CyberTech Worlds Clash
Chapter XXXII
Beginning Anew
"Why didn't I buy an ocean side villa like this a long time ago?" Harry Avalon asked no one as he was only wearing some swimming shorts and stretched the clinks from his muscles as he lounged on his lounger.
The sun was blazing overhead, and Harry had a slight tan along his muscular body. However, he had two double white lines running up both arms with a sparkle of carmine red where the light hit it from certain angles. The lines ran in a more complicated pattern of seal-lines over his left forearm around, but the lines ran up over his chest and made a complex cog-like pentagram mostly over the left of his chest like a white tattoo of circuitry under the skin, and shimmering with reds and copper when the light hit it in certain angles. Then from the pentagram the lines ran up thinning out and around the back of his neck, and up behind his right ear where it ended.
"Umm… you didn't buy it; you built it," interrupted Diamantina. The beautiful red-haired young woman stretched as she was lounging on a sun bed next to the pool next to her blonde and brunette sisters. Her bikini was a soft blue while Excel's was purple, and Starla's a striking green.
"Perks of being awesome…!" Seraph said as she lounged with them in a black bikini, looking perfect and unconcerned as her hair was its natural black as she had given up her cosplaying for a while – at least – well, this version of her had. "Though, all credit due. I did design this place!"
"Well - we've said it before, but you did awesome, Seraph, and we love you to bits!" Amanda said as she was next to Ginny in their white bikinis, stretched out and beautiful. They both had similar white markings as Harry's, though their pentagrams wound around their tone tummies, and twin lines moving up the right side, twisting around and up their spines to end behind their ears. Ginny's sparkled when caught by the light with yellow-white while Amy's shimmered with pale blue.
"This place is freaking awesome," Amy continued as she enjoyed the sun as she and Ginny enjoyed themselves, though, they had to keep in the shade of the sun umbrella as Ginny was quite burnable even with all the suntan lotions and potions, they enjoyed rubbing into each other. "And the pool and hot tubs and… damn girl; you're brilliant!"
Seraph couldn't prevent the blush or grin. "Thanks a lot," she replied impishly. "You guys all wanted some place nice to take a break in California, so I made it. Its apart of my job."
"Sir," a female voice suddenly interrupted as a young woman wearing a stereotypical blue and white maid uniform with CT on her apron with short pink hair, hanging to the bottom of her neck exited the huge house. "Umm… we have guests, sir."
Harry sighed as Tony Stark followed her outside wearing some shorts and a towel around his shoulders. He was followed by The Avengers and Pepper Potts. Harry could only roll his eyes as he looked over the several unexpected guests.
"It's okay, Autumn," he quickly said as she started fretting and looking panicked. However, at his words she sighed in relief and her gentle smile returned to her pretty pink lips. "Maybe you could bring us all some drinks out if that would be okay?"
"Of course, sir," she readily agreed nodding her head. "Anything else?" she asked looking around at everyone, which made Harry thankful Banners was Banner, and not the Hulk. She would freak having to deal with him and his Hulkiness.
"Have you got some snacks?" Tony asked looking her over hopeful.
"Umm… yes, sir," she was quick to agree while blushing. "I'll bring some out too, please be patient!" she said as she quickly hurried back inside smiling brighter than before as she had a strange fondness for hosting.
"What exactly are you…-" Harry began but Tony laughingly interrupted.
"This is a house warming," he said with a grin. "Welcoming you to the neighbourhood…"
"So… you followed us here?"
"Yeah, pretty much… any chance for a party!" he agreed with a wide grin.
"I'm so sorry about this Harry," Pepper quickly interrupted. "I've been trying to get him to see reason, or at least call first. I tried but he caught me," she said glaring at her boyfriend.
"But surprises are so much more fun!" Janet (the Wasp) piped in laughing as she pulled off her clothes to reveal her swimsuit as she grabbed a surprised Antman by the wrist. "Come on, let's go have some fun." She then pulled the startled man into the pool with a splash, still fully clothed.
"For the record I was on Peppers side!" Natasha Romanoff said looking grumpy.
The guy next to her laughed. "Come on girl, don't be so stuffy," he said laughing as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
"Clint… don't you dare!" she said, but not quick enough as they were soon in the pool fully clothed.
"Superheroes these days," Harry said shaking his head. "No respect for the normal folk!"
