A Third Path to the Future

by Vimesenthusiast

Rescued from the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four, Harry Potter discovers he is a mutant and decides to take up the cause of equality between mutants and humans (among other causes). How will a dimensionally displaced Harry Potter, one who is extremely intelligent, proactive and not afraid to get his hands dirty effect the marvel universe? Pairings: Harry/Jean/Ororo/others pos.

27. Doesn't Rain, But it Pours

I don't own marvel or Harry Potter. My plot holes tend to be much smaller than in either of the originals, and I'm the only writer in this story, so the characters at least tend to be portrayed in the same manner unlike in Marvel.

Summary of chapter 26: Jean is distraught at first by her pregnancy until a conversation with the Phoenix force, who she blamed for her condition until they talked about it, whereupon much of her anxiety fades. Meanwhile back on Earth Harry sets up several think tanks for various purposes, from looking into the Asgardians to working under Carol Danvers to think about all things space-based. Ororo is busy too, helping to save two children from being kidnapped by a group called the Morlocks. Dealing with her claustrophobia she fights the leader of the Morlocks in knife to knife combat. But Betsy is forced to kill the Morlock Masque before he can use his powers to disfigure the children in a sick, twisted attempt to make them stay with the Morlocks. During a discussion in bed, Harry proposes more romantically to Ororo, presenting her with a panja style ring, saying at the same time that he hopes to do the same with Jean, who at that moment was coming out of hyperspace to throw the Kree of their trail. Emma and Harry enact their plan against both Sebastian Shaw and the Sentinel Project, using Charles as a stalking horse after he takes part in a debate with Senator Kelly, a backer of the project. But under the orders of the Master Mold the Sentinels go rogue, attacking anyone they believe to have the possibility of mutation, killing several people in the crowd watching the debate. Using Shaw's group they weaken the Sentinels before the X-men and Custodes come in to finish both sides off, with Emma tearing Sebastian's mind to pieces, leaving him a mindless vegetable before Colossus destroys the Master Mold. The only survivors on the Hellion side are Sunspot, Polaris, Domino and Havok, who are all captured. The Project is then buried under magma by Amara, after Emma treats Bolivar Trask to the same treatment she used on Shaw.

I would like to thank JoeBanker and Kathyrn518 for their work editing this story.

Now without further ado:

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Chapter 27: Doesn't Rain but It Pours

At the same time that the Sentinel Project was being shut down with extreme prejudice (and magma) Mystique and Destiny had been out in the field. Technically anyway, considering this was a spy mission they weren't exactly roughing it. Indeed, they had booked one of the better hotels in Anchorage, Alaska for this mission. Irene stayed in their rooms most of the day, conversing via their communicators with Camelot, in the form of Sir Dennis, who as overall intelligence director was keenly interested in their mission, while Raven went out and got to grips with the mission.

That mission at present, as Harry had ordered, was to find Magneto. Dennis had been able to use her powers and hacking skills to find a trail of supplies leaving from Anchorage to what he thought was someplace further north, or at least he thought it was going towards the north. After a few days here Raven didn't share that opinion any longer.

As she walked back to the hotel , Raven ducked into a public restroom, going in as a scruffy dockworker, but coming out in her current guise. This time she had chosen to become a male. The persona was called Dominic Sinclair, a retired lawyer who was interested in hiking, biking, and all outdoor activities hence why 'he' was here in Alaska, along with his wife Margaret. Said wife was not nearly in as good a shape as Dominic, but was in decent enough shape to not look out of place when they went around together.

Making sure she wasn't being tailed was as simple as breathing to Raven, and as Dominic walked on, looking around the city like a tourist would, she let her mind concentrate instead on what she had discovered here. Dennis had been able to trace the supplies, high-end tech gear bought from various sources, not in bulk but in small quantities, brought together overland only to lose it in Canada.

Raven had rediscovered that trail here by physically following one of the trucks carrying one such load over several days before meeting Irene here, and had just finished placing several transmitters, which hopefully would give them an idea of where the transports were going. Those ships were all owned by different companies, ranging from Stark International to a local shipping company, but careful questioning of the crews told Raven none of them had any idea what they were shipping.

Indeed, it was there that Raven had her first real break; the crewmen couldn't think about their cargo, they simply couldn't concentrate on it at all, as if someone had put a mental block on them when it came to those supplies. Using that, Raven had questioned dozens of sailors over the past few days, discovering several other small loads of supplies. This gave her a general idea of what Magneto needed wherever the hell he was.

Wherever Magneto's held up, it's big, and really off the beaten path given the extremely eclectic list of supplies. Some of it makes me think he's setting up some kind of laboratory or at least enlarging one, some tells me he's building what amounts to a small town, the rest tells me he's out hunting in the jungle somewhere! That last at least means wherever the hell he's holed up it sure isn't north of here like Dennis thought.

Whatever the case the next part of this plan would need a lot more footwork than one individual could do. Those shipments disappeared out in the oceans, the ships returning empty. Through her careful discussions with the crews Raven knew that none of them had any memory except of making port at random docks in Russia or further down the coast in Canada.

Is it time to bring in one of the telepaths and start scanning minds? she thought. That would be a last-ditch effort, since given what I've already discovered I know at least one of Magneto's telepaths is involved in this effort, and messing with their minds in any way would tell him we're on his trail. Nonetheless it's a thought for the future, if my scanners don't give us any information.

Raven would lay odds that those shipments never touched port anywhere, rather disappearing out in the ocean somewhere. That meant that if her tracers didn't provide any more data they'd have to put actual people on the ships, or in over watch in the sky. Which would mean devoting at least four, maybe more, flyers to the task given how quickly those ships spread out the moment they left dock, which they did all within a few hours.

Still, maybe there's some kind of magic solution.

By the time that thought had wound its way through Raven's brain 'he' was back to the entrance of the hotel, nodding at the receptionist as he entered, who smiled back. The elderly couple who had rented out the newlywed suite had become a hit with the staffers thanks to tipping very well and always cleaning up their rooms before going out for the day. "Is your wife feeling better Mr. Sinclair?"

"I hope so," said Raven, her voice gravelly and almost overly masculine, yet another small bit of the total package she had taken pains with. "I've been gone all day, so I don't know if she's over her migraine. If not, I'll be calling down to cancel our dinner reservations I'm afraid."

All trite and pro forma, Raven thought as she took the stairs up to their rooms, something again which was in keeping with her current persona. At the door to their rooms, 'Dominic' fiddled with the electronic key several times, a somewhat new technology that was of course fiddly as all things were once they got out to the general public. 'He' fiddled with it deliberately however, sliding it in three times and out, each time letting 'his' knuckles smack into the door, announcing her presence and that the coast was clear.

Irene opened the door at the third attempt, smiling and gesturing her inside. Unlike Raven Irene hadn't needed to change her appearance much to slip into her character. A pair of contact lenses, some color into her hair, and that was all. As soon as the doors closed she asked, "You found something?"

"We've certainly found the next stage in the trail. Frankly I think we're where Logan and Puck disappeared." They'd known for days that Logan had gone after Magneto, and thanks to Harry questioning Charles about it had even found out why.

Moving into the sitting area, Raven again shook her head as she thought of Logan and his disappearance. "A daughter, damn, who would've thought?! I doubt she's natural, given, whatever else he's ever been, Logan's never been the type to leave by blows around. But still, that would've been a major blow to his system."

"True enough," Irene replied dryly. "Still, there hasn't been any sign of either of them in this city." The question wasn't one, since Destiny had attempted to use her powers to discover if Logan was still in the city, looking around at the near future for any sign of him, and not seeing anything.

"Despite his penchant for thinking in straight lines, Logan's pretty good at the spy game, and Puck's no slouch either, especially with anything to deal with the black market or sea travel. Still, the next leg of this portion of the investigation isn't going to be up to us. Were you able to get any further hints with your powers today?"

"Yes, I used the ship names you came up with and traced their future as far forward as two months each. Because of that, I saw the supplies being offloaded, and sketched out some descriptions of the people doing it. One of them I recognize as young Toad, your description of him was quite accurate my love. Another one is Pietro I think, though he's let his hair grow out and has developed a tan."

Raven blinked in shock at that, and Irene shrugged ignorance, not understanding how out of character that seemed for Pietro, who had always taken care of his looks and had never been an outdoorsy person. "My vision was of them and a few others that I didn't recognize offloading the shipments of one of the ships onto a submarine of all things. But I'm sorry, one part of the ocean is as alike as all the others, I could not see any landmarks we could use to narrow our search."

"There were rumors during his attacks on nuclear subs in the Atlantic a few years back that Magneto had actually absconded with a Russian sub rather than destroy it like all the others. But the Russians of course didn't want to admit it," Raven murmured. "Still, using a sub to transport goods? Those things aren't that large, their capacity is horrible. Even with the amount of secrecy on all this there are better ways to transport supplies."

"I have no idea," Irene said with a shrug. "I was then…" she looked away and Raven frowned, noticing now that her friend was trembling slightly.

"Did you have another backlash from the future changing?" Raven asked, quickly moving to help Irene towards a chair over her protests. She now noticed that one of the sofas looked disturbed, and there were a few glasses sitting empty on the tea table.

"I'm fine, it wasn't nearly as violent as it was the first time, and apparently a calming draught helps me through it. I was actually relaying what I had discovered with my powers to Dennis when it hit, and he quickly got in contact with Dr. Druid who was able to use one of Potter's portkey things in reverse to get here, with some, although he did have words with me about not bringing any along in the first place. I'm fine now, really."

"Then I'm happy once again that we followed your suggestion of putting ourselves under the auspices of the owl," Raven said with feeling, remembering how badly shaken Irene had been on the cruise ship when the last backlash from the future changing had hit her. "Any hint of what caused it?"

Irene smiled brilliantly. "More than a hint! Check the news love!"

As Raven turned to turn on the TV, Irene went on. "Potter and Frost's plans for the Sentinels have worked! Those weapons that would have been used to hunt down mutants, will no longer be used for that purpose. The Sentinels as a design are simply gone from the future, taking with it all of the dangers of misappropriation which caused several of the darker events I could see in the future. The third path into the future is stronger now, far, far stronger."

"So strong it has now made the other two main paths, Magneto's and Charles', almost fade entirely, but not quite. Xavier's path is now also almost entirely tied into it too. That means my powers of seeing the far future might become more accurate soon as the reverberations of this latest change have time to settle."

"That makes me glad that Harry's already stated he doesn't want to use your visions at all," Raven said bluntly. "Your far viewing takes way too much out of you."

"I know," Irene said with a faint smile, but it faded quickly. "From what I can see the path is still not an easy one, it is filled with violence and even war. But little of it is directed against mutant kind, save from other mutants alas. Still, mutants will no longer be in danger of extinction by the hands of our brother humans. And with the world the way it is, that is the best I could ever hope for."

Later that night Raven was not nearly as happy as her lover. After Irene had fallen asleep, she called Dr. Druid to get his opinion on what had happened. When told what Irene had told her about her episode, Dr. Druid shook his head. "Raven, she didn't have an 'episode' or whatever she wishes to call it, she had a heart attack."

When he saw Raven's panicked expression he went on hurriedly. "It wasn't a bad one, and the calming drought helped her immensely, so there shouldn't be any side effects. This time." He went on sternly. "Irene's old Raven, it's that simple, and using her powers when something like whatever this was happens shocks her body to an extent that in action looks rather like a defibrillator on high."

He shook his head slowly. "I gave her a near-to-full physical after she recovered, and while in excellent shape for her age, Irene's body is simply beginning to give out despite your help." From there the doctor went on gently, talking about ways to help Irene, but Raven barely heard them, forced to once again realize that she had a scant few years left with the woman she loved. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and having had time to get used to it made it no easier.

OOOOOOO

Leaving Emma to examine the prisoner's minds while they were unconscious, Harry first contacted Sage, asking if she needed an evac. Charles' spy however replied in the negative, she was safe enough, and had already sent out some anonymous hints to various authorities, from SHIELD to the NSA, about what Shaw and Emma had found about Buckman's role in the Sentinel Project, as well as some facts that hinted at Shaw being involved in a peripheral fashion, but nothing concrete. She did say however that she would need their help later that evening.

Harry decided to leave that in Sage's seemingly capable hands and turned back to matters at hand. He spoke to the teams, complimenting all of the Custodes and X-men on their roles in the battle, in particular the X-Men who had done magnificently.

Scott however was looking to one side even as the others responded to Harry's compliments. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked with distaste, gesturing to the body of Sebastian Shaw.

"His mind is well, gone according to Emma, I'm no expert in telepathic combat so I don't know what that exactly entails." Harry shrugged. "But his body is still alive, and I'll… dispose of it soon." He looked over at Rogue who blanched realizing where this conversation was going to go. "But I wondered if you might want to drain his powers like you did the Juggernaut? I realize that's a bit of a morally ambiguous question at this point."

Rogue looked over at Scott, who moved over quickly, enfolding her in a hug. "You don't have to if you don't want to Rogue."

"You and I both know I do," Rogue muttered into his shoulder.

Spyke and Kurt looked on, while Piotr frowned, then shrugged looking over at the others from Harry's team who all shrugged and turned. This was an internal X-Men matter, and none of them felt it appropriate to speak up.

Betsy left entirely, uninterested in the fate of Shaw's body, and not really understanding why draining a brain dead body of its power posed a moral quandary in the first place. She was much more interested in the still living, and went to aid Emma in looking into their prisoner's mental states.

Behind her Piotr and Amara moved over to a far corner of High Note's ready room, pulling together two chairs to talk quietly together. Amara leaned on Piotr's shoulder as they spoke about the recent action, with the former Russian farm boy helping her through once again having had to use her powers to kill, the fate of the semi-werewolf mutant Wolfram bothering her even though she knew the man had been a monster in many ways.

As an X-Man however Evan did have a say in this and looked over at Harry, peeling off his mask at the same time. "Since watching videos of the battle up in Montréal you lot fought in we've decided we need more firepower. The professor and Scott were debating about asking you to start kitting us out, but I assume that's in the pipeline anyway?"

Harry shrugged, and Spyke gestured toward Shaw's body. Given what Emma Frost, and Evan shivered at the thought of that ice queen of a woman, had done to the man's mind it was indeed a body, despite the fact that the chest was still rising and falling. A vegetative state in the strictest sense of the word. "Then I'd vote for Rogue to drain him. His power was incredible, and I think she could put it to much better use than he ever did."

"It's not your place to say that!" Scott said looking up from where he was hugging Rogue. "It's not any of our places! This isn't about the team this is about a moral question. This is like, it's like grave robbing, and I'm not going to order Rogue to do it, nor am I going to let anyone else browbeat her about it."

"I would vote against it, because of that," Kurt said, shaking his head. "It is disrespectful to the dead, and rather ghoulish. Whatever Shaw was in life, in death he deserves at least some respect."

The X-men were quiet for a moment, and Harry left them to it, moving over to speak quietly to Ororo, who had just come in from changing out of her uniform, having gotten some gore on it when she had killed the energy vampire Trevor Fitzroy. He told her what was going on, then gestured over to Amara and Piotr. "We'll cancel training tomorrow of course. We need to give Amara some time to recover from this, just like with Sabertooth, she'll need time to recover and I think after a fight we should make it a policy to give the team a day off if we can."

Ororo kissed Harry's jaw lightly, nodding her head. "Some time at the beach with the children will help I'm sure. There is nothing better to help you get over the unpleasant side of our calling than in the reaffirming of life. Not only does it heal the soul, but it reminds us exactly what we fight for in the first place. "

"Agreed, but we've still got to deal with the aftermath of this mission for now. I hate to ask, but could you talk to Emma, get started on anything that she took from Shaw's mind we need to move on immediately, money caches, dead-man switch scenarios, that kind of thing? I've already sent Sandman down to Emma's mansion via Cory to deal with one issue there. I'll talk to Amara for a bit, that should give Rogue enough time to think about her decision about Shaw's body, then talk to Emma about our prisoners, and follow up with Sage."

"Very well, I will take on this task for you my Harry. But tonight, if at all possible, I would like the three of us to have some time to ourselves, most importantly in bed." Ororo smiled at Harry as she stepped back, holding up the hand on which she wore her panja-style ring, which had never left her person since Harry had given it to her.

Harry nodded, his eyes soft and his mouth twitching at her little joke as he leaned forward and gently kissed her palm before watching as she walked off. Yet even as she did, a feeling of, not loneliness, but wrongness went through him. Jean… Harry missed Jean more with every passing day. Even somehow knowing that he would feel it if anything happened to her wasn't enough to remove the aching hole Jean's absence left in his life. And he knew Ororo and Emma both missed her just as much.

But life goes on, and I have other things to worry about. Harry thought with a sigh, moving over to Piotr and Amara. Thanks to Piotr laying the groundwork helping Amara both now and before they had left the Sentinel's production center however, Harry only had to give Amara a few words of encouragement this time, a sharp uptick from the time he had to comfort Amara after she had killed Sabertooth in Paris.

Surprisingly Rogue also came to a decision far faster than Harry had expected. He supposed that was a measure of her growing maturity, but wasn't about to say so aloud. "Ah'll do it. Yah all're right it does feel ghoulish, but we do need the power upgrade if'n we're gonna hang with the big boys, and frankly, Ah'm already this team's tank, anything that can help me in that, well just imagine what this guy's power could do on top of my Juggernaut strength!"

Kurt still looked dubious about the entire thing, but Evan and Scott both looked much more supportive, hugging the girl around the shoulders for a moment.

Harry gestured towards the body, and Rogue stepped forward, touching the bracelet she wore on one wrist, turning off the array that Harry had created months ago to help regulate her powers. With that done she reached down, touching Shaw's chest, closing her eyes.

It took Rogue a while, but eventually she began to feel as if she wasn't getting anything, she couldn't describe it any more accurately than that, and she stood back, shaking her head slightly. "Whatever Frost did ta his mind, it destroyed the memories which would've been transferred to me when ah drained his powers. Got to say Ah'm happy for that."

"You sure it worked?" Evan asked, only to wince as Scott glared at him, while Harry carefully hid a smile. Who would have thought Scott would ever be the more empathic in comparison to, well anyone really.

"Positive. Ah don't think Ah drained him entirely, but Ah pulled out as much as Ah could. Yah can tell he's not feeling good right now, look, he even looks weaker." Indeed, Shaw, who always looked like a robust, powerfully built man, now looked positively haggard, much of his muscle mass gone, and his skin pallid.

Harry nodded, touching her shoulder gently over her Juggernaut armor. "I know that was tough, but honestly I think you and the rest of the X-Men will find it extremely helpful in the future. Sometimes you have to do things that are distasteful for the good of the team, and I'm proud to know you were willing to do so."

Rogue nodded, and Harry left the younger men and women to recuperate, smiling slightly as he noticed Amara and Piotr were now ensconced in a loveseat. He grabbed Shaw's body, heaving it up onto his shoulders and exiting High Note out into space.

He watched as the body started to asphyxiate, waited a few more moments, his eyes cold, until the process was complete. The body was now dead to go along with the mind that once inhabited it. With that, Harry summoned up a magical shield around it, and as he had done to Selene's body in London cremated it with a fire spell, not Blackfyre this time thankfully, just a simple fire spell. With his mutant power gone Shaw's body no longer had any ability to deal with the fire that consumed it.

A moment later, Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club was nothing more than ash on the solar wind. Harry stood there for a moment in the dark of space staring at where the body had been, before turning his back resolutely and heading back inside. He stopped to check in with Sage once more, then Dennis, before returning Wyatt to California and then taking Carol back to Camelot.

Being older than the others, neither of the marksmen needed to unwind as much before going back to their lives, and both had things they needed to do. In Wyatt's case, Madame Harkness was expecting him home. Johnny and Ben could not clean to save their lives, and Harkness refused to let the house elf Harry had sent to aid her do everything. He also said something about the FF having guests, but Harry didn't catch it at the time.

Carol wanted to get back to work editing the first draft of the Spacegoer's Almanac, which was her name for the learning unit her team was creating to teach people how to go about working and living in space. Given his own monstrous amount of interest in this manner, Harry had no issue with her priorities.

Indeed, he stopped in with her to go over it himself, in particular the suit, which was already entering the trial period. By the time he returned several hours had passed, and the teens had finished decompressing and were ready to head home save for Scott, who was pacing outside the infirmary where the prisoners had been stored, a small infirmary Harry had installed on High Note months back.

The two telepaths had finished the diagnosis of the prisoners, and when Harry poked his head into the room, Betsy was leaning back in her chair tiredly, looking more exhausted despite not having been working on this as long as Emma. Knowing her own limitations, the purple-haired Brit gestured to Emma to start.

Emma however shook her head, the move weary, but exultant. Indeed despite her seeming tiredness, Emma looked as if a huge weight had been removed from her shoulders. The Sentinel Project had loomed in Emma's mind, a deadly threat to her and all she held dear, now that it was gone she was feeling almost euphoric. Even having to send off Sandman to deal with a bomb in her own home, set there by Shaw several days ago, could not dent that feeling, especially considering the man behind said plan was now dead and dusted. The only thing that would make this better was if Jean was here to share in the victory…

But when she spoke, Emma ignored both her feelings of happiness, maudlin thoughts and the knowledge she had gleaned from Sebastian's mind to deal with more immediate matters. "Get Scott in here, I think he's got a right to hear this first part if anyone does."

Instantly Scott was in the room, and Harry scowled, castigating himself for not having thought about what the X-men team leader had been going through. I noticed Rogue's issue and Amara's but missed that entirely.

"How's my brother doing? Can you break whatever mental control was on him that allowed Shaw to hoodwink him? I can't imagine Alex would've gone along willingly at any point of the recruitment process, if it was anything like what we interrupted with Sam and Paige."

"We've removed what we can, and I have to say Scott that your brother has a remarkably strong will. Also, 'hoodwink'? Please." Emma replied smiling in a way that she hoped would ease Scott's tension. "He'd already begun to break a lot of the control over him or at least we think so. We assume that Shaw had Empath create an artificial loyalty to him within all of his Hellions, an emotional need for his approval and to follow his orders. But Alex had already moved that loyalty almost entirely to Polaris. It's a very personal loyalty; the two of them are lovers and have been so for months now."

Without thinking about it Scott whistled, looking over to the very pretty green haired girl. She was no Rogue but still... Way to go little bro! "All right I can see that. So does that mean as long as she's alright Alex won't attack us when he wakes up?"

"That depends on Polaris," Emma said with a sigh. "Like I said, he's moved that artificial loyalty to her, and loves her. It's an irrational sort of loyalty as love often is, but it's mixed up with the love so much I can't tell where the, call it imprinting I suppose, starts and where the actual love begins. Given time away from anyone attempting to manipulate his mind, I think it will slowly but eventually resolve itself. I think that Alex will be fine."

"And Domino?" Harry asked looking over at the other unconscious mercenary. I wonder how Nikolai is going to react when he finds out that we let her live? He was rather incensed at how he lost their brief one-on-one match in Kentucky.

"Domino was never subjected to any mental meddling, and indeed her mental defenses are such that any attempt at that would have to have been overt rather than covert," Betsy replied, having been the one to look into the older mercenary's mind. "I scanned her memories, and she was loyal to Shaw for a different reason. One we might take care of before waking her up. She apparently had a lover, a FBI analyst of some kind who was incredible at making predictions based on very little data before being targeted by someone else in the organization."

Harry nodded, conjuring chairs for him and the others before leaning back in his thoughtfully. "Were you able to pull what we need from Shaw's mind? You had me send Sandman off, is there any other hot potato we need to know about?"

"No other emergencies save for the one I've sent Sandman to take care of. But as for the rest, bolt holes, emergency reserves of funds with assumed names hidden in this or that bank, black market and criminal connections, certain 'hospitals' where his cyborg soldiers were modified, the factory where he created his weapons, which incidentally is almost fully automated. I've got all of that, and can even think of several ways to point them out to the authorities if need be."

Emma let that sink in for a moment before going on. "We'll need to decide how much you and I should go after but in my opinion we should only take over the weapons factory and the two largest money caches while leaving everything else save for his espionage network, which I assume Sage already controls. With your space-based plans, his metallurgy and mining industries won't be worth much in a year or so. And right now it would be more work than it's worth to vet it of potential internal threats. Which doesn't even consider how closely the Federal Government's going to be looking at his holdings soon enough."

"Agreed, and owning them openly would tie me into the American economy, way more than I want to be just yet," Harry murmured. "Though that doesn't touch on the Hellfire Club or its resources…"

Both of them shared rather evil grins at that, but after a moment Harry nodded. "Back to the original topic, we'll keep Domino unconscious for now. Maybe one of the things Sage needs help with tonight is finding Domino's lover. Or is he the type to bolt once he sees the news?"

"No, he's the type to stay put until he knows what's happening, and then bolt with precision. At least that's my impression from what I pulled from Domino's mind." Emma replied.

Harry nodded but with that out of the way Harry looked sharply at two telepaths. He could tell when people were trying not to talk about something unpleasant. "All right, we've had the good news, now give us the bad."

Emma winced, but nodded. "I've looked over Sunfire's mind, and I have to say it's pretty damn bad. His loyalty to Sebastian is abnormal, almost beyond anything that could have been contrived by a telepath at all. It seems as if he was given an alternate personality almost, but sifting through them I was eventually able to find the mental scars of traumatic memories, that seem to have broken him." She sighed sadly. "He had a girlfriend, you see."

"You said that once didn't you Amara, that Roberto had a girlfriend?" Harry said looking over at the Brazilian Greek.

"Yes, I didn't know either of them very well, I actually had only met them a few times, but going by what his father said they seemed serious." Amara replied, frowning slightly while beside her Betsy winced. She had just remembered that she had volunteered to look into that, but she had never actually gotten the chance, other threats and diverse events had knocked it clear out of her mind.

"The memory is of her dying, though who is involved is very muddied. The memory itself has been distorted, warped, and manipulated to a degree that is simply awful. I can't tell what's been altered and what hasn't. Worse, I'm getting a distinct impression that Roberto might have allowed this false personality to overcome his own willingly. As if the trauma of that memory was so bad he just wanted to leave everything from his past life behind."

"мой Бог (My God)," Piotr murmured shaking his head. "Will you be able to help him out of it?"

"I don't know," Emma said honestly. You'll have to get Charles up here to give his opinion on it." Jean might be able to do it if we could wait for her, but even that's doubtful. Emma thought, pushing away the sadness the thought of her missing friend/lover invoked.

Betsy spoke up hesitantly. "I've talked to Charles about his work with Xian and Steed, so I can guess what he'd say." Charles had been left behind with the other prisoners. It would have looked too suspicious to have him disappear only to show up alive and well later.

At a small gesture from Emma, Betsy continued. "Normally fixing someone's mind like this, you want them awake and conscious, helping you along, that's what's been taking Charles so long with first Xian and then Steed, neither of their minds were capable of helping the process along. We can't predict Sunspot's response to anyone's meddling with his mind, what his response to waking up surrounded by people he thinks his enemies will be, what Shaw's death will do to his mind."

She glanced at Emma then blurted out the first thing she had discovered when delving into Roberto's mind with Emma. "His new personality, it looked to Shaw as a father figure!"

"I don't know enough about telepaths myself sir, but I've read about PTSD. That's aided by being around people and places you know, family members and loved ones yes?" Amara asked. "If we can find his father or the rest of his family, would that help?"

"At times," Emma said, shaking her head. "At other times it only exacerbates it because you can't leave your old memories behind in order to calm down like you think you should and it creates a tension in your thought processes from the two mental states."

Betsy shook her head resolutely. "I think we should move Roberto into the X-mansion, and keep him there sedated for now. Charles is the only one of us who could even have a chance at this." Emma nodded agreement, she had the power but not the knowledge, and Betsy went on. "How long can you keep Sunspot asleep?"

"As long as you want," Harry said with a sigh. I know intellectually that none of us could have stopped this, that Da Costa was already under Sebastian's control long before Sebastian himself was even on our radar, but still… "We'll do what we can for him obviously."

"Polaris is in the same boat, hence why I am uncertain how Alex will eventually react," Emma said softly. "She was subjected to even more of Empath's mental distortion than Sunspot and there were some very disturbing connotations there."

"Disturbing like what Empath started priming Paige for?" Scott said angrily, cracking his knuckles, remembering what the southern girl had said about the feelings of attraction toward him Empath had begun to push into Paige's mind before Piotr and Scott had stepped in. For someone who's eye-beams were his most deadly weapon that was an incongruous act, but still the meaning was very clear. If Empath wasn't already dead Scott and Sam Guthrie would have to fight it out to see who would kill him again.

"No thankfully. There doesn't seem to be anything sexually subversive in her mind thankfully, if anything it's the opposite towards Alex. A feeling of ownership there which isn't very healthy, but again whether or not that's natural is too fine a distinction for me to see."

Scott blanched, crossing his hands together in front of his chest. "Too much information."

"You missed the part where I said it wasn't healthy didn't you?" Emma replied dryly, shaking her head before going on. "No, her mind has been twisted in an altogether different fashion. I think Polaris was being primed as a weapon against someone, possibly Magneto before Empath died. The process wasn't finished, but the scars are there, and very deep."

At that point Ororo interrupted them, having returned from her own jobs a few moments before. "Harry, everyone, Charles is on the line, he's been released and is waiting for pickup, though he also says he's being trailed. He's using the magic mirror so his communications is clear, and I thought his expertise might be needed on the topic of our prisoners."

"Right as ever Ororo," Harry said, turning to look at where Ororo stood in the doorway. "I'll set up a large mirror and we can get his view on this." Moments later he had done so, and the two telepaths present shared what they had learned with their more learned counterpart. Charles quickly agreed to look after Alex, Roberto and Polaris, whose real name was Lorna Dane. He also backed up what Betsy had said about how they'd have to go about trying to heal the damage done to them.

Betsy shook her head, sharing something that had most disturbed her about what had been done to Polaris, though Emma hadn't reacted to it much. "The worst part is, there are childhood memories in there that indicates Polaris thinks that Magneto's her father! There are definitely some connotations there of someone matching Magneto's description in her mind as a young child."

Emma nodded, shrugging her shoulders. "Again, either those memories were embedded in her so deep I haven't found the 'hook' so to speak, or they're real."

"That mystery at least we can solve easily," Charles said. "A simple blood test will be able to tell her parentage."

Harry sat bolt upright staring at the speaker where Charles' voice was coming from. "Wait, you have a copy of Magneto's blood!?" The number of magical rituals and spells that Harry could use that blood for in order to find Magneto raced across his mind, only to stop as Charles replied.

"No, just a reading of his DNA, I wanted to know if Wanda was Magneto's real daughter, or if that was something implanted."

Harry frowned, going off on a tangent for a moment. "Is she?"

"Oh yes, Wanda and Pietro are both siblings by blood, and definitely Erik's children. That family reunion is going to be one to watch from a safe distance… say… orbit," Charles replied, his tone bone dry. Despite the help she'd gotten on her control Wanda still hated both her brother and father for abandoning her, and thanks to those lessons she now had the power to make them sorry about it if she ever met them.

Harry frowned, going back to the original topic. "I wish I had a better handle about mental disciplines like telepathy. Charles, what do you recommend here?"

In the mirror Charles smiled. One of the things he liked about Harry was that he was able to admit to ignorance and ask for professional advice without losing an iota of his command authority. That command authority and some other issues which had recently cropped up, the way Harry's public persona had taken the battle to the mutant and human supremacists about their beliefs, the good he'd already accomplished for mutant/human equality including this latest adventure which, Charles knew, would have blindsided the X-men without Harry's connections, had caused an… issue that he and Scott had to talk to Harry about.

But right now, Charles simply answered the question Harry had asked. "We should keep Alex and Polaris together. It's obvious that their relationship is one of the things that was keeping them centered as Hellions, and once we start to repair Empath's evil, they'll need that link desperately. We can set them up in the mansion easily enough, though I'm afraid we'll have to figure out a way to nullify their powers for a time just in case they lash out when I wake them up."

"So you definitely do want to wake them up?" Emma asked, frowning thoughtfully, and at Harry's look she shrugged. She knew she was a powerful telepath, but her skills lay in telepathic combat, in inflicting pain and protecting herself and others rather than healing damage done. "I'm not a trained psychologist, I can make my way through a person's mind, but I can't understand how he's thinking or why. It's the same problem I ran into with Banner, only not nearly as regimented in this case."

Harry nodded, turning back to the mirror with a faint smile. "This is your show Charles."

"Yes, I want to wake them up," Charles said simply. "I want them both awake, first Alex, with Scott ready to intervene if need be, I remember Alex recognized him during the battle, so he should be able to prove we're friendly. We'll start talking him through what happened, get Alex to realize he was manipulated, then talk to him about Ms. Dane, his love for her, and use him as a go between to start making progress with Ms. Dane in turn."

Betsy and Emma shared a look and Betsy spoke up cautiously. "Polaris had no hint of the fact she was being manipulated emotionally or mentally, she honestly believes that she joined up with Sebastian out of her own free will in order to promote mutant supremacy and we can't tell if that's a false feeling or not."

"That will be difficult to dislodge, but regardless the process will need her to be a participant every step of the way," Charles replied.

"So something to inhibit her magnetic powers is a must," Harry mused. "Or maybe preparing a room with nothing metal inside? Hmm… not certain I could come up with anything that could block her powers in any kind of set time frame, I haven't come up with anything like that to use against Magneto either, and I fought him months ago."

"Not Alex's," Scott said firmly. "If something like that happened to me and I couldn't use my powers, I'd react violently however I could regardless of your reasons."

"He's your brother, so we'll go with your opinion there," Harry said with a nod. "And Sunspot?"

Both telepaths physically present actually winced visibly before Emma spoke up. "If his girlfriend is really dead, and if some of the images we saw are accurate, that will be the toughest of all because Roberto, the real Roberto Da Costa buried underneath his Hellion persona, won't want to come out."

