Chapter Fourteen: Downtime, For Us At Least.

"Don't worry, Harry, I'm used to it," Gwen said waving off his apology when the two of them made their way back to her apartment. "But you know, we can always pick things up back up while we still can."

"We should enjoy the downtime that we have," Harry said and Gwen arched her eyebrow. A momentary smile crossed her face when she looked at him.

"Downtime, I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that term," Gwen commented lightly and Harry shook his head.

"I am too, but I'm sure that between the two of us, we can learn what it's all about," Harry said, barely keeping the amusement out of his voice.

She fumbled with the lock on her apartment. She finally opened it up and entered inside. Gwen hit the light switch. Her apartment was pretty well maintained and there was a spacious couch there.

"Another alien invasion, we don't see those that often around here, do we?" Gwen asked, trying to lighten the mood. She placed her hand on Harry's. "You're not…"

"No, I'm not," Harry confirmed, his eyes focused on hers. "I just got to do what I can do and that's about all I can do with something like this. SWORD is adding some defenses to this planet and I am as well."

"Alien invasions do seem to be a bit out of the scope of the Sorcerer Supreme," Gwen suggested to him.

Harry gave her a smile. "Maybe they do, but I figured that I should do the best to protect the world from any threat. That was the vow that I took when I ascended to the mantle. I took some liberties with it."

Gwen nodded. That seemed fair enough. The two of them stood inside her apartment. The blonde reminded herself that their date might have gone in a certain direction if forces hadn't conspired to cock block her.

"Sit down, I'll get you a drink," Gwen commented to him. She had to create the right atmosphere for this one.

"Sure that'd be great," Harry said, watching Gwen's ass sway back and forth, with her tight pants stretched over her rear. It was obvious that she was working him up and he accepted that. He appreciated that even.

She placed her hands on the counter, with a smile. If Harry got up and fucked her over the counter now, she would have no objections. It appeared that would have to wait. The blonde walked over, both of their drinks fixed and she sat down next to him.

"I figured that you could use something a bit strong after what you've been through today," Gwen commented as she offered him the drink.

"Yeah, I did, thanks," Harry said, taking the drink. He decided to ask the burning question that was on his mind for a while now. "So, how did it feel to web Jameson's mouth shut?"

Gwen laughed in amusement. "It felt like it was long overdue."

She took the drink to her mouth and sipped it. Given her super powers, she had about as great of a tolerance as Harry did. She did have her limits; it was a matter of not reaching them.

"He'll be back eventually, and back on the anti Spider-Girl trail," Harry suggested and that prompted Gwen to sigh.

"Buzzkill, why must you be one?" Gwen asked him and Harry smiled at her.

"Sorry, it's in my nature, but you know that I have a point," Harry told Gwen.

Gwen placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "I know that you have a point and that's what makes it so galling."

Gwen got up to her feet with a smile and she glanced into Harry's eyes. Those eyes spoke to her so much a lot of the time.

"But, we didn't come here to talk about Jameson, did we?" Gwen asked him and she rested her hand down on his thigh. "Or we didn't come here to talk that much at all, did we?"

"No, we didn't," Harry said, standing up his full height. Thanks to the growth spurt she had as Spider-Girl, she was only an inch or two shorter than Harry. They could look each other eye to eye from where they stood without too much trouble.

His arm wrapped tightly around Gwen and he pulled her into his body. The blonde could feel things heat up, even more so when his tongue pushed deep into her mouth. Gwen engulfed his tongue into her mouth and smiled when she captured it.

His hands roamed all over her body, touching every single inch of her. That caused Gwen grind slowly up and down against him.

He reached around and pulled her top up over her head. A black bra contained a pair of nice breasts. She pushed her tight leather pants off next, revealing a pair of extremely lacy panties, along with a garter belt and sheer black stockings.

"It's only fair if you get unveiled next, isn't it?" Gwen asked him. She was impatient for the most part. She tried to wait but it was hard to hold herself back.

Gwen ran her hands down Harry's body. Slowly, the blonde undressed her soon to be lover. She could feel his muscles when she took off his shirt. Her nipples strained against the fabric of her top.

His abs were so great that Gwen could lick them. Which she did and that caused a part of Harry's body to rise. She smiled, cupping her hand over his crotch. She touched him, barely.

"Hold tight, big guy, I'm coming," Gwen whispered, giving him a squeeze.

With that playful motion out of the way, Gwen took his pants. With one firm tug, she brought them down. She ran her soft hands down his muscular legs, and brushed the top of her head across him.

"And that's for me," Gwen said, her lips moistening. She popped them together with delight.

The final frontier was there and she pulled his boxer shorts down.

A large energy blast hit Nick Fury full on in the chest and blew the man to smithereens. He didn't have a hope in hell when it connected.