"Don't those line things give you superpowers?" Steve Rodgers asked as he found a spot to dump his things and take off his shirt and shoes before jumping in the pool with the others with Banner chuckling as he soon joined them as the water looked really good.
"I still only have a gauntlet… but at least you saw pity to help with the Digi-…" Tony began, but stopped as Harry laughed.
"Want to go quid's in on that nanotech research, now?" Harry asked with raised eyebrow as Tony had things, he wanted that he refused trading research notes for the other few times he offered, but Tony had been getting into the scientist collection business with Harry and getting some stela results in those areas he was more interested in as a business, which was more of a mechanical side of science while Harry's main business was in computer hardware, software and more digital fields – along with a little magical trickery where needed, and super awesome mecha – who didn't love Cyclone?
"Yeah," he agreed with a sad pout. "I'm close, but it's so exhausting and not really my thing, but if we pull our research-," he said with a small chuckle. "Oh, mini-pizzas!" he said as his mood brightened, as Autumn returned with a trolley full of drinks and snacks grabbing a bottle of beer and a few mini-pizzas. "I haven't eaten much today," he explained to the embarrassed looking maid.
"T-that's okay Mr. Stark," she replied nervously. "I-I can get you something more to eat if you would like!?" she suggested reasonably.
"That's nice of you but I'll be okay with some snacks," he answered as he took a bite of pizza. "Wow, these mini-pizzas are great."
"T-thank you, Mr. Stark, I made them myself…-"
"Ahhhhh!"
A young woman screamed as she interrupted. She appeared out of nowhere glompping Harry around the waist crying and whimpering as he held her looking confused. She had green hair and blue eyes, and a slender body and was wearing a CyberTech skirt uniform of blue with a cute little jacket and sailor hat with the CT cog logo on the centre. "Harry! Harry! Harry! It was terrible! It was terrible! Purifiers in London, and they had guns and they were racist against the Angels! And! And! And it was horrible! Grandma was there and my best friends!"
"Summer…!" Seraph said as she quickly got up from her sun bed and moved over to the girl while crouching to reach the level she was at as she was on her knees holding Harry. "Are they okay? Please give me a report?!"
"Oh big sister!" she cried out throwing herself from a confused Harry until she was cuddling Seraph around the waist and sniffling. "Big Sister Seraph! It was horrible. The Angels had beaten up some horrible bank robbers, and then these horrible men turned up and tried shooting them," she said before pausing a little. "Oh, and Miss. Psylocke's big brother Mr. Captain Britain was there and protected grandma and Miss. Psylocke, and then the other three girls saved the day! It was so scary!"
Seraph sighed as she stroked the green haired girls head before kissing it. "Silly, your report shows that it wasn't too troubling. The Angels are so much stronger than a few silly racists."
"But Big Sister…!" she whimpered out with tears in her eyes.
"Summer, sweetie," she gently reprimanded. "I've had this talk about overreacting before. You have to lean sweetie. I don't want to see you so upset over nothing, okay?"
Summer took a deep breath of fresh air. "I… I guess Big Sister Seraph, but it was scary, and I love Misses. Snowdrift, Scarlet Witch, and Shadowcat… and Grandma and Miss. Psylocke!"
"I know sweetie, they're your friends and family, but they're capable of fighting off a few morons," Seraph replied smilingly.
"Summer…!" Another green haired young woman appeared out of nowhere looking a few years older than the other and wearing a similar uniform, lacking the hat or jacket. She was wearing a female pant suit uniform with a neat jacket and red tie.
"Winter! Don't be too hard on her!" Seraph reprimanded quickly before she could say any more. "She's different to us and needs patience, okay!? She will learn if you give her time, love, and patience."
Winter sighed before taking a deep breath. "Okay, sis, but… augh… she is so sensitive!" she complained while pout glaring. "Come on Summer; it's time to go home – we still have work to do and reports to see complete - say bye to our big sisters and lets go."
Summer sighed sadly and wiped her tears from her eyes. "Bye Big Sister Seraph," she whined hugging her. "Bye Big Sister Autumn," she added quickly giving the pink haired girl a hug and kiss to the cheek, which was greatly returned before both green haired girls disappeared in flashes of pixelated white light of pyre flies.
"Your computers are seriously messed up," Tony couldn't help but comment. "Do you think they're better with mental disorders?"