"It will be almost as bad as Steed in a way," Betsy nodded. "So the first thing we need to do is figure out whether or not his girlfriend is alive, get in touch with his family, see what happens there and do it discreetly. I'll volunteer for that, I'm the one that should have already been following that idea up weeks back."

"I as well," Amara said. "I feel a little guilty about this too, if I had pushed Jean to look up Sunspot after we first met this might've been avoided." Piotr frowned at that and made to open his mouth but Amara smiled at him, shaking her head and he subsided reluctantly.

Harry nodded decisively. "You'll start on that the day after tomorrow, Betsy, Amara and Piotr I think this will be a mission for the three of you. For now, I think it's time to get you back to the mansion and Camelot. Scott, you'll be in charge of very publicly going down to pick up Charles alright?"

The bespectacled young man nodded, and Harry called for Cory. The house-elf popper specialist teleported the remaining Custodes first, before coming back for the prisoners. As the teens began to disappear one after another the room was silent then Charles spoke up again from where he was getting out of his wheelchair into the bed of his hotel room.

It would be at least half a day before Scott arrived to pick him up, and given his shadows and the amount of attention he and the other kidnap victims were under he couldn't just disappear. Charles sighed, rubbing one hand over his bald pate. "The public aftermath is going to be horrible won't it?"

"Not from our perspective it won't," Harry said shaking his head. "Those Sentinels killed people in that crowd, security guards and were seen to kidnap people on live television! A worse propaganda disaster for Kelly and his political agenda could not be imagined. There's going to be backlashes for it, but I don't see how anyone rational could think that a mutant was behind this. Of course, I realize that a lot of racists are irrational, but at the very least those who were heretofore undecided will take a good hard look at what fanaticism of any stripe can cause."

"There's one loose end still out there," Emma said seriously. "Buckman."

"Whatever else he is Nick Fury isn't incompetent," Harry said, shaking his head. "I'll wager by this point Buckman isn't our problem anymore."

Charles moved himself with the ease of long practice from his chair to the hotel bed, opening a telepathic link with Scott. After a moment the younger man nodded physically, and Charles turned back to the communication mirror. "If Scott and I could talk to you for a moment Harry before you go."

Harry answered in the affirmative, while Charles frowned wondering where to begin then shrugged. I'd rather do this in person, but in a way I suppose it's easier this way.

"Mutant equality has been my dream for as long as I realized that I wasn't alone with my powers, that there was a small but growing portion of humanity that were born with powers and abilities beyond the norm. I have devoted my life to it since then, and I believed for a long time that I was on the right path. I created the X-Men to be a symbol for that equality, hoping we could fight against those mutant supremacists and those hate groups out there on our own. I hoped that simply becoming an example of how to use our powers appropriately was enough, that words and noble deeds would be enough."

"I know now that it is not. You and yours Harry, have done more for the cause of mutant equality in a matter of eight months than I have done in several years. This latest mission is simply one of many examples, and though there will always be those too blinded by hate and what is different to see reality, you and your company have done even more good. At first I had hoped to retain my own and the X-Men's independence from you despite our friendship and being on the same side, but I realize now that is naïve of me.

"The X-Men and I still want to operate as an independent unit Harry, since America needs a team that can concentrate on it as much as possible while your Custodes handle issues elsewhere and possibly more importantly your plans for outer space," Scott said breaking in and waving off Cory who had been about to pop out with him.

The house-elf frowned but waited impatiently, actually hopping from one foot to another, but Scott went on unhurriedly. "But frankly you and yours have created a logistic and strategic resource that we would be fools not to tie ourselves to. And the mansion itself, with the high school nearby, can serve as a place for those teenage mutants that don't want to join either team, freeing more space at the Avalon Academy for the younger set."

Harry smiled, realizing this was simply Charles and Scott formally acknowledging a fact that had been a reality for quite some time now. "I understand and I agree, the X-Men could do a lot more good if they kept both their autonomy but were able to call upon Custodes resources. The magic arrays built into your suits are just the start, we can make those better and outfit all of you with diverse weapons and armor at this point, which I know was sort of left by the wayside after I left the mansion. I also realize that admitting things like this must've been really hard Charles, and I respect you for speaking out about it."

Charles sighed. "I'm not certain if I was ever cut out for the role I thought myself, the'leader' of mutant equality. I'm much happier dealing with, well, issues like young Xian, or with those new troubled souls. I'll leave the day-to-day running of the X-Men themselves to Scott, devote myself to those three, and the running of the mansion as a boarding house, and…"

He chuckled rather evilly for a moment. "Making certain that our newcomers keep to the high academic standards that the school for gifted youngsters is known for, for some that is going to be quite a bit of work."

Harry nodded, smiling at both men. Scott had grown in the time Harry had known him from a angst-ridden teen thrust into a position he wasn't ready for no matter how hard he worked at it, to a good man and an excellent team leader.

And Charles, Charles had just proven that whatever his faults, was not like Dumbledore, as Harry had once feared. He could learn from his mistakes, listen to other people and, just as importantly, follow someone else. Albus had always considered his own opinion and thoughts far superior to anyone else's, and the idea of him following anyone else was laughable.

Scott and Harry left to let Charles discuss with Emma as to whether or not he would need Emma's help in the future with the trio, while Scott and Harry got down to nuts and bolts about what this would mean in the future before Harry had to go off to meet Sage. While elsewhere events were proceeding apace.

OOOOOOO

Edward Buckman had been at the Hellfire Club, hidden in the king's room of the club, watching the goings on down below through the one way mirrors while a TV showed Kelly's rally directly below that. He wanted to watch the news hit the other club members, and wanted to see the rally as it went on.

He had frowned occasionally during it, shaking his head sadly. Kelly is too heavy-handed, the fix is far too obvious. What Paris would say about… That thought chopped off, and he shook his head, speaking aloud into the room. "Enough, she left me remember, she didn't care enough about her own species to see the threat mutant kind poses! I'm better off without her."

With that he turned back to continue watching as the debate went on, smiling as the Sentinels appeared. That smile slid off his face with a speed that light would have envied however as the Sentinels shouted their warnings, and moved into the crowd.

What the hell is going on! This is not anything like I was promised! Standing up quickly Edward began to pace around the small room, frowning angrily as another security guard was incinerated by a Sentinel's palm beam.. I've poured so much money into the Sentinel project. But despite how well that's been hidden, I'd have to bet heavily on that being found out, especially with incentive like this.

Whatever I do I have to leave the country now immediately! I have to figure out a way to distance myself from this fiasco whatever the Feds can find once they start looking seriously, damn Fury and SHIELD anyway! But I can't do that if I'm in jail. With that Edward turned quickly and rang the underground parking lot, ordering his driver to ready the limo.

About an hour later Edward was at the airfield on his personal plane already working his laptop, hunting down and figuring out ways to disavow knowledge of any connection between his companies and the Sentinel project. The electronic trail was easy enough to start destroying. That left the materials trail, and that would be much harder. Still Edward had several plans already thought up for that by the time his plane began to coast along the runway. Then it stopped, and the intercom went on.

"Sir, we can't get clearance to take off, we'll be waiting here for a while, so you might want to..."

"What!?" Edward shouted. He stormed up to the front of them airplane glaring at the pilots. "You know how many billions of dollars are riding on this deal, I have to get to Italy as soon as possible!" Of course Italy would just be the first part of his journey but unlike Obadiah Stane or even Sebastian Shaw, Edward had never told any of his personal workers anything about his dealings withTrask. He never took any of his workers into his confidence completely, just enough for them to perform their jobs competently.

The airplane pilot was a good man, who had been flying for over 30 years before being hired by Edward. "That's fine by us sir, but we can't get clearance, it's nothing on our end."

"Can't get clearance to leave the country, or can't get clearance to take off?" Edward asked.

"To take off, sir. Only emergency airplanes are being allowed to take off, and those are apparently being trailed by F-16's. All other planes all over America have been grounded, a blanket order from some kind of security agency."

Edward paled dramatically. "What was the name of this agency?"

At that point the copilot gasped suddenly pointing out of the windows ahead of them. Several dozen black vans had pulled up in front and around where the plane was stopped, and men in black suits which practically screamed federal agents were getting out. Others were hiding themselves behind the vans, as two men moved forward. One of them pulled out a bullhorn, putting it to his lips. "Edward Buckman? This is SHIELD, I'm agent Smith, this is Agent Jones. We'd like a word with you. Could you please exit the plane?"

OOOOOOO

Sage had swiftly gotten away from the bodyguards that Sebastian Shaw routinely set upon her, disappearing into Seattle, Washington with an ease that was well beyond what Sebastian had considered her capable of. She met Harry at a small café, and the two of them quickly disappeared from the minds of those around them, ascending into the sky. Staring around her from the top of the magic carpet, the two of them swiftly moved out of Seattle proper into the suburbs occasionally dipping down to make certain they were going in the correct direction.

"Are you sure this is the safe house where Shaw was hiding Domino's boyfriend?" Harry asked, as they flew down. The two of them had talked throughout the flight, with Harry filling Sage in on what her job would be for him, which seemed to greatly interest her.

She surprisingly didn't need any assurance that Charles was on board with Harry's long term plans now, with her working directly for Harry, saying "I calculated a 62% chance that Charles would have to eat crow and realize that you had taken his place as the presumptive leader of mutant human coexistence from him, I'm happy to hear he was able to do so."

Moreover the woman had already agreed that she wasn't much of a field agent. Certainly she was a decent hand-to-hand combatant, and a decent enough marksman, but she was far more valuable behind the scenes, and she was eager to come to grips with Harry's companies, as well as his other computer based endeavors.

"Positive, while the safe house itself is off the books entirely, Domino's visits, and her missing from the Hellion's training centers, weren't. Despite the fact that she always comes disguised, there was a marked parity between her absences and random women of the same height and general build being seen via various security cameras driving rented cars in this suburb. Moreover, the owner of this house is never seen outside, and the property is known to belong to a reclusive writer of some kind by the locals."

Sage actually smirked, her ruby red lipstick making her lips stand out in her somewhat pale face almost as much as her red-tinted glasses and flowing black hair. "I've discovered recently that's actually a red flag. Every security agency I've looked at seems to use that cover to hide people they don't want found, like some kind of default setting."

Harry nodded, and the carpet finished its downward slide coming to rest outside the door of a decently well-kept but very small house, with a larger than normal garden in the back, the furthest property back in a small, private housing area. Once on the ground Harry waved his fingers briefly, bringing up a Protego around himself and Sage, before moving to ring the doorbell.

He actually thought that the individual they were here to see and take with them would bolt out the back door. But instead the man opened the door looking rather frazzled. He was a middle-aged man, with lank black hair down to his shoulders, a decent looking face and wide shoulders, but with the look of someone more at home in front of a computer than someone at home in the outdoors.

He looked between the two of them, Harry in his Guardian persona, and Sage dressed normally, in jeans and a good blouse. He didn't seem to display any surprise, and simply nodded, before asking calmly. "Is Domino alive?"

Harry's eyebrows rose, but he nodded. "Yes, you know who we are?"

"I know of you yes, and I've known for months about Ms. Sage here and the role she plays for Sebastian. I take it that your group and the Hellions fought, and that Sebastian came out the loser?" The man's tone was relatively even though somewhat resigned.

"Pretty much," Harry said with a nod. "It's a little more complicated than that though, have you been watching the news?"

"Ahhh, so you were involved in stopping the Sentinels, interesting. And what do Domino and I need to do for you to retain our freedom together?" The man asked, making no move to invite them inside.

Harry shrugged, and replied honestly, knowing that he and Sage were still covered by the Notice-me-Not charms he had covered them with when ascending on his carpet. "Nothing, I'm not going to hold your life over Domino's head, nor am I going to use it to try and pressure her in any direction. I am going to demand that you personally move house, with the authorities no doubt going through Shaw's holdings very closely they might find hints of your whereabouts."

At the man's incredulous expression Harry elaborated. "Domino really doesn't have a skill set that is irreplaceable to me, and having her on the team might cause some friction with a few of the others. And no offense, but in terms of a valuable tool set, the same goes for you."

In fact, if Emma had shared aloud what she had found Domino had done after the battle in Kentucky 'friction' would've been an understatement. The fact the Domino had activated kill switches embedded in her teammates showed a surfeit of empathy that Harry found disturbing, and the rest of his team would find violently offensive.

Harry could understand she had acted that way thinking it was necessary to protect her lover or herself from being treated similarly, but Emma had reported that Domino also had seen it as necessary. So while he wouldn't hold it against her, he certainly wasn't willing to have her around either. They'd be watched of course but both were used to that.

The man stared between them, and Harry could almost feel the strength of his thoughts for a moment. Then he smiled and nodded. "I hear that the United Kingdom is a lovely place to live. And I think I can convince Domino to hang up the uniform. When can I see her?"

"Not just yet," Sage said. "We have one more stop, over in North Dakota."

Thanks to the speed of the flying carpet, they traveled faster than any plane could have something which caused Sage to smile, though their new passenger didn't seem to enjoy the trip nearly as much. Eventually they began to once again have to descend to look at road signs, eventually coming to one which led them to a small permanent care hospital ward, part of a far larger complex. But this one building was set a little ways away from the others, not enough to bring attention to it, just enough to put it out of mind.

"Will there be guards inside?" Harry asked as they circled the building, their passenger unconscious at present. Just because Harry wanted to do this all in one go was no reason to forget the man wasn't exactly loyal to him or his cause. Indeed, he and Domino would both be quickly ensconced in their safe house, at no time would either have access to Camelot or High Note.

"No, there will only be three doctors, two geneticists and a physician. All of them are in Shaw's pockets, but now that Shaw has been removed, some of their own dirty laundry will come out. The local police and the administration here at this hospital will take care of them in due course."

"Would they know anything that could be useful to us?" Harry asked, not liking the slight emphasis Sage put on 'dirty laundry' but not seeing any recourse.

"No, Sebastian believed in compartmentalization. None of them knew anything except that this woman they were taking care of was a mutant that may hold the genetic secret to regeneration."

Harry nodded, and the two quickly entered. Sage had pulled up the map of the building, which told them there were three rooms for the doctors, a computer lab, a regular science lab, a genetics lab, and one room devoted to the care of the patient, who was someone that Ororo would no doubt have recognized: the blonde woman she had fought during the asteroid M affair, Candra.

All three of the doctors were in a small lounge, watching the news and muttering to themselves as Harry and Sage entered. Given the number of spells Harry and Sage had on them they didn't even notice the newcomers' arrival or look up when they walked past the open doorway towards the patient's room.

Sage immediately moved over to a computer, pulling up a log as Harry moved towards the bed, frowning down at the blonde woman who had pushed Ororo so hard. He felt her pulse, which was weak but there, looked around, then actually opened one of her eyes to look at the iris, which was rolled back in her skull. "So, the mental trauma from being constantly killed is still there."

"True, whatever her body's healing ability, her mind didn't profit," Sage said somewhat coolly looking up from the computer. She had backtracked this woman's history and knew several acts Candra had committed as part of the Brotherhood that set her teeth on edge.

But when she continued she simply informed Harry of what the computers told her. "They haven't been able to get any response from her, and judging by the experiments they've done on Candra's body, she should have woken up at least a dozen times over if she was ever going to. They stopped even using anesthesia within a week of her arrival, and there's a time here, a time stamp of five days three months after she arrived. For those five days nothing was officially recorded, but I bet the cameras would tell a very different story."

Harry nodded, tapping the restraints on the woman. "And yet for all of that they were taking no chances with this woman. There's something incredibly demeaning in this, even for what amounted to a dead body. Tell me, does this state continue to use the death penalty?"

"Yes." Sage replied simply.

"Good," Harry frowned. He knew that the woman's healing ability would further help Rogue to become even stronger, but the very idea caused him to shiver. This wasn't like Sebastian Shaw, who had just been killed in a battle against them, and who had proven time and time again to be a threat. This woman had been a follower of a threat to be certain, but she had been a bit player when all is said and done, and surely had suffered enough to not allow that last ignominy. More to the point, Harry doubted Rogue would be willing to 'play vampire' again after draining Shaw.

"Is there any way we could help her mind come back?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No. Candra's mind's been destroyed like Emma apparently did to Sebastian, it's simply gone. She is brain dead in the strictest sense of the word. There's nothing there that could come back." Harry nodded, and then without another word raised his hand, shooting out a shield spell around the bed before filling it with fire as he had to immolate Sebastian Shaw's body.

Sage blinked in shock, quickly stepping back from the sudden outbreak of violence, then watching warily as the fire consumed bed and patient alike. Moments later, the two of them left, dropping Sage off at the mansion for the night. Harry would come back the next day to transport her to the Magical Minds headquarters, where she would begin work the very next day.

Getting her lover, Harry never learned his name and frankly didn't care, and Domino situated in their safe house took the rest of that night. Harry was thanking the resources of his group and the fact that they had the forethought to purchase several of these houses, scattered in different areas. Placing a small magical tracking device on Domino that would tell Harry if she tried to leave the county for any reason took barely a few moments, the runic array looking like a tattoo on the mercenary's lower back.

Actually convincing Domino that he didn't want to use her took longer. But Harry was adamant. Her skill set wasn't worth the internal friction having someone as willingly ruthless as her, and a former enemy to boot, would cause within the Custodes.

Her reaction was only a little bit surprising to him. She had clearly been a mercenary for so long the idea of not expecting or even wanting anything for their service was shocking to her. Beyond that she had clearly been manipulated and blackmailed so many times her resigned expression when she woke told more than any story she could have given. The idea that she was free and being told the only expectation was that she stay out of the merc business was a bargain she was more than eager to embrace after she got over her wariness.

With Domino and her lover taken care of, Harry followed Emma's directions to Shaw's secret, fully automated weapons factory. it was deep in the Adirondack Mountains, so far off the beaten path it wasn't even flyby country, the factory had been designed and built by people brought in pickup trucks of all things, and the workers killed afterwards so no one but Shaw and his first group of bruisers and most trusted Hellions, Empath and Random, had known where it was. This limited Shaw's ability to bring out the weapons, but made them nearly untraceable.

Harry took a moment to make certain there were no traps then cast a Fidelius to add even more protection. After that Harry called it a night, picking up Emma from her hotel in Austin, where she had spent an hour convincing her sister she was all right, an exercise she had found rather refreshing. The two of them joined Ororo in Camelot, where they proceeded to have their own private celebration at a job well done.

Elsewhere however, people were not so lucky as to make their own hours like that.

OOOOOOO

Nick Fury stood resolute, ignoring the blathering from the current president Ian Johnson, just as he ignored the fact it was pushing one in the morning here in D.C. In Nick's mind Ian wasn't up to the job, hadn't been up to the job when he was elected, and hadn't done anything since being elected to disprove that theory. Johnson was a politician down to his toenails who knew a lot about the economy and should have been a cabinet member at best, because outside of that realm of expertise he had proven unable to make a decision on his own to save his life.

He also didn't seem to realize a fundamental point: that Nick had answered his summons as a courtesy, more to the office than the individual. SHIELD answered to the councilors which held its purse strings, not the president of the nation that had created the agency. They didn't make a point of that, but it was true. No, Nick didn't answer to Johnson, but he could use him.

As the man wound down, Nick decided it was time to point out another fundamental point. "Mr. President, I realize you're angry, and you have every right to be. But SHIELD isn't responsible solely for anything that happens in America, our remit covers America, South America, the Philippines, Australia, parts of Africa, and several European countries. Nor do we yet have penetration in all those countries to actually cover them equally. This kind of thing, it's precisely what the FBI or CIA should discover, not me. Not until the Sentinels were actually online did it become an issue for SHIELD. We were not the first people to drop the ball here."

"But you did drop the ball!" President Johnson shot back triumphantly, his heavy jowls moving from side to side as he spoke. "The moment even a hint of the Sentinels being constructed reached you, you should've been the one to find out everything there was about them, and then shut them down! Instead, not only did they blindside you and everyone else, but you weren't the ones to shut it down!"

Johnson slapped a hand down on a newspaper, where the front page was declaring "Custodes Mundi saves the day!" The article so titled was based around an interview with some of the kidnap victims ending with one from Professor Xavier himself.

Nick tried not to scowl at that reminder. Charles hadn't answered any of his questions, and while Nick could have held the man, in fact they could've made Charles disappear with ease, he knew that would've brought more trouble than it was worth. He hadn't even mentioned the combatants involved, simply stating again and again that there was a fight, and the number of Sentinels involved.

He'd been more forthcoming about the Master Mold and its overall plans, and when asked what he felt about the ordeal as a whole by the reporters he'd jumped at the chance to air his coexistence agenda again. He'd done it so eloquently and powerfully that, with the Sentinel's as a sort of horrible example of what hatred and chaos theory could do, that even Nick had been impressed.

I think I even saw a Charles for President bumper sticker, he mused. But no, to get some real answers, if only for his own state of mind, Nick knew he'd have to make overtures to Potter. But he would be damned if he was going to be the one doing the legwork on that.

Right now however he concentrated on the angry man in front of him. "Mr. President, the Avengers could have handled the Sentinels, if they weren't already engaged against AIM down in Venezuela. Frankly we should be grateful for the Custodes Mundi stepping in as they did, though it hurts to say it." And boy did it hurt. He hated that Potter, the loose cannon, was doing his job better than he was at present. And that doesn't even consider what might be going on in orbit.

"'Hurts to say it'," Johnson mimicked, shaking his head. "What hurts is that this government now looks like a lame, no a blind duck which allows its citizens to create what amounts to their own private armies with technology so far beyond the norm it's insane! We need to be seen to do something, not just to try and find out who the real perpetrators behind this project was, but to make certain that it doesn't happen again!"

Nick's eye narrowed, while behind his mask of a face he smiled grimly. Let's see if I can lead this idiot in the right direction. "Mr. President, I am aware of several other long-term projects of a similar nature. Those operations have heretofore been protected by connections to the federal government in various forms, just like this one, which was, if not spearheaded by a legitimate member of government, at least endorsed by one. But I can't say that the stated goals of the others are their real ones, nor, in today's… tumultuous political climate would they even be advisable if so."

Just because Nick wasn't a politician didn't mean he couldn't play the game, and as Johnson paled at the idea of further PR disasters he went on smoothly. "If you want, SHIELD could move against those easily enough. We could then be seen as being proactive, stopping what could be seen as private armies with private agendas built, in some cases, with taxpayer money, from rearing their heads in the future."

President Johnson frowned, tapping his hands on the newspaper. The sight of that newspaper, the picture on the front cover of the rescued kidnap victims and the others at that had been taken back to Texas seemed to galvanize him, and he nodded firmly. "I don't care what toes you step on, I don't care what your so-called counselors say."

Like much of the American government Johnson thought the councilors were simply an oversight committee by another name, not realizing how much independence they and SHIELD had from the Federal Government. "You have my permission to go after any such group, no matter who they're connected to or what their supposed mission is. America can no longer afford to look the other way when it comes to such. Just keep the collateral damage to a minimum that's all I ask."

Nick smiled grimly. The president was making this decision for political reasons, but that didn't matter much to him, all that did matter was he was going to nip several problems in the bud right the fuck now! "In that case, I'll take my leave now Mr. President and put together a few teams this very day."

The moment he was on his personal helicopter and in the air heading towards the helacarrier Nick pulled out one of SHIELD's specially made ultra-secure phones.

The other end picked up on the second ring, and Clint Barton's voice answered, sounding harried. "Boss, I know you want some progress here, and Avalanche is doing the best he can but it's going to take him days to break through the hardened magma that's filled the bunker or whatever this place was. He also doesn't think we'll be finding anything but small trace elements of anything anyway. The Custodes Mundi did a damn good job of policing this battlefield let me tell you."

"Agreed, in fact I was going to pull you and Avalanche off of that anyway. No, I'm going to send you two to see the Fantastic Four. The Custodes Mundi and the Fantastic Four are friendly, so we can hope that Ben will introduce you to Guardian, and we can ask some questions straight up that way. Potter's proven amenable to the direct approach before, much as I dislike having to ask for answers rather than demand them. Pull your team out, we'll let the computer techs continue to follow their trails for now."

"Won't have an argument from me boss, but after I talk to Ben and get those answers for you, are you switching us back down to rejoin the rest of the Avengers?"

"Not yet, no, though you can send Avalanche down there after he helps you make your introductions. I just got a go ahead to go after some other projects, and we're going to go for them as quick as we can, you Kestrel, Maverick and a heavy team, we'll keep Avalanche and the others out of this."

Clint breathed in slowly, on the other end, hissing 'yessss' under his breath, not really thinking about the implications of not bringing along most of the Avengers. "The Hulk Busters and the rest?"

"All three of them," Nick said with a grim smile on his face, staring up out of his helicopter's cockpit as the helacarrier came into view. "I think it's about time that we get ahead of the curve for a change when it comes to potential disasters, don't you?" And maybe get ourselves some weapons that might prove useful against… other threats.

OOOOOOO

Early the next morning found Ororo waking before Harry for once. Smiling slightly she slipped out of bed, smiling at him, before frowning thoughtfully as she stared at Emma, and the empty place beside her. Oh Jean, you are sorely missed my love, hurry home Jean, please. Most of the time she could ignore the hole in their relationship Jean's absence had left, the sheer joy she took in Harry and now Emma banishing it. But sometimes, like this, it snuck up on her.

Her smile came back when she looked out into the small forest to Melody's room. Melody, Illyana, Piotr and Amara were all sprawled out on conjured beds down there. They'd had a movie marathon last night, a simple, homey affair despite it occurring up here in High Note.

Still smiling Ororo left the bedroom, heading toward the control center where she began to watch the news. The aftermath of the Sentinel Rebellion as some 'wit', and Ororo used the term very loosely, had coined it was quickly becoming widespread. There seemed to be something about the way the giant robots had gone about their business, so matter of fact, logical and dispassionate that disturbed most people at a fundamental level.

The fact that it had been broadcast from the beginning, which won the camera crew a lot of praise from their fellows, was even worse. That camera crew had paid for it though, one of them dying in the crush as the crowd fled. There were in fact over 30 dead, police and security guards, but more than half of those victims had died in the stampede of the crowd.

Ororo flipped through the news channels, trying to find anything new among the many programs other than reiterating statements about the attack or showing the footage. She finally stopped on Fox, listening to an announcer say "SHIELD, the security agency devoted to beyond the norm security threats, has assured the public that the Project has been shut down and no long poses a threat. For more on this, we turn to Jane down in Austin, where the kidnap victims, and apparently several others have been returned to Austin, released from questioning. Jane can you give us an idea of what happened?"

"Well Terry, no one has issued an official statement yet. But after speaking to a few of SHIELD's personnel, it appears as if SHIELD was able to track the Sentinels to their main construction base. We haven't gotten any clear hint as to what happened there, but the project itself does seem to have been shut down permanently. I say this because some of the recently released individuals were actual workers on the program, taken captive by their very creations when something they call the Master Mold went crazy."

"Master Mold, any idea what that is, and why does everyone seem so certain that the project was shut down permanently Jane? That's the question lots of people are asking, that and what went wrong."

"As to what went wrong, the workers I've been able to question, albeit briefly given the man's recent trauma and his need for medical evaluation was quite clear on it. The Master Mold was the, call it the queen bee I suppose of the Sentinels, he followed his broad orders to a conclusion that could only seem logical to a computer, it believed that humanity needed to be guarded, segregated and controlled in order to make certain that no new mutants would be born."

"That is another question some of our more astute listeners are no doubt asking Jane. Indeed, we just finished listening to Major Custer, who stated unequivocally that there was no way to analyze an individual's DNA with any kind of scanning equipment. Do we have any idea how the Sentinels thought they could do this?"

"None at all, apparently the scanning and most of this mad project was the brainchild of a Dr. Trask. He was one of the first victims of his creations when the Master Mold went rogue. We'll probably never know how the Sentinels were able to do this, given that Dr. Trask is dead, killed during the action at the Project's home base."

"Has Senator Kelly been released from the hospital, and if so is he well enough to give a statement?"

"Not yet Terry, but I'll report back as soon as he, or the other kidnap victims do. The last thing I can tell you for certain right now though is that SHIELD wasn't the first group to reach the Sentinel's secret installation. That honor goes to a group that's been in the news recently, the Custodes Mundi. Evidently they were the ones to shut down the project, though at present no one knows precisely how they did this."

"I see… well thank you Jane, we'll come back to Jane as soon as she has more to report. For now, we go back to former Major Custer. Major, can you tell us anything about this Dr. Trask?"

Ororo changed the channel, stopping on CNN as a newscaster covering the business section said, "One such name is Edward Buckman, renowned philanthropist and business mogul, owner and sole shareholder in Buckshot Technologies. Stopped at the airport as he tried to escape the country, Edward is among those who are going to be asked some very pointed questions about the Sentinel project. Authorities were led to look at him closely thanks to an anonymous tip, whose providence is yet to be verified. Yet judging from the fact he tried to leave the country, at present he is being held until it is proven that the tipster's information is false."

On another channel was a political analyst. "At an emergency session the Senate has begun to call for a massive security overhaul of its own members, declaring that there should have been no way for the Sentinel project to get so far without someone in the government turning a blind eye to them. President Johnson hasn't issued an official statement, but the word here in Washington is he's already called several security directors onto the carpet…"

At that point Ororo turned it off, knowing that it would be a while before more specific information began to come out to the general public. Sighing she went to get a shower, coming back to find that Emma had arrived and joined Harry at the table, bringing fresh New York bagels and cream cheese. "So they did catch Buckman dead to rights leaving the country. I didn't think it would be handled directly by SHIELD though," Emma said, nodding her head to Ororo as she sat down with them, exchanging brief but heartfelt kisses with Harry.

Leaning back from Ororo, Harry shrugged. "They're the agency that would have to deal with the Sentinels, so it makes sense. The ironic thing is, since Sage set it up so that the tip seemed to come from him, Sebastian could end up being looked at as a heroic whistle blower who was killed to prevent the word from getting out, only to have the last laugh."

"No," Emma replied firmly, tearing her eyes away from Ororo's panja ring, not for the first time. The workmanship was exquisite, and it just seemed to glow with something beyond its mere physical form. I want one, but I don't want to marry Harry. Or do I ugh… so confusing, I want to keep my independence, but I also want to fully join the trio. Even if Jean hadn't been given her ring yet, Emma knew she would be the moment she returned. Damnit shelve that for later.

Not giving voice to those jumbled thoughts Emma went on. "Now that he's dead and gone, I predict a lot of his other business dealings will come out, including his personal life, his part in the murder of his ex-girlfriend because she spurned him, how he treated his workers, how he initially made enough money to start up his company..."

The telepath shook her head, twitching in remembered revulsion. The information in Shaw's mind had already proved its worth. He'd had spies even Sage didn't know about, most of which were now working for them. Added to what Sage did know about, that doubled their information network. Ororo had already liquidated his emergency caches, adding several hundred million dollars total to their accounts via various untraceable means. Not to mention the weapons factory, which again Sage hadn't known about, at least not its location.

Or the fact Shaw had bribed one of her mansion's maintenance crews into bringing in a bomb. A bomb that Sandman had dealt with, earning him a nice bonus. The maintenance team would be let go of course, fired with cause, though no charges would be brought against them, unless her security head could get them to confess, and Emma was leery of doing so even then. After all, how could Emma show she had known about the bomb in the first place?

Yet none of that helped the feeling of having swum through sludge when Emma liquefied his brain, especially the parts about her. I didn't make his demise nearly painful enough. "Trust me Harry, once enough of his dirty laundry gets aired he won't be a hero any longer."

"Have you contacted Paris?" Ororo asked softly, looking at Emma.

Emma winced again. "Not yet. I'll wait until she makes a public announcement about Edward, after all it only recently came out that the two of them had split up, it was big news in the social circles for a few days. She might be called in on the investigation to Edward, heck he might still have had her designated as his successor, I know they had both signed some kind of pre-nuptial about their businesses."

"Agreed, we're in a holding pattern for now on the Hellfire Club side. Let this pot simmer a bit, then I'll move in and take over the Hellfire Club's New York Branch, just as we did the London one. In the meantime I think it's time to start pushing Arc Technologies further, and I want to look into opening dialogs with some of the world's militaries just in case."

"In case of what?" Emma asked cocking her head.

"In case of full-scale invasions." Ororo said softly. "We know that the Kree and the Skrull and Shi'ar all have special forces, and we're confident in our ability to handle them. What if they send in special forces and regular forces at the same time? And the time limit Mar'vel gave us for the follow up to the Hellion's disappearance is coming up in another few weeks."

"Earth has other heroes you know," Emma said, but her tone was thoughtful, even worried. More than anyone else Emma had a good idea of how huge the Kree Empire was thanks to delving into their former prisoners minds.

"America has enough heroes, China and Russia might have, well I wouldn't call them heroes exactly, government-sponsored hit teams in one and a rather dangerous crime lord with several local mutants working for him in the other tied obliquely to the government. Japan has a few too, but for its size Europe doesn't have many, certainly not enough to cover the entire continent. Africa doesn't seem to have any except some vague rumors of a man in a black cat suit of some type, and the less said about the Middle East and the rest of Asia the better." Ororo replied.

"Exactly. Worse, when they come we're going to be surprised, unless we're up in High Note for some reason. I've set up the computers to warn us the minute they pick up something but even so, they'll have the element of surprise whatever we do." Harry replied. "I've an idea there, a magical one, but actually pulling it off is going to be difficult in the extreme."

"That brings up another point Harry." Ororo said taking his hand in hers on the table. "We're still spreading ourselves too thin. We need to start delegating more especially on the business side to other people, along with anything else other people can handle."

"I already talked to Charles about Sage, I'll give her a trial period but she should be able to help us on the business and spying side of things."