Panning back, Lily Evans stood there with Coulson's weapon that she borrowed. She figured out how it worked. A smug grin crossed over her face, when she stepped over the broken fragments of Nick Fury LMDs.

"And something tells me you blowing off this much steam is long overdue."

Lily looked up from the debris and the carnage. She turned her attention to Carol Danvers, who stood in the doorway with a pretty significant shit eating grin on her face. Lily lowered the weapon as Carol lifted her hands to indicate that she came in peace.

"Hey, I'm not about to say anything against you rocking one against an LMD of Fury, I'm sure you're not the first one who has taken a crack at one of those for target practice," Carol said and she whistled. "But when you let off some steam, you let off some steam."

"Yeah, I do," Lily agreed and she patted the energy cannon. "Well at least I know that it works. And just in time with the Shi'ar coming over. From what I heard, their emperor, you know the one that's caused all of those problems, was supposed to be exiled. The only reason why he wasn't executed was that his younger sister stepped in."

"Wasn't this the same younger sister that he displaced from the throne and had imprisoned?" Carol asked.

"The very same," Lily said, shaking her head. "That just proves that there is no honor, whether or not blood is involved, among some people. And you know, D'Ken is pretty much batshit nuts and all that."

Lily thought that was the worst thing about all of it. People now saw Earth was an easily conquered battle ground. The last couple of alien invasions were staved off by luck and circumstances.

"It's a damn good thing that SWORD is really working on trying to figure out a way to stave them off," Lily said, levitating the chunks of the destroyed Fury LMD's off of the ground. Mostly because it gave her something to do so her hands wouldn't be idle.

The governments of the world were unprepared to deal with alien invasions. Their solution would be to launch missiles at the crafts. A good solution in theory until one brought up the point that the alien vessels had force fields that would bounce the missiles off.

"We couldn't do it alone," Carol said, and she smiled. "Harry has the connections that could form a defense. It should be up within the next three days."

"Which means the alien invasion will be there before then," Lily said and Carol looked at her.

"Must you be a buzzkill?" Carol asked her, half amused and also half amused.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry, that's what I do. But I take the pragmatic approach to everything. It's what keeps me alive."

The Kree technology that they did drop and leave behind might help them take down the Kree if they ever came back. It was important to keep any alien technology off of the streets and out of the hands of anyone who could use it. The consequences were just far too many to mention.

"So, I didn't talk to you, but you and Harry…"

"What do you think happened?" Carol asked her.

"The same thing that happens with my son and any woman, likely," Lily said, with pride in her voice.

"So, I have to ask…"

"Hold that thought Carol," Lily said, and she got an incoming transmission. It was brief and to the point, but she thought that it touched on a lot of the main points.

Carol waited patiently or perhaps not so patiently. Lily made sure that she got it.

"It's Maria, she's confirmed the meeting about the new defenses, and the critiques that Harry had for SHIELD," Lily said. She could see that Carol looked fairly confused and Lily decided to elaborate. "Harry had his team hack into SHIELD's database and he found a list of all of the security exploits."

"I bet Harry found a lot," Carol said and she frowned. "Especially given the people that he uses to do something like that."

"You would assume correctly, Carol," Lily said. "It isn't as bad as you would think it is. But any hole should be closed up. Especially when there are dangerous alien threats looming."

Lily looked at the fallen debris of Nick Fury body parts. She thought that this proved to be a interesting training exercise. Maybe it was just her but she felt much better when she let off some steam.

"What time does Maria want to meet us?" Carol asked.

"ASAP, no later than tomorrow," Lily told her. "Especially since Fury has left on business of some sort."

"Let me guess, it's classified," Carol commented to her.

Lily smiled. "You know it. But Fury tends to play a very interesting game in the best of times, And with all of the alien invasions that are in the mix, you can only imagine what he's up to right now."

Carol and Lily cleared up at this base. After a quick stop to double check something, it would be off for a meeting with Maria Hill. Lily had a thick folder of suggestions from Harry. He would deliver them himself but Sorcerer Supreme business called.

Harry Potter exited the portal from another mission that was successfully done. There were a few scratches on his body, his enemy played rough. The only problem with that was that Harry Potter played just a little bit rougher.

The adventure was the usual fare for the Sorcerer Supreme. Some entity with a name that no one could spell much less pronounce turned up. They caused some trouble. There was a fight with lots of magic thrown around. Harry trounced the enemy and with any luck, he went home before dinner.

He returned to check on his injuries first of all. If he brought some magical virus to this world, that could be a catastrophe. That happened with one of the previous Sorcerer Supremes and it lead to the Black Plague.

"Check for any foreign bacteria," Harry said, and he was scanned.

So far his scans came up clean on an initial process. He would have wait for a deeper process so that gave him some time to think about this information.

