Chapter 14
Despite Cessily being completely healed she still slept that night with Fawkes singing softly above her bed. Laura also refused to leave her alone and slept on her floor, although she did so invisibly and didn't tell Cessily either. Her brand new un-named metal puppy also sat at the foot of her bed standing guard.
Harry had managed to clear up the issue of the so-called 'rogue heroes' who opposed the Superhero Registration Act by giving them the same charms as Peter. He did however add a clause into the charm so that if they did go rogue for some reason the charm would reverse and everyone would know who they were under the mask. Each hero was made a magical and Harry forced them to take an oath about not abusing their powers or position as pillars of the community. Numerous times Iron Man and various heroes in favour of the Act came pounding at the door demanding he give names. Numerous times they left after finding a sudden urge for a Twinkie.
It made the government even more eager to capture and learn their identities, something that Harry had to help deal with when the New Avengers and the Runaways were attacked and some were captured. Harry had led a team of Secret Avengers and various other heroes in an assault on the prison where they were being held. When he found that they were experimenting on the heroes he proceeded to rip the place apart, killing whatever criminals Captain America and the others deemed to be dangerous or who he found to be too repugnant based on their memories and souls.
This inevitably led to Iron Man and his fellow proponents of the Act banging on the Mansion door.
"Ah, Tony. What can I do for you and your… colleagues?" Emma asked with disdain as she eyed the various 'heroes' assembled on the front steps of the Xavier Institute. She smirked as she saw Spiderman there, looking very uncomfortable, but she knew as well as everyone else in the mansion that Peter Parker had no desire to support this Registration Act.
"We are here to arrest Harry Potter for acts of terrorism and violation of Superhero Registration Act." Iron Man stated.
"You have a warrant, I assume?"
Tony had a slight superior smirk as he handed over the warrant, it was hidden behind his face plate… the smirk, not the warrant.
"And your identification?"
"You know who I am, Emma."
"Of course I do, but we must follow the law, I can't have the school seen as not setting a good example for its students. You do have official identification, don't you?" She asked with a look in her eye that clearly said she was enjoying herself.
Tony was getting frustrated. He did have identification, but it was not accessible without removing his armour, it wasn't as if he could just slap one on his armour… it would ruin the look. People usually accepted who he was just based on the armours appearance.
"Tony?"
"I can't produce it at the moment." He growled.
"And none of your fellow… 'heroes' has the appropriate identification?" She prompted.
The short answer was 'no'. Most of the so-called 'heroes' that had accompanied him were the bottom of the barrel. He had lost so many of the quality heroes that he had found himself nearly accepting Deadpool's help, fortunately the others had managed to pull him back from the edge of insanity.
"Oh dear." Emma said with a sad shake of her head. "Well, we will be here tomorrow if you want to come back and try again." She said before she closed the door on the floundering Iron Man.
Iron Man stood riveted to the step as the seconds passed, just as one of his colleagues was about to query he shot into the sky leaving a burn mark on the front step.
Emma slumped against the closed door with her eyes closed. She placed a hand over her breast and said breathlessly. "My word, if I'd known doing that would be so much fun I would have joined Bobby years ago!"
This caused the assembled students to burst into laughter and giggles as some of the X-Men looked on in shock at Emma's admission.
"What happens tomorrow, when they come back?" Julian asked, he had to admit, Miss Frost handled Iron Man and his goon squad with style.
"If they come back and have fulfilled the letter of the law you stand back and leave it to me." Harry stated as he appeared in the room.
"And make sure I'm here to film it!" Trish added gleefully. Trish had caught wind of the warrant over the Press Wires and came to warn Harry, she might need to be objective as a reporter but she wasn't going to turn a blind eye to what was wrong. Besides, the public would eat this up.
The following morning Iron Man and co. arrived on the doorstep of the Institute.
"Ah, Tony, back again I see." Emma smirked. She had to fight off several of the other X-Men who wanted to greet the goon squad this morning after witnessing Emma having fun yesterday.
Iron Man didn't respond except to beckon Spiderman over who presented him with a briefcase.
"The warrant and my ID." Iron Man stated tightly.
Emma took the documents and shut the door on them.