Harry rolled his eyes shrugging. "Says the idiot who's food is being served by one of my 'computers'," he replied, which caused Tony to gulp as he looked at the young pink haired woman.
Harry just shrugged and sat with his girls. "I'm letting Summer assimilate her own mind," he answered the unasked question. "That sweet girl is the most advanced AI on the planet because of that. She is an experiment of programming genius."
"And what about me?" Seraph demanded as she poked him in the chest.
"You, Seraph?" Harry asked in mild mock. "You are the work of a god!" he said spreading his arms out wide expecting a praise that never came as Seraph only laughed and went and reclaimed her deckchair.
"Well, I think you're special, papa!" Autumn said as she gave him an open bottle of beer, but her cheeks were puffed out from suppressed laughter, but Tony had no fear of laughing uproariously.
"I am the only god here!" Thor corrected, which caused everyone to burst out laughing and he didn't know why, so grabbed a beer from the nice pink haired girl and sat by the pool with his feet in the water.
"Don't get Thor started!" Tony laughed as he sat back next to where Pepper lounged and pretended, she wasn't with him.
Harry shook his head and turned to the triplets. "I would have thought Tony would have grown up a little in the years we've known each other!"
"We've only been this close since you joined the Avengers!" Tony said smugly.
"I'm not an Avenger," Harry said automatically each time Tony said he was an Avenger, even though that was probably a lost battle.
"Yes you are," Starla said giggling as she floated up and landed in his lap. "And we know you can't take too much seriously either, and we all love you for it anyway!"
Harry laughed as he kissed Starla's lips. "I think that's what makes me so charming!" he replied as Excel giggling appeared with them, stealing a kiss from Harry too while Tina hoped up from her lounger to join them in teasing their lover.
CyberTech Worlds Clash
James Potter groaned as he sat bored at a random table at Hogwarts for breakfast. He wasn't really eating anything, and after his recovery from mind buggery, and getting out of jail and everything he hadn't anywhere to go. James was still surprised after everything he had done that his son arranged his solicitor to get him out of jail, and then he had a few more months in hospital until he was fully clean and a free man.
He had been at rock bottom when McGonagall asked him to take the defence class as a second teacher. It was different to how it used to be as it now covered a lot more than curses or hexes. He kind of found it more interesting now; it was more along the lines of miscellaneous magic, but calling it that would be ridiculous, and a bit of a tongue twister. He wished he was better at defence; if he was – he would have been able to stop Dumbledore.
Sirius had been there for him, and he was the one who suggested working for Hogwarts. James was surprised that McGonagall gave him a shot, and he was lead to Cordelia. She seemed nice, and she was willing to give him a shot as long as he completed a couple fast-track courses first. It turned out he had a talent for working with people and was quick to catch on to these 'teaching' methods and the like.
Remus Lupin had been a little more hostile, but he was being nicer about it lately. James believed he was being harder on himself than Sirius had been as they had been blind to the change at first and then it became too late to say anything, and over time they began to question their own memories.
It had been hardest accepting Lily's annulment, as they had been under magical influence when they married, but he couldn't blame her for wanting out. They were on good terms, so he couldn't hope for more than that. Though, he would have never expected her to bat for the same team. However, looking back on it Lily had always been a little different at school, and something she said about Laurel Makeba at school made him feel like laughing as that hadn't been a subtle hint, but at least they had two amazing kids together.
Harry and Amanda were flipping SUPERHEROES! Harry and Amanda were both being rather fair towards him and Lily. They got to see them, and Harry had taken him to the pub a few weeks back and they had an awkward chat, but luckily Sirius mysteriously showed up, and invited himself to lighten the atmosphere. Thankfully the few times his daughter came to see him; she was much more receptive since she hadn't been thrown away like trash, which made him feel like shit just thinking about.
It was nice to see both of his grownup kids, and great that they would let him, and Lily be a part of their lives, even if it was only minimal; he felt a little jealous of Lily as she saw them more as she did some superhero stuff to make up for breaking out of jail. However, he couldn't help but feel proud now he had his own mind back that his family, though broken was more whole than it ever had been.
He sighed as he nibbled his toast wondering what he was going to do with his life now. Though, Cordelia had said he could stay on the job for as long as he wanted, he was not sure he wanted to be a teacher as a career. It was harder than he thought it would be – well, more stressful than hard.