With all of the alien invasions going on, Harry didn't lose sight of an important quest. That was finding the Unholy Trinity of objects, the Deathly Hallows, the keys of eternity, whatever you call. There had been numerous dead ends, but Harry thought that he hit his first big break.

At least he hoped that it was his first big break in the case of the Unholy Trinity. He wouldn't know unless he looked into it. And he couldn't very well look into it until any and all scans had been complete.

He checked his messages while he waited. Earth was still intact, which was a good thing. He still played the waiting game for the alien invasion which most certainly wasn't that good of a thing. He drummed his fingers nervously and carefully.

"One final scan, just to make sure," Harry told the device.

His mother wasn't too happy about James handing the Invisibility Cloak to Dumbledore. Especially given the Cloak might have been useful in many ways. Since Harry and Lily never returned, the Cloak remained with Dumbledore, at least until the point he died. He was found down in the shower with several puncture marks on his back and neck. The official story was that it was a horrific accident. The unofficial story was that one of Dumbledore's many enemies that he made over the decades paid him a visit and caught him whilst he was vulnerable.

The Cloak was lost but the Cloak wasn't the only thing that was lost. Several of Dumbledore's personal items vanished. The black market would be a good place for such items to be sold. Those who sold items that belonged to such a famous, some would say infamous, wizard would net a hefty little profit.

Harry tried to follow the papertrail several times. It lead to nothing but a couple of dead ends. He went around and around in a circle and he resembled a lost little puppy dog chasing his tail.

"Scan complete, no foreign bacteria found."

"Good," Harry said in relief. He figured as much but he had to make sure never the less.

The young man got to his feet and shook his head. He returned to the Cloak. The holographic image of the Unholy Trinity appeared. They seemed unassuming at first glance. Perhaps their powers were greatly overblown. He honestly didn't care himself, if it wasn't for the people who would go after such objects were unsavory.

The one thing that could not be denied was the trail of blood that these powerful objects left behind them. Harry grimaced at the thought. The wand was the worst of them, followed by the stone.

The Cloak on the other hand was rather harmless and mundane. Not many people thought that an Invisibility Cloak would be worth the trouble to kill someone. Given half of the chance, they would do it to complete the set. But they weren't going to go after the Cloak before they did the wand or the stone.

The Cloak was Harry's direct link to his heritage. It was useless to him because he knew spells that could allow him to become invisible.

'More of the principle of the matter, really,' Harry thought to himself. The Cloak flashed right in front of him.

A lot of magical artifacts passed through several sets of hands from Dumbledore's estate. The final stop for these artifacts would be the country of Brazil.

Brazil was an interesting place. It was a hub of activity where it was rumored that several top HYDRA agents disappeared there after the second World War and several sympathizers of HYDRA still lived there today. HYDRA was very interested in the occult. Thus they would be interesting in the Unholy Trinity.

Whether they had the capabilities to put it to any kind of horrifying use, Harry didn't know. All he knew was that HYDRA would move heaven and Earth in an attempt to get their hands on something like that. Especially when it meant that they would control Earth.

Harry sent off a brief text message to clarify something.

So, anything?'

Harry waited for the person on the other end to text him back. It turned out that he didn't have to wait all that long.

All's quiet. That makes you worried, doesn't it?

Harry fired back with another answer.

Yes, that makes me worried. It makes me extremely worried.

Harry tried not to be worried, but there were sometimes where he had a feeling that he fought an uphill battle.

SHIELD is getting everything in order to your specifications.

Harry nodded; he worked on destroying SHIELD's security grid. It took his team a lot longer to find a hole then it might have normally. Given some of the bright minds that worked on that team, SHIELD should be pleased.

I'm going to head off to Brazil. I have a lead on something. I'll see if it's true. Contact me, if anything breaks.

Harry shouldn't have any problems. He would know immediately if something touched down. It just gave him peace of mind to know that people watched things when he couldn't.

Good luck.

Harry smiled; he would need more than luck if some of the more unsavory people beat him to the Unholy Trinity.

D'Ken considered the failure to grasp onto the Phoenix a momentary setback at best. The Emperor of the Shi'ar's lips crossed into a sneer.

Everyone walked on eggshells around him. There were rumors of the deal he had to make to get back onto the throne and how there was an extremely powerful force that backed his every move. None of them wanted to ask any questions.

"Make sure no one disturbs me, Gladiator, is that understood?" D'Ken asked and he turned to face Gladiator.

"Yes," Gladiator said to him in a gruff voice. He added as an afterthought. "My Emperor."

There was a long time when D'Ken was in the darkness where he didn't hear those words. He enjoyed hearing than once again. It was like music to his ears.

He slipped inside. The door shut and bolted behind him. His guest was here on schedule.

