Whoo I managed to write this chapter in five days! Somehow it ended up being entirely in Tony's POV.

Tony's never been a team player, yet here he is, teaming up with a band of mutants, totally disproving Romanoff's report.

He's got to say, he's a lot more on-board with the idea of mutants than magic. It's much more scientific; this doesn't seem all that different from super-soldier serum, or that incident with gamma rays that turned Dr. Bruce Banner into an enormous green rage monster a few years ago.

Both Moody and Logan scowl impatiently as Tony brings up the Hulk, even though Tony's not rambling, thank you very much. So what if he goes on a spiel about how awesome it would be to meet Dr. Banner- the guy could help them out.

"If we can get him fighting HYDRA..." Tony grins at the thought, though all the files stated he was uncontrollable.

"We've got a beast already." Logan growls.

"Who, you?" Tony arches a brow. He keeps meeting people with murderous vibes these days.

"Hank's huge, blue and hairy," Logan starts, which sounds promising until he adds "Won't fight unless he has to. Got too much of a head for poetry and philosophy."

Across the cabin's living room, James is standing rigidly, blank-faced. "The search target has changed to Dr. Banner."

"No, we're still looking for Cap." Tony assures him, and he swears the man's flesh shoulder loosens the tiniest bit. The metal one is unmoving.

"He can protect Harry."

"That's what we're all here for." Tony says.

Storm stands, announcing that they need to get back to the school, and that she has a class to teach.

"You'll be safer with us," she tells them, leaving Tony somewhat affronted. He is a super hero after all, and all his properties have top-notch security. Then again, so did his jet, which just crashed harder than Cap's plane did back in 1945.

"At school?" Harry asks, both awestruck and all too eager to leave the cabin.

"It ain't kindergarten, kid." Logan says. Harry stares blankly until Tony says that's like Primary School.

"Dudley's in nursery school." Harry seems delighted to be a level higher than his cousin.

"You'd be safer at Hogwarts." Moody scowls.

Tony snorts. "Was Cowblisters taken already?"

Moody shoots a scathing look at him and explains that Hogwarts is a school for people like Harry, that his parents went there and his name's been down since before he was born.

Harry's eyes get wider, his expression slightly hopeful as he looks at James. "You went there?"

"Hogwarts is the castle." James states, at the same time Moody clarifies he meant Harry's real dad.

"No!" Harry yells, before addressing Moody as if he's an even younger child who knows nothing about the world, "Castles aren't schools, and he's my dad."

"Dumbledore thought he was dangerous." Moody tells Harry gruffly, as Harry plants himself in front of James with his fists on his hips. The boy's diminutive form does absolutely nothing to shield his guardian, but the determined look on his face speaks volumes. "He was... mistaken before."

Harry points at the X-Men. "They're not mistaken!"

"So Dumbledore wouldn't try to erase James' memories now?" Tony demands, crossing his arms.

There's a telling silence before Moody says something about "protocols for muggles." and some sort of statute of secrecy.

Well, the implications of that are terrifying. Was Moody planning on wiping Tony's memories, too? Tony knows about magic, after all. Tony's mind is racing, wondering if he can build some sort of defense against mind wipes.

Then again, couldn't this Professor X do the exact same thing? Tony glances at James, who hadn't seemed overly concerned about the professor's voice apparently being in his head.

If Professor X was going to wipe James, wouldn't he have done so already? Why would the X-Men have come here if all their memories of them could have been wiped?

"Can we go?" Harry almost begs James, tugging his hand.

Tony's got to admit, he's intrigued about mutant school. He hadn't passed up the chance to look at James' cybernetic arm when he and Harry broke in through his window, and he's not going to let this chance slip by, either.

Besides, the X-Men presumably have experience taking kids with unusual powers under their wings. Not that Tony's going to ditch Harry there or anything.

James nods at Harry, who cheers.

"You know, most kids hate being shipped to school." Tony tells Harry as they head out the door. He wasn't too fond of this cabin anyway, and there's no way he's leaving the kid with strangers, no matter how well-intentioned they seem.


It's clear Harry doesn't have any plans on leaving Tony, either. He refuses to get on the so-called X-Jet, asking Tony to fly them as Iron Man instead. Tony's on the receiving end of a highly disappointed look from a preschooler when he refuses.

Tony decides not to bring up that carrying them would be a disaster if they get attacked again. James looks tense enough as he enters the jet and sits in one of the seats. Harry's jaw is similarly set, his green eyes shoot another frustrated look at Tony.

Tony, as always, fills the silence as Storm pilots them over dark clouds that Tony's pretty sure she summoned to obscure their jet from view.

Tony's phone vibrates. Jarvis has pulled up a file from SHIELD's servers about a similar incident that occurred at the time Tony was almost dying from Palladium poisoning and being attacked by Vanko. The file isn't about Storm, but about some kind of space viking who may or may not have been the subject of myths fighting a hulking, futuristic robot. Reports indicate he has the ability to control lightning.

"Is he a mutant too?" Tony turns his phone towards Logan.

Logan is about as talkative as Moody or James. After rambling about the hammer apparently only this guy could lift, Tony fires off some questions about Logan's claws, but stops after the second.

Logan probably didn't choose to have them any more than Tony chose to have his arc reactor, and having claws emerge from your knuckles probably hurts about as much as having a car battery hooked up to your chest.

The only thing Tony gets out of Logan is about his claws is that they could slice through his 'tin can of a suit.'

Harry rises to the challenge. "You can't slice my dad's arm."

Logan turns toward the boy, who asks, quieter "Do your uncle an' aunt say you're a freak?"