"Should we arrest her for stealing boss?" Spiderman queried.
"Shut up Peter." Iron Man snapped.
"Hey! I'm in costume, you gotta call me by my title." Spiderman objected.
Tony was well aware that Peter Parker had many objections to the Superhero Registration Act and that he was just playing lip service to his duties on the Avengers. He was also aware that Potter and his people were just waiting for one of Spiderman's enemies to get to his relatives before they used it against him. Tony had spies everywhere, it came with the territory, whether it be politics or business.
What Peter didn't know was that Tony had set up round the clock surveillance and protection. Tony was nobody's fool.
Eventually the door opened… just as Tony was about to knock.
"Patience, Tony." Emma admonished, seeing his poised to knock hand. "Follow me, your goon squad can wait here."
"They are with me, my team." Iron Man declared.
"And if they can provide the appropriate identification and credentials they are of course entitled to accompany you. We will of course need to verify their credentials. We are a school which caters to various abused children, we take that very seriously." She said with none of the amusement that had been there before. She knew some of these 'heroes', she didn't care if the President, Scott or even Harry himself declared them safe, they weren't getting near her children.
Of course, Tony knew full well that they were only deputised by voice, there was no paperwork and absolutely no one in government had authorised them. Except for Spiderman who was clearly under duress, none of the other true heroes had wanted any part of this, they had threatened to join Steve Rogers and turn on Tony if he forced them.
"Fine." Iron Man spat. "Wait here."
"Peter is more than welcome." Emma said with slight smile.
"Erm… I'll be fine out here." Spiderman said backing off.
"Move Parker!"
"Hey! Costume! Code name!" Spiderman barked back before storming past. "Hey kids!" He called cheerfully.
"Hey Mr. Parker." "Hi Pete." "It's Spiderman! Oh my god! It's really him!" Came the collective greetings. Although why Dani seemed so… surprised to see Spiderman made both men wary.
"Hello children." Iron Man said formally.
"BOOO!" Was the resounding chorus… incidentally led by Dani.
"Can we get on with this?" Iron Man called over the continuing boos. "Take us to Potter." He ordered.
"Manners, Tony. You are supposed to set an example for the children." Emma admonished as she headed out to the courtyard where Harry and Trish were seated in front of a camera, between them was a television.
"Miss Tilby, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to cancel recording your interview. I am here to place Dr. Potter under arrest."
Trish tried her best not to smirk, she really did. "This isn't a recording, Mr. Stark. This is a live interview, just like all the previous interviews with Dr. Potter."
Iron Man physically stalled at that news. "I must ask you to cease broadcasting."
Trish crossed her legs and sat back, regarding the red and gold hero. "Of course, I will need to see the appropriate court orders that are forcing us to give up our First Amendment Rights, not to mention impinging on the rights of the Press."
"I do not have time to get those at the minute-"
"Then you also don't have the authority or the right to make that request, Mr. Stark." She finished for him.
Tony was struggling not to growl and strangle someone. He really hated Potter.
Iron Man stomped over to Harry. "Harry Potter, you are hereby under arrest for acts of terrorism and violation of the Superhero Registration Act. You have the right to remain silent-"
"Please stop, I'm not an American citizen, I don't live in your country, I am only here at the moment because I was told you wanted to speak to me." Harry said quietly.
"You have been in the United States of America for several months now, you have committed crimes against its citizens."
"What crimes?" Trish asked.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss those."
"Then you don't have any proof that you can give the public that the man you want to lock up has committed those crimes, that will let the people of the world know that you have a good reason for taking away the source of all the excess organ transplants. Who has been working through the various hospitals around the world to heal those he could. Who has been working to improve the conditions of the third world countries." Harry spoke evenly, never raising his voice, his expression never leaving a relaxed neutrality.
"You attacked a government facility and killed most of the residents." Tony snarled.
"Really, what facility? Who did I kill?" Harry challenged. "You can tell them or I can."
This time Iron Man did growl, spinning around he unleashed a repulsor blast on the camera. Spinning back he came face to face with a wall of clear material that his suit informed him was diamond, but it was having trouble verifying that. He threw another repulsor blast at the wall forming a large crack.