"But that won't cut down on enough Harry. You need to step back from the business side of things almost entirely, as I have done in terms of the school. We need to also set up…" From there Ororo went on to describe a few more areas they, not just Harry, needed to hand over to others. Weapons manufacture, overseeing the continuing work up in orbit, the team's training, and continuing to bring in mutant children in danger.

That last process would be handled by Father Garnoff for now and the teens who had not been allowed or not interested in joining the Custodes Mundi. The two teens Illyich and Mikhail in particular had wanted to be out and about making themselves useful for a while, but their English hadn't been good enough until recently to let them without a translation spell. On top of that Illyich had needed a personalized image inducer, which Johnny Storm, using Reed's equipment, had finally said was ready, along with several others for the other children, a few days ago. The two of them, Douglas when he returned, and Garnoff would handle that.

"But there is one place which, even if Sage proves as good as we hope, will still be a bottleneck for our space-based industry: magic in general and runic arrays in particular." Harry said, sighing. "Kitty and I have a lot of team related things on the back burner thanks to pushing my business needs first, and I know besides being under a Fidelius the defenses for the various asteroids selected to become future Ravenspires, even the Forge and Banner's home, don't have enough magical defenses set up. I need to come up with a way to cut down on the workload there too, which would allow you and Kitty to do more magic-based research. Which doesn't even mention the fact I'm the only one able to use the Orihalcum factory."

Ororo hummed thoughtfully. "I think there you need a new perspective, maybe simply ask Kitty or one of the other magic users for help in finding a solution. But you're right, that's a bottleneck we need to remove."

"That might not be a bad idea." With that Harry stood up, pulling Emma to her feet and kissing her languidly on the lips before releasing her, turning to look at Ororo. "But for now, I think I promised the kids a day off, and I need to talk to Johnny about some tech gear. I say we kill two birds with one stone, and have a day at the beach."

As Ororo nodded, he turned to Emma. "Do you want to come with us Emma?"

Emma shook her head. "Sorry I need to keep an eye on the start of the Fed's investigation into Buckman and Shaw. I want to make certain that no hint of my involvement with Shaw pops up, nor any hint as to who really blew the whistle on Buckman." Harry frowned, but nodded, leaning in to kiss Emma again before pulling away reluctantly to find his communicator.

OOOOOOO

"What do you mean no?" Mr. Sinister asked, staring across the dining table at his dinner partner. This time he and Morgan had agreed to meet on neutral ground, a small, hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Rome, a city Morgan remembered somewhat fondly, and in which neither had any contacts or power to speak of.

The meal had been exquisite for all the small nature of the restaurant, but Sinister had no mind now to concentrate on that. Not given Morgan's abrupt foray into the reason why they were meeting and the nature of the response.

Morgan sipped at her wine before putting it down with some distaste. "That is not a claret, that is vinegar! Honestly." She sniffed audibly then looked up at the visibly irritated Sinister, smirking internally at his look of irritation, but her humor fled quickly. "I mean, no. I have decided that I want no part in this little scheme anymore Sinister."

She paused, turning her eyes away for a moment. "I've studied what I could from the video of the battle in Montreal, the rumors of what happened in London months back, and I have come to several conclusions about Guardian. Selene Gallio, an… old time compatriot of mine, older even than I, is dead because of him, her caches around the world raided and empty now. I knew of one, and I could not have gotten past its defenses, yet this Guardian did just that."

"In magical combat, power matters only a bit in comparison to knowledge. Before looking into Guardian further, I had thought I would have the edge there, if I could control the battlefield, prepare it as a place of power for myself. But I have since decided that even if I did that, I would have a less than even chance of defeating Guardian when it came to it. No, it is a smart predator who knows when to hide instead of lash out. Guardian's star is on the rise, now is the time to be cautious and hidden."

What Morgana did not say was that what she had found out about Potter through analyzing what she could about the battles in Montreal and London was but a small part of this decision. Morgana was not primarily a demon summoner, being far too intelligent to not realize who had the real power in any such bargain. However, she did have a few contacts in other dimensions. And what those contacts told her about the balance of power in the Hell Dimensions was… disturbing.

For several hundred decades the Demon Lord Mephisto had slowly been gaining power, his realm growing. But now Mephisto was dead, his essence and dimension parceled out among his fellow Demon Lords who had descended upon him after Mephisto had been brought to near death after a battle with a group of invaders to his realm. A group which included the one the Demons referred to as 'The Sword of Light'.

No, Morgana had no wish to tangle with Guardian now, nor even do anything to bring his attention to her at all. Especially given the ruthless way he dealt with enemies, so unlike the normal 'hero' types she'd had to deal with occasionally over her long life.

"Or it could be a time for decisive action!" Sinister replied, his voice intense. He had been watching the news of late, and hadn't liked what he had seen. With Magneto still silent taking the most strident Mutant Supremacist out of the equation, the Sentinel debacle and Potter's outspoken support for equality, that notion had gained far more traction than Sinister, or HIM, had ever anticipated.

But even that is a secondary concern to me. I need Jean Grey, or at least a copy of her DNA, and to get it, I need to take out Guardian, force her out into the open, in a place and time of my choosing.

"No. I have lived far longer than even you Sinister I know when I'm overmatched. Oh," Morgan waved a hand airily, but there was nothing dismissive about her eyes.

They were hard, black rocks, those eyes, the hate in them would have sent a shiver down many a lesser man's spine. "Make no mistake I will not forget the affront that Guardian dealt me." Or that the current Sorcerer Supreme aided him in destroying my phylactery! "But now is not the time."

Sinister frowned, looking down at his hands for a moment as he thought deeply. "Will you be willing to at the very least aid me in the realm of knowledge? You know I know next to nothing about magic, what is and isn't possible, how to protect myself and so forth."

"I will send you an analysis of the information I've been looking at yes. But I won't furnish you with anything in the way of magical items or anything else that could possibly be traced back to me." Morgan nodded. "But after that we are done Sinister. I want no part in your scheme or to even see you again. If I do, I will destroy you, are we clear?"

"Perfectly my dear," Sinister said, smiling with his mouth though internally he was sneering at the ancient crone before him. Oh yes, Sinister knew how old Morgan was, whatever she might look like. And whatever Morgan's powers Sinister was confident enough in his own abilities to not fear her.

After giving her the address of a drop box to send the information to, Sinister watched as Morgan left, thinking. So, it would seem I must go it alone. Very well, that might make it more dangerous, I suppose it was inevitable, old bitches do tend to be more bark than bite.

Still my plans for Genosha and my preparations therein are going much more satisfactorily. My tools within AIM have given me enough in the way of weapons, and the military is entirely onboard, the civilian government is also coming around nicely.

The current batch of Reavers is also proving satisfactory, despite the need to hasten the aging process from the incubation period. They, the mutant enforcers, and the Genoshan military will give me enough military might to make Genosha's new vision for the future stick, at least in the eyes of the UN. Which will force Guardian, if he follows that fool Xavier's ideals, to step in.

Yet… yet I had hoped for Morgan's aid in this. I might need even more firepower than I am already gathering to combat a magic user of Guardian's power and resources.

Sinister frowned, sipping at his wine, before putting it down when he realized that Morgan's opinion on it had been spot on. Paying his bill quickly Sinister left the restaurant, and soon Rome, heading to the airport and his personal plane.

A plane ride and several hours later he slipped into another persona entirely, his features shifting slightly thanks to his limited shape changing ability. He walked out of his personal apartment home, complete with a private VTOL landing pad, nodding his head solemnly at the armed guards who bowed their heads to him, greeting him with "Good Evening Genegineer."

As he moved into the receiving room where several men, mutants and not, awaited him, Sinister at last came to a decision. I don't want to contact the Askanison clan directly yet, no doubt they are anxious enough given how religiously they follow HIS ideals, but they are linked too much to HIM. But the Dark Riders, they are wilder, easier to control. Yes, they will do nicely when added to the rest of my firepower. But first, I think I need a way to find out more about Guardian and his team, and reverse this trend towards peaceful coexistence.

"Gentlemen, I trust you've had time to look over the economic and social data I shared with you all at our last meeting. I also hope that the field tests of my little toys proved the efficacy of the Grand Plan."

The heads all around the table nodded, and Sinister, nee-David Moreau, the Genegineer as he was coming to be called, smiled grimly. "In that case, I think we can start putting our pieces into motion for the changeover. I realize that process will take some time given our need to hide it from our more narrow-minded fellows. But if we start now, I think we can be done, and our vision of the future, of humanity ascendant over this upstart offshoot, within another three months..."

OOOOOOO

While Ororo and the other adults were getting the children ready, Harry called ahead to get Ben to lower the anti-teleportation defenses, noticing Ben sounded rather harried when he replied in the affirmative. When Harry arrived, he found that the Fantastic Four already had guests. There were at least two people screaming in the background as he arrived, with Johnny of all people, raising his own voice in an effort to play peacemaker. "Ben, if this was a bad time you could've said you know."

"Nah, our problems shouldn't hold you up, don't worry about it really." Ben said, reaching forward to grasp the other man's hand in a firm grip with one rocky paw before waving his other hand toward the noise. "That's Thundra you hear right now. She's from some kind of alternate reality where women rule an're locked in battle with another planet ruled by men. She came here to beat me in a one-on-one fight ta prove women are stronger than men."

Ben's craggy face widened into a smile at Harry's shocked expression for some reason. "Since I beat her, Thundra's been kinda tryin' to get into my pants. She thinks that Medusa, Crystal's big sister who's here to play chaperone, is here to put the moves on me, and doesn't like the competition."

Harry shook his head, staring at Ben. "I don't even know where to, how, wh, how'd that even happen!"

"You're askin' me?" Ben asked with a shrug, still smiling at his younger friend. "Welcome to my world, it's been weird ever since that flight up into space."

"I'll say," Harry replied, then began to laugh. "You know, this might sound petty, but I think I'm actually happy to know that weird shit happens to other people, not just me and mine."

"I'll remember you said that Potter," Ben replied, but he was smirking as he did, and his heavy stone hand patted Harry's shoulder. "Saw the Custodes mentioned in the news recently too, nice going shuttin' those robots down. We've had enough trouble with Doom's bots in the past, we don't want that kind of crap to spread."

Harry shrugged modestly then paused, looking at Ben more seriously. "How's Alicia taking you being, wooed stalked whatever you want to call it, by this other-dimensional woman?"

The tank of the FF flinched a little, looking away. "We, we broke up a few weeks ago. She was kidnapped again by one of our enemies, I, I decided I couldn't keep putting her in danger like that. And to be honest, I think our, our connection was sort of fading before that, we were just moving away from one another in life y'know."

"I'm sorry to hear that Ben," Harry said, reaching out to lay a hand on Ben's rock-like shoulder. "I thought you two were a cute couple, but I can understand both your points." And at least this Thundra seems to be both interested in him and maybe strong enough so that when you cave in to her, she'll survive the experience. He thought sardonically.

"Yeah, well, it ain't like we ain't friends still. In fact, Alicia's volunteered ta test out the first cyber-eyes Reed made from analyzing the ones that English ninja-girl has." Ben said, waving Harry off, never comfortable about talking about emotions and such.

The two walked on in silence as Ben lead him further into the FF's suite of rooms. The two entered the main living room, and both women stopped, looking at the newcomer, while Ben waved one hand towards Harry. "Ladies, this is Harry Potter, a friend of the family, and Franky's future teacher. He and a few friends're gonna be passing through for a bit." Ben said, gesturing to the kid, who had been watching everything with wide eyes, his ears muffled magically by Agatha.

He now began to move towards Harry, walking quickly on his little legs. "Hey little mate," Harry smiled, kneeling down and picking up the toddler, while Agatha dissipated the spell over him. Harry took in looking over at Ben's still harried appearance, Crystal's wearied look of resignation and Johnny's controlled but rebellious air, and shook his head. "I only came by for those image inducers, but I'd planned for my team and the X-Men to have a day at the beach. And you guys look as if you would like one too."

"What is this day off you speak of?" said the woman who Ben had said was named Thundra. She was tall, taller than Ben by a good foot, with orange hair that fell loosely down to her shoulders. She was extremely well-built, with visible muscles covering her body.

Which was easy to see given what Thundra was wearing: Tight red pants with a yellow lightning bolt going down either side, and a top that was long-sleeved on one side, and then only wrapped around her upper chest on the other side, leaving her shoulder bare on that side. Around her waist Thundra wore a heavy chain with a weight on the end, and some kind of tiara made of metal sat in her hair.

The other woman, whose name Ben had given as Medusa was shorter than her but taller than Crystal. She was an older looking woman around Sue's age possibly, with gorgeous red hair that flowed down to her ankles. She at least was dressed in normal seeming clothing, much like Crystal, but she was sitting between Crystal and Johnny like a living wall.

"A day off, where you ignore the fact that you are part of a superhero team, just go somewhere and laze about a day." Harry replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I had been hoping to start teaching this one how to swim," Agatha said. "It would be nice to do so with other around, especially people with young legs to keep up with him."

Johnny and Crystal were staring at one another behind Medusa's back and both of them nodded as one. "Works for us."

Medusa frowned a little, but eventually nodded. "So long as no one gets any ideas about sneaking off alone I would be fine with that."

The inhuman Inhuman community were still not happy with Johnny and Crystal being around one another, but given how Johnny had been helping Crystal get over her nightmares from her ordeal as the alchemist Diablo's prisoner even better than her family, Black Bolt had decided that letting them see one another might be a good idea. That didn't mean he was willing to let anything physical happen between them however.

"Excellent," Harry said, then called for Cory to take a message to Ororo to tell her to come ahead with the others. Moments later the teams and the teens and children from Camelot started to arrive in groups. All of them were eager to hit the beach, especially Kurt and Evan, who wanted to work on their tan and surfing respectively.

Melody raced up to her father, hugging him around his chest, before reaching up to take little Franklin's hand, giggling happily. "Are we really going to the beach again father? It was so much fun last time."

"I think we all deserve it," Harry said with a nod, while noticing that Thundra had started at the girl as she said the word father then at Harry in surprise. Huh, maybe families are different where she comes from? Not my problem.

Melody however had cocked her head, looking over at Benjamin Grimm and the others who she had never met before. "Oh, that's interesting, you have the same sort of song going through you as father does."

Ben cocked his rocky head to one side then kneeled down to look at the black-haired girl closer. Harry had mentioned Melody a time or two, but this was actually the first time he and she had ever met. "And what song's that little miss?"

"It's kind of hard to put into words." Melody frowned, her eyes far away as her head moved from side to side. "It sounds like, like the beating of a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil, coupled with, with bugles and drums." Like in Harry, Melody could see in Ben Grimm the beat of the defender, the steadfast hero, immutable and unchanging deep within him. "I just call it the beat of the defender." She smiled then, reaching up to take Franklin from Harry before hurrying over to Illyana to introduce the two of them.

Ben stood up, his shoulders straightening almost without thought and he smiled slightly, nodding his head at Harry who simply nodded back. After all after hearing something like that, what were you supposed to say? To one side Thundra smirked, taking this as a sign that she had chosen well, though wondering what these 'songs' were the girl mentioned.

By this point the rest of the children and teen had arrived and were eagerly trooping through the FF's suites toward the doors where Kurt and Evan were waiting to guide them out to the rest waiting by the elevators. The only two not there were Scott, who was busy picking up Charles as visibly as possible, and Kitty, who was with her family for the day.

"I've never been to the ocean before," saidAnechka. Even though she sounded interested, her face and body language showed her anxiety. The girl's hair began to wiggle, the ends transforming into small cutting edges as she lost control over her powers for a moment thanks to her anxiety. The others all looked equally enthused but subdued, happiness at the opportunity merging with natural wariness of what the rest of the public would act like given their physical deformities.

Medusa stared at the little girl, watching as her hair moved this way and that, her eyes widening at the transformation. "Interesting." With that she knelt down next to her. "Tell me child, has anyone tried to train you in your powers yet?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm too young yet so I don't get specific training, just self-control exercises, and some dexterity ones that my teachers have designed for me. Why?"

"My name is Medusa child," the woman replied, and her own hair began to move, picking the girl up easily along with four of the others children, trailing them behind her as easily as if her hair was just a large hand and they were all small balls she was balancing on it, while the children whooped in surprise. "And I think you and I need to talk, I've never met anyone else that had powers similar to mine, it could be fun."

After the image inducers had been given out to those who needed them, the troupe made their way from the Baxter building to the same beach Harry and the others had enjoyed before. They used Harry's magic carpet this time rather than a teleportation spell given their numbers. Once there the group swiftly split up, racing away this way and that.

Ben, Harry, and Ororo stayed away from the water sitting under some umbrellas, watching the others play with the children or simply sunbathe. Or flirted, like Kurt and Evan, hitting on a group of girls that had come over. Melody, Anechka and Franklin were building a monstrous castle with Medusa of all people which surprised Ben somewhat, not having pictured the red-haired inhuman as the sort to enjoy that kind of thing.

Watching them Harry was amused to note that whenever the waves threatened the castles, Franklin would glare at them, and they would recede quickly before they could swamp it, almost turning in on themselves. "I think I'm going to have to start training that youngster sooner than I expected, though I wonder what his power actually is. He definitely has got some kind of telekinesis, but not quite like Jean's in its effects."

"I know that Reed and Susan had hoped to wait until he was at least finished with the first grade before asking ya about that but sometimes you have to deal with life as it comes. And it ain't like Camelot's that far away or unsafe," Ben said with a shrug. He laughed suddenly watching as Evan and Kurt dunked Johnny in the water, as Johnny had tried to show off for Crystal on a surfboard.

Eventually Ben woke up enough to go and grab some food, coming back to find Harry awake. "So, you going to tell me what happened with that so-called Sentinel Project? From what little the news has shown it looked pretty hairy."

Thundra looked up from where she was laying out in the sun nearby, her interest piqued.

Harry shrugged, surreptitiously checking the area only to stop and stare as Lance Alvers of all people began to walk towards them from the edge of the beach. He was followed by someone else Harry had only seen a few times, the SHIELD agent that had been watching the mansion a time or two.

That man was carrying a case of something. As he came closer it became clear that it wasn't a weapon, or at least not in the conventional sense.

"I come in peace," Clint said as he moved over towards where the adults were, holding up the crate, which was filled with beer of several different labels. "And I bring gifts."

Ben looked at the man, then waved his hand at him. "If you don't already know Potter, this is Clint Barton, code-named Hawkeye the last time I saw him, a decent man with a gun."

Behind Clint, Lance nodded at Harry then made a beeline towards the ocean. He stopped as the X-Men noticed him, coming over to greet him like an old friend, past conflict completely forgotten in the intervening months.

"So," Clint said holding out a beer. "They're a little warm, but…"

Harry waved a hand, and suddenly the beers were all ice cold. Ben guffawed, ripping the top off one with a flick of a finger. "You're a handy man to have around Potter. L'Chaim!" He said, before chugging half of the bottle in one gulp.

"You've said that before and it still sounds better coming from the fairer sex my friend," Harry said, leaning back with his own beer. "I take it you're Nick Fury's man, here to get the low-down? I have to say, this kind of approach will work with me far better than trying to strong arm me, or intimidate me and mine."

"Nick doesn't like the fact that you're upsetting things. He's willing to admit that you seem to be fighting the good fight for now but he's not ready to say you're not a threat. That's as far as you're going to get with my boss frankly. Fury's a spy, it's part of his personality to be untrusting. But we really would like at least an idea of what went down with the Sentinels."

Harry nodded, and leaned back thinking what he wanted to share for a moment before beginning to speak. He told Clint about how they had gotten a hint of something going on with Bolivar Trask, and how they had trailed some of the money thanks to a few spies from Harry's business enterprises, giving no hint about Sebastian Shaw and what happened to him, or about Emma's involvement at all. He went into detail on the battle, but didn't mention the fact that they'd walked away with prisoners, or that there had even been another team involved at all.

Clint of course realized that Harry was still holding back, but he shrugged, pulling at his beer. He'd already got enough to satisfy him, which would hopefully be enough to satisfy his boss too. After all, we've got other fish to fry. "Good enough for me," he said aloud. "And since my offerings nearly done, I think I'm done too..."

He looked over and stopped, staring. By the time Harry had finished his tale over an hour had gone past, and Franklin and the others had not stopped work on their castle for more than a few minutes. Now it was practically a story tall, big enough that Franklin and the other younger children could actually move around inside of it, and it was still there, the sea not daring to come near it for some reason.

"Even when you're trying to be normal you just can't be anything but extraordinary." Clint laughed shaking his head.

"I've tried normal, I much prefer to be extraordinary." Harry said, smiling as Ororo moved towards him, her panja ring glinting in the light, the chains tinkling as she sat next to him on his beach chair. The only thing that could make this better is Jean being here. Yet even that thought faded to the back of Harry's mind as Ororo leaned in for a slow kiss.Bliss.

It didn't last.

OOOOOOO

It was a sad fact that extremists could twist reality to fit their world view, regardless of the reality in question. So it was with the Friends of Humanity. Many of their members, much like the general public in America, were appalled by what had occurred with the Sentinels. Some of them even began to look at their own actions, and began to think truly and deeply where such could lead them.

But not all of them. The vast majority of the group which called itself the Friends of Humanity were not rational people. They were extremists, racists of a stripe that would recognize the Skinhead Movement as its spiritual cousins, if not in terms of target then at least in terms of philosophy.

Worse, in the past few months the Friends of Humanity had begun to reinforce their diatribe with religious overtones. This was something Dennis had missed entirely when analyzing the threat the Friends of Humanity could be. As an agnostic himself he didn't really understand the religious mindset, and so didn't recognize how dangerous it could be when paired with the kind of racism the Friends of Humanity represented.

Pastor Jeff Gordon was one such man who had risen to lead the local Friends of Humanity chapter. He denounced them in sermons both in public and private to those who listened to him, a group of around 75 pulled from all walks of life. That hatred had begun to backlash against him however in the church. His nominal superiors ordered him to tone it down, the Pope and the Church not having come to any consensus about mutants as yet.

But that had only made him more vociferous in private. He also had a simple answer to the Sentinel Uprising: It was a mutant trick, it was that simple, and now a mutant group had those giant robots and would turn them on the rest of humanity.

He had just finished a diatribe on this when one of his parishioners called him. The man in question had spotted Kitty Pryde and her family walking around a park together. He was a janitor at the school Kitty had attended before her powers activated, and had seen both her and Lance Alver's powers in action. Xavier had erased them from his memory for a time. But seeing Kitty use her power to phase through a tree as she was walking and talking to her parents brought it back.

It hadn't taken long for the pastor to rustle up a posse or to find out where the Prydes lived. This was precisely the kind of threat mutants could be, a nice gentle-seeming girl like Kitty, being a mutant, hiding among normal people like she had no shame! Who knew what kind of dark deeds lurked in her mind, who knew how she used that power of hers?! So now, a group of around fifty men and women converged on the small suburban neighborhood where the Prydes lived.

OOOOOOO

One moment all was fine. Kitty had enjoyed the day out with her parents, walking around their small town, having lunch, seeing a movie and just generally spending time together.

Then her father was down on the ground having taken a beer bottle to the back of his head. There was no blood thankfully, an analytic part of Kitty's brain noted, the part that had been trained by Harry, Logan, and Ororo in countless training exercises. But even as that thought went through her, Kitty was already reaching down, grabbing her father and lifting him halfway onto her shoulder screaming, "Mom, run! Get into the house!"

Kathleen didn't have a single dangerous bone in her body, she had never been a fan of watching violence on TV and had never been close to anything like this in real life before. She stood there gaping down at her husband and around at the crowd coming down the street and even through peoples yards, unable to process what was happening.

The mob behind them came closer, more thrown bottles tried to hit them, some of them phasing through Kitty's body, which caused the crowd to roar their blandishments even louder.

"Get the mutant bitch!"

"Taze the ghostly freak! See what she thinks about some electricity!

A few of them were even shouting to kill her parents, saying that since they had her, they couldn't be allowed to live to have more children. It was such a sign of hatred that for a moment even Kitty couldn't deal with it for a moment.

But thanks to her training it passed quickly, then she grabbed her mother, pulling her along. "Come on mom, we've got to get out of here!"

Thankfully not everyone in the town felt that way about mutants, not by a long shot. Moreover, the Prydes were both well-known and liked in their own neighborhood so even those who wouldn't have cared one way or another about a mutant on TV being attacked, they did care about this.

Several dozen of those neighbors heard or saw what was going on and called 911 as the mob tried to chase down the Prydes as they raced towards their house. A few of them even opened their windows and shouted at the mob to stop. One of them took it a bit further.

Thomas Findarson was a former Marine gunnery sergeant who had retired several years before. He'd gone through two wives, and seen three children off to college, including one daughter from She-who-must-not-be-named. He was well-respected in the neighborhood and had lived there even longer than the Prydes and knew all three very well.

He'd also recently been going through a quasi-religious crisis, caused by the arrival of Thor and the sighting of Balder on earth. For he was a Þórsman, a follower of the god Þór. He never made a big deal about it, his religion was not one that was at home with proselytizing. But it was a warrior's religion, and it had helped him through the first few years of his life as a marine.

Like others among the Asatru Thomas had been astonished at seeing their gods come to life, and dismayed by the differences between what they had historically been and what they seemed to be now. Thor in particular looked much more like the Germanic, or Aryan depiction of the Thunder God than the Norse version.

The god of the common man, the warrior defender of family and the storms was supposed to have red hair, and Mjölnir wasn't metal but stone! Yet despite this and some odd blind spots in relation to his own history, Thor acted like Þór was depicted as: a defender, a warrior, a bit dense, not someone who'd you go to for help in solving a problem that couldn't be solved with your fists, but boisterous and friendly.

Wishing to see this Thor for himself, Thomas had recently made the decision to move to Arizona to see him in person. He was packing when the ruckus began outside. Looking out the window his eyes narrowed, then Thomas moved over to his gun collection. Thank God we live in Virginia, he thought to himself, reaching forward and pulling out a shotgun from a triple-locked gun safe.

Then he moved to his front door, opened it calmly, and just as calmly raised his gun and fired at the feet of the crowd as they raced past his house after his neighbors. Dozens of them stopped, with the rest of them moving around them, drunken anger fueling them in their rush.

"I don't know what has gotten into you all but if you don't stop some lead's going to join it!" Thomas shouted.

A second after those words were out of his mouth however there was a loud voice, Pastor Jones, Thomas thought, recognizing the voice. A whack job by any man's measure. "Damn mutie lover! Don't let her escape who knows what she's using her powers for! Someone pin that mutie loving old man down too!"

There were a few people out there with guns, and they raised them now, firing at Thomas where he stood in his doorway. Thankfully they were also just as drunk as everyone else, and their aim was off. Still Thomas backed away into his house then reloaded his shotgun before leaning out firing back quickly. Two men went down screaming. The buckshot didn't have much range but it had enough to wound, and he aimed for the legs of the crowd, thinking to hit some of them.

Thomas' attack had given the three Prydes enough time to get to their house. Kathleen and Kitty had helped her father into their house, and as soon as her mother was locking the front door behind them Kitty raced ahead of them, slapping her hand on the doorway that had been to a walk-in closet but was now the runic doorway that would take them to safety. "For the Pryde!"

She shouted, then rushed back pushing her father and mother through the doorway. "Tell one of the house-elves to get Harry or Ororo here!" The idea that she could have done that herself would later occur to her, especially since Clare had bonded to her, but at the moment that thought had left Kitty's mind.

With that she turned around, determined to help their neighbor, fearing what would happen to him if they all just disappeared. Thomas was just one man, he couldn't stop the large crowd which had been on their heels as they raced in to their house. As she turned around again, the front door banged open. A large man stood in the doorway shouting "come out wherever you are mutie!"

He was answered, by Kitty racing forward, grabbing him as her hands went tangible for just a moment before going intangible with her entire body, pushing him down into the ground. "GAH, what, let me, no!" He screamed, then only his nose and up was sticking out of the floor of her house's doorway, and she was moving on.

She grimly ignored his continued screams as she left him there, moving on quickly.

Two doors down from Kitty's home Thomas grimaced, ducking away from the window he'd taken to using as a firing position, feeling his heart pounding and his arms beginning to ache from the recoil. I'm too damn old for this. Too damn creaky. Worse Thomas knew he wasn't doing enough to keep the mob's attention on him. He had seen at least half the crowd ignore him in favor of racing after Terry and his family.

Looking out the window Thomas' eyes widened as he saw the young girl, Kitty he thought was her name, she hadn't been around often lately but he remembered her well enough. More importantly though she had just come through the wall separating the next house over from her own like a ghost! So she really was a mutant, he thought, shrugging. It didn't matter right now, but at least it looked like she would be making it out of this in one piece.

He grimaced however as several of the mob began to toss Molotov cocktails into her house, smashing the windows open. Several of them even raced forward with kerosene containers tossing them into the house as well before tossing makeshift torches after them.

"What is it with mobs and fire?" Thomas said aloud then pulled up his d shotgun, pushing himself to his feet with a grimace before firing out his window once again, catching several of the bastards as they tried to get to his door. He did so three more times as Kitty ran towards them, pushing people this way and that into the ground, trees, parked cars or other things, sticking them there, screaming. That was kind of freaky, Thomas admitted, but no reason to attack her like the crowd had. Violence like that only beget more violence, he'd seen that in his time as a marine.

Thomas suddenly grimaced in agony as something hit him in the shoulder and a feeling he had known before stole over him. I've been shot. Again! He'd been shot twice before in the line of duty, and once by she-who-must-not-be-named. Ironically she-who-must-not-be-named had come a lot closer to killing him than anything in his time in the field had. Fourth time I've been shot, he thought am I cursed or just lucky to survive?

Switching his shotgun to his offhand he fired again, catching another man who was about to use a tazer on Kitty. With that she made it to his doorway. Turning aside he looked at her as she came in, then another explosion of pain hit him, and the world for Thomas Findarson's world went dark.

Kitty stared down aghast at her longtime neighbor, hit by a bullet ricocheting off the windowsill, the bullet had taken him right in the back of the head, killing him instantly. She'd never been close with him of course, but she knew Mister Thomas as a nice old guy, she had also known his youngest son fairly well before her powers activated.

"He, he fought for us, for my family and me. He didn't deserve this!" She said aloud shouting it turning to stare angrily at the so called Friends of Humanity. "Why?! Why!?"

In the crowd a young man looked down at his gun as if for the first time. It was a hunting rifle he'd used several times before on animals, but now, staring between it and where the old man had stood in the window, it felt so much heavier, and so foreign. He dropped it, backing away and shaking his head, suddenly horribly, terribly, sober. "N, no, no!"

In the distance the sound of police sirens began, and the crowd moved restlessly before Pastor Jones's voice barked out. "Leave my children! Flee, the powers that be are under mutie control, they will not understand the good we tried to do here!"

"Good!?" Kitty shrieked, tears running down her face as she raced forward, her body intangible as various makeshift weapons going through her. "Good!?" She reached Pastor Jones, her hands becoming tangible for just a moment as she grabbed the lapels of his priestly cassock, twisting and turning, bringing him down to the ground and pushing him into it as he screamed, burying him up to his eyebrows in the solid concrete of the road. "Good?! You call killing a decent old man like that good! You call attacking my family like this for no reason good?! You don't know what that word means!"

She came out of the ground, her eyes flashing, and she reached for her ever-present pouch, where she kept small stones embedded with different runic arrays, filled with a fury she had never known before. It scared her deep down, but right now that didn't matter. What did matter was making these people pay!

Before she even opened her pouch the crowd was already scattering in the face of her powers and the approaching sirens. A part of her was tempted, oh so very tempted, to hunt them down, put all of them in the ground as she had several of them already. But she didn't. Instead she turned, moving over to Thomas and reaching down to close the old man's eyes as the tears began to fall while her house, the house she had lived in for her entire life, began to burn.

At that point Harry and Storm arrived, bursting out of the runic doorway like hell's own furies. Harry quickly began to put out the fire, while Storm raced on, heading out the door. She slowed her headlong race as she noticed the lack of moving enemies and the number of people stuck into inanimate objects here and there. "Kitten where are you?!"

After a second Storm noticed a hand waving from a window in the next house over and raced in that direction, uncaring of the police who had begun to arrive. She vaulted over the windowsill, landing next to Kitty her face anxious though it became somewhat less so as she realized that Kitty herself wasn't hurt. An old man lay next to her dead, the back of his head shattered by what looked like a rifle round of some kind. "Kitten, are you hurt?" Storm asked softly, kneeling next to her.

"I'm not," she said shaking her head slowly. "But Storm…" She gestured at the body and said softly "why just, just why?"

"Mean-spirited mindless hate child. Don't try to understand it, it is impossible for those of us like you and I to understand the thought process of such as they."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." Kitty almost snarled.

"Nor should it," Storm said, gathering the young girl into a hug. Kitty turned from where she had been gently stroking the old man's hair to bury her head in Storm's shoulder where she began to cry great racking sobs.

Outside Harry had finished putting out the fire, and moved to glare angrily at the police, who had first tried to order him to surrender. When he simply ignored them going about his business they had even tried to fire at him, until the bullets bounced off his Magia Erebea enhanced crisis suit.

His contempt of them seemed to finally get through, and one of them, an inspector of some kind pushed forward, while the other policemen raced off to help apprehend those members of the mob that had taken to their heels. About a dozen people were still stuck here and there in the ground however, and the police didn't know what to do with them.

"Your Guardian right, I've seen you on the news. What the hell happened here?" asked the inspector, frowning angrily. "Did you do this?" He went on, gesturing at the bodies all around.

"No I didn't," Harry replied coldly. He then tersely reported to the policeman what Kathleen had been able to tell him, trying to do so in a way that didn't hint at any previous involvement between him and Kitten, that he and Storm had simply been in the area and that the two parents had been running away down the street. It wouldn't hold up for very long under any kind of scrutiny, but by that time Kitty and her family would be safe in Camelot, and he doubted any of them would want to come back here after this.