"Long time enemies join forces against a mutual enemy," said his guest. He leaned forward to reveal Ronan, who looked extremely ragged. "I barely escaped the last time. A chunk of my fleet was not so lucky."

"The power of the Phoenix is vast, and you should consider yourself lucky that you survived," D'Ken said somberly.

Ronan agreed that he was extremely lucky. His fleet of ships just barely made it back to the Kree homeworld completely intact. They needed repairs, otherwise, they would turn around in greater numbers and hit Earth hard. This would be especially true since they received intelligence that the Phoenix left the planet and some of their greatest protectors followed her in an attempt to reign her in.

"And you wish to be the one to control that vast power…"

"It has been written in the stars that the one who controls the Shi'ar should control the universe's ultimate power," D'Ken said and Ronan stared at him. "But I understand that you have your own problems with certain elements of your past that you have been unable to shake completely free."

"Kryptonians, there are at least two of them who have survived, but there might be a third," Ronan said, cracking his knuckles.

D'Ken had his share of problems with Krypton that went without saying. He also had his share of problems with the Kree. He wanted to weigh all options and more importantly how that benefitted him.

"What can you offer me, Ronan?" D'Ken asked.

"I can assist in in obtaining the Phoenix Force," Ronan told him. He decided to hit it whilst the iron was hot. "Let's face it, you might not be able to capture her and the Kree have had bad luck against her. With the two of us working together, there's nothing out there that can stop us."

D'Ken stopped and considered what he was told. That was an interesting proposal in more ways than one.

The Kree and the Shi'ar working together was a thought at one time that he couldn't really fathom. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Our Armada is ready, we can divert the Earth's attention towards us," Ronan said. "All we ask for in return is the Kryptonian technology on the planet and the planet itself. The Shi'ar can do what it wishes with all of the humans."

"An interesting proposal," D'Ken muttered underneath his breath.

He was not a fool, far from it. He knew that there was potential for Ronan to turn those weapons that he captured on the Shi'ar and finish them off.

A deal with the devil wasn't something that D'Ken was opposed to doing. He just needed a fallback plan in case things went sout.

"Do we have a deal or don't we, D'Ken?"

D'Ken made sure he looked Ronan in the eyes. He knew madness for he stared back at it from behind a mirror every single day of his life. The man extended his hand and reached forward. He clasped hands with Ronan and shook it.

"We have a deal."

A match made in heaven or a match made in hell that depended on your perspective.

Deathbird listened closely to this meeting and she couldn't believe that her brother would do something to this extent. Her brother made some questionable decisions in the past.

This topped them all however. The Kree was a bastard version of another race. They didn't deserve any consideration from the Shi'ar. If anything they deserved to be blasted off of the map, to do the universe a favor against polluting the gene pool.

She curled her hands into fists and was determined to do something about this. Confronting her brother wouldn't end well for her. It would only end her up in a cell with her sister and the other occupant that was on board D'Ken's mothership.

Claire Kent did love the wild and unpredictable nature in space. Things proved to be easier for her when she wore a skin tight space suit that formed and fit to every curve that she had. The suit was experimental, but it allowed her to retain her powers and her mobility. Not to mention it also allowed her to be protected in the vastness of space.

"It's working out well, mother," Claire said, brimming with a new amount of excitement. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around.

"It's not too tight, is it?" Lara asked. With her daughter's powers, she could have a growth spurt at any time when she hit certain maturities. It was a good thing that Harry was there to help her through one of her maturities. Otherwise it would have been a real horror show when she got through it.

"No, it's not too tight," Claire confirmed, it was just right in fact. "Things are quiet out here in the frontier of space today."

When they were on the cusp of a pair of alien invasions, Claire worried that there would be an attack coming. So far, it was so good. She hoped that would keep up.

"I think that it's time to head on home then, if you've completed a trial run of the suit," Lara told her daughter. "Your vitals check out as they should be."

Claire could hear a loud bang and at first she thought that it was something on the moon. There were a couple of SWORD bases on the moon and she thought that one of them had an equipment failure.

She rushed over to the moon in a blur, faster than a speeding bullet. She dropped down and looked around carefully.

'Everything is fine,' Claire thought, folding her arms underneath her chest in surprise and wonderment. She wondered if she was just hearing things. It might have not been a good thing super powers or not but there were alternatives.

Suddenly, another crack echoed and a vortex opened. Claire looked up, her mouth agap and hanging open wide.

The Kree Armada flew towards her. It was in greater numbers than the one that invaded previously.

There was no way that they wouldn't have spotted her alone in space. Claire swallowed and reported. "Mother, we might have a bit of a problem. The Kree have returned."

To Be Continued On 10/30/2014.

We have a problem, actually we have several problems here.