The second chapter of "Orange Eyes" is finally here!
* Review Response:
redwolf23456, Rake1810, Gracealma, Harry Mikaelson, Guest, Darth-Vulturnus, ARSLOTHES, kat1316, Shiza Riku, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Jose19, setting aside the Legendary Pandora and a few special cases that lucked out and got ranged Volt weapons, average Pandora became capable of winning against average combat-trained wizard only when the Tempest/Accel/Illusion Turn High-End skills were (re)discovered - which was only in 2050s. Before that, a wizard could take a Pandora down before she gets close enough to do anything... Not that it matters much here since HP-verse and Freezing-verse are different universes within this story with Harry being the only one to travel (involuntarily) between them so far.
alphagates, heh. Someone needs to write that one too.
VentXekart, I might slip an omake or two about that past my primary beta, but otherwise Harry and the Legendary Pandora are just your average super-powered siblings. The end of this chapter, however, puts the Freezing universe back onto canon-ish tracks, so until it is said otherwise, assume things happen just like canon.
* AN: Great thanks to my good friend Skelekitty for his help in polishing this chapter.
Disclaimer: I DO_NOT own "Harry Potter" or "Freezing". No profit is being made. The same goes for any other books, films, video games, anime and manga that might use as the sources of inspiration.
"Talking"
"Translated talking"
'thinking'
written text
spells/skills
「Telepathy / sharing thoughts over the Freezing Field」
Orange eyes
Part II: The Years In-Between
The first week passed without any accidents and so Dr. Aoi used this time to study the transformations a human body underwent when spliced with stigmata tissue. It was valuable data that could help him bring the Pandora Project one step closer to reality. Indeed, the proposed and approved plan for the defense against the extra-dimensional invasion necessitated the creation of soldiers augmented with Nova abilities. And, to ensure that these augmentations were safe and reliable, Gengo needed to know how human bodies reacted to stigmata tissue - something that he couldn't observe with his daughters since they were genetically engineered as half-Nova hybrids from the start.
Then, one night, something completely unexpected happened. Without any warning, Harry's vitals shifted dangerously, and when Gengo finally arrived to the ward he saw ugly black smoke rising from his adopted son's forehead. That strange lightning-bolt shaped scar seemed to be the smoke's source, but there was so much of it that Dr. Aoi couldn't be completely sure. Even more strangely, this 'smoke' - which, for the lack of better word, felt wrong - was so intangible that it couldn't even be sampled for study. Yet somehow, it was causing Harry great pain.
Seeing this mysterious phenomenon hurting a child was not something Gengo liked, but there wasn't anything he could about it beyond wait and hope for the best. So, he sat by his new son's bed, holding his hand and inwardly praying for him to overcome whatever this black smoke was…
For fifteen long minutes nothing really changed, then, with no warning, the smoke got denser and formed into something that resembled an ugly, screaming head. With just as little warning, it suddenly exploded with a terrifying and all too-human scream, dissipating into nothing before Gengo could recover from his shock. That certainly was the strangest thing he had seen in his life, and also one he had absolutely no explanation for… but, as the process was being recorded, he could try to solve this mystery later. Harry came first. And, to the man's relief, it looked like his son was doing well again now, and a quickly-healing wound in place of his scar was the only reminder of the freak incident a moment before.
Breathing out a sigh of relief now that whatever had happened was over, Dr. Aoi gave Harry's hand a squeeze before standing up and heading back to his laboratory. He probably should've stayed by his son's side, but he still had a lot of work to do tonight. Work that might give the humankind a chance to fight of the coming invasion of Novas…
~/ *** \~
Another week and a half passed, and Harry's body nearly finished assimilating the stigmata tissue. With the worst of the transformation finished, Dr. Aoi decided that it was safe to bring his adopted son out of his coma. While the medicine he injected him with was doing its job, Gengo made a quick trip to bring Maria and their girls to Laboratory #13; he believed that Harry's new family should be there by his side when he woke up.
He, however, was rather off in his estimations of when the newest member of the family would finally regain consciousness. By the time of his return Harry showed no signs of waking up just yet. So for the moment, Maria and the girls retired to the cafeteria so that they could have something nice to betake themselves with while they waited. As for himself… He still had a lot of paperwork for the UN to file; being the lead scientist for the Pandora Project had certainly put him into the paper shackles of bureaucracy…
A couple of hours, the monitors showed that Harry was finally stirring. Putting the current paper down, Gengo collected everyone, and together they made their way to the medical ward; it was the time to welcome the newest member of their family to the world of living.