"Clearly not as powerful as you thought, Potter." Tony sneered.
"And your memory really seems to be failing." Harry said sadly as Trish was cowering behind him.
Harry waved his hand and Iron Man took the opportunity to send another attack causing Trish to scream.
But nothing happened, he looked down at his hand and realised that his armour was gone, replaced by a standard suit.
"Take a seat Tony." Harry ordered calmly. "We need to have a talk about your behaviour."
"I have nothing to say to criminals." Tony stated as he stood stiffly at attention. "Spiderman, arrest him."
"Erm… how?"
"Take out your cuffs and place them on him." Tony growled.
"I don't have any cuffs, this costume doesn't exactly come with a utility belt." He shrugged.
"Then bind him with your webbing!"
"Fine." Spiderman sighed before casually raising his hands and shooting his webbing at Harry… which went straight through him and his chair to land in a pile on the grass behind him.
"Well Boss, what now?"
Tony's teeth started grinding, he could hear the laughter in Peter's voice.
"I still don't get why you think you should arrest me." Harry said with a small smile. "The facility I attacked was holding innocent civilians amongst hardened and irredeemable criminals. Even worse was the fact that your people were trying to cut up the innocent civilians… mere children really, whilst they were still alive."
"The US Government did not sanction those experiments."
"But you didn't stop them either. I saw the cameras, you had to have known what was going on."
Tony remained silent.
"The people I killed… and yes, I freely admit I killed them, they were the worst of the worst. Responsible for the murders and rapes of thousands of people between them. You and your government might want to condemn me for killing them, but…" Harry stood and approached Tony. "I, Harry James Potter, the Master of Magic and Death, condemn you and your government for not killing them and endangering the innocent civilians of the world by leaving them alive."
"You have no authority here." Tony spat. "You said it yourself, you aren't even from this reality."
"No, I'm not. But I am Death, I am the Master of Magic, throughout existence there is no one like me. I do hold the authority, given to me by creation or whatever god exists out there." Harry was standing nose to nose with Tony. "What gives you the right to question me?"
Tony straightened up at this. "I am a native citizen in this reality, world and country in which you have chosen to interfere, I am sworn leader and protector of the people of this country and I have the full force of the United States Government behind me. That is what gives me the right."
Harry shook his head sadly. "No, that just gives you the ego, not the right. But let's talk about the crimes that you yourself have personally committed."
"I haven't committed any crimes." Tony stated firmly.
Tony paled as Thor suddenly appeared in thin air with Odin beside him.
"You illegally cloned my son. You took his flesh and his blood and you created an abomination. You gave that abomination my son's name and identity and sent him to kill my sons friends and comrades." Odin said angrily. "Tell me why I shouldn't strike you down where you stand?"
"It was… an accident." Tony said nervously.
"You accidentally stole Thor's DNA and made a killing machine with it?" Harry asked mockingly.
"It was never meant to kill."
"But you admit you stole my DNA and sullied my reputation. Tell me, whose crimes are greater, Tony Stark? The heroes who you want to arrest for simply helping people or you, who stole and broke your own worlds laws on cloning?" Thor demanded calmly.
"I'm afraid that's all the time I have gentlemen." Trish said quietly.
"Ah, of course. Again, as always, it's been a pleasure. We'll arrange for our next interview where you become truly more magical than you already are!" Harry grinned.
Tony was surprised when Miss Tilby turned to a seemingly empty space and spoke as if she was on camera.
"This is Trish Tilby with Tony Stark, Harry Potter, Thor Odinson and Odin Borson, live from the Xavier Institute for Gifted Students, back to the studio." She held her smile for a second before relaxing. "And we're off the air."
"So this was all for the cameras?" Tony scoffed in disbelief. "All your talk of rights and power and you just wanted to show me up."
"What did I do to show you up Tony?" Harry asked. "You came after me. You are the one without the arguments and reasons for the horrible misdeeds. You and those in power have forgotten that the government serves the people, they do not dictate… that leads to rebellion, it's why the people don't respect you."
"If they didn't respect me then why did they put me in this position?" Tony countered.