"So, do you know how to undo this?" the detective asked, shivering as he stared at the bodies stuck in the ground or in various objects. It was scary, one of the scariest things he'd ever seen. He wasn't going to immediately believe that those Friends of Humanity psychos might have a point if a mutant could do something on this. But even so it was fucking terrifying especially considering what he knew Guardian could do.

"For that I think we'll have to ask the young lady who did it." Harry/Guardian replied shrugging his shoulders. He continued to look at the policeman, who shifted uncomfortably under that cold gave, wondering what kind of man was behind that matte black mask and red goggles. "And what will these people face in the courts?" Guardian asked softly.

"Reckless endangerment, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, gathering with intent to cause assault, accessory to murder," and if we can figure out who actually killed Thomas, first-degree murder," the detective replied grimly. He might not like mutants, and in fact after this episode he didn't like them even more, but the law was the law, and everyone was protected under it. Especially an old man like Thomas, who had fought so hard for his country in the past.

"Good," said Harry softly. "In that case, we might be able to convince the girl to let them go."

That wasn't actually as hard as it could've been. Now that she had gotten her anger out, and her grief had settled down into a simmer Kitty simply wanted to get away from this. She quickly pulled the people she had trapped out one by one, watching with grim eyes as they were each cuffed and led away, shouting, screaming rather, in fear and terror now at her and her mutation. Harry led her off after the last one, father Jones, had been pulled out.

Hidden now underneath a Notice-Me-Not, having no wish to talk to anyone at the moment Storm moved over to the paramedics, shaking her head as she stared at the body of the man who had fought for Kitty and her family and what Kitty had told her of the man. "He deserved better than that. What a senseless death."

"On the contrary, I believe that Thomas would tell you if you could but hear him that he died as he would have wished." Said a female voice she had never heard before, it's voice vibrating with some strange power that she hadn't felt before in any other voice.

Ororo turned and stared. Standing there beside her where no one had been a moment ago was Hela. Harry's description of the woman or goddess rather was spot on, and even in her grief Storm had to nod her head at the other woman, she was quite beautiful. But such a thought could not stay in her head at the moment, because next to the woman stood the shade of the man that was currently being carted away, his body covered by a sheet.

That shade was nodding his head, mouthing words that Storm could not hear and she looked at Hela who shrugged her shoulders. "He says I was correct, that he was a Marine, and he always wanted to go in battle, as his religion dictated. He was a follower of Thor, to die like this in the defense of others is all he could ask."

With a gesture from Hela the man turned, moving off before disappearing between one step and the next. Catching Ororo's look Hela shook her head. "As he died in battle he should have been picked up by Odin and taken to his halls. But fear not, I might be the only one of us able to come to Earth to gather such souls, but he will find a place in Niflheim. It might not be all drinks, songs and… merry making, but he will be happy there for eternity, until his soul is called to serve once again in the Ragnarok."

"That does make me feel somewhat better," Ororo said, shaking her head. "I doubt it will help young Kitty or her parents though."

"Grief is rarely dealt with so easily in the living," Hela said somewhat sadly nodding her head. For a moment the two women stood there, invisible to any of the men nearby, the conversation unheard by any. It was rather awkward Ororo realized, meeting this formidable goddess in such a fashion, going about her sacred business. Yet also knowing that she was after Harry, her, or rather their Harry! She wondered how to broach the subject that she knew kept Hela from following her current charge.

After a brief second she decided to simply come out and say it. "Harry told me of your interest in him. It wasn't exactly flirting, and it wasn't exactly a proposal, but it came close did not?"

"It did, as close as I am willing to come to it." Hela drew herself up shaking her head angrily. "I am not some supplicant nor am I some love-struck young maiden eager to throw myself at the feet of the man who has caught my interest. I am a goddess, and as such I will not debase myself further."

"I can respect that…" Ororo said with a nod. She was about to mention that she herself had been worshiped as a goddess, but decided not to. Better to keep this between two women rather than two goddesses. She stared at the other woman, trying to figure out whether or not she really was interested in Harry, or if it was just his power that caught her interest. It wasn't like she could really be in love with him was it? Again the decision to be blunt won out in Ororo's mind, and she simply asked Hela if she knew what the cause of her interest was.

"I don't know," Hela replied honestly. "All goddesses are attracted to power in a greater or lesser extent." She went on more softly. "But there is more to it… He is a good man, an honest and good man, one who has no need of ulterior motives when dealing with such as I, nor is he frightened or wary of me. He is alluring and unique beyond that power. I know enough to wish to get to know more. I will not say I love him, but I am interested in the man known as Harry Potter, not Harry Potter the near God, but the man underneath the power."

Ororo frowned further, but really given how few times the two of them had actually interacted, that made sense, and Hela's bluntness was much like Ororo's own, and made her respect the other woman slightly more. "I cannot say yes or no," she said at last. "I, given my upbringing I am well aware of how several women can come to love one man and through him one another, but this is not only my decision, and you yourself said you don't know if you love him or are merely interested, not yet."

She waited until Hela nodded and then went on. "I had come to love Jean almost as much as I had come to love Harry before she joined us. I have gotten to know Emma, and come to love her almost as much, had seen the love she has for Harry was true, not momentary infatuation or something that would fade."

Hela eyes narrowed, but she said nothing and Ororo continued. "I am unwilling to make a decision on this point, and I know that Harry would not in any way condone any such thing, but, nor do I wish to shut out any kind of chance in that area. If you and I get to know one another, if you and Harry get to know one another, if you come to believe and show that there is more than physical attraction between you, then perhaps room could be made for you."

Ororo watched as the Vanir goddess of death's eyes narrowed behind her red mask, and her lips clenched tight. "I am not used to being treated like some sort of supplicant," Hela said coldly,

"Then you must give over the idea of persuing Harry," Ororo said simply. "Whatever else, you will be entering this relationship on our terms. Trying to force your way in would be a disaster, and I think you know that."

"True," Hela said between clenched teeth then she shook her head. "And it is that reason why I have not tried to press forward further." That and my own pride, Hela thought to herself.

It occurred to Ororo then that right in front of her was a perfect source of information on the Viking's gods, one that could not be doubted. But the question is, what will it cost to use this source?

Then suddenly Hela laughed shaking her head. "Goddess you might not be, but you are formidable enough for a mortal. I must go. I cannot stay long away from my halls, even with my trusted Garm to watch for trouble. Still, methinks a further meeting between the two of us could be beneficial."

"I believe so as well," Ororo said with a nod and a faint smile of her own. "I have many questions, about you, about the Asgardians in general, about how you rule your realm. Perhaps we can meet on neutral ground somewhere at some point and play 20 questions?"

Hela laughed again, shaking her head. "A rather childish game, but it can be useful. Perhaps, perhaps at some point. I must go but…" Hela said her voice slowing and becoming more thoughtful. "Thank you for your honesty, and for agreeing to allow me the chance."

With that she left without another word, and Ororo sighed, moving off and teleporting away, Harry having removed the runic doorway in the Pryde's former domicile for now.

The attack on Kitty's family was one of many that the extremist Friends of Humanity launched that day and the next. Many times they were fought by pro-mutant supremacist groups, mutants who were able to fight back here and there, or even other people, who saw them as anarchists clothed in the robes of racists.

That didn't matter for Harry and Ororo however, they were simply glad that nothing permanent had occurred to the Prydes. Kitty had of course come through without a scratch, while Terry had a concussion but it would pass quickly. Her mother had wrenched her ankle, and bruised her shoulder heavily when she fell through the doorway, slamming onto the hard stones of Camelot's floor but that was all. For all the violence of the attack they were very lucky, though Kitty of course did not see it that way, nor did her parents after they learned of Thomas' death.

All three of them were happy to move in to Camelot, not wishing to go home to the house that had been so attacked, leaving Claire to gather all clothing and other items they wanted to keep. The three of them were welcomed by nearly every person living in the castle, but still rather shocky for the rest of that day and well into the next.

OOOOOOO

Despite the attack on Kitty's family, life had to go on for the other castle's denizens and, true to her word the day after their too-short day off Betsy led Amara and Piotr on an investigation mission down to Brazil. Piotr was there as both ostensible team leader, Betsy not having acted in that capacity yet during their training scenarios, and strong arm. Betsy of course had her telepathic powers which would prove invaluable for the research into Da Costa's past. Amara was there because she knew the country better than any of the others, and knew where to start looking.

Roberto originally came from a rich family, his father owning several construction companies scattered across Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. His father had hosted a party for the newly discovered city state Amara came from at their villa in Leblon, the richest district in the city, and she had been there with her father at one point. Their cover was as a trio of joggers making their way through the rich neighborhood.

Considering his build was not at all like a normal joggers, Piotr got some odd looks but most everyone they passed tended to ignore them. Both women were dressed in relatively skimpy clothing, exercise clothing to be sure, but still skimpier than his upbringing was happy with, yet in comparison to some of the people around them, Betsy and Amara's outfits were practically repressed.

Not that it's the only thing my upbringing is unhappy with of late, Piotr thought dryly as he followed the other two, attempting to keep his attention on them and not on any of the other women they passed. Something, though he didn't know it at the time, that won him major brownie points.

There's also the whole fact that Amara's been hinting that she would be happy if Danielle joined us in our relationship. She hadn't come out and said that of course but she had hinted at it occasionally, and also seemed fine with Danielle flirting with him in front of her.

Then there was Amara's own upbringing, which was ancient Greek, and much more open about things like sex, the body in general, than Piotr, brought up a Russian Catholic in a very rural hometown with strict grandparents, not to mention a very young and inquisitive sister who had no concept of privacy, was comfortable with.

The most bizarre thing had occurred the day after the battle up in Montréal, with Piotr, Amara and Betsy all lounging around in the adults only communal bathhouse in Camelot. It certainly isn't the Russian way, but I can't exactly complain about that and call myself a man he thought, smiling internally. It wasn't exactly a thought his grandparents and his grandmother in particular would've been happy with, but it was true enough.

The looks Piotr had gotten in turn during that brief interlude in the baths had been… gratifying, but made Piotr very self-conscious and confused. I like Amara, but she's just a little too open too in-your-face about these things for me to be used to yet.

As if she had known his thoughts were on her, Amara turned looking at him and winking broadly before running a little faster now, shaking her rear just a little bit more. "Case in point," he muttered, racing to catch up, breathing heavily now, while Betsy fell in behind him.

A few moments later Amara slowed down, something Piotr was thankful for by that point. The houses around here were even larger than the normal sort in Leblon, and included gates, large front lawns and equally grandiose fences. "Fourth house in," she murmured, despite there being no one near enough to overhear them, slowing down to power walk instead of jog. "It looks almost exactly the same as the time I was here with my father, but I can't tell if there's anyone home. That'll be your job Bets'."

"Indeed," the purple haired woman replied. "Just keep moving at this pace, I'll leave a conscious command for my body to keep following you but I won't be able to speed up or slow down." Betsy wasn't Emma or Jean, she hadn't honed her telepathic ability to the level she could concentrate on both the material and mental planes at once.

Amara nodded, and watched as a sort of vacant expression came over Betsy's face. Her body was still moving as she had said it would but there was obviously no one home, the telepath sending her telepathy out towards the household.

Piotr moved to Betsy's other side, frowning. "I wonder what she will find? I can't help but wish one of our more experienced members were with us, but they have so much to do, so many demands on their time, that this side project is just too much."

"It's not the first time we've been out and about on our own. You'll get used to it." Amara replied, reaching across Betsy to pat the large Russian on the shoulder.

Piotr nodded, then looked at Betsy between them and then over at Amara before saying softly, "We need to talk."

"That had some interesting connotations to it," Amara said smiling a little worriedly now. "This is a private talk I suppose, about us right?"

"We need to talk about barriers, I suppose," Piotr said slowly trying to form his thoughts into words and fumbling for the English words wasn't helping any.

"You know it's the girl who usually sets those barriers right?" Amara said, her smile now a little more certain. "This is about the time I talked you into bathing with me and Betsy right?"

"That's part of it, but the other part is about Dani. You, I, you haven't made a big deal about the facts that she's, she's interested in me, I mean she's flirted with me in front of you! If anything you've, you've hinted at the exact opposite."

"I haven't made a big deal out of it because I like her, and I think Dani's joining us could be interesting," Amara replied simply. "Just like Harry and Jean and Ororo and Emma. Though I think I'd draw the line at one other girl!"

"Bathing with Betsy?" Piotr asked, his mind going off on a tangent for a moment.

"That's just a cultural thing," Amara waved her hand airily. "If it makes you uncomfortable to bathe with us, I'll stop asking you to stay when one of the others shows up."

"Thank you," Piotr said sincerely. "But that's not the only thing. You, you might be happy with the idea of, of being in a threesome, but I, I am not. It goes against my religion, love should be between a man and a woman. I won't, I cannot in good conscience decry anyone else's choices that would be wrong of me, I am not God. But neither am I like Harry. Harry might be able to split his time and love between so many women, but I don't think I can.

"So you're a one woman man…" Amara mused, moving in front of Betsy for a moment and then across to Piotr's other side before linking her arm with his. "You know, I think I'm fine with that!"

Piotr looked at her in surprise and Amara shook her head. "I should've realized that you weren't fine with it, I thought you were just embarrassed, not that you were having religious issues, I apologize for that."

She let their linked arms fall apart for a moment before grabbing his large calloused and yes even now a little paint splattered, hand, bringing it up to kiss his knuckles one after another. "As for Dani joining us, I can't say that she'll be happy with your decision, she's rather liked you since the first time she met you, and she and I have always gotten along well. I also won't deny that I'm, well, attracted to girls as much as I am to guys. Still, we're in a relationship, and that means that that choice is up to both of us. If you don't feel happy or comfortable with the idea, I'll drop it."

Piotr nodded, though he was a little uncomfortable with how blunt Amara was about the whole thing. Still, he was the one that had started this discussion, and being blunt at this point was a better idea than trying to hide things. "Thank you," he murmured, bringing their linked hands up to his own mouth kissing her knuckles in turn, then moving down her hand and to her elbow, which he'd learned was rather a ticklish spot for her.

"Gah, stop that!" Amara laughed, pulling her arm away quickly.

"That was possibly one of the sweetest things I've heard," Betsy said having come out of her trance a few moments ago. Both younger people blushed hotly, and she smirked at them, poking an elbow in Piotr's ribs. "And I'm almost sad you didn't take Amara up on her offer, it could've been interesting to see if I could join you three after all." At both of their blushes Betsy laughed, shaking her head sending her purple hair cascading this way and that. "Just joking, no offense Piotr, you're a nice guy and handsome too, but you're not my type."

An instant later she sobered, twitching her head to one side as they finally passed the edge of the property she had been telepathically investigating. "I found some things out, and they're not painting a pretty picture. Roberto's father is dead, his younger brother, Roberto's uncle, is now running the family business."

"Dead how?" Piotr asked quickly, grateful to get off the topic of emotions, relationships and jokes on him thereupon. "And were there no witnesses in the house to what happened?"

"No, no witnesses, everything I've got is secondhand, mostly from a police report the new head of the family had read after the fact. Not mind you that he's looked into it very closely, evidently he was second in line to take over the company. Roberto was first in line, and very much a favored son apparently."

"I could have told you that second part," Amara interjected. "His father doted on Roberto thanks mostly to his skill at soccer.

"Yes, but Roberto had no head for business, and that favoritism from his older brother apparently caused some familial friction there, since the uncle thought he should take over." Betsy shrugged, shaking her head. "It's an old story."

"As old as nobility," Amara murmured shaking her head. "Pity, I liked Mantigo, Roberto's father. He was a womanizer, but at least he was a very urbane and intellectual one. I don't think I ever heard about his younger brother however."

"Apparently he was stationed down in Argentina running the families interests there, while his brother and Roberto were, in his mental words, gallivanting around like playboys spending the money he was making for them. Did I say familial issues? Familial issues." Betsy murmured, lowering her voice as they turned around to head back to their hotel.

The trio had booked a room at the Brazil Hilton for four days, assuming that it would take a while to piece together what had really happened, with only Betsy having any experience in this kind of investigation and with Sage, Dennis, and Raven all busy elsewhere. Harry was busy up in space and working with Kitty, while Ororo was busy with Dr. Druid, all working on various magical projects. That left only the three of them.

Then too they would also like a few days down here themselves. Brazilian beaches were supposed to be amazing or so Amara said, though she had objected when Piotr brought up the idea of bringing Illyana and Melody along with the other kids to see them, as they had in California. When he actually saw the beaches a few days later, Piotr was more than glad she had. There were some discussions he did not want to have with his sister, ever if he could help it.

"Was he at all involved in what happened?" Piotr asked as they walked.

"No, but he's more than happy to take advantage of it. I caught a hint in his mind that he thinks Roberto might still be alive somewhere, but he is not going to lift a finger to find him."

Piotr frowned, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "On the one hand that could make it easier down the line, if Professor Xavier is able to help Roberto regain his own mind, he'll simply stay with the X-Men I suppose. Yet at the same time, his control of another company could help Harry's plans in the long term."

Both women looked at Piotr with respect at that, nodding. "Well thought out Piotr, but not really necessary in this case I think. Still we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I got a few locations from the brother's mind where we could go and ask some questions anyway."

Piotr nodded thinking, but after a few moments it was Amara who spoke up. "All right, we'll head back to the hotel and change out of our disguises and I use the word loosely, then Piotr and I will hit up one of those places, and Betsy you can hit up the other. Are they at all close to one another?"

"Pretty close, one of them is a dance club downtown, the other is a soccer stadium called Estadio Vasco Da Gama."

"What is the connection there?" Piotr asked quizzically.

The dance club is where the father disappeared, and the other is the last place Roberto was seen before his own disappearance. The timing I think is important," Betsy said, smiling thinly. "Mantigo disappeared within two days of Roberto. But the police haven't been able to find any hint of a connection."

"Was there ever any hint of Roberto's girlfriend in his uncle's mind?" Amara asked.

Betsy shook her head in ignorance, she had looked for that specifically given what little Amara had been able to tell them about Roberto before this, but hadn't found anything. "But given the uncle's estrangement from Roberto and his older brother, that makes sense I suppose."

"In that case, let's stay together for now, and investigate the stadium first," Amara decided, looking at Piotr who nodded.

A few hours later they were at the stadium, which was located in what could be called a middle class area of the city, well off, clean but not rich. The stadium, a multi-sport one, was being repaired. Half of it had seemingly been melted into slag at some point in the past, damage which had spread to the field itself, burning much of the grass to ash.

While Betsy talked to several locals, Piotr and Amara inspected the site itself. Both of them came to the same conclusion, that it had been caused by Roberto. "His powers must've gone out of control for some reason," Amara said shaking her head. "I know about that kind of thing all too damn well."

Piotr put his arm around her shoulders giving her a squeeze, but Amara simply smiled. While her powers had gone out of control creating the volcano that sat outside her home city's walls, she hadn't actually killed anyone when her powers woke for the first time.

After concluding that, they left Betsy to continue that part of the investigation, heading to the nightclub where apparently the father had also disappeared. There they ran into a dead end. Neither of them had any training in asking questions but they posed as old friends of the family, which Amara actually pulled off rather well given her knowledge of Mantigo.

Nonetheless, they couldn't find any witnesses to what happened. Yes Mantigo had been there, and the workers apparently knew this was the last place he'd been seen. But that was all anyone knew, none had seen him leave, or had any memory of anything happening. When she followed up on this the next day Betsy was even able to verify it, no one had seen anything.

That evening the three of them met up at the hotel, and after grabbing some food from a nearby eatery absconded to their hotel room's veranda looking out over the city. Rio de Janeiro was a beautiful city, if incredibly crowded. It was a little too much for Piotr's taste, including the massive statue of Christ the Redeemer, which simply made him shake his head and mumble something about not worshiping graven images under his breath.

Over a few of the local beers and some rather good food the three of them exchanged information, after which Betsy shook her head. "So now we know what set off that stadium's destruction, his girlfriend getting caught up in a fight between his group and a rival gang of football thugs." Betsy shook her head. "I'm a Brit, and I know about football thuggery, but these Brazilians take it to a whole new level!"

"That doesn't answer the question what happened to Mantigo," said Amara frowning. "A business magnate of his power and influence doesn't just disappear, along with two of his best bodyguards! I'm beginning to think Sebastian Shaw might've had something to do with it.

Piotr frowned. "But Emma didn't say anything about it, nor did Sage."

"True." Betsy threw back her beer, then clunked the empty bottle down on the table. "I'm not happy about this. So far we've turned up a big solid zero, which means Charles is going to have one dickens of a time trying to help Roberto. His girlfriend was alive at least from what the locals said, I think that's the route we need to follow, forget the elder De Costa's disappearance for now."

"There's a chance she might be," Amara murmured. "You said that none of the locals knew whether or not she died with the rest of the gang members, no remains were found of a woman? She could still be around somewhere, but finding her is going to be damn tough unless we find someone who knows her."

OOOOOOO

In an effort to take Kitty's mind off the attack yesterday, Harry had lunch with her and Doctor Druid. Ororo would have joined them, but Sage had asked for her help that morning on vetting a few of the contacts Shaw had made in France and Egypt. It was a moment of familial peace in a day that was going to be incredibly busy for Harry.

They talked about magic in general, and the bottleneck that he and Ororo had talked about yesterday morning. The runic arrays were incredibly useful, allowing them to use magic in various ways for dozens of projects, but at the present there was only Harry, a master, Kitty, a budding and inventive journeyman, and Ororo and Dr. Druid, apprentices both, who had any ability with them. Worse, Kitty couldn't devote all her time to working on various arrays even now, and the less said about all the demands on Harry's time the better.

"We need a way to speed up the work on any kind of runic array, one that won't take still more of our time. I also want to find a way to speed up the smelting process for Orihalcum, and figure out a way to speed up the work on the defensive arrays on the Ravenspires. That is going to be an issue going forward," Harry said, frowning. The work on the Ravenspires was slow going, and Harry was near to the point of asking Dr. Doom for more construction droids, but not quite ready yet.

Doctor Druid nodded thoughtfully, tapping his fingers together. "I have tried to devote as much time as I could to learning about your various runic languages Mr. Potter, but I have to admit I have no idea how to speed up that process. Moreover I would be very leery at even following directions on an existing array let alone coming up with my own."

"What about those time dilation arrays you set up for the farms?" Kitty said softly, looking up from where she had been poking at her food. "Could we use them to give us more time per day?"

"Yes, but for the person using it that time would continue. Do you want to be alone working on something like that for weeks on end while everyone else thinks only a day or so has past?"

"That makes sense," Kitty said thoughtfully, though now her eyes were narrowed thoughtfully. "But I had another idea actually, I mean you'll probably think it's silly but…"

"Kitten…" Harry drawled. "You do remember that time you brought up the idea of my old broomstick and the flight array? You've proven that you sometimes see things I've missed, so please, lay it on me girl."

Kitty smiled, and nodded, some of her normal attitude coming back to her for a moment. "Well, you said at one point that house-elves can't use runes, but that's not the same thing as carving them is it, unless their inherent magic interferes with the process somehow? I was practicing runes for months before my magical core began to grow, right? So couldn't we have the house-elves create some kind of production line for the various arrays we need in numbers, and then have one of us power them before emplacing them?"

"That," Harry said thoughtfully staring at the girl. "That right there it is precisely the kind of idea I wanted to hear. It is definitely a plan. If we do it well enough, it could free you and I to continue to research new and better ways of using runic arrays. It wouldn't work for all the work we do, the defensive arrays on the Ravenspires need to be emplaced where they are, but the Trust-me-Not arrays, the runic doors and the initial work on the X-men uniforms, that kind of production line could work for all of those."

"Excluding the crystalline tattoos, though, those need magic pumped into them at every step of their creation," Harry said, gesturing with one hand and suddenly holding a dagger before making it disappear, the array on the back of his hand glowing for just a brief millisecond. "I'd like to get to the point where both the Custodes and the X-men have access to those. "

I'd also like to research the runic doorways and their impact on the ley lines and the magic of the places they are set up on. But that's for the future.

From there the lunch went on, with the two of them figuring out how to set up the production line and where, plus who would teach the house-elves and which house-elf to put in charge of the project, and what arrays Dr. Druid should start learning. After a bit Harry left Doctor Druid and Kitty still talking, happy the girl had regained her normal enthusiasm. Harry, unfortunately had another, far less pleasant meeting to get to, one of many today.

OOOOOOO

"Madame, Ms. Frost and Mr. Potter are here to see you."

Paris looked up from where she had been writing something on her desk. While she routinely used a laptop or computer for practically everything, there was just something satisfying about making your own notes by hand. "Excellent they're right on time. Could you find Amora for me, then let them in and show them to my office?"

Her chief butler nodded his head gravely and left the room, quickly coming back with the blonde newscaster who had, in what many thought an odd arrangement, come to live with her employer. The two women exchanged a glance and Paris nodded. "They're here. Do that voodoo you do so well."

Amora frowned not understanding Paris' whimsical joke there but she nodded. Moving over to the human the Asgardian gently touched her forehead and then her ears intoning a spell in an ancient tongue under her breath.

During the night where she had given what comfort she could to her friend/benefactor, Amora learned that her heritage gave no aid in staying sober, and that humans had come up with drinks whose alcoholic content made even the best mead or wine seem like water. Drunk, Amora had performed some small spells which fizzled out badly, but they had been enough to show Paris her houseguest was something beyond what she seemed.

After talking about it, Paris took Amora's origins in stride, saying it wasn't the weirdest thing she'd ever heard. But then she had asked Amora whether or not there were other magic users, and the fact that Harry was one come out.

Now with all of this latest news and the fact that Harry was now the sole king of the Hellfire Club Paris was feeling a little threatened. Not a lot, she still trusted her own judgment of people, but she wanted some backup nonetheless.

Harry and Emma were ushered into her office, and Harry froze for a moment, staring at first Paris then over at Amora before smiling. "Prudent," he said, getting an odd look from Emma and the butler, before moving towards a chair. The butler left them there, and Harry held up his hands, showing short sleeves. "Nothing up my sleeves," he intoned, smirking a little. "I didn't think you had to share your otherworldly nature so quickly Sorceress."

Amora shrugged her shoulders. "I was not in my right mind at the time, but it seems to have worked out well enough."

"She means she was as drunk as a sailor on a gallon of Fireball." Paris broke in, smiling at the memory of how she'd tried to get the bottle away from the other woman. She'd tried to say that it was a drink best done with shots, but Amora hadn't listened to her.

Amora scowled angrily at Paris for letting that out, but the media mogul went on quickly. "It has been interesting, and rather tempting. Having an ally like this, it could open all sorts of doors. But I decided against it. I've never been all that ambitious…"

Paris waited until Emma had finished laughing at her then went on. "It's true I reached the place where I wanted to be, on top. I don't want to control the world, I don't want to control people, I just don't want to be controlled in turn and I want to keep on doing what I do best. I have more than enough money, more than enough of anything really. The one thing I still wanted, was a happy marriage and a family."

At that Paris lost her smile and leaned forward stabbing both of her younger guests with a glare intended to pin them in their seats. She had been the one to contact Emma about meeting her and Potter, and it was now time to get to the reason they were all here. "You told me weeks back that you were moving against Shaw, Emma, with your little charade about not being friendly with Harry here. Given the recent news, and what it has done to Buckman and his legacy, I have to question that."

Emma Frowned. "I was telling you the truth, Sebastian Shaw was one of our main targets. But the other was the Sentinel Program." Harry tapped her hand lightly, and Emma cocked an eyebrow at him while he shook his head.

"I won't lie Paris." Harry said, taking over for Emma quickly. "We knew before I joined the Hellfire Club that Edward had thoughts and feelings towards mutants that were dangerous. The more we looked into it, the more his involvement with the Sentinel Program came out. We didn't want to move against him, but we had to move against the Sentinels. We had nothing to do with the Sentinels going berserk the other day, that was all them. After that, we did what we had to, we didn't even need to point the finger at Buckman, that was all SHIELD and Shaw set it in motion without any input from us."

Paris scowled angrily steepling her fingers. "You did what you had to. Who is we? Who are you really?"

"My real name is Harry Potter, but I'm also Guardian, leader of the Custodes Mundi," Harry said slowly.

Amora twitched, frowning. While she could keep Harry from influencing Paris' mind via magic, she knew her chance in a duel of the arcane with him were slim to none. She didn't have the power, and she thought she might not have the knowledge either. Certainly she hadn't faced that many mages before in combat, while Harry almost certainly had.

But with that admission Harry had upped the ante considerably. Paris could now hurt him and Emma simply by sharing that information with the wrong ears. And Harry knew it too.

"That is far more up front than I expected," Paris said, leaning back in her chair, before speaking those thoughts aloud. "The Custodes Mundi, and Magical Minds. I could hurt you badly by connecting those two dots in the public mind."

"But you won't," Harry said shaking his head and staring into her eyes. He wasn't reading her mind of course, he was reading her body language, her tone of voice, and above all the way she had aggressively asked those questions. Questions of people who she thought might have removed Sebastian Shaw at the very least, and thus shown a certain ruthlessness.

Those were the signs of a woman who was still hurting deep down, and who wanted some closure. "You want to know whether or not we had anything to do with Buckman going so anti-mutant crazy, don't you? If we can answer that, will that suffice?"

"Yes. Amora has said she knows spells that can tell when someone is lying, I want her to cast them on you."

Harry glanced briefly at Amora, who was looking back at him warily. "Do it."

While Emma simply nodded her head in agreement, Amora actually blinked in shock at how quickly Harry had agreed. But Harry knew that Emma wanted to keep Paris' friendship, and was willing to go along with this for now. Amora certainly didn't have enough skill to slip a spell under another on him. More strategically, Paris' strict neutrality, which carried over into all of her media outlets, was a prize beyond price.

At Amora's gesture and the words for "Truth Revealed" in Asgardian, a brief pink and orange aura enveloped both Harry and Emma. Feeling the spell hit him, Harry felt out the magic, realizing it was a very specific type of compulsion charm. Interesting, but not nearly as powerful as Veritaserum, I could throw it off if I tried, and I bet Emma could overcome its effect on her mind too.

At Amora's return nod, Paris blurted out. "Did you know, have a part of or in any way influence Edward Buckman to becoming the narrow minded anti-mutant bigot he became? Did you at any point plan to do him actual physical harm?"

"No we did not," Harry replied firmly, not fighting the strange compulsion charm at all. "He was that way already, the Sentinel program was put into place long before I arrived on this planet."

"Explain that." Paris all but commanded.

Seeing no harm in it Harry briefly described his stay in the Negative Zone and how the Fantastic Four had rescued him, giving the date he'd come through the portal with them. Then Emma took over the tale, showing the electronic trail that showed that the Sentinel program had indeed been around at least a year and a half before Harry showed up.

Paris asked questions throughout Emma's tale, though not Harry's. She was a businesswoman not a magician. After Amora simply nodded her head saying that was possible, she left Harry's origins alone.

After Emma finished however she was forced to concede that point, since any neutral examination of the Sentinel's showed how major a production they were in engineering and tech terms. Eventually Paris leaned back rubbing her eyes. "So my Edward really was hiding things from me for that long. I didn't want to believe it, I wanted to blame you two for all this. But this, I suppose it makes sense. I have no issue with your removal of Shaw, and now that I know you didn't have anything to do with Edward's fall from grace I guess the only question remaining is what do you want from me?"

"I want your neutrality," Harry said simply, now breaking the charm on him and then on Emma with all the effort someone else would take to stretching their shoulders. "Keep doing what you've been doing: give both sides of the so-called mutant question equal time in your programs, look for facts rather than emotional clap trap, and remain neutral when it comes to the Hellfire Club."

"And what about you?" Paris asked looking at Emma. She had very carefully not asked whether or not Emma was a mutant, she felt instinctively that Emma, whatever Potter might want, would have balked at that. But the spell had worked on her as well when she claimed to have no part in Edward's blinding bigotry, so she was content for now.

"Your friendship," Emma said with a shrug. "I wasn't trying to get close to you, I at first liked having what amounted to a mentor as I got my feet under me in the Hellfire Club, and then I began to enjoy our friendship. I realize you might still have questions, but I hope that whatever happens, we can remain friends."

Paris sat back, kneading her forehead thoughtfully. "I'm not happy about Edward's fall from grace despite our break up we were together for years. But I won't fight it, I'll even open Buckshot's books when SHIELD gets around to asking about them, I'd be selling the company off anyway. I didn't realize until I started to look at them how badly Edward's company was doing, he had twisted his budget around to pay for the Sentinels. He basically purchased much of the supplies from himself via dummy companies, then funneled the parts out, and then laundered the money to funnel that to the project for the things his company couldn't provide."

"And about continuing to be your friend Emma," Paris frowned then smiled slightly. "Amora here has access to the most amazing ice cream you've ever tried. Are you doing anything tonight?"

Emma looked at her and then began to laugh, standing up abruptly and moving around the table to hug the older woman in a very rare public display of emotion. "Not at all!"

Harry smiled blandly, tipped his head toward all three ladies and made his way out of the room and then the mansion as the three of them began to talk about what they would be doing tonight. Emma could do with some down time of her own. He however had yet more meetings to get to, and one in particular was due to start in a few minutes. Damn it Jean, I miss you, get back here soon love, I need your mind and advice even more than anything else!

OOOOOOO

At the same time that Harry and Emma were talking to Paris, Jean and Reed Richards were staring at Douglas Ramsey's latest find: an up to date order of battle for a Kree battle fleet, which Dennis had pulled from the Doom Bringer's computer. It wasn't a detailed one, and it was mainly a list of places and unit designations, but with Mar'vel's help they were able to figure out what all the designations meant.