Shaking his head clear he drunk some tea. He had not long come back from Gringotts as he finally checked over his accounts as some memories seemed really fuzzy and he was right to be concerned. However, he was surprised the goblins were so helpful in tracing the missing funds and starting a full investigation into how his account manager had not reported a client under another's control, which they had enough measures to have detected it years ago and set him and Lily free.
James was still surprised as the bank manager had called the police on a muggle phone and the goblin responsible was cuffed and taken into custody for questioning. It was believed he must have been paid off somewhere and was now on remand at the Crater until his charges were brought to the courts.
However, James couldn't help but be awed by the renovations done by the bank as they didn't just use phones; the goblins were actually using technology like computers and this internet thing like James's new mobile phone thing could surf, and he still couldn't get it right, which was why he went on an evening course to learn these things.
It seemed that all of those time and effort saving gadgets lightened the goblins spirits a little, and they LOVED – absolutely LOVED working with CyberTech, Stark Industries, and the muggle world in general. The muggles gave them representation where mage never had and never would and investing in the muggle world was a lot more lucrative than the magical world ever was.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore had stolen a lot from James and his family. He wasn't happy with just stealing their lives but taking their money too, or vice versa. Though, on a slightly better note, after the goblins sold all of his gold (since the magical world now had to use muggle money that was a new synthetic and magic proof form for cash-change) he didn't have to carry around huge gold coins. He had just got this Gringotts bank card thing and a pin number to buy stuff. Though, on a downer they depreciated the value of gold by a hefty margin during the last year, but the goblins were optimistic that the price would slowly rise over time.
Shaking his head James looked around the hall with a frown. "Breakfast on the moon?" he asked himself rolling his eyes at the illusion the hall was shrouded in that morning. "It's not that awesome. In fact, it's kind of distracting," he said as he wasn't the only one looking around in awe, and looking up at the Earth, his left eye twitching. "And what the hell is that giant metal thing? Is that some kind of… building? In space?" he asked looking at the huge muggle made thing circling the planet and wondering how any mage could think they were the superior species of human when the muggles built that.
"Oh, I thought Spring had deleted the Peak from this program," Cordelia startled him as she took a seat opposite with Ashe and McGonagall joining them. "Some of the Satellites are still in it too!"
"I'm working on it now!"
James was startled as a pink haired young girl of about fifteen appeared next to him. She was wearing the new Hogwarts uniform. He looked her over. She was wearing a black and white plaid skirt halfway up her thighs and a black body-hugging blouse with the Hogwarts badge on her right breast pocket, and a black Hogwarts blazer with white trim, undone. She had on small black shoes and black and white soaks going halfway up her thighs, and a matching tie loosely around her blouse collar. Her hair was long down to her butt tied at her waist with a white ribbon.
Her uniform was black and white rather than green, red, blue, or yellow for the simple fact it was what the first years wore to the Welcoming Feast, as they had to buy it before they came to school and got sorted into a house, and with a few magical tricks woven into the materials Hermione Granger apparently invented it would change the white into their new house colour once the Sorting Hat (while it still was a Sorting Hat) called out their new house.
"It's a Saturday. I didn't expect you to be here so early," Spring sighed exasperated as she gestured the students that were here too. "Can't you people be normal and sleep in late?" she asked rolling her pretty green eyes.
"Sorry," James said quickly. "Umm… I really did try to get back to sleep but I was thirsty and needed a cup of tea, and I don't have a kettle… or tea in my quarters."
She rolled her eyes again as she turned her gaze to the others. "And what are you up for? Cordelia you're never up this early on a school day, what gives – its Saturday."
"Can we exchange you for, Autumn?" she asked hopefully.
Spring glared. "If you don't behave, I'll trade jobs with Summer," she said smugly as Cordelia and Ashe both paled.
"YOU wouldn't… that's just cruel," she replied fearfully. "Anyway, she wouldn't come here without Winter, and Winter runs the MPFCs systems, so she can't come too!"
"Well, whatever," she replied as the hologram faded away in a stream of rainbow lights to reveal a huge hall with light wood floors and walls and a huge crystal glass ceiling with giant windows in the walls letting in tons of natural light. She couldn't help but giggle as she heard loads of cries about the sudden brightness.
"Is this what the hall really looks like?" James couldn't help but ask. He got some nods as he looked around in awe. "Wow, it's really been renovated… what happened to the enchanted ceiling?"