The first thing that Harry noticed as he slowly drifted back into consciousness was a strange feeling of tiredness, like his body was nearly out of energy... Yet, despite that, he felt far better than he ever had in his life so far. Was this something a proper doctor could do? The Dursleys never let him see one, even when he had been really sick the last fall…
More interesting and strange, though, was the feeling of several presences on the edge of his awareness. Curious, Harry concentrated on those 'presences' and attempted to study them. One of them was very powerful, yet projected a gentle and protective feeling towards him. There were also five weaker 'presences', which, if he was to describe them, were more curious than anything else. Wondering what those were, Harry opened his eyes and looked around.
He was still in his bed, although there now were more of those strange medical machines connected to him along with some other subtle changes around the ward which indicated that he might have slept for a while. More importantly, though, he could see his new family standing around his bed. This let him match the presences he could feel to actual people. The most powerful one undoubtedly belonged to Maria while the five weaker ones were of his new sisters. What surprised Harry a little was that he hadn't sensed his father's presence at all even though the man was there, standing right besides Maria. Maybe her presence was just so powerful that it completely overshadowed his? His thoughts on this matter, however, were quickly interrupted when the man spoke:
"Good morning, Harry. How are you feeling?" Harry would've told him that he was alright, had a sudden 'contact' from Maria not startled him. He wasn't really sure how it worked, but the blond beauty was projecting her ...thoughts? at him somehow. It was about the same question that Dr. Aoi was asking him, but rather than spoken words, it was something more like a mental image… "Harry?" Gengo asked, calling for his attention.
"Sorry." Harry said. "I'm fine. Just… I feel a bit tired." The man nodded.
"Good to hear that." He said. Then, after a very brief pause he continued: "While the doctors might want you to stay under their care for a bit longer, I believe, now is still a good time to tell you this: welcome to family, son." Dr. Aoi said warmly. Harry could only respond by smiling wildly, not quite believing that this was actually happening as the notion that he was an unwanted existence still hadn't been purged from his mind quite yet.
He was brought out of his stupor when he felt someone touch his hand lightly. Taking a glance, he saw that it was the middle of the sisters, Windy May. Noticing his attention, the pinkette gave him a small, almost foxy smile and kept her hand where it was that made Harry wonder what she was planning to do. He got his answer a moment later when he felt her 'contact' him in much the same way Maria did a minute ago.
「So… You can understand me?」 That's what her thought-message felt like. Somewhat confused by this, he just stared at his pink-haired sister for a few seconds, before finally nodding slowly. Smiling widely at him, Windy May 'told' him: 「Cool! Welcome to the family, little brother!」This little exchange made Harry wonder, whether he could exchange thoughts like this too - being able to do that would be really cool - but he was quickly distracted from that line of thoughts when the other four, more reserved girls joined Windy May in welcoming him to the family.
~/ *** \~
Albus Dumbledore sighed tiredly as he thought about the events of the last two weeks. As soon as he had a proof that Harry Potter was still alive, his immediate thought was that someone had kidnapped the boy. So, he apparated to Privet Drive in hopes that it wasn't too late to get at least some clue towards the identity of the Dark wizard who dared to abduct young Harry.
The old warlock didn't even need to enter the house, though, to see that it was not a man that took the boy from his home. With his Magic-enhanced sight he could see the traces of powers that were too primal and powerful. Either it was a case of very powerful accidental Magic that caused Harry to disappear from Privet Drive, or the forces beyond human comprehension decided that he didn't belong there. Either way, it was a small consolation to Albus that the boy wasn't kidnapped by some Dark wizard. Still, if forces like that were at play, finding Harry here would be much more difficult…
While he had no real reason to do that, Dumbledore decided to inspect the Dursleys' house, and what he found inside didn't make him happy. While he certainly had insisted in his letter to Petunia that Harry is not to be spoiled, it looked like the muggles had gone too far and actually abused the boy. That was not good. Lord Voldemort - the most feared British Dark Lord of the modern times - was an abused boy by the name of Tom Riddle once upon a time. Now, Albus could not hope that whatever the Dursleys had done to Harry didn't turn him into a new Dark Lord… Leaving a small and subtle curse on the Number Four household to show his displeasure, Dumbledore departed for Hogwarts.
There, he tried several methods of locating Harry, including some quite powerful arcane spells and rituals. All of them turned out to be disappointments as none of them seemed to be able to locate the boy. It was like he had disappeared from the face of the earth entirely… And that was not good: Voldemort's belief in that prophecy made Harry into the only wizard capable of truly stopping him when he returned back to power. It was imperative that the boy was brought back to where he could be prepared for his Fate! Alas, Dumbledore had no idea how to do that without knowing where the boy was.
