Dimensional Warrior
Chapter 16
Harry floated in the void of space, staring down at the planet Gaia.
Gaia was a large world mostly covered in water with landmasses in the same position as earth.
The dwarves had transplanted their city into one of the mountains of the planet. While the elves move theirs to a dense jungle near the equator.
The mutants and magic users kept their cities in a valley each, separated by a good three hundred miles.
The new metal born surprised him most, he expected them to commandeer one of the forests, but instead, they went to one of the polls and use their vast mental powers to start constructing a city out of ice.
Reaching out with his mind, he created a connection to the people on the planet.
He felt the metal born tense slightly, but after a moment they went about their business.
Floating down through the atmosphere, he stopped above the metal born city.
He found five large cylindrical towers sitting in a circle.
Bridges extended out from each tower, connecting to another, giving the structures a wagon wheel-like appearance.
Sending a pulse of telekinetic power through his body, his cell shifted, making him invisible.
Moving forward, he stretched out his hand, placing it on one of the towers.
It was cold to the touch, instantly causing his skin to stick.
He was surprised to find that it had been transmuted from ice into a form of crystal.
Leaning forward, he paused as his breath steamed on the crystal.
'So much for stealth.'
The only thing he could see within the crystal was his reflection.
Removing his hand from the crystal, he winced as he left a bit of skin behind.
A bit of a burned flashed through his left hand until his skin regenerated. Clenching his hands, he winced as the cold air dried out his flesh, causing it to crack open. Again, his healing factor repaired the damage. Wrapping himself in a layer of sea-green psychic power, he floated backward.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he released the telekinetic energy around his cells, allowing himself to flicker back into existence.
"What do you think?"
Galahad asked as he floated up beside him, his diamond colored hair flipping in the wind as snowflakes melted against his copper-colored skin.
"I'm honestly surprised you agreed to the tenets of this new planet so quickly."
Galahad stared at the city as adults taught the children how to shape the ice below them.
"All we ever wanted to do was help," he glanced at Harry, "and we see potential in this world."
Harry inclined his head, "I'm even more surprised by the number of mutants that wanted you to work with them in changing their abilities."
A smile spread across Galahad's face, "Some only had outward mutations from their X genes, while others felt their abilities were rather useless. Like this one fellow that sweated acid, or his mother that produced a sugary substance from her pours."
"I have to admit, I didn't expect us to be able to use our genetic knowledge so soon, or that they would be that open to us. It is fascinating, the genetics of these mutants are unlike anything we've ever seen before, so it's going to be a while before we can make the necessary changes that the people want."
"I think it helped that you allowed everyone to see your memories. I also think that some of them just wanted to feel useful with a lot of mutants working with the other factions to make this world a better place."
"That's true," Galahad turned away from the buildings, staring off into the distance. With a wave of his hand, snow floated up from the ground, becoming a clear mirror.
Inside the mirror metal born walked around the city of the magical faction.
"Seeing the potential of magic, my people, and I believe we were fools to remove it from Oa."
"I would say cautious, but I'm happy to see everything is working out well for now, just remember the rules, no altering genetics without asking, work for the betterment of Gaia, and don't hurt one another."
Galahad rubbed his chest, "I remember, I can feel the power of Gaia binding me to those tenants, like every other resident of this planet." He glanced at Harry, "except for you. Why is that?"
Harry raised his shoulders, "Whether I like to admit it or not, this world is as much my creation as it is Gaia's, I haven't done all this work just to destroy it, so there's no need to bind me to tenets I would follow anyway."
Galahad snapped his fingers, the mirror he had created to observe the magical faction shattered.
"It was nice speaking to you Galahad, but it's time I returned to earth. There's been something I have put off for too long." With that, Harry vanished in a burst of sea-green light.
–XX –
Harry floated before shield headquarters, a massive Helicarrier made up of two rectangles with curved ends and a sphere in the center. He floated forward his body already having shifted to become invisible. Landing atop the craft, he made his way on silent feet towards one of the outer doors.
Placing a hand on the seam of the door, he forced a tendril of power inside, one eye on the half spheres with gun barrels protruding from them scattered across the deck. Turning back to the door as he felt his power wrap around the door's inner workings, he gently maneuvered them into place, allowing him to smoothly slide the door open.
Slipping inside, he slid the door closed, sliding the inner workings back in place. Standing with his back to the door, he scanned his surroundings.
He was in a long metal hallway. Pipes periodically emerged from the walls to travel a certain length down the hallway before slipping back inside.
Long fluorescent bulbs were equally spaced down the hallway, creating shadows in anything that obstructed the path of their light.
Sweeping one foot in front of the other, Harry moved down the hallway in a slight crouch. His muscles tensed as he reached out with his mind, searching for Maria Hill.
His stomach tightened and a bead of sweat ran down his face expecting an alarm to sound at any moment.
The last thing he wanted to do was alert Shield to his presence, he was already going to cause an uproar, revealing that the world's governments had been infiltrated by alien species, the last thing he wanted was Shield looking any closer into his activities than they already did.
He began moving as his mind touched on the familiar pattern of Skrulls hiding in human form.