"Replaced by the holo-grid," Ashe said helpfully. "We moved the old ceilings enchantments to the astronomy auditorium as that hall needed something, but it was too… some arsehat historians wouldn't let us damage anything, so we couldn't set up anything more than holo-systems for Spring and the computer systems, and they wouldn't have let us do this to the hall without moving the old ceilings enchantments." Ashe said while shrugging. "It's so much more fun to have this in the Great Hall though, and we've got some new programs Seraph sent over yesterday. I can't wait to try them."
"Okay," Spring said and, in a flash, they were in an old Western tavern set with stage and cabaret act and piano playing while they danced, and even the tables changed to match the setting. "Is this one okay?" she asked looking around at all of the awed students.
"Awesome; theme sets!" Ashe said with a wicked grin. "What other ones are there?"
"Well, we have a medieval one, a fantasy land one, a Jurassic Park one, and a Three Musketeers one, and a few others like that!" she replied shrugging. "Things like the dancers are only three-D models, more like watching a show on TV, so they're not hard-light, and as you'll no doubt realise, they along with the stage are just an illusion into the wall, but it should alert you so you don't walk into the wall."
"Oh… awesome, but how about you put on the Jurassic Park one…?" Ashe asked hopefully with a look of excitement and glee on her face.
"NO!" Cordelia quickly said shocking them. "I am NOT having breakfast with dinosaurs and freaked out kids."
Spring shrugged. "Well, maybe some other time. I'll get to sorting out the lunar set, unlike you I have stuff to do," she said before disappearing in a flash of light.
"I had never thought Hogwarts could get any weirder," James said with a sigh as he finished his toast, though it wasn't cold because of magic. "I mean… we're eating breakfast in the old west!" he said shaking his head as he finished his tea. "Well, I guess that girl corrected my false belief!"
"Yep, you shouldn't think too far ahead of yourself James," Ashe agreed readily. "Isn't that right Miss. Cordie?"
She laughed and rolled her eyes. "I guess… one minute you could be having breakfast on the moon, and the next you could be having breakfast in a cheesy Eastwood movie!"
"You surprisingly get used to it," McGonagall piped in helpfully.
CyberTech Worlds Clash
Arthur Weasley didn't know what to do with much of his time since his wife and youngest son were in jail, and his department of the Ministry neither existed nor was needed. He worked with Amelia with the MPF these days, as he was fairly well versed in dealing with illegally enchanted – or worse – cursed items.
He had hoped and prayed that Molly and Ronald could possibly be under Dumbledore's magic like Lily and James were, but no, even now they didn't get that Dumbledore had lost and that what had changed in the world, muggle and magical couldn't be undone. Though, he was thankful that Ronald realised that Dumbledore was a nutty bastard. It didn't mean he cared to rehabilitate. However, Molly wouldn't hear anything bad about Dumbledore, not even from James or Lily; she had been indoctrinated too well, and it would take the therapists years to get through to her.
Heck, all of the people CyberTech would eventually be saving with medicines created from potions; they now had one pill that could cure the common cold in just twenty minutes. Though, he felt a little sorry that now no one would be able to use that excuse to bunk more than an hour off work. However, when he mentioned things like this to Molly when he visited, she could only go off on a hateful rant, and that was just one of the quickest aspects (as they needed heavy testing first) of new medical studies the muggles got working, and now doctors from all over the world were scrambling to work with healers to mass produce miracles.
He had never known his wife was that obsessed with what Dumbledore thought was best. At least Dumbledore had the excuse of being insane, and even more so now he was in a padded cell with severe mental trauma because of Lily's curse to give him dreams of the pain he had caused others.
Arthur quivered as he thought of what finally led to the old man's isolation. It made him want to be sick and wonder why any man insane or not would want to do that to Voldemort. Talk about feeling bad for the bad guy, Voldemort was traumatized and was still receiving therapy, and was surprisingly more receptive of his new status of prisoner since his cellmate was gone and he got a cell to himself.
Hell, Arthur had thought about seeing a therapist after just hearing about it. He quivered again. He didn't even want to think about Ron and that 'Blob' guy he kept talking about. The one who was supposedly looking out for him, and he just didn't want to know, especially after he pulled up a picture of the Blob on his phone on his way home.