"I checked. They didn't." Harry said simply. "The government did, because they, like the people, fear you and would rather have you working for them than against them.
"And you still haven't answered my question." Thor said quietly.
"Nor mine." Odin agreed.
Tony didn't have a response, but the shame was clear on his face.
Odin and Thor vanished, anger and disappointment clear on their faces.
"Come on, I'll walk you out." Harry said as he turned to enter the school.
"I still have to take you in." Tony growled. Harry didn't respond, he just kept walking, forcing Tony and Peter to jog to catch up.
"You don't have the authority, power, ability and most of all, you don't have the moral right to arrest me." Harry warned him as he placed a hand on the front door handle. "I am far from your biggest problem right now."
Tony frowned. "You are the one killing indiscriminately."
"No, you are the one who believes I am killing indiscriminately. But your problem is no longer me." He opened the door to reveal a large crowd at the Mansion gates. "They are."
The crowd saw the door open and they could see Tony Stark, Spiderman and Dr. Potter. They were furious that the government was trying to take away the man who could make the world a better place. The shouting and booing began.
"Come on Tony, we need to sort this out before it escalates. Got your camera, Trish?"
"I have the spare, I will be filing charges against Tony Stark and Iron Man for destruction of private property though, but could I get Spiderman to help me, it's a bit heavy."
"Fine by me, a little more sophisticated than what I am used to, but I'll manage." Pete shrugged as he pulled off his mask to see through the lens better.
Harry led the group to the Mansion gates and the shouting grew louder. When they arrived Harry startled them all by causing them to rise into the air.
Harry cast a Sonorous on himself and addressed the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen! Please."
Harry waited as the crowd quietened, eager to hear what he had to say. "I know that what you witnessed today has upset and angered you. But you must abide by the laws of your land. Protest is allowed, but it must be peaceful.
"I know you are angry with Mr. Stark, but you must express your anger appropriately. Don't let violence ruin what you are protesting and turn you into hypocrites.
"However wrong Mr. Stark might be today, remember that he is doing what he truly believes is the right thing. He does not have evil intent, I can assure you of that.
"I recommend you take your protest to the local government buildings, you will have much more effect there than here at a simple school.
"We will be taking our leave now, and I wish you all a good day."
With that Harry teleported them all back into the Mansion.
The crowd remained, many were confused at Dr. Potter's words, he seemed to be condemning and condoning Iron Man's actions.
"Why did you do that?!" Tony demanded angrily.
Harry sighed wearily as he fell into a chair that seemed to appear on command. "What have I done now?"
"Why did you appear to defend me?"
"I didn't defend you." Harry said testily. "I simply attempted to head the mob off before they took to more violent methods of protest. Unfortunately, it might not work."
"So you were just covering your own ass." Tony sneered.
Harry looked at Tony sharply. "You should leave your job, Tony. Politics has made you highly paranoid. You keep this up and I will intervene."
"I don't respond well to threats." Tony snarled.
"Get out Tony, I've had enough of you for today." Harry sighed as he waved his hand dismissively causing Tony's armour to reappear before vanishing himself, leaving Trish, Peter and Emma to deal with Tony.
"I'm warning you Emma, he will bring you down with him. You should really see to getting him turned over to the authorities." Iron Man said raising a finger at Emma pointedly before storming out.
Trish, Peter and Emma just stood there staring at the front door Iron Man had stormed out of.
"Does he remember I came with him and that he's my ride home?" Peter eventually asked.
Trish's head snapped round as she remembered that Spiderman had come in with Iron Man.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you can teleport where you need to." Emma said dryly.
Peter affected indignation. "Hey! That is so not the point! It's the principle of the matter! What do you think Carol would do if he left her here… what would you do?"
The slow smile that appeared on Emma's face did not bring Peter comfort.
"Forget I asked." He gulped.
"Harry's right though, isn't he?" Trish asked. "Tony Stark is completely and unjustifiably paranoid."
"Maybe not unjustified." Peter pointed out. "He does have numerous enemies, even more now that he is persecuting heroes."
"You don't agree with your boss Spiderman?" Trish enquired, the gleam of story sparkling in her eyes.
"And that's my cue to leave!" Peter declared before vanishing on the spot.