn't sure, but he was impressed with her alertness given what she had just been through.
"This is Big Sky, we are coming into land now. Get ready for a welcome party..." The announcement from the clearly female pilot over the aircraft's announcement system pre-empted their descent, and allowed Harry to brace himself against the side of the craft.
Though it did kind of ruin the attempted ambush of half a dozen heavily armed and armoured men and women, sweeping up the hastily lowered ramp whilst Kumiko guarded the emergency hatch and access to the pilot's cabin.
"Everyone maintain spacing, if Delta-4 is right there is something else on this ship, this new alien must have some way of cloaking themselves..." The announcement by the leading soldier made it clear that this could get annoying quickly.
Luckily, X-Com didn't know of his other abilities just yet, something Harry would be milking to the greatest possible extent.
Spotting a set of crates over on the other side of the hangar they seemed to be in, Harry apparated to the top of the crates, repeated practice meant his departure and reappearance were almost silent. He saw Delta-4 spin round and draw her pistol, though none of the others seemed to have noticed the noise, so when she directed them towards where he had previously been stood, the others found nothing.
Harry would feel a little bad about making her look absolutely nuts later, but for now he was focusing on the two people who were stood at the entrance to the plane. Given their standing position and general bearing, these two were obviously in charge. Moving closer so that he could hear what the pair were discussing, Harry very quickly ascertained the command structure of this new and mysterious organisation.
"Commander, are you sure that Delta-4 is right? It might just be an hallucination from the alien tech that has made her think there was something else in that warehouse." The man speaking was the only one not in combat armour who was obviously not a hangar worker, though given how he was directing the others to search the rest of the plane he certainly had some authority, even if it was clear he was deferring to the woman next to him whilst doing so.
"You want me to send her to the psych ward for eval? You wouldn't be the first to dismiss the gut feeling of another soldier Officer Bradford..." The light tone of the surprisingly young woman was quiet enough that it was only the other officer and Harry that heard her, the Commander's gaze fixed on Delta-4, the soldier looking increasingly frustrated as the other soldiers finished their sweep.
"It's not that I don't believe her, that the aliens might have a plan sir, but why would the other alien help us? From what Delta-4 told us it saved her life twice, it would have been easy for it to wipe out our team with the others..." Being referred to as an alien didn't upset Harry as much as he thought it would, though he was probably rationalising a bit too much when he agreed that he classified as such for not being from this Earth.
"Because if it had, then it wouldn't have been able to get a ride right back to our base of operations like it has now..." The way the Commander spoke made Harry realise how his actions might be misinterpreted, though one had to be really paranoid to take his life saving antics in such a manner.
"Security, this is Bradford..." Bradford was cut off as the Commander raised her hand, gesturing round the room dismissively.
"If Kumiko and I aren't going completely mad, then this alien has already managed to sneak off the Skyranger without us being able to stop them. In that case, locking down this hangar or even the entire base will probably hinder us more than it will hinder them. If it does have some kind of cloaking system, then we will go see Dr Vahlen now, I am sure she and Shen will have some ideas about how to get around the problem." The obvious invitation was so much of a trap that Harry nearly didn't follow the pair as they moved away.
The Commander paused to greet both of the surviving team on their way from the hangar, as well as to salute the fallen X-Com soldiers, something that made Harry's opinion of her rise a couple of notches. The deliberate slow pace may have been an attempt to let him follow them, but then Harry realised it might well be a double bluff to try and stop him following them in case it was a trap.
"Of course Commander, but I will have security doubled just in case. I would prefer not to have an invisible alien scoping out our base if we can avoid it." As the two continued walking Harry got the distinct impression that the Commander was new to the base, Bradford providing commentary on various sections of the base as they passed through the hangar and then the barracks, though it was clear he was holding some information back.
"Commander, I hear we might have an infiltration problem." The moment they had walked into what was obviously the lab Harry's 6th sense had gone off, warning him of danger.
Looking around the work stations, with machines and equipment that would have Hermione trying to claw her way out of her painting to get a chance to play with, Harry ended his scan by focussing on the woman who had just spoken.
She was probably in her early thirties, and despite her slight build and lack of weapons Harry got the distinct impression this woman was the biggest threat in the base, if not physically than strategically.
She reminded him of Hermione, and given that they currently thought he was an adversary, that was not a good comparison from his point of view. Probably best if he tried to convince them of his peaceful intentions now, in case the Commander was actually serious in coming up with some more lethal countermeasures to try and stop him...
!"£$%^&*()_+
X-Com Headquarters, Switzerland, 11:57 pm September 1st 2017
Katherine 'Kate' Rayleigh, X-Com Commander
The feeling down the back of Commander Kate Rayleigh's neck was one she was familiar with, and one of the reasons that she trusted Delta-4's word when Kumiko had informed them of her suspicions regarding this other entity.
The fact the feeling hadn't abated since shortly after the Skyranger landed, only supported the new recruit's 'paranoia'.