The best plus side – muggles were surprisingly happy to teach mage how to use every day pieces of technology and Arthur enjoyed taking his course on the internet and computers, and didn't feel too out of place as he went with a few mage friends and the course had some older muggles who needed lessons too because their kids usually got snippy after the fiftieth question, and he could attest to that with his own kids.
Shaking those thoughts off he looked around Diagon Alley as he walked in from the street; the Leaky Cauldron was owned by CyberTech, and the muggle building next door was bought out with the empty magical shop behind and knocked down to open the Alley up to muggle London, and the pub had been done up into a restaurant with large beer gardens open on either side, one in magic, one not, and it was open to anyone and apparently making quite the cash fall.
There was no longer: 'the' muggle entrance. Though, they still managed to have a little trouble from Purifiers, but the MPF were authorised to deal with them, and police were always on high alert, so they weren't too difficult as long as they were taken in before they could hurt anyone, and with Knockturn Alley getting renovations and being patrolled there wasn't much anti-muggle hatred going on, and with everything the muggle world offered; a lot of mage who might have been more antsy chose to step aside. The UK was doing well and adapting.
However, Arthur knew the US wasn't doing terribly, but some people just wouldn't let the world be rainbows and puppies. Though, Canada was doing fairly well at accepting their past back into the fold, and other participating countries were either going the same way as the UK or are having some extra teething problems like the US were.
Though, there were countries who had openly declared death on sight for mutants and mage, which was stupid in the long run and could land them in war, but there were plenty of people fighting back, and the UN was getting off their arses and actually trying to put the few in their house who were not adhering to human rights laws in their place – mainly because they had little choice as it was on public display.
Diagon Alley was now kitted with electrical lighting and electricity all over, and it was packed with pedestrians since the Alley didn't have an actual road for cars, and delivery vehicles brought in stock and stuff early in the mornings when the Alley would be empty. Though, it did seem to brighten the place after dark and make the place more convenient and warmer, especially since they needed network links for bank and credit card payments. Though, they still had cash registers for the newly circulating muggle cash.
He shook his head clear as he came to his twin sons shop. It was still brightly coloured and in your face, but it had grown bigger since then, and though they still sold their jokes and pranks, now with a larger market as mutants and even normal humans come into the Alley, his sons were expanding into other things, and they had already opened two new shops; one in Hogsmeade, and the other the other side of London where a small magical district had opened up within the last few months, and they were looking to expand into other towns and cities.
Arthur smiled as he realized that all his kids, but Ron and Percy had made something big of themselves and had happy lives; luckily for Percy he hadn't resisted when the military invaded, and he was offered an admin position within the Magical Regulation Department of the UK that he had little choice to take as he had a family to look out for. Though, Arthur hadn't seen much of Percy, thankfully Percy's wife had no such qualms against letting Arthur see his three-year-old granddaughter.
However, Arthur's daughter had to be his greatest achievement as she was a superhero working with the Camelot Unit of the MPF when not working for CyberTech! He couldn't be prouder of her, and his boys too he supposed; two of which were working with MPF; one as a Dragon Ranger (Charlie) still working the ranches with a lot more guests than ever as muggles loved dragons (only while safe behind walls and fences), and as a curse breaker (Bill).
Arthur couldn't help but grin as he entered the shop to see it was as busy as usual and several young men and women in uniforms were helping customers.
"Hey there dad," George greeted him from behind, laughing as he made him jump. "Sorry," he said but looked more amused. "Well anyway, I figured we could get a delivery from that new fast food place that just opened down the street!"
"Oh, sure; that would be nice… ever since…" he began but trailed off with a sigh. "Well, I've eaten a lot of takeout food, and realised that I should have learnt how the cooker works at some point."
George chuckled sadly shaking his head. "You could always go to a restaurant. Or go find Ginny and get her to cook something?" he suggested but couldn't hold back his laugh.
"That isn't happening," he replied rolling his eyes. "First, she can't cook toast in a timed toaster without somehow burning it," he said laughing a little. "And secondly she's not even in the country; she's on holiday with Harry and Amanda in the US!"
"Oh yeah," George said nodding. "Sirius told me about that. He said he's off to go and invite himself to stay at Harry's new condo! Looked like he was dragging Remus with him; you know Sirius has an awful habit of getting lost, even with a map."
"That sounds like him," Arthur nodded as George led him out back and up to the comfortable flat on the third floor. "Well, he doesn't have to work for a living so he can get away with running off when he wants."