And it wasn't pretty. The list, despite being simple names and markers, was two dozen lines long. Each line denoted groups of ships ranging from four up to fifty, though Mar'vel couldn't tell them the numbers behind some of the designators. But they could guess the fleet numbered somewhere around four to six thousand ships of all classes. And this is just one battle fleet…

"I found it buried deep in a programming kernel in the Doom Bringer's computer, apparently its part of the core programming for all command ships, then the data's updated as the computer is brought online. It's supposed to be deleted if the computer registers the ship's taken too much damage, but it somehow failed in this Doom Bringer's case, so it was still there when I began to poke around its OS when we stopped. I wanted to see what the different capabilities of the larger ship's computers were in comparison to the Hellion's…" Douglas said, before falling silent as he stared at Reed and Jean.

"I thought you all knew how vast the Kree Empire was already," Mar'vel said from nearby, looking at the humans who were all staring at the list of designations in shock.

"We did sort of, but this, this puts it all in perspective. Holy shit, no wonder the Kree can lose entire flotillas and not even feel it," Jean murmured. I know Harry and I are powerful, hell we could possibly destroy a fleet this size if they were dumb enough to get close to us, but what if we're already engaged elsewhere against their special forces? The X-men and Fantastic Four couldn't handle even a large flotilla, let alone a hammer this size!

"Considering we've effectively declared war on the Kree, and that's not even considering our current mission, I really hope your boyfriend has been busy while we've been gone," Reed murmured, shaking his head.

"I hope so too…" Jean replied then scowled, shaking her head in turn. "We also need to think in terms of allies. We can't, Earth can't survive if the Kree take us seriously rather than as a backward system beneath their notice. Our anonymity, our very smallness, protected us more than any act you and the rest of the FF took, or even our own actions against the Hellion."

"True but the Skrull won't look too fondly on Earth thanks to my family's past interactions with them, and we don't know enough about the Badoon or the Shi'ar to contact them, not from a position of anything but that of a supplicant." Reed warned. "Furthermore, the basis of all alliances is mutual need at bottom. What do we have that either the Skrull or the Shi'ar could want?"

"I don't know, but we're about, what, another two weeks out from Earth? That'll give me time to think about it anyway. As for you Reed, I want you to look at everything we've got about the Doom Bringer, dissect that ship to a fare-the-well."

"Agreed. That ship, its toughness and armaments, will be the key. We've brought along enough smaller ships to give Earth a good sized skirmish force, line of battle ships will be our weakness." Reed nodded, and turned to a spare computer screen.

Jean turned away from the damning list, then looked over at Dani, who noticed her look, and nodded in reply. If Earth was to stand against an empire, and one that might eventually come to see them as a true threat, getting some gods on their side had just become a major priority. Really, really hope you've all been busy loves. I miss you all so fucking much, but this, this is more important than anything personal could ever be. Oh please, let them have started work on the space industry.

OOOOOOO

"Achooo!" Harry snorted, shaking his head. "'Scuse me." Sniffling slightly, he looked over his desk in Magical Minds headquarters. He had teleported here immediately after leaving Emma with Paris. "I'm sorry could you repeat that Sage?"

"I said I finished putting the new hiring plans in place for Unique Endeavors, though the name still needs work in my opinion." The pale, black haired woman said primly. "I've set up five dozen hiring centers in America, ten in Britain, seventeen scattered throughout Europe, and a further five in Canada should be ready soon. The centers themselves will be ready to handle interviews within a week."

Sage paged to the next part of the agenda. "I've also streamlined the paperwork for the testing of the hover ambulance, oh I took the time to go over as much of Saab's daily business outlook as I could, it was pretty obviously thought up by engineers, not anyone with real organizational skills. Magical Minds is running smoothly already, my hat's off to your manager there, and thanks to Ms. Frost's help Arc Technologies is also ready."

"With the help of her local factors I've even gotten the British government to admit, rather grudgingly, that the testbed for the arc reactor has passed with flying colors. The British Department of Energy is salivating at the idea of more arc reactors. Even with paying us for the running of the reactors, the British Government is looking to halve its current energy budget."

"I've also begun to work with Dennis on his spy network, it was a decent setup, very widespread, and integrating it with the Hellfire club's information apparatus should be simple enough, I should have that done by this evening. After that, I'll be looking over the budget for your think tanks, and then delving into the Hellfire Club's secret books, it should be fun seeing how much Sebastian didn't know about there, and there again Ms. Frost's aid will be beneficial."

"Two days…" Harry said wonderingly. "Barely two days and you've done all that." It was a statement, not a question, Harry had already skimmed some of the changes Sage had made to Saab and Arc Technologies, and approved of them all. Rather it was his sheer awe in the capability of the woman in front of him coming out.

Harry was a soldier, or a type of social revolutionary depending on who you talked to, who was building a business empire in order to push his social agenda and build a force in both material and man-power in order to defend humanity as a whole. It was a means to an end to him, and no matter how good he was at it, there were aspects of the business side of things he overlooked. Emma was a businesswoman, but she had been born at the top, had never needed to get into the real paperwork, though she knew how to.

Sage however, thanks to her mutant power was a genius at anything involving numbers and organizing. She had been the head of Shaw's internal security team, had oversight of all his companies' budgets, and was an accomplished spy and hacker in her own right. And that hadn't been enough to keep her busy all the time.

"What am I paying you now Sage?" Harry asked, then shook his head. "Whatever it is, triple it. Congratulations, you're now the go-between me, Jean and Ororo and my companies, you're in charge of the day to day running and whenever I start up a new one, you'll add that to your duties. Have you had the opportunity to look over my plans for the Ravenspires and the rest of my plans for space?"

"I have, and they're ambitious. I honestly didn't think you had any real hope of pursuing such an agenda, but that was before I became aware of your magical and scientific resources. Now the only bottleneck to enlarging the industry you already have, the robots you have working up there, is manpower and magic. That first will take time to solve, and I've marked out time to talk to Carol about auditing the classes they are coming up with for space workers. I'm afraid I don't have enough of an engineering background to audit their plans for the Ravenspires, but I think they are good to go."

Sage smiled, shaking her head. To call Harry's plans for space ambitious was to say the sun was mildly hot. But she went on more seriously. "You definitely need to figure out a way to break the magic bottleneck though, as I understand it you, Shadowcat and Dr. Druid are the only ones who can work runes?"

"Agreed, and we've already worked out a possible solution to that this morning. It'll take a few days to set up, but it should work. Now, I know you set up a few meetings today between me and the newest think tank group, so let's get on with that shall we?"

From there Harry introduced himself to his medical think tank for the first time. They would be working on several low key things for now, but one big one too: regeneration and anti-aging. Harry's own healing factor and the fact there were mutants out there who had healing factors even better than his proved that such a thing was possible, though Harry knew it would take them years to isolate the ability. Harry supplied them with several samples of blood and tissue to go over, not saying where they came from.

Of course, Magical Minds headquarters was spelled such that they couldn't take the samples home. Harry was well aware of reciprocal magic, and had no wish to deal with such in the future. Nor would they be allowed to take their notes home either, something which made some of them mutter angrily.

"Most mutants refuse to be examined peacefully," Dr. Tonas, a Bengali doctor said, frowning. "In the interest of ethics, I have to ask where you've obtained these samples. If they were not obtained with the consent of the individual, I will not work on this project, no matter how fascinating." After he said that many of the other doctors spoke up in support, but he was the first to step forward.

Harry smiled. "Congratulations Dr. Tonas, you've just won yourself the head position of this group." Tonas reared back in surprise, but Harry went on. "I deliberately didn't mention where the samples came from, I wanted to see who'd bring it up, and what you would say. As to the samples themselves, they come from myself and a volunteer, a young mutant of my acquaintance." Rahne had volunteered for this, so long as she never had to deal with the doctors in person.

There was some muttering at that, but Harry showed them an example of his own healing factor, and that silenced the doctors' worry. After that they practically ignored him as they rushed to set up their labs with the samples he had given them.

After that, Harry had conversation via the phone with Dr. Vorlus. The Doctor wished to go on a field trip, but didn't outright say where he wanted to go, only that he would probably be out of touch for at least two weeks. That was kind of odd, but when he said that he was going in search of what could possibly be the home of Thor during the time the Asgardians lived among man, Harry was willing to give the man whatever resources he needed.

Then Harry had a much nicer discussion with Carol. She and her core team wanted to expand, and had over five hundred names of people they wanted to bring in. Harry gleefully agreed, so long as the job interviews happened in the Magical Minds building. The process would be slow, but continual from now on, humanity, in drips and dribbles was going into space!

Over the next few days Emma and Sage, with Paris' help, went to work on the Hellfire Club. While not as overtly corrupt as the London branch had been, there were still members of the club with a lot of dirty laundry, and the Hellfire Club knew where all of that laundry was.

They even knew where some bodies were buried, and in a few cases where a lot of bodies were buried. Several club members were arrested in the following days as the probe into Edward Buckman and Sebastian Shaw's affairs expanded, or so the public thought. The public didn't know that Sage and Emma simply had passed some information the police's way, making it seem as if it was coming from the investigation but not really. The police of course knew that, but were willing to go along with things. Especially when one of those tips allowed the police to arrest one of the biggest drug dealers in the country.

Once the deadwood was dealt with, Emma and Sage began to wheel and deal, enlarging their influence and economic power.

Harry however didn't take part in this, having something far more important to devote his time to. The next day he finished designing the two spells, and then called Ororo, Dr. Druid, and Dr. Strange and his group together. Clea and Wanda were both looking around the Room of Requirement's runic array room.

It looked like the same room where Harry and Stephen had worked on the anti-demonic dimension enchantment, many of the runic arrays that had covered the floor then were the same as now, but many were different too. Stephen frowned, looking at them his eyes narrowed. "Vision, after-images, illusion, displacement… My god Mr. Potter, have you… are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?"

Clea too was looking at the changes, her eyes narrowed. The other three frowned, not understanding what was going on, but trusting Harry to not have called them all together for a spurious reason.

"If you think I'm thinking of throwing a massive illusion around the entire world, then you'd be partly correct." Harry smirked, but there was no humor in it and he quickly held up his hand as Stephen made to speak. "But this illusion won't affect anyone on Earth, rather anyone who is beyond Earth's orbit."

That made Stephen pause and he exchanged a glance with Clea, but it was Wanda who spoke up. "You're looking to fool the next group of aliens who come calling? Why?"

"Exactly. We took out a Kree ship nearly a month or so ago, and we're quickly coming to the time for a response for that. We need this spell, no this enchantment in place to fool them. Because unless we figure out a way to see them coming through hyperspace, they will always have the advantage of surprise, and if they come to destroy rather than invade or attack one group…"

For a moment his listeners were silent but then Stephen knelt down to pear at some of the smaller runes which covered the floor in concentric circles. "But this isn't just one spell, is it, there are breaks here in the arrays…"

"Yes, two spells. One, an illusion to cover Earth, which will simply show whatever is on the other side from whoever is trying to view it with Kree sensors, we know enough to be certain most powers out there use the same systems generally speaking. Of course if you can get past the veil call it, then you can see the planet, I don't want to hide the planet from our own people. Or from Jean, damnit, stop thinking about it!

Ororo looked at Harry, taking his hand in hers, knowing and sharing the thought that had just gone through his mind there, but quickly moving on before either could become maudlin. "But that alone won't work my love, if Earth is simply not there, then I would assume most attackers are certain to figure out something is up. And I don't think it would take them long either."

"That's why we give them another target," Harry replied grimly. "That is why we'll be doing two incantations. One to hide the Earth, and one to create an illusion of said, good enough to fool Kree sensors, and even good enough to respond to outside assault. I have that built into it already, and let me tell you, that was the hardest part!"

"The, the hardest part…" Clea murmured, her eyes wide with shock. "Good Gaea Potter, you don't think small do you? Do you have any conception of the strain placing that spell in place is going to put on our minds!? I presume that's why you called us here, but I think you're overestimating our abilities tremendously."

"To create an illusion like that which would be believable you would have to link it to the, call it the current earth, every individual, every building, stream, and contour of the planet!" Stephen said, while Wanda, Dr. Druid and Ororo all gaped.

"Exactly, though figuring out how to do that was relatively simple. The price in mental concentration and magical strength will be… exorbitant, but I think we can do it. Gaea has already stated her willingness to provide more power but it's our minds that will need to be working in concert, that will be shaping the spell, and I won't lie, that's going to be damn hard."

Stephen pulled at his goatee, his mind overcoming his shock slowly and he frowned. "There must be an easier way of doing this. The veil spell I grant you makes sense, but the other? Surely we could come up with another target for them."

Now it was Ororo's turn to shake her head. "There are two problems with that. One, any fleet coming to destroy the Earth will have orders to do just that, and the Kree in particular won't go against such orders. If they don't see Earth, they will at the very least fire where their records say Earth should be. And two, we don't have anything in orbit that could take their attention for very long."

"I'll grant the Custodes could deal with them before they turn their attention on Earth, but even so, we could probably not keep them from firing on it, or at least some of them getting away. Which would be very bad in the long run, we could take out a battle fleet yes, but only if they came in fat and complacent. If they didn't if they came in spread out, moving slowly and spreading out further, we couldn't destroy them all before they bombard the Earth."

"Exactly. Besides this spell will remain in place, it'll take power from Gaea and myself, hence why I had to get her approval for it, and can thus be used multiple times. Even if we could devise a threat that would make the Kree change their immediate plans, it would only be useable once, at best twice." Harry took up the tale, staring earnestly at Stephen.

The Sorcerer Supreme and his lover exchanged a long, speaking glance, and Stephen sighed. "Alright you've convinced me it's a good idea, but you have yet to explain how you think our minds are going to handle this much pressure!"

"Because none of us will be carrying the load alone, it will be all of us, and any of us can pull out of the spell if we're feeling overwhelmed, just like in a coven." Harry replied. "I asked Madame Harkness to help me with that portion, and it will work."

Agatha had called Harry a hell and damned fool, then muttered something about Fate touched always being touched in the head, but she had still helped as she could. She would have even asked to help him cast the spell, but not without Susan and Reed being back, and Thundra being around. That woman was going to cause trouble, Agatha just knew it, and she wanted to be at her best to make certain it didn't splash on Franklin.

The magic users sans Harry all exchanged glances, then Ororo nodded, taking his hand once more. Wanda hadn't understood everything that had been said, but she had followed enough, and she simply nodded her willingness to do her part. Dr. Druid hesitated, knowing he'd be the first to weaken in this coven, but nodded, trusting Harry.

That was what it came down to for Stephen and Clea too. Stephen trusted Harry. If he said they could do this, and survive it, they probably could. But doing a spell this large without aide from one of his patron gods of magic would be incredibly hard. "Alright, let's do this. Right now preferably, before I have a chance to talk myself out of it."

With that the group got into a loose oval around a monstrously large but perfect ruby, which rose from the ground on a plinth, glistening with more light than it should have. As a focus, it could not be beat, especially since Gaea herself had loaned it to Harry for this purpose. Harry and Stephen, as the most powerful, anchored the oval at both ends, while Ororo and Clea took up position directly between them along the curves as Harry dictated. Wanda took up position between Clea and Stephen, looking nervous but game, and Dr. Druid did the same directly across from her, simply looking nervous.

At Harry's nod, they all held out their hands, magic of various colors suddenly appearing around them, as they sent their minds into the ruby, and Harry began to direct them, his voice and Stephen's mumbling the flowing incantation under their breath. The first spell began to form between them, a dark diaphanous web appearing, then expanding rapidly, moving towards then through them and out to cover the world, settling into place after a bare thirty minutes.

"That was the easy part," Harry said grimly, his magic now flowing in a river out of him rather than a stream. "Now it gets much harder."

Again the 'covens' magic rose, and the second incantation began. Runic arrays here and there all around the room started to glow, and the spell slowly seeped into the ley lines. It took hours, the spell having to copy every contour of the planet, every mountain, river and ocean, and it was here where the minds of the spell-crafters started to feel the strain. They had to control that power and shape it, understanding and seeing everything they were copying into the illusion.

About two hours in, Dr. Druid fell out of the spell reeling away to sink to his knees, bleeding from the nose and where he had practically bitten through his lip. Harry had honestly expected the older man to last half that time, and he would have spared him a nod if he could.

The spell rose out of the ground, covering the earth in gold and green light for those with eyes to see, and more than one sorceress or wizard stared in shock at what they could feel was a massive illusion spell,. But since their own senses didn't seem to be the target, they all let it go, even Morgan, wary of catching the attention of the individuals behind that working. It simply affirmed that it was time for her to lay low, lest she catch this new power's attention.

Despite not having had very much magical instruction just yet, Doom too felt the spell. Cynthia however was quick to reassure her son being able to sense the intent behind the spell was to use it against someone beyond Earth. Though she couldn't tell him anything beyond that.

Clea fell out of the spell at that point, unable to continue. The need to copy and understand the nature of the sea's currents and the movement of the animals therein had been too much. She moved over wearily, pulling Dr. Druid out of the room, before asking for a house-elf to take them to a room.

The spell continued to permeate the globe, now including those creations of man, moving up from the ground. The things under the ground, Harry had judged, didn't need to be part of the illusion, since no one in orbit could see them. But because of the sheer number of items and the fact it also had to recreate people and their vehicles, the strain on the spell-crafters minds redoubled.

An hour later, Ororo finally gave up the ghost. Blood was pouring from her nose, and her eyes had started to go glassy with exhaustion. Letting her hand drop, she stared wearily at Wanda, and moved behind the younger woman, her steps like that of a zombie. But a moment later she caught Wanda as she fell back, unconscious. The least experienced of them all hadn't recognized the signs, and had pushed until she collapsed.

For a moment Stephen and Harry wavered, the spell halting and almost reversing, unable to cope with Wanda's abrupt departure. But then they regained it, and continued. Ororo sat on her knees on the ground, cradling Wanda's head, the young girl mumbling under her breath about her brain feeling like it had been electrocuted and frozen at the same time. She watched the two master sorcerers, as they alone took the strain for another three hours, until, finally the spell was complete.

Harry held it there, adding the fillipe he needed to make it respond enough to fool any Kree sensors, then, for want of a better phrase, tied the spell off, slowly removing his senses from it. The spell hovered there in space, the image of the world, following the world a full day behind its rotation around the sun, finished. With that Harry let it go, and came back to his merely human body, gasping, and shuddering, more exhausted than he could remember being since hell-week with the SAS.

"That, that was the most exhilarating, exhausting and draining spellwork I've ever done Harry. I, I don't think I could concentrate enough to blow out a candle right now, physically, let alone magically." Dr. Strange mumbled. Even moving his lips was a trial.

Harry simply nodded, moving over to help Ororo to her feet only to almost overbalance as Ororo pulled on him. They both nearly tumbled to the floor but Cory suddenly appeared, shaking his head and popping the people off into beds. "Master Harry be pushing himself too hard again, it must be Tuesday." Somehow, none of the humans had enough energy to complain, all of them falling into a deep, dreamless sleep in their beds.

OOOOOOO

Two days of searching for Roberto's girlfriend proved fruitless. Whatever had happened to the girlfriend, she had seemingly disappeared from the city. They found out her name, and from that her address, where her family had lived, but the operative word there was 'had', the family having disappeared too.

Betsy telepathically scanned the neighbor's minds but she found nothing unusual, the family had simply moved in with the father's parents on a farm in the south. There was no indication or clue about the daughter, nor was there even a hint of another telepath's presence in them. Yet when they tried to find their address, they came up with nothing, not even when they went to the municipal district center and asked around there.

Their third night in Rio de Janeiro ended the same way their first had, with the three of them once again on the veranda of their hotel room sharing a meal. Finally Piotr shook his head. "We're done here. There is nothing here for us, nothing we can find that can help Roberto. I'm afraid you're right Betsy. Charles will have to do this the hard way."

Betsy shuddered a little. "I certainly wouldn't want to try that. Removing a false personality that the person has willingly allowed to be emplaced inside his mind, you'll be fighting his psyche the entire way, and even if you succeed he's not going to thank you for it."

"Even dead, Sebastian Shaw pollutes this earth," Piotr muttered, then crossed himself. One shouldn't speak poorly of the dead, though he felt that the Almighty would have allowed it in this case.

"We need to find the girlfriend's family. If we can find an address for their farm..." Amara began, then stilled suddenly, her physical form shimmering for a moment. "Incoming earthquake!"

As Amara spoke the building began to shake as below them people scrambled for cover. The trio ran inside, stopping at the various doorframes of their hotel room. Soon enough the earthquake subsided, but in the distance sirens began to wail.

Both Piotr and Betsy looked at Amara. Her powers were based on tectonic energies, and she had informed the team at one point that she was always connected to that power, and a few experiments in the ROR had shown she could predict earthquakes as long as an hour before they could hit, so long as she was near the epicenter when they began.

She shook her head sharply. "I didn't feel anything, we're nowhere near the center of the disturbance."

Piotr frowned, turning on the TV and switching to a news channel to see what was going on, wanting to check to make certain that Amara was right. When he turned it on however, instead of the regular news reporter what he got was a large-ish looking black man with wide shoulders, a 'shirt' that looked straight from the sixties, and the most bizarre afro that Piotr had ever imagined. Really, what is with afros anyway, I don't understand it at all.

"To the leaders of the world, I am Moses Magnum! Those tremors some of your cities, Rio De Janiero, Los Angeles, Athens, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, have felt are being caused by me and my power! They are but a small taste of what I can do, and what I will do, if my demands are not met!"

Piotr gaped for a few seconds then turned to stare at Betsy and Amara. "I think we should get in touch with Harry," Amara said.

"Unfortunately, Harry can't come to the phone right now," Dennis replied via the com when they called. There was something a little manic in his tone, as if he'd had a bit of a jolt to the system, not a negative one or a positive one, just a surprise. "Frankly I think your sister could tell you more about what happened than I could right now."

"What do you mean he can't come to the phone right now?" Piotr said calmly, the calm of a person dealing with a crazy man. This is the kind of threat the Custodes should be dealing with, isn't it?

"I mean he's completely unresponsive in his bed snoring up a storm along with Storm. All the other magic users, even Doctor Druid, are out of it. One of them, a teenager, she said something about her brain being fried. But I think she was joking about that," Dennis' voice was deadly serious despite the attempt at a joke.

"Is that my brother?" said a younger female voice, before the voice's owner grabbed the phone away from Dennis, talking into it excitedly. "Piotr, Piotr, you should've seen it! There was so much magic in the air, and then suddenly there was an image of me, and then it was as if the entire castle and then the land around it and everything else suddenly had like, like some kind of afterimage or before-image or something. What've you been up to, when are you coming back?"

"Calm down sestrenka," Piotr shook his head, smiling slightly now while Betsy and Amara, who had been looking a little tense, also seemed to calm down. If it was a new crisis, they doubted Illyana would have sounded so upbeat. "I will hopefully be back in a few days, we're not having much luck in our investigation here and something else has come up now. When did this, this magical event happen?"

"Yesterday. They've all been sleeping, Mr. Harry and Ms. Ororo are sleeping up in their room, they didn't even wake up when Melody and I went in this morning. We were going to prank them again, but they looked so tired that we thought better of it. The others are in a spare bedroom somewhere else."

"Thank you Illyana, you've answered all my questions. Could you put Dennis back on please?"

Smiling happily his sister did just that, before racing off to find Melody. Piotr's voice however turned serious the moment she did. "How long do you think Harry's going to be out of it?"

"I don't know, all our experts on magic are down so I don't even have anyone to ask, unless I call Madame Harkness, and the FF aren't responding, which means they are probably dealing with something else."

"I will say that Harry looked better than the others in some ways. He and Dr. Strange were much healthier looking than the others. The young woman was bleeding from the nose, and Storm was being dragged along by Harry and Doctor Strange. Doctor Druid is unconscious, and became so before the rest of them came out of that room whatever they were doing, one of the house-elves teleported him out of the ROR while the others continued doing, whatever the hell it was they were doing."

Piotr relayed all of this to Amara and Betsy, and Amara tapped her chin thoughtfully. "It sounds like some of the illusion spells that Harry has sometimes used in our exercises, but far larger. And I certainly don't think anything like that could've taken so much out of not only him but all the other magic users." She shook her head. "Regardless, we need to figure out what to do."

In reply to that Piotr turned to Betsy who had been watching the local news while he and Amara got in contact with Camelot. "Are the locals handling this? Are we needed here?"

"I don't think we're needed here now," Betsy said slowly. "Thanks mostly to Amara's earlier efforts at least. But the Afroed-arsehole was just on a moment ago, saying if his demand, he wants to be made king of Japan for some reason, is not met within an hour he will randomly choose one of the cities he has already attacked and hit it with a magnitude 8 earthquake."

Both she and Piotr turned to Amara who frowned then shrugged. "So long as I'm in touch with the actual planet with nothing artificial between us I might be able to stop him again whatever power he brings to bear, but it won't be easy."

Her listeners nodded, even Dennis though none of the others could see it. "It'd be easier if I was closer to where whatever he's trying started, the epicenter of his power, rather than its target area. "So the question then becomes how to find him. Dennis, can you find him somehow?"

"Ms. Acquilla I don't even know what I'm looking for!" Dennis replied, somewhat aghast.

"Can you get in touch with the X-Men and Professor Xavier? Maybe he can find Magnum with Cerebro?" Piotr asked.

"I can do that, Harry's linked us up to the mansion, hold on." For a moment the line was silent, then Dennis came back. "I'm opening up a three way link, Charles can you hear us?"

"Yes I can, I take it you're all talking about this terrorist Magnum's attacks and his demand? You all do take this 'world guard' concept seriously don't you?"

Despite his somewhat whimsical tone, Charles voice was also laden with respect, and he went on seriously. "I cannot find one single mind among thousands like that unless I know what I'm looking for, the psychic imprint of the individual mind say, or if it is unusual in some fashion, or I'm very close. I will however ask Dennis to connect me with Emma, perhaps between the two of us we can find some way of discovering Moses' location."

OOOOOOO

"…So all we know right now, is that Moses Magnum has laid down the law, he becomes King of Japan or he keeps on destroying cities. The little tremors he's used thus far were a mere preview apparently, through Tony and Pym both say they have only the vaguest idea about how he's doing this." Fury said looking around the briefing room, each word coming out as if etched steel.

After the two big-brains nodded in confirmation Nick went on in the same tone. "Magnum's background, what we could find of it, is available if you want to look it over. But we've got no idea how he's doing this. His known powers shouldn't let him attack this powerfully or this far away, and any kind of augmentation technology should be well beyond what Magnum could have access to. We'll assume he got it from AIM for now, but that's going to be one question we'll need an answer to when we capture him."

"A more salient point right now is that he's got a history of megalomania and psychopathy. He's given the world powers an ultimatum, every hour after his initial time limit is passed a city will 'feel his wrath' and Magnum is just the right kind of crazy to go through with it."

SHIELD had scored several large-scale victories in the past week, nipped several problems in the bud, and finished flattening AIM in South America, which left them with only a few African holdings and maybe one or two in the Middle East and the poorer Asian countries. But this had blindsided everyone, and Fury was not happy.

Not happy about being blindsided again, not happy about not being able to see a solution. "We need to find him! Tony, Henry, this is all you."

Tony winced, but moved to the front of the briefing room, looking around at the team which he'd agreed to join on a pro-tem basis. He wasn't exactly sold about the idea of working for a semi-secret agency with even more secret sponsors, but hopefully his little bugs that he'd implanted in several areas of the helicarrier since coming aboard would solve the so-called secret part of that soon enough. And with the way the world's going, maybe having a superhero team tied into the governments of the world is a good idea…

But right now, he didn't have any real solution for their current problem and said so. "Maybe Henry and I can come up with some sensor equipment, and then trace the next attack back to its source, but I'm sorry that's the only way I can see us figuring out where the hell Magnum is. And even that'll be a stretch."

"I think," said a new male voice thoughtfully "That we need to prepare ourselves for the worst. If he wants to put pressure on the Japanese Government in particular it makes sense that he would attack them first, so we should move the helacarrier to fly in the Asian Ocean. From what I can remember the islands are extremely tectonically reactive, that makes all of those islands not just Tokyo, a target right? And Hong Kong, much as I hate to think this way, would be an even juicier target given its size."

"That makes sense, and I think Tony and I could maybe come up with some way of siphoning off Magnum's attack if we figure out the basic energy spectrum he'd have to be using," said Doctor Henry him, nodding his head. "But not in an hour, which still leaves us having to pray that he's bluffing about choosing a random city to destroy next."

For a moment there was a glum silence, then the new male voice spoke up again after slapping his hands together. "Enough, enough woolgathering, enough negative thoughts. Tony, Henry, get to work on that device. The rest of us will start getting ready. Nick, move the helacarrier to a position between Tokyo and Hong Kong. Like I said, odds are he'll choose one of those two, and if not, we'll be no worse off if we're wrong than now."

There was a sudden movement from all around them, as the Avengers, SHIELD's superpowered team of heroes began to move. Nick however simply nodded at his aide, who raced off, leaving him to stare with his one good eye at the speaker. "You know, after your rehab I had hoped to send you with the rest of the team directly after the Red Skull. There seemed to be a sort of… fitness about that."

"There is, but we're soldiers Nick, we go where we're needed, we can't always wait for what we want to happen. Besides, from your reports old Red face has bitten off more than he can chew in Doctor Doom anyway. Or are you saying we'd move against first one and then the other in succession?"

"I don't know about that one, so far Doctor Doom hasn't attacked any country that doesn't eventually officially and unofficially welcome him in. Those former USSR countries were really screwed up.

Nick then laughed, shaking his head. "'We're all soldiers' huh? I think I stopped being a soldier a long time ago Captain."

"Really? From where I'm standing you're still a soldier, still fighting the good fight. What the good fight means might've changed, your employers and your own weapons of choice might've changed, but you're still you inside Nick. Heh, whatever your body looks like."

With a small laugh Steve Rogers reached down and grabbed up a duffel that would've taken two or three normal men to lift, heaving it onto one shoulder. He nodded his blond head once more at his old friend in a new body then ran out of the briefing room to go and change into his work clothes.

Nick stayed there for a moment, staring after him then slowly shook his head. "Damn bastard still has it doesn't he?" I just wish I believed that too Steve, I really do.

OOOOOOO

Unlike SHIELD, the Custodes Mundi had resources that only peripherally touched on commonplace science. They had Emma and Charles, two of the three most powerful telepaths that the world had ever seen.

Emma had taken command of the operation with an ease and surety that was such a part of the woman. Looking at her none of the others could see how worried she was about Harry and Ororo. She had been told about what the magic users were going to try, but hadn't thought it would take them all out of action like this.

Nonetheless, they had a crisis to deal with, and would do so. Harry would demand nothing less from her, and Emma, to her own slight surprise, had no wish to shirk from it. Not that I wouldn't mind some help. Damn it Jean, we could really use you here you know?

They also had Sage, who took time off from working with Harry's companies and ever-increasing spy network, in order to aid in this crisis. She tried at first to track any tech company's shipments that could possibly be involved in creating any kind of device that a mutant could use to heighten his tectonic plate-based powers.

This didn't work so very well, but logic did. 'Logically speaking, there is no way that Moses Magnum could be hiding within the borders of a first world country, not even China. No country would be involved in something like this, not when they have so much to lose if they were found to be involved."

"I'm not certain you could say that about Russia," Piotr said rather grimly. "My countrymen have a history of, what is the phrase, thumbing the nose to the world?"

Everyone chuckled somewhat grimly at that, knowing Russia might be a problem down the line given how its society was continuing to react to mutants. But Sage merely nodded.

"Yes, but Moses Magnum is a mutant, which would discount the Russians being behind this. Furthermore, look at the severity of the attacks." Sage pulled up several systems on the hologram screen that dominated one wall of Cerebro's room, and the combined teams of the X-men and the Custodes leaned forward. This included Piotr, Amara and Betsy, who had returned via an emergency portkey to Camelot a bare few minutes before this briefing began then hopped through the runic doorway to the mansion.

It also included young Ichiki, or Armor as she wanted to be called. The Japanese girl had heard that Tokyo had been attacked, and had demanded to be allowed to join the team. Considering at least half of this mission would be relatively simple search and rescue, Amara agreed, and hoped the girl wouldn't come to curse her later. She had learned after the battle in Montreal that SAR could force you to see things that even combat couldn't.

Sage gestured, tapping first Rio de Janeiro, then London, then Berlin, Washington, Tokyo and Hong Kong. "Tokyo and Hong Kong were both hit slightly harder from whatever this was than the other cities, it wasn't obvious at first, and the difference is slight, but it's there if you look close enough at the seismographic data."

"That convinced me to look at the rest of the data, and I noticed there is a definite power curve. Whatever this is, it loses power the further away from its point of origin."

"I thought Berlin and London were reporting more damage than any of the other cities," Scott objected.

"More damage yes, but as I said the seismographic data tells a different story," Sage replied and Scott nodded understanding the point.

"So somewhere in the Chinese ocean, an island somewhere, or maybe a ship?" Amara murmured, crossing one leg over the other as she leaned back. "No, it'd have to be an island. Working through water is really damn tough for me, and I have to believe that whatever ability Magnum's using has the same limitations.

Kitty giggled from where she was leaning up against one of the walls, her recent gloominess caused by the attack on her family abating. "This just sounds like a James Bond movie, wasn't it the Man with the Golden Gun who had some kind of base on an island near Japan?"

"It was," Scott replied, smiling at the younger girl, but then he frowned turning back to the display. "Still, if memory serves there are dozens of little islands scattered across the oceans there. Do we have to search them all?"

"No, because you have myself and Charles," Emma said, gesturing towards Cerebro. "With Cerebro boosting our powers he and I will be able to reach out to those islands, looking for any that have a population, skimming the surface of their thoughts for anything pertinent." They'd have to work with Cerebro in shifts, the system not designed to allow telepaths to work in concert, but it was definitely doable.