"Most people would, if they knew about us." Logan's voice isn't quite as gruff, but Tony wouldn't say it's gentle, either. "Chuck thinks otherwise."

The clouds break apart as they descend towards a stately mansion, much like the one Tony grew up in. When Tony consults Jarvis on his phone, he learns they're in Westchester County.

"Couldn't afford a runway?" Tony quips when it appears they're going to touch down on a basketball court, which several teenagers vacate upon seeing the jet.

The court slides open to reveal an underground hanger, and Tony whistles. Harry's squirming to exit before they even land.

"The whole room's like your arm." Harry points at the chrome walls, then the suits lining the wall in glass cases. "Is this the X-Cave?"

Considering their plane is called an X-Jet, Tony would bet they're as bad as Batman when it comes to naming things. There's even a huge X on the circular door, which leads to several silver hallways.

"This is better than a Batcave." Tony remarks, and, surprisingly. Harry doesn't argue, too focused on James, who is staring at the elevator door as if he'll be locked inside. He still enters, but begins to shiver as the door slides closed.

"We're just going up." Harry tells his dad.

The elevator opens to reveal the ground level of the mansion is tastefully decorated and antique, a far cry from the levels underneath.

A few kids pass them in the hall. Tony is, of course, used to being recognized, but he notices that, while the kids glance curiously at the others, their gazes don't linger on James' arm or Harry's lightning bolt scar.

Storm leads them to an office where a bald man dressed in a crisp suit is seated behind the desk.

"Mr. Stark, James, Harry. I'm Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X. It's a pleasure to meet you in person." He moves around the desk, and Tony notes that even the wheels of his wheelchair have spokes in the shape of an X.

"Do you get called by an X-signal?" Tony smirks.

"Do bad guys come here?" Harry asks. "With guns and wep-nized sticks?"

"Occasionally," Professor X says. "But many of us have ways of stopping attackers. You're safe here."


They lay low at the school for a few days without incident, unless you count Tony having to explain everything to Pepper.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is vastly superior than the cabin, even if it's full of kids. It has a garage full of cars for Tony to tinker with, though some guy wearing visor-goggles promises to blast Tony with what must be laser eyes if Tony touches his stuff.

To Tony's surprise, Logan doesn't threaten Harry when the kid inspects his motorcycle, nor does he seem as annoyed at the boy's questions about whether it flies like in his dreams.

They get kicked out of the garage entirely when a class starts, even though Tony knows more about auto mechanics than anyone else in the school.

Harry is far less scandalized about being pushed away, instead asking if they can make the "moto-bike" fly later.

Even after a few days, he seems more comfortable with people casually using powers around him. One kid runs through walls, and there's a huge metal Russian guy, which leads to Harry asking if he can turn parts of himself metal to be like James, or grow claws.

Both of them tell Harry that he wouldn't want those.

Another time, Tony overhears Harry asking a woman if she's Matilda as she moves objects with telekinesis, despite the fact she's a gorgeous redhead instead of a tiny black-haired girl. The woman says her name is Jean Grey, and Logan tells Tony to back off before he even does anything.

Tony thought Cyclops, the laser-eye guy, was touchy about his cars, but that's nothing compared to when he sees Tony even looking at Jean.

Tony backs off, not because of any intimidation, but because he doesn't want to turn some weird love triangle into a square. Besides, he's never been one for relationships, and with everything going on he really doesn't have the time to get involved in that mess, too.

Still, it's slightly unfair that James isn't threatened when he approaches Jean about teaching Harry to levitate objects and create force fields. Sure, Tony has a reputation, but he's pretty sure Bucky Barnes was a ladies' man back in the day.

Some of the older kids teach Harry how to play basketball. He becomes a regular on the court, even if some of the older kids don't go easy on him. Tony hadn't realized how competitive Harry could get at sports.

Still, Harry readily abandons the game whenever James leaves.

Tony's not sure what happens when James visits Professor Xavier's office, but Harry stands outside for the entire hour. James exits, not seeming all too different from before. Clearly, even telepaths can't heal over six decades of trauma instantly.

Tony follows James and Harry back to the basketball court, overhearing James tell his son that Steve was always picked last for games, that they snuck into stadiums to see ballgames. Tony had never really thought about whether the famous Cap and Bucky were more into basketball or baseball, but now he has his answer.

Despite the setback, the plan to find Cap picks up speed. Tony can't believe he's listening to Moody about the owl thing, but the wizard claims they can deliver letters to people even if the recipient's location is unknown.

Tony attaches a tracker to the envelope, and after giving the owl a head start, flies after it, along with several X-Men in the X-Jet.

They aren't accosted on this flight, and the Arctic Ocean is similarly undisturbed. The owl is perched on an otherwise unremarkable part of the ice. Apparently it managed to accomplish what Howard Stark failed for years. Tony smiles grimly. He doubts Howard would have paid any more attention to him even if he had known this trick.

The lasers on Tony's suit, along with Jean's telekinesis, make excavating the plane from the ice much less annoying than it could have been. As soon as Tony cuts a hole in the hull, the owl hoots and flies in. Tony hovers down next to it, following as through the abandoned frozen plane.

A ting echoes through the plane when the owl's beak nips at an iconic red, white and blue shield.

Well, I finally got around to a sort of time-skip scene like I think I promised like ten chapters ago. I figured I probably shouldn't drag out them getting accustomed to the mansion and the search for Steve, because there's still plenty that can happen after. Like they still have to take down Pierce and HYDRA.

Edit: If you're wondering about the ch 35 notification, I accidentally posted the edits as a new chapter instead of updating ch 34.