"I know what you mean," he replied sighing. "We maybe well off but Fred and I don't have people like Seraph to run things while we're gone… with the delicate balance going on around here we can't take a vacation anytime soon without someone we trust in charge, and none of our staff are really… well; they're young, new, and lack experience in managerial roles, and we can't ask our other store managers to use the Floo like a door to run here too."
"Oh, I have some leave coming up if you want, I could waste a weekend if you want a break," he piped in thoughtfully. "It will be nice to get away from the Burrow for a while, as I'll admit I've considered selling up and downsizing… it gets kind of lonely!"
"I can understand that," Fred said as he walked in with a sad looking grin. "How about you give us this weekend, and when we get back, we'll gather the family and we can all talk about it, since it's the family home… we need to make sure everyone is okay selling it. Then we can all have fun finding you a new place."
Arthur grinned and nodded his head. "Thank you for understanding, boys, but I'm famished; I've been hard at work, so get on the phone and order up some grub."
The twins could only laugh with their father.
CyberTech Worlds Clash
It was another boring day doing boring stuff for Mr. Fantastic was what most people would say. However, he loved doing stuff like crunching numbers and astrological research. It became all the more fantastic now he had access to magic and had wonderful new equations to crunch.
Though, it was depressing that his team thought he needed to get out more. However, looking at his computer monitors he frowned as he finally spotted something he had previously not noticed, or more accurately, before he ignored it, as whatever it was wasn't as close when he first noticed it.
He had originally shrugged it off as a mass of asteroids, and since they were so far away and not anywhere near the point of coming towards the Earth, they really didn't seem important in the long run as they were heading further out into space, or so the original calculations showed.
However, they had moved – possibly - and not just because of a nudge because of a gravidic pull from a star or planet as the trajectory wouldn't, couldn't change so much. They were now on a direct intercept course with the Earth. Yet; that didn't seem correct somehow, yet it was; it was a very strange reading, but he had to ere on the side of caution.
"T-they can't be asteroids!" he muttered to himself as he typed away at his system. "Herbie, please analyse using every satellite you can gain immediate access too!" he said to the computer.
"Yes, sir," a soft male voice replied over the speakers. "It seems they're of some unknown origin, and they have… possibly changed trajectory... I am analysing a star point of origin now, sir," he said as a green holographic sphere map of stars appeared over his lab console showing a target symbol with dotted dashes leading further than the map spread as it zoomed out and out beyond known space as it searched through star chart after star chart.
"Whatever they are; there are no planetary systems on any of our star charts on their path into the Sol System, so if you're an intelligent life form," Mr. Fantastic muttered with narrowed eyes. "Then we sure as hell haven't had any dealing with them before or they're going the long way around in the hope that we will not notice them until they're on top of us? Though, it could be that their world isn't even in our database, our star maps don't go any further! We got our maps from the Guardians when we met them a few years back, so they should be relatively complete."
"Presuming they are extra-terrestrials, sir?" his computer Herbie interrupted. "However, judging by the patterns I am picking up from the unknowns sir, it appears highly likely as I have detected that they're seemingly picking up speed – however, sir… I believe that yes… a CT satellite we have been working with has just accepted my request for full analysis and is offering access to other satellites… sir… these things seem to be giving off a dimensional distortion… they may possibly not be from our reality, which could explain why we cannot find an origin planet while they are on the outer rim of our solar system, because that planet is not in our dimension."
"How long until they get here…?" Reed asked Herbie with a look of concern on his face, but he frowned a little as he knew he didn't have full access to that satellite while he had been assured, he did. "And what are the approximate numbers?"
"Approximate time of arrival in our solar system if they continue this rate of speed," he answered nonchalant. "In three weeks, two days, twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes they will enter our solar system in full and arrive at the Earth roughly six point three weeks later, and numbers are unknown – I cannot calculate the numbers because of the dimensional distortion is interfering!"
"Damn! Send this information to the MPFC!" he said quickly. "Then contact Avalon, Stark, Sword, and Shield… though, by the fact Avalon's computer let us use his satellites, he'll be up to date soon."
"Yes sir… will that be all?"
"Yes, thank you Herbie, but I have some extra work to do," he answered both worried and excited about this new predicament. It beat fighting against anti-mutant propagandists, and their ridiculousness. "This seems kind of interesting, and I'm sure that the MPFC will want some extra information when I can get it."
To Be Continued…