Despite her words in the hangar though, Kate didn't think whatever it was that likely that the alien which helped Delta-4 was with the other aliens the team had killed. It would have been efficient for the aliens to kill the entire team, whilst infiltrating the Skyranger before it took off. But all that meant was that it was an unknown quantity, in the chess game she had just taken charge of after the sudden retirement of the previous X-Com Commander, and there were too many missing pieces already for her liking.
The infiltrator would almost certainly have followed her from the hangar, especially if it's intentions were to find out information about their strengths and command structure. That is what Kate would have such an infiltrator do if she had one available, and she did have a plan for exposing it on the way to Engineering, if it continued to take the bait.
"As you can see Commander, though the mission has brought us several resources regarding the aliens and their weaponry, there is only so much we can do without more information. The scientists and I have several projects that I would like to present to you in regards to what we can do with the technology you have given us so far. Though, with our security compromised, I do not want to risk the aliens taking advantage of our work." Kate wouldn't use the term greedy, that was probably a bit strong, but Dr Vahlen was certainly very protective of her workspace and the research that went on inside it.
"Well, unless you or Dr Shen have any specific ideas regarding how to deal with our 'phantom menace', I don't think we can waste any time trying to hide information from them. We know there was at least 1 surviving alien from our first encounter, so we don't have much time before they try and strike at us again." Kate was about to continue when she saw something floating lazily through the air towards her, grabbing the offending object from the air even as she cast her eye around for where it had come from.
"What the..." Bradford's exclamation pre-empted the drawing of numerous weapons in the room, even Vahlen drawing a pistol from her coat as Kate looked down at the now crumpled paper airplane in her hand.
The thick and dark coloured airborne note was blatantly different from the paper that was available in the labs. In fact, the more she thought about it, the paper was very different to anything she had seen outside of a museum.
"Lockdown the labs, I think it is time that we had a proper conversation with our newly revealed guest." The paper airplane had proven two things to Kate, neither of which were promising to the potential danger this new entity represented with its attempt at communication.
Looking down at the short note, which was scribbled in scratchy but cursive writing, Kate could tell that the infiltrator not only knew English but also that Delta-4 was in fact right and that they had some sort of cloaking device. Though whoever it was had a sense of humour, given what they had put in the note, Kate thought to herself sardonically before handing the note over Dr Vahlen.
Though judging by their delivery method, and continued evasion of her men, the alien was probably as immature as the note itself was.
"I prefer monster to menace, though you can 'deal' with my monster any time. I worry that was in fact your best attempt..." She left the comment open ended, primarily because she wanted to see if she would get a response that would reveal the infiltrator's position, but also because she did enjoy playing word games when she could.
To her disappointment there was a knock on the labs door a minute later, which was probably an indication that her initial attempt to trap their newest member had failed, but it did mean that she had cleared the room for the moment.
"Did... it just knock? Commander..." Dr Vahlen was looking like she wanted nothing more than to rush across the room and open the door, obviously this little mystery was somehow intriguing her more than the aliens that were currently being moved off of the Skyranger and in this direction.
"Leave it for now Dr, I think it has proved it doesn't have a malicious intent and for the moment I can deal with that. Given the fact that no-one in the control room has contacted us, we can assume that the multi-spectrum cameras have failed to locate our guest. Dr Shen is already working on several other countermeasures that will hopefully help us keep track of our guest if not isolate it entirely, so whilst we have some privacy why don't you tell me about what you have in terms of research projects..."
!"£$%^&*()_+
X-Com Headquarters, Switzerland, 00:14 am September 2nd 2017
Harry Potter, 'The Man who Conquered'
The note was probably a little immature given the circumstances, but it conveyed enough immature humanity that he hoped it proved him to not be like the little grey men in the hangar. Certainly the Commander seemed to find it amusing, though her trying to trap him in the labs was something of a sly move. Thankfully Harry simply apparated back to the corridor the moment he realised it was a trap.
'Probably a little unfair to use magic against these guys... But they are facing off against aliens that they have no idea regarding their capabilities, so if anything I am being helpful and giving them some practice...' Besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't help out where he could in the meantime.
But as he gave up waiting for someone to come and answer his knock on the lab door, Harry knew that it would probably take him helping out on a few more missions before he would be able to reveal himself without risking ending up like those aliens.
Seeing as they weren't going to let them back in for the moment, Harry decided to give himself a little tour of the facility, he would need to find somewhere he could sleep safely if he was going to be in this for the long haul. He knew Hermione would love the amount of technology that was on display around him, Harry had gone muggle for a little while after killing Voldemort to try and get away from his 'fans' but nothing he had seen came close to this.
The main room had a holographic globe for Merlin's sake, that was almost as cool as the Hogwarts magic ceiling! As Harry went to carry on his exploration, there was a sudden commotion from one of the desks, an analyst looking around for a few moments before pressing several buttons at his desk and speaking over the base's speaker system.
"Commander to the mission room, we have a situation!" That sounded like a cue to Harry, it wasn't like he had anything else to do...
!"£$%^&*()_+
Outskirts of Dallas, United States, 11:17 pm September 1st 2017
Kumiko Goto, X-Com Corporal Skyhammer Team
The feeling she was being watched was back with a vengeance, though as she saw a 'Sectoid' get impaled on a flying piece of metal that definitely had no physical reason to be careening into the alien as it did, Kumiko found she didn't mind overly much now.