Turning a corner, he tensed as people in skintight blue uniforms wearing white harnesses came towards him. Maneuvering around them, their small talk went through one ear and out the other too focused on his task to care about anything else.
Wondering deeper into the Helicarrier, he passed more people. A muscle in his cheek twitched as he discovered shield had a hidden agent in the Xavier Institute. When all this was over, he would have to look into that.
Stopping before a metal door set into a glass wall, he frowned, there were people in the room on the other side of the store along with his target, so he would not be able to use the same trick on the door that he did before without being noticed.
He flexed his right hand, which left him with one option, an option he was not looking forward to.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated his Psionic abilities.
Over the past six decades, his abilities had been growing in leaps and bounds, he had struggled hard to control them so much so that he was never able to release his full potential.
His body began to vibrate.
A burning seared his body as his cells moved in a way they never had before.
Blood began to stream from his nose.
Wiping the blood away with his left hand, he stepped forward sliding through the door like it wasn't even there.
He bit his tongue as he phased through, each of his cells filled with the sensation of being stabbed with a needle. Leaning heavily into a corner, he fought to keep his invisibility up while looking around the room.
Glass curved around the room, forming a bubble that allowed the occupants to look out at the night sky. Holograms appeared in the glass, displaying data to the people that sat in front of computers that formed a half-circle towards the center of the room.
Straightening up, Harry pushed off the wall.
As he looked at the glass, he wondered why someone would design such an obvious weak spot in a military ship.
"Report!"
Harry turned, his feet sliding along the thin red carpet that blanketed the room.
Sitting in a chair three feet away from the half-circle of computers was his target, Maria Hill.
She was 5'10" tall with black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. A dark grey bodysuit covered her curvaceous frame with the straps of white holsters highlighting certain assets.
She sat stiffly in a white chair that hugged her form, her fingers poised to press buttons on the arms.
Spreading his power throughout the ship, Harry began to place the people at the farthest end of the ship into a short sleep.
In the control room, people tensed, seeing their comrades fall asleep.
Just before they could act, Harry's power washed over them and they slumped forward.
Keeping control of one of the pilots, Harry forced the man to place the Helicarrier on autopilot before succumbing to sleep like his comrades.
Moving over to Maria, Harry stretched forth his hand.
Maria's head snapped up, her eyes glowing red.
Lifting herself on the arms of her chair, she twisted her body, attempting to slam both feet into Harry's chest.
Catching both feet, Harry tightened his grip.
Sigils spread out from beneath Harry's feet, forming a spell circle below them.
In the blink of an eye, both vanished in a flash of sea-green light.
–XX –
Appearing in Central Park, Maria Hill landed on her hands. Ignoring the asphalt digging into her hands, she flexed her legs, throwing Harry over her body.
Curling into a ball as he hit the ground, Harry sprang to his feet turning just in time to avoid a red laser to the back.
Muscles tense, he stared at the woman before him.
In their brief exchange, her features had changed, her skin went from a healthy pale color, to scaly and green. Three ridges now stretched across her small chin. Her Brown eyes glowed red.
Claws tipped the fingers of her right hand, while her left arm was morphed into a cannon-like blaster.
Metal began to crawl across the flesh half of her body, forming a smooth skintight layer of silver over her.
She shot forward, disappearing.
Green energy flared around his hands, taking the form of a katana.
Twisting his hips, Harry brought the blade up in an underhand strike, blocking the claws of Maria's right hand. His eyes widened as the canon that made up her left arm raised to his face, red energy washing over his skin as the power built.
Launching himself backward, he cried out as searing hot pain flashed across his face, and the world on his right side went dark.
Bending his legs on impact with the ground, he raised his hand to his face, wincing as molten skin stuck to his fingers.
Closing his left eye, Harry sent pulses of telekinetic power through the earth.
An image of his surroundings in varying shades of green began to form in his mind.
Her outline moved forward, disappearing as she left the ground.
A fuzzy image flashed in his mind as she moved through the psychically charged air.
Stepping back.
She landed on the ground in a crouch, one leg beneath her, the other extended out from her body in the position of a failed kick. Rotating her hips, she spun up from the ground.
Flashes of heat and light sizzled through the air as she fired at him.
Harry weaved from side to side, moving in between laser blasts, closing the distance with each blink of an eye.
Bending his legs, he brought his blade to the right side of his body, tightening his grip.
Flooding his body with power, he disappeared from Maria Hill's sight.
Appearing behind her, his Emerald sword flickered out of existence just as her head exploded off her neck, sending viscous purple fluid and sparks shooting into the air.
Spinning, Harry leaped into the air.
Catching the severed head, he tucked it beneath his arm and landed on the ground on one knee with his back to the body. Slipping his right hand beneath the head, he brought it out from underneath his arm, Emerald green flames engulfing it until all that was left was a square Golden chip with purple filaments running through it.
Holding the chip up to the light of the streetlamp with his left thumb and forefinger, he nodded.
This is like the one he retrieved from John Dawlish, except this one isn't damaged. One more and he should be able to shut down all the alien agents of the world with his version of Cerebro.
Running a hand down the newly healed right side of his face, power-filled his eyes. He had one more hunt to do tonight, and then the battle for earth could truly begin.