Piotr nodded and looked at Scott, who looked back at him. "Your team still isn't as armored or armed as well as I would like to see," Piotr said, sighing slightly. It had been less than a week since Charles had bitten the bullet, and Harry had to prioritize throwing up the Veil and the Illusion over putting Kitty's idea of how to speed up work on runic arrays to the side for now.

But Scott scoffed. "We haven't been either of those for a long while, and we've seen just as much combat as you lot, and our suits do have the magic arrays Kitty devised, we're good to go." Beside him Rogue and the others all nodded, all of them already in their uniforms. "And there doesn't seem to be anything here in America for us to deal with right now, and you're badly understrength besides."

"In that case," Piotr said turning back to Betsy and Amara, "I think the three of us need to go get ready. Should we contact the Fantastic Four and Wyatt you think?"

Betsy shook her head. "The Fantastic Four is dealing with issues of their own I think. Dennis and I tried to contact them, and didn't get a response. I think they're over visiting Crystal and Medusa's people, wherever the bloody hell that is."

"How long will this take?" Piotr said, turning back to Charles and Emma.

"We don't know," said Charles with a shrug. That depends on what we find, how we can narrow it down, if the islands are crowded or not, if the minds are so close together individual thoughts become so muddied we can't pull any specific clues from them. It's a large area to search as well, and if more than one small island has a heavy concentration of minds when there shouldn't be one there, it may take us time to figure out one island from another."

Amara growled a little. "We're down to 15 minutes before the next attack, can we get into position somewhere to stop it?"

"Cory, Clare can you teleport us up to High Note?" Kitty asked the air.

The small house-elf which served Harry as his go-to elf and chief of all popping popped in close by Kitty, the only magical there, followed by Clare, Kitty's bonded house-elf. "We's can do that Mistress Kitty. Yous all be written into the secret, so that is easy."

"Good, in that case we'll move High Note over the Asian Ocean, bringing it into the atmosphere, then move from there down with the blackbird. It's rated for flying that high isn't it?" Piotr asked.

"The one we've got now is, sure," Scott said smiling at his pride and joy even if the thing had over a dozen carefully hidden trackers they'd have to remove. Heh, but now Charles can say screw you to the Feds who've been funneling money to us, we've got a better backer now. "And it's a hell of a lot faster, not fast enough to get to Asia from here quickly, but I think we can get there from out of atmosphere even faster."

As the teams moved out of the Cerebro room, Dennis' voice stopped Piotr and the other Custodes. He had been listening in via the com from Camelot but hadn't had anything to add to the discussion before this. "I note you didn't even think about using Destiny's ability to try and figure out where the next strike is going to come?"

"Mystique was very blunt about what her power is costing Irene every time she uses it," Piotr said quietly, exchanging glances with the other two Custodes, the only two who knew about Irene's health. They both nodded in agreement. "No, I will not sacrifice an old woman like that, not even for an advantage of that nature. That is not a decision I could live with."

Over in Camelot Dennis nodded, exchanging a glance with Mystique, who smiled thinly before turning away grateful that Irene was sleeping off their return journey from Alaska right now. If she had been awake she would no doubt have volunteered, but now Raven could tell her honestly later that she wasn't needed. Her friend wouldn't try to sacrifice herself today.

Moving High Note over the Asian Ocean took a bare seven minutes, leaving them with ten minutes before Magnum's deadline, which the teams spent waiting nervously, buckled into the blackbird, which Cory and Clare had to work together to get into High Note's hangar bay. None of them were nervous about going into combat, no they were nervous about getting there in time to hopefully stave off the next attack.

A few moments later Charles was on the line. "We've narrowed it down to four islands, but we can't narrow it down further before the time limit Magnum imposed hits! We can't seem to see through the miasma of the minds on any of the islands, nor has there been any Spyke of purpose or anticipation in them. In fact if I didn't know any better..."

Emma cut in quickly, her icy voice grim. "I do know better. Magnum has some way of, of muddying the presence of his mind and those of the people in the area. Sage and the two of us are working to figure out which of those four islands is most likely to house a secret facility, but we're out of time. Are you all ready to go?"

Scott and all of the X-Men and the Custodes present turned to Amara, who straightened her shoulders, cracking her neck explosively and wringing her hands out as if preparing for hand-to-hand combat. Then she looked at them, smiling grimly. "I'm ready."

A moment later the news popped up on one of the blackbird's control screens, causing all of them to turn and stare at it. "The time of my ultimatum has passed, and there has been no word of the Emperor abdicating! Perhaps the leaders of the world do not believe my threats, or simply refuse to pay my price. Very well, now see the folly of your action! I do hope those living in Tokyo will forgive their leaders for sacrificing them for so foolish a reason!"

The moment the word Tokyo was out of the madman's mouth Scott gunned the blackbird's controls, rocketing out of High Note's hangar bay zooming down into the atmosphere quickly.

OOOOOOO

"It's Tokyo! Get the team moving!"

OOOOOOO

Like the other cities already hit by Magnum's demonstration attacks, Tokyo had begun to evacuate regardless of what the government might've wanted. But no city in the world could be evacuated that quickly, not even a city built with roads and cars in mind. Traffic was heavily congested throughout the city, the roads completely blocked off. Even the vaunted Japanese public railway system was overmatched.

The police had not been able to keep up with the chaos and carnage, and the JSDF had joined in en-masse, putting some order on the chaos and setting up evacuations zones, flying people out by the thousands. This wasn't the first natural disaster they had dealt with, and the SOP was well written.

Yet when the next earthquake hit, the entire city was paralyzed. Buildings began to fall, shattering into pieces, the roads began to crack, bridges collapsed. The ground quaked underneath the civilian's feet, and people began to die.

During all this chaos the Blackbird arrived, with the Custodes Mundi and the X-Men leaping out of it quickly, those with flight arrays flying those who couldn't survive the jump alone. Rogue helped Cyclops and Spyke, while Nightcrawler bamfed himself down. Psylocke aided Magma, while Colossus and Armor simply dropped like stones, slamming into the ground like them too.

The moment she touched down, Magma changed from her normal body into her energy form, leaning down and slamming her hands onto the ground. Almost immediately the earthquake began to subside, no longer shaking the very earth and the buildings apart, simply being a rumbling underneath people's feet.

She gritted her teeth, shaking her head. Whatever was happening was powerful, and pushing back against it like this was damn hard. But Magma could tell that she had a home field advantage so to speak, and was slowly using her control of tectonic energies to overcome whatever Magnum was doing.

Around her the rest of the X-Men had touched down at the same time, and Magma began to bark out orders between her teeth. "Cyclops, you can speak Japanese right?"

Scott nodded, and she went on quickly, not noticing his rather amused expression that she had taken command already. "Find the local authorities, start working with them, Spyke, Nightcrawler go with him. Rogue, Colossus, Armor, start moving from our position here and look for any survivors that need your help. Shadowcat go with them. Psylocke, you stay here, I can't speak Japanese, and I'll need your power to help translate. That'll put one Japanese speaker with every group."

"Niet," said Piotr shaking his head. "You may need a bodyguard Magma. If Magnum has people in the cities to watch his back, many megalomaniac maniacs like to watch their handiwork I understand, they may figure out you're the one blocking his powers."

Magma looked up from the ground for a moment locking eyes with her boyfriend, then smiled and looked away blushing slightly. "Thanks Colossus." The others raced off in every direction, and for a moment the trio of Betsy, Piotr, and Magma were once again alone, falling silent for the moment.

All around them civilians were getting up off the ground or coming out of shelters as they realized the worst was over, staring around them and shouting and gesticulating at one another trying to figure out what happened. Had Moses Magnum rescinded his ultimatum, had the Emperor agreed to hand over the rule of the islands? Or had the madman overestimated his power? Was this divine intervention? No one could tell.

Suddenly the power coming through the ground doubled, and the earthquake began once again, causing Magma to grind her teeth, bearing down even harder. Despite this surge, Magma still retained the advantages of both position and power, and fought back as nearly an hour went by.

Whatever device Moses Magnum was using to augment his abilities was no match for her power. She poured out more of her will into the tectonic energies roiling within the earth, and began to beat the attack back once again, several fissures in the concrete of the road nearby closing as she did, the magma that had been boiling up out of them receding.

Nonetheless those few seconds had been enough to wreck several more buildings, and now thousands of people were dead throughout the city. The worst sight was an overpass leading out of the city which had collapsed, bringing down all of the cars on it, and the people both within those cars and those who had been trying to run away on foot from the traffic jam.

It was to that disaster Cyclops and his team were racing, now in a local helicopter with Sunfire of all people, who had come in giving his word of authority to the local emergency rescue people. It was not fit duty for a samurai in his opinion, but he would do what he could to aide his people.

Now it paid off, and he listened as these new foreign heroes, who were apparently involved with Custodes Mundi if in a limited capacity, informed him of what they had discovered so far. "You will be taking me with you when you move against this Magnum madman in his den," he said briskly. "This kuso yaro (bastard)has attacked my nation, and it is only right and proper that I be among those to respond."

Cyclops shrugged. "That's not my call, but for my part, I'll say another flyer will be a major help. That's an area we're severely limited in at present."

"It is good that you know your limitations Cyclops," Sunfire nodded his head before pointing downwards. "Now let us get to work."

With that he barreled out of the helicopter flying down quickly, shouting in Japanese "Clear the way! Point out wherever anyone you know is buried, but remain calm! Help is on the way."

Rogue's group had a much harder time of working with the locals and had actually been attacked by some JSDF forces until they realized the mutants were here to help. But even then, they had trouble finding anyone who was willing to listen to them among the police and other emergency personnel. Then they had to wait until those people actually got in contact with Sunfire, and had him, rather reluctantly, speak up on their behalf. Then the man who had heard this declaration refused to speak to Armor, being an old-time misogynist, unwilling to talk to a young girl as if she had any authority.

Eventually the trio of girls simply shook their heads, heading off with Armor leading the way. They moved to the nearest collapsed building and with Shadowcat shifting into the rubble to find survivors beginning to dig into it even as they were shouted at by the locals. A time or two some of the locals turned on them angrily shouting things at the foreigners and throwing things, but none of them noticed, and soon it stopped as the trio worked on.

Not so with Magma and the others with her. Piotr had at first begun to help at one of the collapsed buildings nearby, digging into it, but Betsy simply shook her head sadly, telling him to come away. Her powers couldn't find any minds in there, nor even unconscious ones.

But there were other locals nearby, coming out of emergency shelters, coming out of buildings, even cars stalled in the traffic snarl that dominated the city.

None of the trio noticed when it started but a crowd had soon gathered on the street a ways down from where Magma was kneeling. After a few minutes one of them pointed at Magma, seeing her kneeling there on the asphalt of the walk path, hands almost burning into the concrete so intent was she on fighting back whatever tectonic energies Moses had released upon the city.

He pointed at her, shouting angrily, and Psylocke automatically translated for Colossus. "Look at her! She's one of those mutant freaks! She must be the one doing this she must be working for that madman! Get her!"

For a moment no one heard him, then several other men nearby took it up, and a woman shrilled "Kill her! Maybe if we do, the earthquake will stop!"

Colossus quickly moved from where he had been lifting up a piece of rubble to stand in front of Magma. At the sight of his armored form many of the crowd which had raced forward to attack Magma quailed, moving backwards, and he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Niet! Magma is trying to stop it! We are…"

But he was drowned out by several dozen of them shouting aloud "Kill them! Kill the mutant gaijin!" A makeshift Molotov made from a sake bottle flew out of the crowd at Colossus. He batted it aside shattering the ceramic though the liquid tried to set his hand on fire, but thanks to his armored form Piotr didn't feel it. Someone pulled out a gun, a soldier effected by the crowd's madness and shot at him. Other weapons were thrown his way, smashing into his body, rocks, knives and more makeshift weapons.

But Piotr simply stood there silently taking it. The only times he reacted were when the braver members of the crowd rushed forward to try and engage him. If they attacked Piotr, he simply took it, but if they tried to get past him to Magma, sitting on her haunches with a car and a wall protecting her back, then he would move, destroying their weapons. Even when people tried to pile onto him he simply stood there, unwilling to fight back, simply taking everything they could dish out silently.

Psylocke had jumped up to a second story balcony and was standing on its railing, using her telekinetic blades to bat aside any attack that came her way, which thanks to Colossus seeming a more dangerous threat were few and far between. She was also shouting at the top of her lungs and telepathic power, slamming each word out into every mind there, "No! We are not your enemies! We are the Custodes Mundi, we are here to help."

Soon this message and Colossus' perseverance got through. The crowd's anger and hate began to subside, and the people moved back away from Colossus, still angry and sullen.

But one of them at least wasn't finished, and he pulled out a rifle, either his own or taken from a soldier at some point. He aimed at Psylocke's side from her blindspot. For all her telepathic ability, Psylocke was still concentrating on the crowd in front of her and did not sense the assassin behind her. At least I'll kill one of you freaks, the man thought taking a brief moment to aim.

That statement and the intent caught Psylocke's telepathic attention and she whipped her head around but too slowly. At her psychic shout Colossus turned, also too slowly.

A circular shield like Vanguard's but painted red, white and blue rather than red with a white star slammed into the man side first, hurling him away with a loud crack of broken ribs and a cry of pain, his rifle clattering to the roadside. "You know, where I come from when people want to help you the proper response is to say thank you, not shoot them in the back," said a voice in English.

The crowd suddenly fell silent, every person within sight of this little tableau simply stopping and staring. Colossus stopped and stared, Psylocke stopped and stared, even Magma looked up from her task, only turning back when she felt the little rumble through the ground underneath her. There, on top of a nearby apartment's balcony stood a living legend. "Captain America," Colossus said softly, "Im, impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible my young friend," said the captain, leaping down from where he had stood, followed by several others who had been higher up the roof, smiling at Colossus.

Two of them, Avalanche and Hawkeye, the Custodes knew after looking past their outfits. But there were three they didn't. An older looking black man wearing an all-white suit with a wide brimmed hat and carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder stayed where he was, surveying the crowd from behind a pair of sunglasses. A man in a Kevlar suit of blue and gold with a gas mask covering his lower face with two submachine guns strapped to his side jumped down with the captain, followed immediately by the third, a man wearing a skintight suit of blue, his head covered similarly by a mask of blue and yellow.

"I was frozen, some kind of cryogenic sleep caused by the cold temperature I crashed into due to a bit of an adventure I had back during the end of World War II." He looked at Colossus, then Psylocke and Magma and smiled faintly, visible since his mask only covered the top of his face. "You'd be the Custodes Mundi I presume? Colonel Fury doesn't seem to like your boss much, but he can't say anything against your actions at least. So, fill me in on the situation here soldier."

"Sir," said Colossus, actually coming to attention. "We were waiting in the upper atmosphere nearby, believing that the attacks on the cities during Magnum's show of force seemed to indicate that the source of his attack was nearer to Hong Kong and Tokyo than any of the other cities. We were unable to figure out where that was directly before this attack, but hoped that our team member Magma could use her own powers to offset his assault. It's worked, but we only got here as the attack was going on. There's already been a lot of damage done to the city, but hopefully we've stopped it from being apocalyptic."

"From what we saw from the air you did, most of the city's still standing, but thank God the Japanese believed in building for earthquake prevention in the first place. Do you know where the command center for the emergency response forces is?"

"No sir, we stopped here because this was where we landed, and I believed that Magma would need a bodyguard just in case. Psylocke stayed to help translate."

"Well we did too," Psylocke said, leaning up from where she had been staring into her would-be attacker's mind. "This man works for Moses, he was sent to record the attack and interfere with public order any way he could. I can't see why he agreed to that, and he doesn't know where Moses is unfortunately, which means we're still waiting for that."

"Very well, Maverick cuff him, we might want to question that man later. The rest of us should start moving towards the control center. With the city like this we won't get far just randomly going around searching ruins or helping people, no matter how laudable that is. So once your specialist's done what she can, follow us. Kestrel, you said you had triangulated their position? Avengers, let's move."

Such was the impact of Captain America's presence that practically every able-bodied person in the crowd followed him despite most not having followed what he said. With the crowd behind him Captain America moved off, racing through the city with the somewhat older black man, Kestrel apparently, leading the way. At a nod from the other two Psylocke followed, wanting to move with the so-called Avengers to use her ability to translate so they could all understand the locals.

Colossus stayed back with Magma. He stood there as she reached up for his arm, taking it before allowing Colossus to pull her to her feet. The Neo-Grecian shook her head wearily. "That's the first time I've ever had to fight someone in a battle of pure wills like that. I wonder if that's how Jean or Emma feel when fighting another telepath."

"But you won," Colossus said smiling at her. "Very well done, dorogoy (my dear)."

Magma nodded, then slowly began to come out of her energy form, tapping a mark on her armor, a runic array which powered a spell that would cover her features with a series of spells intended to disguise them. Then she opened up a pouch, a feature all of their uniforms shared, pulling out a potion and downing it quickly.

At the sight of the potion Colossus snapped his metallic fingers, making a clanging sort of noise that resounded through the area. Pulling out his communicator he spoke to Dennis for a few moments, asking him to get in touch with Sage. At the same time, he and Magma began to move in the direction the others had raced off toward, noticing how empty this portion of the city was at present. They soon came upon Kitty and her group, helping to excavate a large collapsed apartment building.

When the information specialist came on, Colossus asked, "Are you able to divert any of Magical Minds shipments to Japan? I realize you would have to ask someone to remove the magical security on them first.

"Doctor Druid's up, though the others are still out of it apparently, according to Dennis," Sage replied after a moment discussing things with the spymaster in Camelot. While still coming to grips with all that Harry's magic could do, Sage understood how important it was easily. "He says he should be able to halt a shipment being sent to Ireland, then ask the United Kingdom to lend us some of their transport planes. Going by air will be much faster."

In fact," she went on after a moment "I'll ask Doctor Druid to relate to one of the house-elves that they should follow along just in case." There was a chance such a shipment, with its destination already changed, could be seen as a target of anyone trying to steal MM's 'medicines'.

Kitty spoke up, leaning over Colossus's arm to speak into the communicator on his wrist. "Make certain to specify that it needs to be one of the house-elves who's most at home with technology. None of the others will be comfortable doing it, and they might not pay as much attention."

Colossus nodded and after helping as much as they could there the group moved on. About twenty minutes passed as they moved through the city. Then Magma halted, the communicator on her wrist vibrating. While Colossus and Armor moved to help a bus out of a crack in the road, she moved into a nearby alleyway to talk into the communicator though in her case it was the magical version.

Coming back quickly she reported, "Professor X and the Diamond just called. They've been able to pinpoint Magnum." She frowned thoughtfully, staring all around them at the destroyed or badly damaged buildings and the growing crowd of people, wounded, in shock or simply afraid. "Shadowcat, Armor, Psylocke, you should probably stay here. Armor can stay to help translate and her strength is useful, and your powers, are invaluable for search and rescue ladies. Same goes for Nightcrawler."

After that she looked up at Colossus, he shrugged his shoulders indicating he understood what she was thinking. He didn't care one way or the other, it didn't matter if he would be involved in punishing the person who'd caused all this carnage, or help his victims. The first would be nice, the second was probably more important however.

Magma finally nodded. "All right, the team will be myself, Colossus, Cyclops, Sunfire, Spyke, and Rogue. We might need both of our strongmen in on this. Let's get in contact with them and…"

A gentle but firm hand landed on his metallic shoulder, and he and Magma turned, starting a little bit at seeing Iron Man hovering right behind them. "You lot have figured out a way to track Magnum down? I'm not even going to ask how, but don't think for one moment you're going to be leaving the Avengers behind."

"Some of us have to stay behind to help the people here," Colossus protested, getting over his surprise quickly. "Besides, Moses Magnum is a mutant, it should be mutants who deal with him. At least that way we might be able to mitigate some of the damage his actions have done to the cause of mutant human equal rights."

"Nice sentiment, and I might even agree with you, but you don't know what kind of defenses he has. Better to bring in more men than you need rather than get caught out."

To that neither of the Custodes could protest, and a few minutes passed while they all got in contact with their groups.

Captain America however brought up an important point that Iron Man had forgotten. "Tony, you've got construction droids coming in from the helacarrier right? Will they respond to anyone's voice, or just yours?"

Inside his helmet Tony clicked his tongue the noise coming out of his speaker faithfully. "Not at first." Tony's construction droids were not creations he had let out to the common public, much like Dr. Doom though he had shared them with Harry. None of them were willing to start flooding the civilian sector with such, knowing it would disrupt the economy. But unlike Doom's, Tony's were all voice activated, and even his own company couldn't use them without Tony first changing their base settings.

"In that case, you'll stay here along with Giant Man, Avalanche and Kestrel. Maverick, Hawkeye and I will join this attack group. Is that alright miss?" Captain America asked, turning to the young woman who seemed to be making most of the plans for the Custodes currently present. He'd hoped to meet Guardian himself, but that could wait for now.

Magma stared at him, falling back into the shock Captain America's presence head thrown practically everyone who had seen him into, stuttering for a moment. "That, I mean, you're asking me?" She squeaked.

While Tony and the approaching Maverick laughed, Steve just looked embarrassed. "Please Miss, I'm just a regular man underneath it all." He laughed self-deprecatingly. "In fact, when I was younger, before I volunteered for the program, hmm I was, well you could call me the runt of the litter and you'd be kind."

Magma frowned, but Colossus actually smiled, remembering Harry telling him about his own history, and what he had learned from it. "Because only those who have been weak, know when not to use their power."

Steve Rogers twitched, quickly looking up Colossus his eyes wide. "I heard something like that myself," he said cautiously.

Colossus waved his hand. "It was something Guardian said to me once, it resonated with me for some reason. Very well," he went on, looking at Magma who nodded. "I think you and your team members will be welcome additions."

"Huh that's true," said Ironman, snapping his fingers making a tone like that which Colossus had made doing the same thing a few moments ago. "Where is Guardian?"

"Something magical happened or he did something magical, the reports I've seen are rather confused on that score," Colossus said with a shrug. "None of us were around at the time so I'm afraid I can't give you any details."

Even if we wanted to, which we don't. Tony Stark might have become much more stable in the past few months, but Harry still was wary of the man knowing too much about his own operation, and had made certain that all of the Custodes Mundi knew both about him and about the Avengers as a team, which was tied into SHIELD. Dennis had found out about them watching footage from some of their battles in Argentina and elsewhere. From this Harry had decided to treat the Avengers as semi-friendly units, until they proved otherwise.

It took about 40 minutes or so to gather the people selected for the attack team. By which point Moses Magnum had figured out or received news that his attack on the city had fizzled out.

He was on the news once again ranting now about how the defense of the city was admirable, but it merely delayed the inevitable. "Your defenders can only protect one city, I can attack over a dozen! You have 45 minutes now, unless I hear about the Emperor of Japan stepping down, I will destroy Washington D.C., Rome, Hong Kong and Berlin! Then 30 minutes after that, London, Moscow, Paris and Hollywood! I will keep targeting more cities with each successive attack until my demands are met!"

"Forty five minutes," Captain America said grimly, racing onto the Avenger's quinjet, which had parked on the same rooftop helicopter pad as the X-men's Blackbird. Cyclops and the others were already there, and they stared at him, which he tried to ignore. "We can't waste any time then."

Cyclops shook his head quickly smacking his forehead several times to get over the sheer shock of seeing a walking, breathing legend in the flash. Coming back to his senses he raced onto the Blackbird, heading for the controls. "Strap yourselves in boys and girls we're going to fly!"

Once in the air the Blackbird, with the quinjet following, hit near supersonic within two minutes, and then slowed down dramatically within five, homing in on the target island as Charles using Cerebro directed them. At the same time Emma was filling Colossus and Magma in on what they had found, her thoughts a light whisper at the edge of their thoughts. "There are around ninety people down there, all of them give off the vibe of hardened criminals or soldiers, at this distance it's hard to tell which. We don't know anything about the physical defenses, but judging by their ability to almost mask their mental presences from us and what Magnum has been doing, assume a high tech base."

They could almost feel a frown through the mental link she had forged between them for a moment as Emma went on. "In fact, I'm tempted to see if I can get through that defense and simply shut their minds down from here."

Colossus shuddered, sharing a look with Magma, thankful that she wasn't sending to any of the others. The idea of a telepath simply shutting someone else's mind down like that gave both of them heebie-jeebies. Shaw had been a piece of work, a true sociopath and a clear and present threat to them, whose powers made him even more dangerous to most of them. But unless it would save lives, Colossus was not willing to let Emma do such a thing here.

Through the telepathic link he said as much, with Magma chiming in quickly. "It would set a very bad precedent, up to this point the limitations of a telepath's powers aren't very well known. But if Hawkeye or Captain America have mental defenses and can resist their memories being altered, or if someone else eventually put two and two together, it could paint all telepaths in a very negative light. After all, who would be happy to know there are other people who could reach out and shut their minds down?" Magma said, putting Colossus's thoughts and feelings into words far better than he could have.

Emma was silent at the other end, then eventually nodded. "I can understand that, and I actually agree. I'll withdraw my suggestion then. That means you lot will have to fight your way through however."

By this point the plane was within sight of the island, and several dozen small VTOL attack craft seemed to be heading towards them. Cyclops looked behind him towards Sunfire. "Looks like we've got some friends coming to meet us, are you ready to go?"

Sunfire nodded back slightly, very slightly in order to show his superiority over this foreigner, though Cyclops didn't realize that. At Sunfire's nod Cyclops flipped a switch, letting Sunfire jump out. "Banzai!"

Sunfire slammed into the first VTOL, coming out the other side having left a hole that looked as if something red-hot had shot straight through it. Then he turned, his hands forming into guns, shooting out several small blasts of solar power. The VTOLs didn't seem to have human pilots operating them, but they responded quickly, fanning out and firing at the flyer.

The island was a rocky one, based out of a small volcano, the sight of which caused Hawkeye and Spyke to both mutter about living in a James Bond movie. Hearing Hawkeye's comment, Captain America laughed. "I liked those when you showed me them Hawkeye. We need to do that again sometime." Even as he said it though, the rocky ground below them began to change, small apertures opening and letting out what looked like anti-air cannons of some kind.

And at one point on the island a cave door opened. Several beings trooped out wearing large armored suits the sight of which caused Captain America and Hawkeye to both scowl angrily. "Tony is not going to like this," muttered Hawkeye. "Bad enough we've got other militaries playing with power suit tech based off his design, now we've got criminals who have access to them?"

"No, at least not in any numbers, I don't think. Their performance probably won't be anywhere near Tony's toy. The power consumption alone would make that impossible," Captain America said shaking his head. "And look at the bright side, at least we know AIM isn't the one backing Magnum, if they had toys like that we would have already seen them."

Maverick, the pilot growled angrily as he was forced to circle away, the anti-air fire too heavy to get close to the island. "If you two could stop talking for a damn minute, we're kind of in a battle here!"

"Keep your distance for now quinjet. We need to knock out some of those defenses first." Cyclops' voice came from the radio as the Blackbird banked away.

"What are you going to do?" asked Captain America, watching Sunfire as he dodged this way and that. Need to think of putting some guns on this bird, or recruit more flyers to the team. That's an area we're badly deficient in.

Cyclops had turned over control of the Blackbird to Spyke, moving back to the still open entryway. Reaching up to his visor, he smirked. "I'm going to make us a landing spot."

With that he flipped his visor up off of his eyes, letting his beams out for the first time in a long time at full power. The actinic beam of pure force slammed into the ground in a wide radius, shattering, and crushing everything in its path, as Cyclops raked the ground of the island in a wide circle.

Immediately guiding the quinjet forward, Captain America shouted, "Rogue, Maverick Colossus with me!" leaping out of the plane. Maverick nodded, leaving the quinjet on autopilot as Hawkeye, taking his cue without need for orders set up a covering fire with his bow, destroying several VTOLs.

But the teams in the Blackbird stared at Captain America aghast, the man didn't have a parachute, and he wasn't that durable, was he? Nonetheless the two tanks charged out after them. As they fell they noticed Captain America was actually using his shield to defend himself from laser and flechette rounds, the impact of which was slowing him down. Seeing this Rogue shook her head. Did he actually plan for that!?

Then neither of them had any time to think. Landing on the ground that Cyclops had cleared they charged forward, ignoring the weapons bouncing off their bodies. Colossus chose to charge the armored defenders, many of whom had come out of a small ditch in the ground, using the lip of the ditch as cover to fire up at the invaders, nearly clipping both planes and Sunfire. Rogue used her greater speed to close with a few of the automated guns nearby, destroying them and moving on quickly.

Colossus smashed into the armored defenders, crushing their mass-produced armored forms quickly, before one of them caught him in the face with a punch that made Colossus' head ring. "Hah, we might not have much vibranium, but what we do have you're going to feel!"

Not replying Colossus fell back slightly, then when the same attacker moved in his hands came up in a Sambo grappling strike which flashed in past the armored suit's large fist. Ducking under another punch Colossus' other hand caught the back of his attacker's captured arm in the forearm, wrenching it to one side, and swiftly tearing the limb off entirely from the elbow.

Holding the limb up he shouted "They are not like Ironman at all!" Reaching forward he grabbed the center of the armored suit's chest, and even as it brought up the other hand, the end of which was now open showing an aperture for some weapon, Colossus ripped the front chassis off. The bolt collided with Colossus sending him stumbling backwards, but the juggernaut armor he wore and his own metal form handled it easily.

Staring at him aghast was a normal-sized human, at the controls of what was basically a giant robot that he was piloting from a small control area. His entire body was situated in the robot's chest.

Ducking underneath an energy blast of some kind Colossus reached forward grabbing the robots legs and lifting it bodily up over his head, shaking it and shouting "Look! They're some kind of robot suits, not armored suits at all!"

"Well in that case sugah," said Rogue, who had been having a difficult time with four of the other armored defenders having jumped her from a hiding place, "that makes it easier." With that she began to rip off limbs, along with the heads seeing as only the body needed to be preserved to not kill anyone.

Nearby Maverick also took advantage of this, having touched down as easily as any of the others, easier in fact since he hadn't made a crater like the two tanks had. Using his mutant power, kinetic absorption and redirection, with pinpoint accuracy he took out the robot's joints and the hatch covers, leaving the men operating them stuck inside.

By this point Captain America had already taken out two of them, and with the air space cleared for now the two jets touched down with Cyclops, Spyke and Hawkeye exiting quickly. Above them Sunfire started to land as well, having finished off the aerial defenses with the aid of Spyke and Hawkeye. There were still some gun placements taking shots at them, but Cyclops' attack had won them some space to operate, and the others had expanded that sphere quickly enough to give them a good idea of what they were facing.

Crouching down behind a rock Captain America began to bark out instructions over the continued chattering of automatic fire and the fizzling sound of energy weapons of some kind, their bolts a whitish yellow. "Cyclops, you stay back and use your attacks like artillery, take out any gun placements you see. Colossus, you move that way," he said pointing towards the direction from which at least half of the mech suits had appeared from. "Sunfire, if you would go with him, and you Magma, Spyke?" Sunfire nodded, and Captain America also sent Hawkeye that way. "Rogue, Maverick, with me. We'll go the other way towards that ditch Colossus was fighting in. Cyclops, follow along after us as soon as we're on the move."

The sudden overwhelming attack had already decimated the island's quick reaction forces, and now the two groups were able to press forward hard, pushing into the island's interior quickly meeting only a few automated defenses as they did. There however, both groups were bogged down in the security tunnels which had first disgorged the defenders, running smack dab into the second, third and fourth defensive teams, all of whom were using the same kind of powered suit that the people outside had.

Worse, there were several gun placements on the interior as well that had begun to fire at them whenever they could. The interior of the island was also a bit of a maze to the Custodes and their allies, slowing them down dramatically with every offshoot they had to explore, or backtrack out of.

It was after one such stop, as her team was taking shelter next to a wall from fire from both ends of a corridor, that Magma felt it: Moses Magnum had made good his promise to attack again. "Stop, guard this position for now!"

With that she knelt on the ground, ignoring Sunfire's furious expression at being ordered about like that by a gaijin woman. That feeling faded visibly however as he realized what Magma was doing. At the same time, Colossus had taken position in front of her, while Hawkeye and Spyke began to take out the automated defenses with pinpoint fire.

Concentrating hard, her energy form flaring an even brighter yellow/orange than normal, Magma growled under her breath. "I'm right on top of you now you bastard! You and your stupid afro, and your ludicrous 60's shirt! Let's see how well you do trying to overpower me now!"

OOOOOOO

Deep in his no-longer hidden control center Moses Magnum snarled, enraged, thrusting his arms deeper into the device he had created to augment his powers, forcing more and more energy into the device. His body generated seismic force which amplified his natural strength and allowed him to create and direct seismic vibrations from his fingers.

These were normally mid-to-major depending on his effort, and the device he was currently attached to allowed him to project that power further away from his body through the earth. Right now he was concentrating as he had never done before, trying with all his might to make good his threat, especially now that the governments of the world had sent their lapdogs to find him.

And yet all that effort got him absolutely nowhere. Whatever had stopped his seismic attack on Tokyo was now right inside his fortress, and he couldn't overcome it. "Damnit! Damnit! Now all of the world leaders will think it was all a bluff! I'll have to destroy more cities before they capitulate!"

Magnum pulled his arms out of the device shaking them quickly as feeling had begun to leave his fingers for a few moments there. He then snarled angrily shaking his head. "But before that I have to deal with these interlopers!"

OOOOOOO

His men could have told Magnum that was not going to be easy. The attackers were overwhelming them, bringing more force to each encounter than the defenders could handle. Despite running into problems with the automated defenses Captain America and his group didn't stay in one place for long, taking away the defender's ability to overwhelm them with numbers. And over the next 20 minutes or so, most of Magnum's defense forces were down, leaving only the automated defenses.