Whilst this invisible alien was still determinedly avoiding making contact with them, it was supporting their team magnificently and had almost certainly saved their lives at least once thus far. So at this point, she was prepared to be gentle when she eventually got her hands on it, Kumiko would only rough it up a little before turning it over for interrogation.
"And I think that is the last of them, want us to sweep the area ma'am?" Her squad, as weird as that sounded given this was only her second mission at X-Com, had taken the random shoves and alien impaling remarkably well considering.
Tall, with a slim build that some would rather cruelly state was almost boyish, Erin King was probably the most green soldier she had ever encountered. The redhead was fresh out of military school, but since she had killed two of the Sectoids this mission Kumiko would cut her some slack.
"The civilians?" This had been a popular restaurant on the outskirts of Dallas, meaning that there must have been hundreds of civilians here when the aliens began their attack almost 4 hours ago. As they had cleared the Sectoids from the restaurant, Kumiko noticed several dozen civilians caked in some kind of green goop and frozen in place, but there should have been many more than that.
"Around 50 or so, we will need support from HQ to deal with them all. One of the survivors reported more aliens moving civilians aboard a UFO of some type, but the thing flew off about half an hour before we arrived." So they were too late, even with the help of her invisible...
Well she couldn't really call it an enemy, considering it seemed to be helping them out on missions now, but Kumiko sure as hell wasn't going with what the rest of her team had taken to calling it.
"Well unless our invisible friend can help with moving them we call it in, cordon off the area and make damn sure the U.S military don't try and step in..." There was a moment's pause, before Kumiko realised Erin was actually waiting for a response from IT.
"Just go move the bodies to the Skyranger Trainee, I will contact Control." Erin looked a little disappointed but saluted regardless, moving away to coordinate with her fellow trainees Jonathan Stroud and Ji Woo Shin about Kumiko's orders.
"Central, this is Skyhammer, aliens are down and area is secured. No team casualties sustained, though there are reports of dozens of kidnapped civilians." To her surprise it was the Commander who replied, though she could hear Officer Bradford talking away to someone else in the background.
"Good job Skyhammer, Sabre team are returning from their mission now and have reported similar findings at the Shanghai docklands, what was the opposition?" Kumiko looked at the impaled Sectoid before sighing in annoyance at having to explain her shortcomings to her boss.
"8 of those Sectoid things, though witnesses state there were many more before we arrived. Couple of close calls but the team handled themselves well given their lack of experience, and with a little bit of help." To her surprise, the Commander just gave a short chuckle before replying, no hint of derision or condemnation in her voice.
"Our phantom still shadowing you then? We thought that was likely as we haven't had any further incidents back here, though we shall have some new security features in place by the time you return in case he continues to be... shy. Your opinion on IT Corporal?" Grabbing a couple of pictures with her helmet cam of the impaled Sectoid and sending them back to Central command, Kumiko looked around at the devastation around her before giving her response.
"Given what it helped us do to these aliens, I really hope whatever you do doesn't piss it off Commander, I really don't want it giving the other aliens a hand." Because if it could do this much whilst still trying to remain hidden from them, Kumiko did not want to see what it could do if they managed to corner it...
Updated A/N: Redone Chapters 1+2 of this story now, given the number of complaints I get about getting Kate/Jane confused I thought I should start from the beginning.
There were so many mistakes I almost wanted to give up entirely, calling Bradford 'Bradley', getting the code names for the different people wrong… Sigh.
So I hope you all like the new version of these chapters, I have also deliberately added further details to sections that I felt needed some further expansion…
Hope you like it.
A/N: Now, I can already hear the 'Why would X-Com let an alien run around their base unhindered?' questions, and I will put my reply to Malco1234 who asked the same question below:
'To a certain extent you have to see this from the new Commander's point of view rather than how we are looking at it as X-Com veterans with an idea of how X-Com ends and X-Com 2 begins. They see one set of aliens attacking them and another that seems to be helping them in a roundabout way, for all the Commander knows Harry is another alien race that is at war with the Sectoids. If it isn't being violent towards them then there is no point trying too obviously to piss it off, especially if it can turn invisible and can access their base.
And it is not as if they haven't tried to capture it, both with the team at the hangar and then locking down the labs when it was actually confirmed that Harry was present, but if we assume that the invisibility cloak does in fact provide true invisibility (including UV and IR spectrums) and combine that with apparition then he will be impossible to pin down by normal methods.
So the Commander has played for time, keeping anything that Harry doesn't know about (Interceptors, Engineering etc) from being revealed just in case he is reporting back to some other aliens, until Shen and Vahlen finish their ideas to try and at least keep track of him if not actually capture him.'
I hope that makes sense, and as I have alluded to these setbacks are merely making Shen and Vahlen think harder about how to capture him, so it is not like they have given up and are giving him free reign.
Ideas regarding new aliens etc are more than welcome, and what does everyone think of the Commander? Interesting enough for you?
Please review and let me know!