A small consolation was the fact the Dark Lord was currently in hiding and, thus, he still had time. He could only hope that this time would be enough for him to secretly - he didn't want people panicking because the Boy-Who-Lived had gone missing - devise a method to bring Harry where he belongs, for the Greater Good of course.
~/ *** \~
It's been two months since he had been adopted into the Aoi family, and Harry was slowly getting used to his new self. The most notable change, of course, was his eyes, which now were orange instead of green. Harry actually liked this change since it made him look more like his new mother and sisters and gave him perfect vision without any sort of eyewear to boot.
The rest of the changes weren't as noticeable as they were about his powers and abilities rather than his appearance, but that didn't mean they were any less fascinating. He was now much stronger than before, and didn't tire out as easily. And the minor injuries such as small cuts and bruises that he got while playing healed far faster now, sometimes within just a few minutes. Finally, cold didn't bother him as much now, though hot weather was still as uncomfortable as before.
The most interesting change, however, was his newfound ability to use what his father called the Freezing Field. It was something he had only just began training in, so he lacked finesse and didn't have much control over it, but he could already do some fascinating things like slowing down and immobilizing objects within a certain range. Furthermore, this Freezing Field was how he could sense his sisters or his mother when they were nearby and how they could project those mental messages to each other.
Had he been a bit older, Harry would have probably wondered where all these abilities came from as humans don't randomly develop powers like that. But he was just a five years old boy, and one still very excited to have a family that loved him, so such questions never even crossed his mind.
~/ *** Three Years Later *** \~
The past three years, Gengo reflected, were quite peaceful. A few Nova attacks happened, but those weren't very dangerous and Maria easily took care of them. Of course, things wouldn't always be like that and, sooner or later, a more threatening extradimensional incursion would happen, one that would require a whole army of empowered combatants to stop. And, unfortunately, the Pandora project, the very purpose of which was to create such army, had hit a serious roadblock.
While he now actually had a working way to identify people that were receptive towards stigmata tissue and, in theory, could be augmented to fight against the Nova, the augmentation process itself still wasn't anywhere close to serviceable yet. The few small-scale experiments he had performed on tissue samples from the few discovered candidates for augmentation had ended badly. It was actually a mystery to him, why it all went so smoothly with Harry. Perhaps, it was time he tried another approach? Not a full gene-splicing, but something that didn't alter human body as radically…
"Papa, stop spacing out! You've promised to play with us." Windy May called a moment before an inflatable ball hit him. Shaking his head, Gengo picked the ball and threw it back to the kids, who were playing in the warm, shallow waters of the lake near his summer house. His daughter was certainly right, right now wasn't the place or time for him to think about his work.
Throwing the ball back, Gengo got out of his beach armchair and gave Maria quick kiss, before walking out to join the children playing in the water - an image that greatly warmed his heart. He wasn't sure that things would have been the same without Harry as a part of the family. It was like his son somehow gave the girls what they needed to live their lives to the fullest. Hopefully, he would likely do just as well in the role of guide for all of the Transcendent Beings.
Being thrust into that role, however, meant that danger would always be on Harry's heels, and as much as he was afraid of losing his son, Dr. Aoi couldn't help but fear more what effect such a tragedy would have on the rest of his family. That would be devastating for everyone, but his daughters will undoubtedly be hit by the tragedy the hardest. He feared that… Shaking his head, Gengo forcefully reminded himself that right now was now the place and time for thoughts like that. If anything, he should be rehearsing his role of a stern father to keep any boys from having their sights on his daughters in line.
And yes, having Nova blood in them made his girls mature a little faster. They were no older than ten now, but already showed the first signs of entering puberty. If it continued like that, they'd all be grown up before he knew it. Or was ready for that… And, by the looks of it, Harry wouldn't be behind them much. Would he have to practice giving them The Talk too?
Thankfully, it would be quite a while before he'd have to go through this with Ryuuchi, his second son. The little guy was still two or maybe three months away from entering this world… His thoughts were again interrupted by the ball hitting his head.
"Papa! You're spacing out again!" His pink-haired little princess scolded him.
~/ *** Three More Years Later *** \~
It now was late July of 1991, and Albus Dumbledore was starting to get desperate. While he had managed to keep the disappearance of Harry Potter six years ago under wraps so far, wizards and witches of Great Britain expecting to see the Boy-Who-Lived at Hogwarts this year, and there would be a riot if that expectation wasn't met. Alas, none of his attempts to locate the boy had been successful, though, his instruments were telling him that he was still alive, somewhere.