But these were still formidable, and now with the attackers becoming tired they began to tell. Hawkeye fell, a bullet taking him in the thigh, forcing Captain America to fall back with his wounded friend, with Cyclops and Maverick guarding them, both of them also sporting various wounds, though the attacks hadn't been able to penetrate their armor completely, not yet. Cyclops' visor had taken a blow to the side, and he was forced to close that eye, halving his beam's power as he fought on. And Maverick had taken a flechette round to the side of his knee, slowing him down considerably despite his body absorbing much of the impact.

Only Rogue remained uninjured, her armor, Juggernaut durability and Shaw's kinetic energy absorption were more than a match for any of the defenses they had come across yet. With her in the lead Captain America and Cyclops were soon pressing forward once more, Maverick taking his leader's place in guiding Hawkeye to follow them more slowly.

Magma and her group had a much rougher time of it. Having had to stay put in order for Magma to use her power, the defenders had been able to concentrate their nearby forces and encircle them.

Now they were held up in a corridor, with Colossus in front, exchanging fire with a Custodes rifle he carried in his pouch while using his metallic body to guard the backs of Spyke, Sunfire and Magma who were dealing with the attack from behind. These new defenders were using the same mech-suits as the others they'd run into, but their weaponry was much heavier, which made fighting in the narrow confines of the tunnel even harder.

Spyke howled in agony, as several plasma rounds slammed into him, getting through his bone armor and searing his skin. Luckily the suits the X-Men had worn had now all been given enough Orihalcum to cover the chest and thigh, much like Psylocke's, or those could have finished him off entirely. As it was he went down hard, thankfully falling unconscious from the pain.

"We aren't getting through this way!" shouted Magma, ducking back towards Colossus as the heavy weapons team that had boxed them in from behind tried to redirect their weapons on her. She winced as they impacted anyway, before hurling enough of her own small bits of energy back toward them to put them down permanently. At the same time Sunfire finished off his own opponent, moving to kneel by Spyke to check the boy for a pulse.

"What would you suggest?" said Colossus calmly, the calm of a person who had yet to face any weapon on this mission that could break through his juggernauts plate armor or metal form.

"That we make our own road!" Magma shouted, slamming her hands against one side of the cavern. There was a deep rumble and a cracking boom and second later a fissure opened up in the rocks there, leading downwards and away. "Follow me!"

Colossus did so grabbing up Spyke, trying hard not to jostle his injuries. He then turned, watching as the entrance closed behind them, several feet of rock closing them off from their pursuers.

Beside him Sunfire frowned. "I do not like this idea of skulking about, it lacks honor. Nonetheless, we are being slowed far too much and if this Magnum person is like most megalomaniacs, he will no doubt run now that the odds have turned against him. That must not be allowed, he must stand trial for his crimes against Nippon! Lead the way woman."

Rolling her eyes at the man's attitude Magma did so, her form and Sunfire's hands being the only light in the cavern for a moment until they broke out into another corridor heading somewhat further down and to the left of their original position.

Elsewhere, Captain America and his team had gotten bogged down once more. Cyclops had taken a hit to his shoulder from a sniper gun, though thankfully it hadn't penetrated. But when the blow threw off his balance his own eyebeam had nearly taken out the ceiling above them, forcing him to close his eyes for a moment, weakening their cover fire.

Captain America took the sniper out with an adroit throw of his shield, catching it as it bounced back to them using its momentum to throw himself forward to land in front of Cyclops to guard him from further fire from forward.

Rogue shook her head, "I'm never gonna get over that kinda thing."

She had gathered in quite a bit of kinetic energy up to this point, and now seeing they were being pressed hard took a page out of the Hulk's book. Cupping her hands together she slammed them down to the ground, creating a shockwave through the ground towards their attackers.

That threw them all off their feet, and before they could get back up and attack again, Maverick and Hawkeye took them all out. With that done the group moved on.

But even despite the group's success thus far, Sunfire had been correct. Moses Magnum was not the type to go down with a sinking ship. The moment he had stopped trying to overpower Magma with the help of his machine he had realized despite his bravado that his defenders were being equally overpowered, and decided to make a run for it.

Unfortunately for Moses, Magma's surprise escape had brought her team right on to the hidden docks which had been used to create this installation in the first place. As the men with Magnum began to fire at them almost immediately, Magma returned fire with fire, ignoring the energy blasts hitting her while dodging the solid slug projectiles while Sunfire rose into the air of the small cavern, doing the same thing. Magma shouted, "Sunfire, destroy that ship!"

"Do not order me about woman!" Sunfire shouted. But he followed her suggestion, turning his solar power on the boat that Magnum was racing towards. Only a few blasts were needed, and one of them caught the ships engines, causing it to explode gloriously.

"Damn you!" Moses shouted angrily, reaching down and grabbing up a piece of shrapnel and hurling it upwards, catching Sunfire in the shoulder and left pectoral, cutting deeply and sending him crashing to the cavern's floor.

With that done he turned throwing out a punch at the charging Colossus. But Colossus had been trained for months under Shiang Chi's harsh tutelage and even caught by surprise at the other man's speed, Colossus rolled with the punch moving his entire body with it to one side, coming back with a kick that caught Magnum in the chest.

A normal man would have been bent double by that kick, but Moses was far stronger than most men thanks to the seismic force his body generated. He took the kick with barely a wince, grabbing the foot and throwing Colossus through the air. But Colossus flipped in midair, grabbing at a nearby crate. It was empty, but large, and Colossus heaved it up, hurling it towards Moses as he landed.

Moses smashed the crate to splinters, but this obscured his vision for a moment, and Colossus had followed his projectile closely. The armored Russian smashed two hard punches into Moses' body, before moving for a hold. Moses was durable however and took the punches, moving the arm Colossus was trying to grab out of the way before kicking out, catching Colossus in the thigh. This threw off his attacker's balance, and Moses brought his fists down in a hammer blow on the back of the metal-man's head. "Fall damn you!"

"Nyet." Colossus growled, pushing himself to his feet and bull rushing the other man, slamming him bodily back through several stalactites. "Not before you!"

"Colossus get clear!" Magma shouted, having finished the last of Magnum's men, now kneeling over Sunfire, who was trying to get to his feet even as she tried to bandage his wounds.

"Nyet." Colossus replied, still pushing Moses back towards the wall at the far end of the cavern from the small docks. "This is my fight Magma, besides your powers are not good at capturing, yes?"

"Counting your chickens before they hatch fool!" Moses growled, even as Colossus slammed him into the wall of the cavern. His fingers glowed purple for a moment then a wave of shattering energy smashed into Colossus form.

His attack however was aimed at Colossus' chest, which was covered by the Juggernaut armor. The armor took it and Colossus skidded backwards, woozy but unhurt. His return blow was a feint causing Moses to guard his upper body, which left him open for a kick that took him in the side of the kneecap.

"GAAHH!" A normal man would have been crippled. Moses simply howled in pain, losing his balance enough for Colossus to get behind him and lock in a submission hold around Magnum's neck. One arm was pointing straight up, the other too far away from where Colossus stood behind the man to be of any good.

Feeling the metal-man's arm around his neck Moses panicked, bucking and trying to heave Colossus off his feet, but even when his feet left the ground, Colossus grimly kept his hold in place. Moses lashed out, using his seismic powers to shatter the wall beside them with his free hand, sending shrapnel at both yet Colossus ignored it. "Damn you let me go!"

"Nyet." Colossus said for the third time in as many minutes. "You must answer for your crimes madman, you will not escape me, nor justice."

No matter how strong Moses Magnum was, he still had to breathe. Within seconds his attacks began to weaken, and he could feel it. "No, damn it, no, this, this, it wasn't, it wasn't supposed to end like this…" the Afro-clad villain tried to keep fighting, and another minute went by before his body went still.

Colossus held his submission hold in place for another twenty count, before loosening it, and let the unconscious man slide to the floor. Magma moved over to her boyfriend, Sunfire leaning, rather reluctantly, on her shoulder. She smiled at Colossus and received a faint smile and a sigh in return. "I think his hair, it gave him delusions of grandeur, yes?"

Magma blinked at that as Sunfire stifled a snort then began to laugh.

OOOOOOO

Sinister smiled somewhat grimly as he sent a coded signal to his video gear in Magnum's base to self-destruct. The acid packs hidden in them would destroy anything that could possibly be used to find any connection between Magnum and anyone else. And his brainwashing machine would also leave no signs that an interrogator or a telepath would be able to find. As far as Magnum knew, the entire grandiose scheme had been his idea from start to finish.

For all his pawn's incompetence, Sinister was rather happy about how things had turned out. He had learned enough to understand the abilities of both the X-men and the Custodes. Pity that Guardian wasn't there, but I'll take what I can get.

OOOOOOO

The next day most of the magic-users were still out of it, but Harry at least was awake and cognizant enough to hear about what had happened while they were all out of it. He sat up slightly in bed, nodding at Piotr, even that little bit of movement tiring him out. "Gah, I hate being an invalid. Sorry to pull you away from the rescue efforts in Tokyo Piotr, but I wanted to talk to you."

Piotr nodded, moving to take a seat by the bedside, resolutely not looking over to where Ororo was laid out practically naked on top of the covers. She had actually kicked off her clothing despite how exhausted she was. Something Harry hadn't even noticed as tired as he was. "You wish to talk about the operation? Or how we are still out there cleaning up, and the statement we made to the newsies? Or, or how I deferred to Magma so much?"

Harry frowned internally, hearing a bit of self-recrimination in that statement. I wasn't going to talk about that, but it looks like we should.

"No, none of those points worry me. Dennis filled me in on the very brief statement you made when those idiot reporters tried to get in your face. With Sunfire on your side, and the job you've done so far, I doubt you're going to run into much of an issue with local anti-mutant sentiment despite Magnum being one."

That statement boiled down to 'we are the Custodes Mundi, we guard the world. We'd prefer to guard the world from foreign enemies, but we will also try to guard it from anyone who would needlessly endanger civilian lives that we can stop'. Amara, the daughter of a diplomat had done some pretty fancy verbal footwork there, but she got across the gist of it without saying they would always be around or hint at how they had been able to be in the right place this time. And then there was Captain America.

"Especially with Captain America there." Harry shook his head slowly. He had to move slowly because if he shook it fast he was afraid that his head would fall off. That illusion spell had taken a hell of a lot out of him, even talking was causing pain to lance through his head like nobody's business and it was worse for the others.

Captain America had a respect that was near impossible to find in this day and age. It was a respect of a man who had fought a war. Who had a reputation for doing what was right, and for treating his enemies with respect. Never exulting in their defeat, or humiliating them. It spoke to a sense of honor, in far more countries than just America. In a sense, in many areas, it had become almost cultural since his impact during the 40's and his efforts during World War II.

So when he thanked the Custodes Mundi on stepping up at this moment of need for the people of Tokyo and other cities around the world people listened. His stance had pretty much taken the wind out of anyone's sails who tried to say this had been a personal issue between the Custodes Mundi and Moses Magnum, or a mutant against mutant problem. There were still some grumbling going on, but not nearly as much as there had been.

"I'm still getting used to the idea of a living legend still being around like that, but with him around and approving of you and the X-men's presence I doubt anyone will have the courage to try and make an issue about you. I can't say I'm happy to know that he's working with SHIELD, but Nick hasn't proven himself an enemy, just a pain in the rear with his spymaster attitude and his insistence on working with the system.

Harry shrugged somewhat uncomfortable, above and beyond the pain the move sent through his head. The idea that SHIELD and the Custodes Mundi might eventually fight had occasionally worked its way through his mind, despite his earnest desire to not seek such. And the idea of taking on Captain America, no matter Harry's material superiority, bothered him. The man had been a symbol for the Greatest Generation, and was still seen as representing the best and brightest of the free world.

"But in terms of you basically handing over the leadership position to Amara, I don't have a problem with it."

"But I do." Piotr frowned looking away. "I know you have given me every opportunity to prove I am leader material, but I am sorry, I just, sometimes I do not think I fulfill that role."

"Piotr…" Harry frowned, realizing that once the adrenaline had worn off Piotr had begun to second-guess himself, but there really was no need for that here. He wondered for a moment how to get that point across then smiled.

"You know that in every army there are officers and non-coms yes?" Piotr nodded and Harry went on. "Your normal officer is the one making the decisions, making the long term plans, but is often times the non-coms, who are the ones carrying them out. And when it comes to the morale or discipline of the troops, of understanding them, being the moral and physical compass, that all comes from the non-coms."

"You may never be the planning sort of leader Piotr, but that doesn't mean your contribution isn't important, and it doesn't mean you're not a leader. Look at the way you made the decision to guard Amara, or get in touch with Dennis only after making certain the locals in Rio didn't need your help. You still make decisions, just not ones that deal with combat. Never doubt your worth Piotr Nickoleovitch Rasputin."

Piotr stared at Harry for a moment then chuckled shaking his head and nodding simply unable to come up with words. Inside however he was wondering why Harry and Captain America or 'call me Steve' had so many similarities between them. It is very odd, and yet somehow extremely gratifying. "Then what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Moses Magnum and the tech he used. With the Avengers there I understand why none of you wanted to take the chance to grab any, and I fully approve leaving Magnum to the Avengers. His attack was so public we couldn't simply make him disappear without a lot of questions being asked later. But I still want to know about the tech, the device Magnum was using to amplify his powers, the suits his men used, where did those men come from? And why did Magnum want to be King of Japan?"

Something about the whole scenario was bothering Harry. Magnum might have had an ego, but he was supposed to be smart. He should have known he couldn't get away with exhorting a head of state to hand over power to him. Not unless Magnum had allies or enough men to guard his new acquisition.

And why had he attacked so many cities in the first place if Japan alone was his goal? That had only won him enmity from nations which could have been persuaded to remain neutral. All those points might mean someone else was working behind the scenes, possibly the same someone who was so adroitly fanning the ongoing conflict between pro-mutant and human supremacists.

"I am sorry tovarishch, but I did not take a good look at any of it. As to the men, they looked like gangsters or toughs, nothing special. The armored suits had massive batteries operating them, Iron Man said they would only be good for a few hours of operation at best."

Piotr racked his brain for anything else he had overheard about the tech. "I think I remember Tony and Hawkeye discussing who could have made them, and he said they were remarkably high tech, but not something AIM would have made, too durable, and… there was something else, something about the pilots, but I'm sorry I wasn't close enough to hear."

"That's alright Piotr, but what about Magnum himself? Tell me about him."

For the next few minutes Piotr described what he had seen of the man, how he had fought and his powers. Most of this dovetailed with what Dennis had passed on to Harry from Moses' rap sheet. But nowhere was there any connection to Japan found. There was megalomania there yes, but not stupidity. After a moment he thanked Piotr, sending him off to head back to the others in Tokyo, while Harry leaned back, his eyes closing wearily as the question, So who was pulling Magnum's strings, and why? went through his head.

OOOOOOO

When he woke up the next morning, Harry's mind was still throbbing, but he was once again lucid enough to speak, something Emma, who had shown up to shout at him for not telling her he and the other magic users would be out of it for so long, took full advantage of. After nearly kissing him hard enough to knock him unconscious again, only this timevia air loss . Given the time difference it was still four in the morning when it was nine in Scotland, so Emma had several hours before she was missed.

However, kissing her lover wasn't the only reason Emma had come over. The more, or at least equally important, reason was to tell Harry about the public response to Magnum and the ongoing reaction to the Sentinel project. "It's bad Harry, very bad. If not for the Custodes intervening, and, I have to say, Captain America showing up and giving his support of them, we would have lost all the progress we had made."

She shook her head as Harry sat up, carefully not letting him see her concern as he winced in pain. "Sage and I have been keeping an eye on it, and several Asian countries which were leaning toward, call it enlightened equal rights under the law, have back-tracked. It's not even their governments, it's a pure social response. And the Middle east…"

Emma actually shuddered, some of the imagery they had seen from various Middle East countries was horrifying, looking like things from the Dark Ages. "The Middle East is horrifying. I, I just don't think we can come up with any solution there, except getting out any young mutants we can. Father Garnoff says we lost several names almost as fast as they showed up and it's going to get worse."

Harry winced, and not from the pain in his head this time, grateful that Ororo was still asleep. She would not have handled that well.

"Just as bad is what we're seeing from Italy, Germany, and America, though in very different ways. In America, the anti-mutant agenda's taken a shot in the arm, and is now back to where it was before the Sentinels. Worse, there's starting to be a distinct religious overtone to it, the Friends of Humanity have become the Church of Humanity, and thus now can claim freedom of religion when going about its business. Thankfully most police districts seem to take a low view on mob rule, but there have been several violent clashes between them, the 'Church' and pro-mutant groups."

"I can guess what's going on in Italy and Germany." Harry cut in wearily. "Tell me about the other side of things."

"Mutant Supremacist groups have appeared in every country I've looked at. Most of them are small, and generally speaking have no more power to make trouble than any normal mob. But there are a few whose members have actual powers, that have begun to appear, and I think it's only a matter of time until they begin to lash out."

"I don't like how they are organized, and Sage agrees. For some reason these groups all seem somewhat organized along the same lines, and they've all begun to show up now?" Emma scoffed. "Someone got a little too cute there."

"Magneto coming back onto the scene, you think?"

"Him or someone who is using the Brotherhood blueprint." Emma nodded, then smiled somewhat warmly. "Thankfully we, as in the Custodes, are winning the war thanks to Piotr and his actions in the Magnum crisis. And the fact the known, neutral news agencies have covered both sides also helps. Piotr and Amara came off as intelligent, caring and decent people. Neither the human or mutant Supremacists have come up with spokesmen who are nearly as photogenic or well-spoken as you were a few weeks back nor those two the other day. Passion is all well and good, but doesn't last beyond the day, compassion and probity lasts far longer."

She paused thoughtfully before looking at Harry shrewdly. "I think we can bring more governments and certainly more neutral people to see the plus side of mutant/normal coexistence if Harry Potter, owner of Magical Minds, comes out and makes a statement on the recent, mutant created tragedy and speaks out against such."

Harry nodded. "I talked to Sage about finding me a permanent PR person, someone young and photogenic him or herself, that can help me write up speeches and make statements for my various business interests when I can't for one reason or another, mainly when they aren't important enough to take up my own time honestly."

Both of them chuckled at that then Harry went on. "But this one will be simple enough. I will offer to send more aid in the form of potions to Tokyo, and ask that Magnum be tried in a country with the death penalty for his crimes."

Emma nodded grimly, happy that Harry had understood what was needed, but Harry wasn't done. "Further I will go on and say there needs to be laws in place to deal with mutants who abuse their powers in such a way, not just to defend them under the law but to defend other people from misuse of their powers."

"Ouch, that is going to make you a target for both sides you know. Your pro-mutant stance on the one hand and your demand mutants be held accountable by the laws of 'the lesser race' on the other."

"Let them target me," Harry said grimly. "That will simply let me take out a few of their pawns and maybe trace them back. Raven and Dennis are following up one way to Magneto, but if it turns out to be someone else behind this, that might be a good idea."

"I'll set it up through PNN then, their neutrality means they'll be listened to by far more people than the few pro-mutant news agencies." Emma nodded, and then turned back to the discussion, talking about some specific instances of violence that worried her and other things for the next few hours, interspersed with bits of business news. Harry in turn shared his concerns about where Magnum had gotten his tech, but for now that was all it was, a worry.

They wound down after a few hours, and spent several minutes simply cuddling in bed, talking more about Jean's continued absence more than anything else, though also hitting on Sage and Emma's ongoing work in vetting Shaw's espionage contacts, especially those Sage hadn't known about. The man had a heck of a lot more contacts on the political side of things in South America and the United States than Emma had thought, but most were not very useful to them at present.

Then it was nearly time for Emma to leave, but as she stood up Harry asked, "Is there anything else you want to share, anything odd or unusual?"

Emma hummed, stretching languidly and enjoying the feel of Harry's eyes on her, but then she frowned, thinking. "Two points really, both about different African countries, Genosha and Wakanda."

"I know about Wakanda, that's the nation where vibranium was found right? And the only nation too, I thought that rather odd at the time. But I'm afraid I've not heard about Genosha before."

"No reason you should have. As for Wakanda, Sage has reported some interest from them to begin business with Magical Minds. They are already beginning to meet your social and legal prerequisites for that which is good. But I thought one point was rather… strange, and worrying. They want to talk to Ororo Windrider directly."

Harry sat up quickly, wincing in pain as the sudden move sent a flash of agony through his head. Emma quickly leaned forward, touching his head lightly, massaging it and trying to telepathically dilute the pain he was feeling, giving scant aid despite her little backdoor past his invisibility cloak. After a moment however he spoke. "What, why? How much do they know?"

"They seem to know she works for you, how they know that, or anything specific I don't know. But they want their representative to meet with Ororo Windrider." Emma shrugged. "I don't have any interests in Wakanda, it's a remarkably close-knit country with very few foreign companies having any representation there, so I'm afraid I can't tell you anything more."

Rubbing his forehead, Harry wondered how they had managed to find even that much, but then shook it off. "Alright, I suppose we can only agree to their request to find out why, but we'll wait for a bit for that. I'd like to experiment with some vibranium and get them onboard for our long term goals, but it's not important right now. And Genosha?"

"Genosha's an island nation off the African coast down by South Africa. It's small but self-sufficient, with an extremely high tech base and large population for its size, but not exactly important on the national scene. But lately the news coming out of it is disappearing."

"Disappearing?" Harry repeated, his eyes narrowing. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the government there is beginning to subtly turn aside any foreign news crews, agencies or companies. Two of the Hellfire club members had business interests there, and they have lost them through hostile takeovers by the locals. Something is happening there, I just don't know what. I suppose I might be jumping at shadows, but it's something to be aware of."

Harry nodded, saying he'd make a note of it, but that looking into it further might be beyond them right now. Though their espionage service was still growing thanks to Sage carefully adding Shaw's old agents and contacts to their own, they didn't have enough field agents to run down every point of interest they wanted to.

After another long, sensual kiss Emma left Harry there in bed next to the still comatose Ororo. He lay there for a moment, wondering if she knew what this business with Wakanda was about, but eventually his thoughts turned to other matters. He spent several moments writing up a small speech for his public response to Moses Magnum's Madness, then looked up to find Hedwig waiting patiently on the foot of the bed.

"You always know when I need you, don't you Hedwig?" He said softly, and the snowy owl flew the short distance between them, landing lightly on his shoulder, nuzzling her head against his for a moment.

Hedwig had been rather busy lately, spending time with Illyana and dealing with a very odd pair of ravens that had shown up recently in her territory. They weren't physically odd, but they acted far too intelligently for any non-bonded bird. And the fact they kept on bothering her, trying to play tricks on her or simply following her when she was out hunting, had begun to ruffle her feathers the wrong way.

But that was her problem, not her Harry's. So Hedwig merely waited while her Harry filled out a message to King William. In it, he asked to speak to William and General Demontebanks in an informal setting somewhere at the kings choosing, but in a few days' time for certain. "Hopefully I'll be up and about by then." Harry chuckled self-deprecatingly and Hedwig clucked disapprovingly before letting Harry tie the message to her claw and flying off.

As she left the castle, Hedwig spotted the two irritating ravens again, out and about in a tree at the edge of the castle's meadow. They watched her, awake and seemingly active despite having spent the entire previous night following her around. Yes, they were very odd birds indeed…

OOOOOOO

Commodore We'hnt smirked evilly as the hyperspace countdown began to plummet into the red. Poor Yon-Rogg never really understood how to apply brute power or when subtlety was overrated. No doubt the Fantastic Four or some other Earth-based superhero group caught him with his pants down and the Sentry not around to save him. A small loss in the great scheme of things for us, but if the Earthers think that the Sentry or that fool represented the might of the Kree Empire, they are in for a very rude awakening. If any of them wake up ever again.

We'hnt knew that he was part of a power struggle being fought between the Supreme Intelligence and Ronan the Accuser. Ronan had been pushing hard for several cycles now, wishing to break the AI's control and Mar'vel going over to the humans was a point in his favor, since it had been the Supreme Intelligence that had not only promoted a half-breed but chosen him as a spy for Earth.

The fact that the Supreme Intelligence's response to Mar'vel's defection had disappeared in turn had forced it to respond far more quickly than normal doctrine would have. But We'hnt didn't care, he didn't even care which of them wrote his orders, though he could see how either could gain something by it. All he cared about was the task at hand. It was his first independent flotilla command and he would see it through.

The Kree had ways of dealing with uppity civilizations that didn't know their place and despite having several superpowered individuals, humanity was no better than any of their other subjugated races. There were some strange rumors that the Fantastic Four had turned away Galactus himself somehow, but We'hnt disputed that. The World Eater was a law to himself, the entire might of the Empire could not do anything against him, so how could anyone believe that a group of four monkeys barely evolved from their shit-flinging predecessors could do anything to him?

No, they would die just like the rest of their race. After all no hint had ever been seen or reported that the humans had any kind of space presence, not even a solely defensive one. Fools. They've got some of the technology at least, but according to the first Sentry's reports they haven't moved into space at all! Pathetic. They're going to learn the oldest rule of space warfare, if any of them live to remember the lesson: he who controls the orbitals, controls the world.

"10 seconds until we leave hyperspace," his tactical officer announced.

Seconds later We'hnt's command, his medium fist, the Agonizer, six light fists and eight fast fists, came out of hyperspace right on the dot, quickly spreading out in a previously planned maneuver which spread them over half of the hemisphere of the target planet, which its inhabitants called 'Earth'. As they did, the sensor and astrogation officers looked up from their stations, scowling at one another before turning to the Commodore, who was not only the wolf pack's commander, but also captain of the ship.

The astrogation officer was senior to the sensor specialist, and he spoke up first. "Commodore, our data on the third planet's rotation seems to have proven inaccurate. We came out right on the points we specified, but the planet is actually behind us, several rotations back of where we calculated it would be."

"Odd, but not important, we don't have to be in orbit directly over the planet to do what we came to do, just within weapons range, which we are. Make certain all ships have linked computers to their designated alpha ships. Tell each alpha ship to target the largest cities on this side of the world, one pack to each target, with the Agonizer designated to take out the largest, and fire." We'hnt replied coldly.

"Largest cities in our current line of sight locked into our targeting computers." The tactical officer said. "Firing on targets one through four, now."

A bare second later a deep thrum filled the ship as the medium fist's small railgun blasted out ,sending a small, for the weapon type, gauss round out from its prow down at a diagonal towards its target, which it would strike with all the power of a multi-gigaton nuclear explosion. At the same time, the other ships of the pack fired on their own targets with energy weapons, heavy grazers, low powered lasers and PPC blasts flashed out from all of their weapons, a rainbow of death in space lashing out towards the foolish primitives below.

As the attacks went home We'hnt turned his attention elsewhere for a moment. "Is there any indication that they've begun to build a space-based infrastructure?" He asked. "And keep an eye out for the Fantastic Four. Given the Hellion's disappearance they should be able to get out of the gravity well."

We'hnt knew that at least the one called the Human Torch would be able to get up into space quickly enough to do something. But the others would have to get transportation first, yet the Hellion's disappearance obviously said they had such. But the Kree had once again adapted their doctrine to deal with the threat of the Fantastic Four.

"Not yet my Lord, though our scanners are at full power, the moment we spot anything we'll be able to switch targets. First volley has hit, top three of our first four targets are destroyed, we're seeing the death clouds from here. Target four was a miss, I told you that Ardent Fury's tactical computer needed an overhaul." His tactical officer said, ending with a faint sneer.

"We'll see to that as soon as we're back in the yards." We'hnt soothed. The tactical officer was due a promotion, and knew that any deviation from the plan would be a mark against him when it came to that promotion and the assignment he could hope to get afterwards.

Perhaps it was because of this that the tactical officer was being much more diligent than normal on a somewhat routine orbital bombardment mission like this. "That's strange… sir, we're getting some bizarre readings from the ground here."

"What do you mean strange?" We'hnt asked sharply. Unlike Yon-Rogg, We'hnt wasn't going to underestimate a group of superpowered individuals who had taken out not one but two Sentries, as well as a Light Fist like the Hellion.

"We should be getting readings of debris, bits of dirt and metal and so forth thrown up by the force of the impact, but beyond the dust cloud we're not getting anything specific, it's all generic debris. And, and I think the dust clouds are a little too uniform, it's very strange. We should also be picking up radio waves telling of our attack, or at least I think we should at this point. Surely these humans have some kind of ability to talk from one city to another, whose absence would tell them something was going on."

"The second can be explained away through sheer complacency, but the first…. Are you positive we're getting actual readings of our targets destruction at all? It couldn't be some kind of trick?" We'hnt asked, growing concerned. Something was odd here, and he didn't like it.

But then he was interrupted by the communications specialist. "Sir, Swift fury it, it's gone and, and so's..."

Almost as soon as the com tech said it the sensor specialist spoke up. "Deep Strike and Swift Fury are gone, Strike's engine blew. I'm picking up debris from both fast fists and from something else, something that looks like debris from asteroids, in an expanding cloud that… sir, it looks like the asteroids were cloaked somehow and the Light Fist and Fast fist just rammed right into them!"

"Some kind of trap?" We'hnt muttered. "Cease-fire on the planet for now, I want all active scanners concentrating all around us, find out what just happened!"

"Sir, our sensors aren't telling us that there's anything out there, but the asteroids were definitely there, which is itself odd, considering the nearest source is .983 AU, but I can't see anything that even hinted at its presence before the collision."

"Could it be some new kind of cloaking system, one so advanced it can fool even active sensors from this close?" The tactical officer muttered.

"Perhaps, or perhaps it's merely tailored to combat them in some fashion. Regardless, prepare a hyperspace courier drone, continually update it for the rest of the time we're in realspace, and be ready to send it off as soon as I give the word." We'hnt ordered then strode over to his gunner station.

Stopping there he leaned over his gunner's shoulder. "Communications, relay orders to the pack leaders, they are to follow our lead on this. Gunner, use the tractor beams to grab the largest bits of debris, then plot a full sphere of coverage around us before hurling those pieces out in all directions. If we can't see these asteroids of whatever, we can at least see where there's nothing and then target that."

A bare minute later the tractor beams, of which battlecruisers only had a few and the smaller ships even less, went to work. It took them several moments but they quickly began to get returns. "Cease operations." We'hnt growled, staring at the updated tactical plot, which showed several large areas of space marked out in red, with no other information available on them set around them in a strange formation of some kind.

So the humans have been trying to set up some kind of orbital infrastructure. Well we can't have that, though I wonder why it was set out here like this, something about that position... "Target each of these areas in turn, full batteries from all ships for two minutes each. I don't care what they are, two full minutes of full weapons fire from this number of ships could take out a dreadnaught! Destroy them!"

OOOOOOO

Like most days, Carol and her ever growing team of specialists and their growing teams had been up in space for various reasons when the attack began. She had been there to see the latest work done on the first Ravenspire, an area hollowed out and prepared to house the water reservoir the fortress would need, and the area designated for the hydroponics garden.

Several of Carol's team had been out on the surface or out in space too. They were working with the suits in order to get a feel for them the better to be able to finish writing up their training regimen, or overseeing some of the robot workers trying to decide on what jobs humans could do better than the robots. Others were simply taking advantage of Harry's willingness to let them out into space to enjoy it for the first time.

Now she gasped as the Ravenspire around her and her team began to shudder, the few magical defenses most of them had fading quickly. "Shit, we're under attack, evacuate, all teams evac back to the emergency doors if you can!" Grabbing the nearest members of her think tank she pulled them along, heading further inwards as the asteroid began to shudder from end to end. Whatever was attacking them was smashing kilotons of rock and ore off with every blow, taking the unshielded Ravenspire apart piece by piece.

That doesn't even consider the crews that were out there. And those people are probably dead now, Carol thought grimly. Fuck, we thought we were prepared, but we forgot the one major rule of siege warfare: the attacker always has the element of surprise!

Dropping off her crew at the Magical Minds headquarters, she quickly found Sage, who practically never left the building since moving in, having taken over Harry's office as if it were her own. Sage looked up, frowning as Carol rushed in, but realizing something had happened simply pointed to the runic doorway which ostensibly led into the president's bathroom, but actually led to Camelot. Carol nodded in turn, but didn't stop, racing through the doorway.

OOOOOOO

"Harry," Dennis snapped through the intercom. "We're getting a priority SOS signal from High Note! "'Warning, alien ships in orbit!'"

"It doesn't rain but it pours," Harry groaned, slowly pushing himself off the bed, where he had been using his enforced downtime to do some reading of the grimoire King William had given him months back. Let's just hope our illusion's working, he thought grimly.

Then he frowned, remembering that Piotr and the others were still in Tokyo helping to aid the city after Magnum's attack on it. Not only a surprise, but at a time when we are understrength in more than one way. Damnit, I miss Jean even more now. And her group too I suppose. "Open a link to the FF and the emergency line to Dr. Doom, then Cory, get me a pepper up potion."

As he waited for the link to the Baxter Building Harry quaffed the potion Cory gave him before analyzing how much magical strength he had regained in the two days since he and the others had created the monstrous illusion spell. He was surprised to find he had quite a bit of his magical reserves back.

His mind was still very fuzzy, but it was clearing up as he focused on it, forcing his magic into his brain matter for a moment in order to speed up therecovery process. It stung like all blazes, but it worked, and he pushed himself out of the bed, his mind clear for the moment.

With a gesture Harry disengaged the camouflage spell on his clothing, amused to noted that Ororo hadn't been up to changing his clothing after the two of them had collapsed after the spell. "Magia Erebea, 40%." With that he leaned over Ororo, kissing her on the cheek before quickly racing off.

"Doctor Doom isn't replying Harry," Dennis said as Harry strode into the halls, which doubled as Harry's current command center. "Are you sure you don't want to call in the rest of the team?"

"No." Harry said shaking his head. "They're still dealing with the aftermath of Moses' stupid ass scheme, I can't in good conscience pull them out when they could be saving lives and combating the effect Magnum's attack had on our position. Plus Amara wouldn't be of much use in space anyway." And this time, I don't intend to take the attackers intact, that makes this so much easier.

He turned at a sound behind him to see Carol in her Uzume suit. Before he could speak, she barked out "If you think I'm sitting this one out Potter, think again! We just lost people up there, and I want to get some!"

Wincing Harry nodded, he had forgotten that Carol and her growing core of space-work specialists as he thought of them were routinely up in space these days. "Alright, get over here, we're heading for the Baxter Building." He ignored the look in Rahne and the other teens' faces, no more willing to take them into battle than he would normal children, and a moment later he popped away.

OOOOOOO

Doctor Doom's personal space watch had of course informed him the moment they realized that there were ships in orbit. Now he exited his castle nodding towards his mother. "I will return. I go to fulfill my part of our defense agreement." And possibly claim a prize or two for my own ends.

He stopped suddenly, staring at the lights crisscrossing down and away from the Earth, heading out back, his mind told him, along Earth's rotation around the sun. So that was what Potter was up to, some kind of magical illusion that could deceive Kree sensor systems? Ingenious, brilliant, and magically costly, but it has evidently paid off.

Doom shook that thought off, and then rocketed up into the air, his suit outfitted with a new breather unit, as well as an orbital capable repulsor system. It is time for Doom to fulfill his part of this bargain. Let the Kree beware!

OOOOOOO

Nor was Doctor Doom the only one who noticed what was going on in space. Fury was astonished, his face actually showing his shock as he stared at the plot devised by Skywatch using new scanners Pym and Stark had devised that made the sensors NASA used look like a child's science project. "Those ships are just ... firing randomly off into space?"

"Not randomly sir. All of their shots intersect the point on Earth's orbit around the sun, just where we were two days ago that's all." One of the astrologists said.

"Um sir," said another tech looking up at him his face white. "I just ran an analysis of their shots and the rotation of the earth and various longitude and latitude course corrections. Um, if the earth was still where those ships seem to think we should be, San Francisco would be gone along with Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington and it looks like they would have missed Hollywood by just enough to save the city."

"Sweet Jesus…" Fury muttered. As if we don't have enough problems on her plate, now we have to fear, what? Space Pirates, Kree, Skrull or whatever they are that the FF has dealt with before coming back with vengeance in their eyes? I'm getting too old for this! "Can the Avengers get up there and do anything?" Fury asked the air front of him hoping someone had a positive answer.

They didn't. "No sir, we don't have anything that could get out of atmosphere. The only one that could possibly get up there is Iron Man, and even that's doubtful," answered his aide, before frowning thoughtfully. "We could call in Thor, but he's not exactly the best about having his communicator on him, and he might not think this an emergency either. He didn't respond when we tried to call him in to help with Moses Magnum after all."

"Sir," the tech who had first sounded the alarm spoke up quickly. "The ships have stopped firing, and, WOAH, two of them just, self-destructed maybe? Now the others are doing something, but whatever it is, they've stopped firing on what they seemed to think was Earth."

As Fury made his way back over to him, the man fell silent, staring at the computer screen. "Now we're getting more readings from space, looks as if the Human Torch, at least I think it's him, is up there already somehow, along with someone else, readings aren't conclusive."

"So again SHIELD is playing second fiddle," Fury growled, his teeth clenching. I'm really going to have to keep the weapons Striker, Ross and that Baron had come up with off the books. Get Tony and Pym to start work on our sensors to figure out a way of getting up in space and with those weapons if we have the numbers and the Avengers we might be able to stop him if Potter goes completely rogue.

OOOOOOO

As the last asteroid or whatever they were died, the bits and pieces appearing on his plot as their cloaking devices failed, We'hnt turned his attention to the planet once again, preparing to order the tactical officer to resume the bombardment. Then he stopped and stared at the tactical plot as a new red icon, smaller than any of his ships, appeared there.

Doctor Doom floated in the air in front of one of the battle cruisers of the Kree, and his hand suddenly glowed. "You have attacked the planet of Doom, now you will pay the price for your hubris!" With that a bolt of light smaller but far, far brighter than the weapons the frigates and light cruisers had previously been using slammed into the Agonizer's shields.

"Shields are down!" Said one man before screaming, jerking away from his plot as the computer began to go haywire, sending sparks everywhere catching him on his fingers burning them severely.

"All hands to boarding stations!" We'hnt barked. "Turn us around, get us away from…"

"Too late!" the tactical officer shouted, overriding him.

Doom was upon them, slamming into the outer hull, slamming into and through the outer shell of an airlock. The interior one he opened much more carefully, one finger resting onto the controller set into the side of the airlock. Small mono-fiber wires sprouted from his suit's finger interacting with the console as data began to scroll over his HUD in front of one eyeball. The Latverian monarch was thus able to quickly override the local control, opening the inner airlock and also dumping something else into the ship's systems.

Stepping inside the door closed behind him, and turned, sneering behind his mask. Several of the Kree were there already, taking him under fire with heavy weapons. The ships had all been prepared for boarders before they even left hyperspace. Doom flew backwards under the impact of the weapons, skidding down the corridor, before he stood, unharmed.

Doom smirked. Each weapon aimed at him gave his personal shield more information, making it that much more capable. The heavy weapons had been a bit of an issue but after a few blasts from them his shields compensated.

He frowned however when he noticed his energy gauge. Interesting, I will have to look into a better energy source for my suit. Still it should suffice for this battle. With that he raised his hands, and again blasts of energy flew out, catching Kree and hurling them backwards broken, charred, or in pieces.

OOOOOOO

"…So, Doom's handling that one, that leaves the other two for us. Torch, can you handle one of them on your own?"

Johnny nodded grimly. He stood with Thing, Coyote, Uzume and Harry in his Guardian persona in the hanger bay of High Note. The massive asteroid had been targeted for a bit, but it's magical defenses, unlike those of the Ravenspire, had been powerful enough to not even notice the ships assault.

"Let's do this!" with that the Human Torch barreled away carrying the Thing behind him. Harry made his way toward his own target, frowning, waiting to port in his own two allies when he actually attacked a ship.

He scowled angrily as he took a brief second to stare around at the remains of what had been the kernel of the space-based industry he'd so desperately been trying to create. How the hell did they get past the Fidelius spell? For that matter, why did the defensive arrays fail so quickly? I know they were slowly losing power with no access to a hearthstone or a ley-line but still…

That thought however would be for later. Right now, Harry had to do his part to stop this attack before the Kree realized they had been hoodwinked. Covered by his invisibility cloak and several other spells to hide his presence Harry closed with one of the ships, which had turned to fire at Johnny and the Thing, trying to keep them away from its fellow, but also began to pull away backwards. Several others too had turned entirely around in their position, trying to cover their fellow, forcing the Torch to dodge around like a maddened firefly.

"Smart of them," Harry murmured, scowling as he counted out the ships. Mar'vel was right, a full flotilla! Damn it. Have to take out these ships now, let the FF take one of them out from the inside. But we don't need all of these to survive in one piece.

With that Harry lashed out with a bolt of pure magic the size of a car at one of the smaller ships, the type they had labeled a frigate class. The ship's shield didn't even slow the magical assault, and the small ship, only about the size of five fighter jets set nose to tail, lost its entire port side exploding out in an explosion. The impetus of the blast threw its remains backwards and away from where the real Earth was hidden behind the first illusion the magical cabal had created.

Even before that ship finished dying however Harry had turned to his next victim, another frigate. The others were pushing out and away, trying to open the range, but they had started out in a large clump, the better to bring more power down on their targets in the shortest amount of time, and this cost them now.

A transfiguration spell caught another frigate, turning several feet of its outer hull into glass. The ship's own desperate flight ripped it to pieces after that. A spell Harry had learned from Stephen, a spell that was a condensed solar flare, took another ship, burning its nose off, killing its bridge crew and sending it tumbling away, all systems dead.

The other ships acted in a coordination that in other circumstances Harry would have found admirable. The larger ships, the light cruisers, turned, trying to take Harry under fire, while the frigates continued to fire at the Human Torch, all of them still spreading out retreating from their former positions.

From the battlecruiser there was nothing, no fire, no movement. Doom's keeping that ship's attention wholly on him, good. Still, can't let them spread too much, or else some captain might think of retreating to hyperspace. We can't have that.

Quickly gathering his power, Harry shouted out a simple spell, pouring power into it and pointing at each ship in turn even as his mind began to burn with pain again. "Arresto Momentum!" Each ship targeted stopped moving suddenly, throwing off their fire. The spell wouldn't last for long on targets so large and metallic, but it would last long enough.

The Human Torch jumped at this chance, raking a frigate from one end to another with a blast of fire so hot it seared through its armor, before dropping off the Thing on the outer hull of another light cruiser. "Have fun Ben!" He shouted, the voice carrying over their com gear as he raced towards another frigate. He winced as several of the Kree ship's fellows took him under fire, the energy bolts blasting into him, warring with his own flame-form, tossing him backward but not breaking through before he could move aside.

Harry raced forward, landing onto one of the light cruiser's sides, searching quickly for its airlock. Finding it, Harry ripped the airlock off its hinges, throwing it out into space. He was in no mood to spend time at this, and no need to take these ships intact. The next instant he disappeared, teleporting back to High Note's hangar bay, before teleporting back, dropping off Coyote and Uzume.

"You two will be alone for a bit, but you've got coms with me, so call me in if you need to!" Harry said, breathing deeply. His brain was on fire now. Though Harry's magic wasn't failing him, his mind might be, despite his hastening it's healing as much as he could.

"Got it!" Uzume replied, leading the way in. "Fire and advance, kill anything that moves!" The former Air Force major shouted, and she and Coyote moved in, their heavy sniper rifles switched to full auto, hosing down a security team as they moved into the ship.

Harry nodded racing away only to dodge to one side as a laser blast tore through the space he had previously been flying through. The other ships had broken out of their stasis now, and were again trying to open the range.

Then suddenly, the heavy cruiser joined the battle in a way the Kree could not have foreseen.

OOOOOOO

Inside the Agonizer, Doom had made his inexorable way through the ship, killing any Kree he came upon, uninterested in mercy or prisoners. Yet he almost wandered, not seeming to follow any set route, not making straight to the engine room or bridge as a normal boarder would have, which let him bypass the normal defensive hard points. For Doom was merely biding his time, keeping the crew's attention on him while his real attack went to work.

While Harry had noticed one weakness in how the Kree made war, Doom had noticed another, which was more to do with their ships computers than their tactics. The Kree computers were amazing, their abilities many times beyond normal human computers, their material at least five generations ahead. The Kree also made use of datalinks between ships to coordinate offensive and defensive fire and their sensors, ECM and ECCM both were incredibly advanced.

But they had a glaring weakness, or rather the Kree ships interconnected networks did. While they had defenses on their com systems against ECM, they didn't have any internal defenses against virus warfare. While Doom covered it with his hacking into the airlock's controls, he had injected a computer virus into the system, which would eventually shut down the entire ship and more, turning the defensive installations of the ship on its crew.

This occurred about five minutes after he had boarded the ship. Suddenly a heavy weapons installation above a Kree gun position which had been firing at Doom canted down, blasting into the Kree below it at point blank range, turning them into offal. The alarms which had been blaring cut off abruptly, and Doom smiled behind his mask. "Excellent."

With that he turned to a nearby computer screen on a wall. A few minutes careful typing brought up a map of the ship, and Doom turned, making his way to the bridge. He also took the time to bypass the emergency hyperspace probe launch, which would have taken all the information the Kree had learned thus far with it when launched into hyperspace. Thankfully none of the lighter ships had such as part of their regular supply, so the Kree would remain in some ignorance for a while to come.

The ship's security team's tried to get in his way, tried to stop him, but Doom's evolving suit defenses were up to the challenge. If only it could handle magical assaults as easily. Ah well, one cannot have everything, at least not without some effort.

Moments later he arrived, and began to burn through the emergency hatch which protected the bridge, while at the same time the engines cut off for a moment, as did the gravity.

The Kree inside the bridge had all armed themselves with the heaviest weapons they could get their hands on, and had augmented their numbers with several squads worth of the ships security crews. The moment Doom finished cutting an entrance, the cut out piece of the hatch falling inwards, they fired. Beam weapons, heavy sluggers designed with explosive rounds to drill into the Thing's armored hide or some kind of freezing agent to combat the Human Torch's fire, and team-crewed fusion-based guns,all of it was fired into the new doorway.

After a moment they stopped firing, staring into the smoke the attack had caused. Then a metallic hand appeared waving from side to side, banishing the smoke. A magical shield shimmered in front of Doom for a moment, a more powerful form of Harry's Protego which Doom had created with his mother's aid, backed almost directly by another, scientifically created shield. The two of them working in concert had stood up to the barrage easily.

From deep within the metal mask Doom laughed coldly, seeing the blue-skinned Kree, there didn't seem to be any of the half-breeds among the crew, pale. "Fools. I am Doom, such as you are but bugs to me! I told you when this battle began, your hubris brought you to this end!" With that he raised his hands, and energy blasts began to fire out.

The Kree didn't fall down and die, they fought back, but with Doom's defenses, they couldn't harm him. Nor, with the computer under his control now, could they even blow up the ship. We'hnt realized this instantly and while his men fought for their lives, he turned trying to get to the emergency explosive device set under the bridge, designed to kill the captain and destroy the most important computer systems.

But Doom saw this, and turned one of his hands to the man. A small tractor beam lashed out from one of his suit's fingers, grabbing the man and pulling him towards Doom until We'hnt was directly in front of him, his neck in Doom's grip. At the same time silence fell on the bridge, the last defender having died under his fire.

For a moment Doom held the helpless alien, turning him this way and that lightly as if studying him. "You would be the captain of this attack then? You deserve… a more hands on approach." With that Doom gripped We'hnt's neck, snapping it with ease before dropping the Kree's still twitching body to the floor.

Striding carelessly over the dead bodies that littered the bridge now Doom sat in the captain's chair, smiling thinly behind his mask as small computer fibers separated from a few of his suit's fingers. A moment later the ship's computers came back online, and his smile widened.

OOOOOOO

The battlecruiser turned on its axis as only a ship with near-reactionless drives could even in space. From both sides a heavy broadside shot out, shattering two of the remaining light cruisers. At the same time from the prow of the ship a rail gun projectile shot out, catching the last light cruiser on its nose, blowing through it from one end to the other.

The four remaining frigates turned, trying to move out of the gravity well they had only just noticed they were caught in, but Harry and the others jumped on them, destroying them quickly. Then Harry and the two FF members joined Coyote and Uzume in assaulting the light cruiser they had boarded.

That part of the battle took longer than the rest of it, but eventually, Carol pulled off her suit's helmet, staring around at the bridge she had just helped capture. "Holy flying fuck. It just hit me, but this, this is a real space-going vessel isn't it? I mean, a ship designed to actually leave the solar system, to go from star to star. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I am standing on the bridge of a spaceship!"

Harry smiled at her, moving over to move the captain's body from where he had tried to reach for the same controls the captain of the Hellion had, then sat down, sighing heavily. His magic core was still large enough to keep going, but his head was pounding so much Harry doubted he could concentrate enough to cast even a tickling charm right now. Casting a Rifela had nearly knocked him out a moment ago.

He tried to hold his head still for a moment, staring over at Carol. "Heh, you like this more than the Ravenspires?"

"Yes, this was made to move, we could use it to explore! The Ravenspires are great, a great idea if we can replace them and arm them, but this ship is even closer to my dream than any of your other plans." Carol said then sighed faintly, remembering the human cost of this attack. "And we will have to rebuild."

"Oh yes," Harry said, turned and fiddling with the ship's sensor until an image of the battlecruiser showed up on the main screen. "Which means I have to talk to Doom once more. Only this time, I think his position is actually much better than mine, it will be tough to convince him otherwise."

The damage from the Kree assault was bad, but it could have been a lot worse if Harry and what Emma called his 'semi-coven' hadn't been able to create the spells they had. Thousands of hours of work could just as easily have been millions of dead without that, and no one on Earth, at least not yet, knew how close they had come to death.

But the actual damage was bad enough in terms of Harry's dream of a space-based industry. Every asteroid he and Jean had towed into orbit to turn into Ravenspires was gone, including the ones furthest along the process, costing him months of time. The Forge, which had been close to completion, was gone, and with it any way of creating the weapons or equipment they'd need anytime soon.

The Hanging towers of Babylon had survived. They were hidden directly next to High Note, and High Note had shielded them from the majority of the Kree's fire. High Note itself had taken the assault with barely a flicker in its defenses. And Dr. Banner's little 'home' had been spared any attack.

Examining the wreckage Harry found that the runic arrays on the surface of the asteroids had begun to fail in parts, the arrays not having enough magic in them to protect themselves, even Raven One, the Ravenspire with the runic doorway down to Magical Minds headquarters. This showed Harry he'd have to connect those doors directly to Camelot or some other heavily magical place. The doorways couldn't transfer enough magic otherwise.

Worse of course was the human cost and the productivity costs. Practically every android Doom had sold to Harry (not for money true, but they were still sold) were gone, along with over eighty men and women from Carol's group. Those could not be replaced as easily.

Yet when Harry talked to Doom, he found the Latverian monarch actually blasé about the losses. "I will sell you two construction droid designs, and lend you forty more droids for now. This ship, and what it can teach me is more than enough to pay for that, and your plans have proven both efficacious and necessaryr. It behooves me to do what I can to help you back to your feet, both as ally and fellow human being."

"Thank you for your largess Doctor. I guarantee they will be put to good use." Harry replied, bowing formally.

Doom turned abruptly from looking at his ship's sensors. He had thought to change the name to Cynthia in honor of his mother but had decided she would not appreciate that, and simply decided to call it the Monarch for now. "Your tone says you've made a decision already on how they will be used."

"Oh yes," Harry replied grimly. "I've learned quite a bit from this attack trust me, both my mistakes, and how to correct them. This will be the last time the Kree get a free shot at my infrastructure, believe me."

Later that day, Harry sent another message to King William. They would have to speed up the timetable for their little meeting.

OOOOOOO

Astonishingly over a week passed after this assault without any further crisis rising up out of nowhere to, in Betsy's words, 'bite them in the danglies'. Harry and the other magic users recovered each in their own time, with Dr. Strange and his little group moving back home. Various projects proceeded apace as the world began to calm down from the spike of violence and hatred that the two crises, one nearly on top of the other, had caused.

Kitty and Dr. Druid began to teach the house-elves what they needed to know to help them in the new runic array construction line. With each house elf learning a part of a single rune, the forty house-elves assigned to the work would be able to create copies of runic arrays far faster than any magic user could alone, though it would take another week or so before they were ready to go, and the process would still require quality control. Still, once that was in place, what had once been a bottleneck would quickly become a flood.

With Kitty and Dr. Druid handling that, Harry threw himself into working with Carol and her group, missing Jean even more now than before, to replace the damage they had sustained. But this time, they went about it very differently. The group was no longer allowed up into space, practicing what they could in specially prepared environments, the design of which, much to Carol's disgust, they copied from NASA's.

The design team went back to the drawing room. It was obvious until they devised a way to see the enemy coming through hyperspace the Ravenspires would need to have their own weapon systems to defend themselves. This of course forced them to rethink the existing design drastically.

For his part, Harry ordered Doom's construction droids to begin work on a single asteroid rather than several. Harry wanted Forge 2 up and constructing the various parts they needed soonest. The new Forge also had a runic doorway leading straight to Camelot, the magic of the castle moving through the doorways to power the defensive arrays, which Harry had personally put in place.

Eventually Harry would need to find another place to put those doorways, since he in no way wanted any of the work force which would eventually be working in orbit to need to come through Camelot to get there. Most of those people would of course pass magically based tests to see if they were trustworthy, but even so, Camelot was the center of nearly all his power base along with being home to the Avalon Academy, and thus could not be risked.

Harry also took over several factories in the UK. While the public thought this was to expand Arc Technologies, it was in actuality to expand his droid workforce. When those factories were repurposed, they would be able to construct over a dozen construction droids every week.

Sage had looked at the designs and the software for those before he put them to work of course. She had deleted several software backdoors that Doom could use, not enough to make an issue, just business as usual with the Latverian monarch. Doom himself had begun to explore the moons of Uranus and Venus with his new ship for some reason, while his spies on Earth continued to try and ferret out the Red Skull's few remaining bolt holes.

Eventually Forge and it's sister Smelter, which was still in the design phase, would need to be moved away from Earth orbit, but Harry was leery of doing so now even with proof that the Fidelius could be ineffective,for a simple reason. He had no idea how far from earth the magical transfer between runic doorways could go, and was unwilling to let them rely on scientific defenses just yet.

The Ravenspires' inability to survive the Kree's firepower had astonished Harry. He had thought the large asteroids natural defenses, backed by his magical additions, could have allowed them to survive fire from anything less than a battleship. They hadn't, which was sobering, and a sign that energy shields were a must in the future. Or that the next group of Ravenspires would have to be larger. Much larger.

While he had been doing that, Ororo had handled much of the vetting process for the new inductees to Carol's group, and oversaw Sebastian Shaw's secret weapons factory being repurposed to produce their own weapons. She also spent as much time as she could with Kitty, starting her apprenticeship and learning about runes in turn, and, in a surprise move, going over everything they had gathered on the Asgardians, in particular Hela. She had told Harry about their meeting, but was still wondering where that would go.

Emma spent most of her days with Sage working on their espionage resources and her own businesses, while also trying to follow up on some minor mysteries that had cropped up there, solving all but one: the software worms that had given her father Winston such a tremendous edge in the realm of cyber-warfare, had disappeared from every system they had been in. None of her tech people or even Sage could say how. The only clue Sage had was that they seemed to have been deleted rather than moved.

All three of them also went out of their way to reassure one another and all their friends that Jean and her group would be returning any day now. Though overdue for their best time back, Jean and the others still had two weeks to go before they passed the outer edge of that time. It didn't help the trio much. Then one evening their patience was rewarded.

OOOOOOO

"Coming out of hyperspace now," said Reed's calm voice. "We'll be near Saturn orbit as planned, but we'll have to get some more fissionable material out here before bringing the ships further in, none of the other ships have enough fuel for another jump, or even to move much in real-space."

"Looks like we didn't lose any though," Douglas said from where he was manning the sensors. "All of the ships came out of hyperspace at least. Some of their engines read as nearer the red than I'd like but I suppose that's to be expected."

"Fine, whatever," Jean said from where she sat in the captain's chair, not even listening to Reed or the others mutter about how they were astonished at that bit of largesse from Lady Luck. "Do whatever you think best Reed."

No, Jean's attention was on the connection she had forged with Harry. All her concerns about her condition and how Harry would react had faded, leaving only the desire, the need to see him, Emma and Ororo and now she opened the link between their minds. Telepathy could not cross the solar divide, but distances within the solar system didn't matter a damn to it. Jean was ecstatic about that, as she opened her mind and heart to the people she had come to treasure more than life itself. "Harry! Ororo! Emma!"

OOOOOOO

In Camelot Harry and Ororo, who had been discussing Carol's newest brainstorm, creating actual colonies elsewhere in the star system, looked up, their eyes wide and unseeing as the touch of that gorgeous, beautiful and loved mind after weeks of absence filled eyes suddenly blazing with mystic energy, Harry reached out taking Ororo's hands, and with a nod the two of them appeared in the room of doorways, just as Emma bolted out of one, her eyes wide. She too had felt that touch. "She's back!" Emma shouted telepathically, words seemingly beyond her for a moment.

"I know, come on." Harry held out a hand to Emma, even as he replied to Jean's mental shout down the highway her power had created between his mind and hers, that hidden, special chink in his mental defense that only she, like the one he had allowed Emma to forge, could only be used or even found by Jean, a link which had been cold and silent since she had departed the solar system. "Jean, god it's so good to hear your voice! Show me what you're seeing love, and we'll be right there."

On the other end of the link Jean grinned so widely it looked as if her face was splitting and complied. Standing up from the captain's chair she moved quickly to a clear area by the hatchway, waving off everyone else to keep the area clear. With that done Jean looked around, sending a mental copy of the image through the link to Harry.

It was tough to apparate to a place you had never been whatever you tried, but taking a mental image like this at least allowed you to try. Power for the trip wasn't an issue either, not with Harry's magical reserves back up to their normal level and Ororo lending her own to the spell too. An instant after memorizing the view around Jean, Harry, Emma and Ororo disappeared from Camelot.

They reappeared on the bridge of the Hellion, causing shocks of surprise from everyone there save Jean. Emma tumbled to the floor, not having apparated often enough to get over the effect just yet. Ororo too stumbled, her own reaction exacerbated by the monstrous distance they had just traversed and the drain on her magical core.

Harry's too had been drained badly by the need to cross so much distance, so much so that he thought he wouldn't be able to teleport them all back without some time to rest. But this was but a peripheral thought. The rest of Harry was too busy enthusiastically kissing the life out of Jean to care about such trivialities.

Jean moaned aloud, audible despite their fierce liplock, her tongue twining around Harry's in her mouth as the two of them poured as much wordless Love, joy, welcome, love, desire, across the link they shared as they could. Her hands went around him, and Harry's went around her. They broke off for a moment and then Ororo was there, joining the hug as she captured Jean's lips with her own, before making way for Emma in turn, unmindful of the watching, and now furiously blushing in some cases, onlookers.

For a few moments none of the group could even think coherently, simply lost in the sheer joy of their quartet once more being all together. Then reality asserted itself, helped by several loud, rather severe-sounding coughs from Reed, accompanied by a wolf whistle from Nikolai. Ororo, who had been kissing Jean once again, broke off to glare over at Nikolai, while Emma nuzzled into Jean's neck as Harry leaned forward, resting his forehead against Jean's. "Oh, Jean we've missed you!"

"I've missed you all too, just as much I think," Jean replied, uncaring of her bruised lips or her wide smile. She glanced over at first Emma then Ororo, returning their smiles, before her eyes fell onto Ororo's panja ring. One eloquent eyebrow rose at the sight, and she wondered what that represented even as Harry turned slightly away, addressing a statement from Reed.

But right now, she had something else on her mind. She tuned into the conversation as Harry was saying, turning a wide smile on her. "I expected a few ships, seven or so at the most, but this haul is beyond my wildest dreams! Damn, you are really an overachiever aren't you Jean? Even your arrival gave me a hint about a way to solve one or our biggest issues!"

"Hah, she's also a slave driver," Nikolai grumped, but he did so with a smile. Even taking away the sight of the trio of women kissing one another the sheer feeling of happiness and joy the quartet was giving off was infectious. Next to him Dani nodded in agreement even as she stealthily pulled out a camera.

"It was touch and go a few times," Susan replied, smiling. "But we came through it, and we discovered some things along the way about the Kree ships and other things too."

Jean leaped on this cue, sending a telepathic thank you toward the older woman. Some of her trepidation about this news came back and she moved out of his and Ororo's encircling arms, staring at the two of them and Emma before concentrating on Harry, her jade eyes staring into his emerald ones. "Um, one, one of those things is, is something about myself."

Somehow Emma got what she was hinting at without any further discussion. She looked at Jean from head to toe, concentrating on her stomach for a brief moment as her telepathic power found what could only be… She stood back quickly, her eyes widening in shock, as she smiled and frowned in turn, uncertain what she felt about this.

Harry and Ororo however still looked confused and Jean went on. "Um, you, you know how we both noted that first time you and I made love that the Phoenix Force was able to break your protective spells?"

Ororo seemed to get it then, and her smile widened into a grin her blue eyes sparkling with happiness, but Harry seemed to need it spelled out for him. Grabbing her courage and trepidation by the scruffs of their collective necks Jean plowed on, hoping that Harry would respond as her friends, and her own mind in her more lucid moments, had predicted. "It… well… it turns out that those protective spells weren't the only ones the Phoenix Force broke that first time. It, it also broke the spells you placed on the two of us, to um, well, anyway… it um, I'm…"

The redhead's voice trailed off as the light of realization dawned in Harry's eyes. They first widened in shock, then seemed to soften as Harry slowly went to his knees in front of her, staring up at Jean. His eyes were still full of love and adoration but those emotions were softer now yet somehow just as powerful along with something very much like awe mixed in. "You're, you're pregnant?" He whispered quietly.

His mind was a broil with shock, surprise, astonishment, and a sort of wondering joy. Despite not sharing his blood Melody had become his daughter in truth and he would disembowel anyone who said she wasn't with a rusty spoon. But a baby, his baby, his and Jean's? That was something he hadn't thought to see for years, if ever.

"Yes," Jean replied, staring into those emerald orbs, getting lost in the emotions she saw there. Why the flying fuck was I worried about this again!?

"I, I never expected this, this to happen so soon, but, Jean I, I am so, so happy right now, I don't even have the words. That is, I mean, are you, do you… Do you want to have the baby?" Harry trailed off in turn while Ororo and Emma stayed silent, watching from the sidelines for now, letting the two of them have this special moment to themselves.

It cost Harry physical pain to ask that, Jean could sense it along their link, but he felt he had to, which also came through their link. He loved her so much that he would abide by her decision, no matter how painful.

But Harry wanted them to have the baby that much was obvious even to those who didn't share a mental bond with him. Harry had always wanted a large family, and while Melody, and now Illyana in many ways, filled much of that void, a child of his own body and that of one of his loves was something like a dream of Harry's, buried deep in his mind but always there.

"Yes!" Jean replied quickly, both to stop Harry's pain at the idea she didn't and because that was what she really thought now. "I do want to keep it, but, I, it's stupid I realize that now but I hadn't wanted to assume…" She broke off as Harry shook his head, still looking up at her with that same mix of love, desire and joy that sent tingles down her spine.

Jean watched bemused as Harry suddenly raised a hand, which an eye blink later held a simply designed jewelry box made of oak. He opened it, and Jean wasn't the only woman there to gasp at the ring within. Even Emma hadn't known that Ororo's panja ring was one of two jewelry pieces Harry had created, and now the effect was all he had hoped.

A single, perfect, ruby surrounded by intertwined bands of gold and platinum, the surface of the bands etched with incredibly tiny marks. Under a magnifying glass a person could see these were a series of runes, so delicate it was astonishing anyone could have carved them out. The sheer beauty of the piece was enough to take your breath away, and when you realized that harry had created the ring from scratch that impact was heightened further.

As Jean stared, Harry chuckled, shaking his head wryly. "I was going to ask you to marry me before this, I'd been planning to ask all three of you that question for a while now, this just, well anyway…"

Still on his knees in front of her, Harry held out the now open box to Jean, his face, while still loving, showing a tad more seriousness than they had before. "Jean, in the months I've known you, you've grown from a girl aching to break out of her mold to a magnificent young woman, whose soul, body and mind I have come to love. Will you marry me?"

Even as her eyes widened in shock and began to burn with happy tears, Jean's telepathic link to Harry hadn't waned. And because it hadn't, she heard the thought, "Damn it, I'd hoped to make this more romantic, I know Ororo liked my second proposal far better than the first. But I could tell Jean was worried for some reason, hopefully my proposal means she knows that was silly. And just as importantly, no baby of mine is going to be born out of wedlock!"

That last bit nearly made her collapse into laughter, but she was too busy bursting with incredulous joy for that to happen just yet. Instead she simply shook her head wildly laughing and crying slightly at the same time. "Of course I will you, you idiotic, lovable man you! Was there any doubt!?" With that she leaned down, letting Harry put the ring on her finger before pulling him up by his shirt into a soul-searing kiss.

That seemed to break the stasis on the others watching this show, save Dani who had been recording the entire thing. Reed and the others, including a softly crying Paige and Susan, began to cheer or shout congratulations, while Ororo and Emma, who still looked conflicted somewhat, moved forward to envelop Harry and Jean in a hug.

Ororo nuzzled into Jean's ear, letting her panja ring clink lightly against Jean's own ring. "Welcome and more than welcome beloved sister!"

In response Jean turned, now knowing the significance of that piece of jewelry and leaned in to kiss Ororo enthusiastically. "You too Windrider, you too!"

She didn't care that Harry had proposed to Ororo first, or that his timing in this proposal was pushed forward by her own surprise, since she had felt the truth of his wanting to propose to her eventually anyway. No, Jean was simply happy that their little family was being formalized like this. It made all her concerns about the baby seem silly in retrospect, even her concerns about being a good mother. Because if the four of us, with all the house-elves and the others to help can't get that right, no one could!

Harry put his hands around all three women, then concentrated on the link between him and Jean, asking her to bring to mind the appearance of her room on the Hellion. In the next instant, as the others made to move forward to slap backs or shake hands, the quartet disappeared. They would not be seen by other eyes until late the next day.

For a moment Reed and the rest of the people on the bridge were silent, the emotions of the moment and its sudden cessation shocking them into silence. Then Dani murmured, "Now that, that is how you make an exit." And the spell was broken as everyone on the bridge broke into laughter.

End chapter

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So we see the cleanup after one enemy, Harry and co. dealing with several surprises as well as setting up further defenses for Earth, and Sinister being, well, sinister. I try to balance action, world building, and romance on the one hand, and planning, surprises and shocks on the other. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Now for a brief announcement. Since the end of WW I have been asked if I would be taking this story back up as a monthly updated story. I have to say that while it sounds like a good idea, real life, the number of characters, the number of plot points, the length of my chapters for this story, the need to keep the story straight, and general research mean that updating this story on a monthly basis would be incredibly difficult. As such, I have posted a second monthly goal on my page. If I reach it, I will update this story every month. If I do not, I will continue to update it every three months. NOTE, this goal only has to do with when the story is updated, not that I will stop writing it if the goal isn't met.

The winner of this month's poll was Horse for the Force, so I should have that updated by next weekend.