He had also tried a couple of 'Light' rituals that didn't require him to know where the boy was in hopes that one of those would return Harry home, but none had worked. And given that his time was running out, Dumbledore felt that it was the time to turn towards the spells and rituals of a more questionable nature. Nothing that could be outright classified as 'Dark Magic', of course.
It took the aged wizard a week of perusing the books from the Restricted section of the Hogwarts Library and his own private collection, but, eventually, he found a summoning ritual based on sympathetic Magic that - with a few modifications - stood a reasonably-good chance of bringing Harry home. It required a sacrifice of an item that was strongly tied to the boy, as well as some of the caster's blood. A questionable piece of Magic to be sure, but given that his chances of finding a better way to summon Harry in what little time he had left before the deadline was almost nil, Dumbledore decided to go with this ritual regardless.
On the midnight of August 25th, which according to his calculations was the best time to conduct the ritual, Albus placed an old toy that used to be Harry's favorite when he still lived with his parents in Godric's Hollow in the center of a very complex runic array that he had painstakingly inscribed on the floor of a large circular chamber deep in the bowels of Hogwarts. With the sacrificial item in place, the old warlock began walking around the said runic circle, lighting the candles one by one, all the while chanting in a language long forgotten to most people.
As soon as he finished the chant, all light in the chamber was pulled towards the old toy, turning it into a bluish ball of light barely a feet across. It then rose into the air and… just hovered there seemingly doing nothing, making Dumbledore wonder how long it would be before he knew whether the ritual was a success or not.
Harry let out a small sigh as he tapped the screen of his smartphone, causing it to light up. It was half past two in the morning already. He might not enjoy his bimonthly overnight stays at Laboratory #13's medical wing, but he knew that those were necessary to monitor the condition of his stigmata body and so he had never been bothered by them much in the past. Certainly not to the point where he just couldn't fall asleep. Yet, this time he felt really uneasy for some reason, and it was keeping him awake at this late hour.
Letting out another sigh, he moved to lay the device on the table next to his bed, but froze a moment later as a cold shiver run through his body. A few seconds passed and, suddenly, a small ball of bluish light appeared a meter or so above him. It then just hovered there, seemingly doing nothing. Harry had no idea what this light was, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't something coming from the Nova dimension. The lack of alarms going off also supported this… Regardless, this mysterious ball of light was unnatural and the orange-eyed boy couldn't help but eye it warily.
After a few seconds of just hovering there, the ball of light began rapidly expanding, quickly filling the entirety of Harry's vision. It didn't stop there and continued to grow in size until it swallowed him completely, his body becoming paralyzed wherever this strange light touched it. Then it blinked out of existence, everything inside of it vanishing along with it.
The monitoring devices around Harry's bed registered his sudden disappearance and triggered an alarm, but it was already too late to change anything as he no longer existed in this world…
Dumbledore almost gave up on the summoning ritual being a failure when the ball of light suddenly expanded greatly. Then, with barely a hint of warning, it exploded outwards, forcing the man to shield his eyes with his hand.
As the lighting in the chamber returned to normal, the old warlock saw that there now was an unconscious dark-haired boy lying in the center of the runic circle, a strange rectangular object of dark plastic held in his hand. Walking a few steps towards him, the Hogwarts Headmaster studied the youth he had just summoned.
If this indeed was Harry Potter, he certainly was quite different from what he thought he would be. For one, he looked a bit older than someone who was just starting Hogwarts. In fact, the boy looked more like he was thirteen than eleven. He also had quite a bit of muscle, something rarely seen even among the muggleborn wizards, much less those raised in the Magical households… Looking at boy's face, Dumbledore couldn't help but note that while he could see that the boy was his parents' son, it was almost like there was something beyond just them, something he couldn't put his finger on. And, finally, the famous lightning bolt-shaped scar on the boy's forehead had faded to the point where the aged warlock had to squint to actually discern it.
This all made Dumbledore wonder, how else this Harry Potter might he come short of his expectations. Perhaps, he should rethink some of his plans… Right now, though, he needed to bring the boy to the Hospital wing and to remove any traces of the summoning ritual he had just performed.
With but a small wave of his wand the old Headmaster raised the unconscious youth into the air and proceeded to levitate him towards the school's hospital wing, stopping only for a moment to lock the now-empty chamber behind them.
That's all, folks!
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