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.

28. Stronger Together

I don't own Harry Potter or Marvel. If I did, they would have at least been within spitting distance of internally consistent.

This is being posted way later than I had hoped to, but I lost about ten days at the start of the month due to a major poison oak issue, despite wearing gloves and a long sleeve shirt, ugh… Anyway, here it the next chapter of A third Path.

I would like to thank Mordreek for his invaluable help on the Asgardian sections, Kathryn518 for her beta work and aid in the more squishy bits, and BankerJoe for his work as the grammar/word choice/spelling man for this story.

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Chapter 28: Stronger Together

It'd taken all of 20 seconds for everyone left on the bridge to realize that Harry and his girls would not be back anytime soon. Ignoring the chattering going on between Paige, Dani, and Susan about the wedding rings Jean and Ororo were now sporting Reed took command. He ordered the fleet to move forward slightly, putting them into geo-synchronous orbit at the edge of Saturn's gravity well, a bright red nimbus on the Hellion's scanners.

It took a while to get the ships to come to a near-to complete stop, but then Hellion abandoned its brothers and larger cousins heading in-system slowly in order to conserve its own reactor fuel. That this allowed Reed to record more than an hour's worth of the magnificent gas giant was a mere bonus. He and Douglas immediately bent over the scanners, going over what the advanced systems of the Kree ship could tell them about it.

After that, most of the people on the bridge knew they weren't needed, and wandered off to do their own things, which was sleeping for most of them considering it was already rather late in the ship's day cycle.

Dani was one of those and it took her all of three seconds after opening her eyes again to realize that she was dream-walking once more. The content of this dream was vastly different, however.

While the setting still seemed taken from one of her dreams, a place she recognized from a camping trip with her family, this time, the season and tone didn't match anything she had ever seen in real life. Moreover, it was rather... exuberant, possibly even overdone. Everywhere she looked she saw signs of spring being shown to an unbelievable level. Every flower was in full bloom, every bush was heavily laden with berries, and the birds she could hear about her were twittering madly. It was as if someone had decided to distill the essence of spring into a single scene, overpowering everything else. Frankly it looked more like a scene from a Disney cartoon then reality.

"Be welcome and more than welcome Dani Moonstar!" Dani turned with a start from surveying the scenery around her to see Sigyn standing alongside her, closer than Dani had thought she could be without warning Dani of her presence.

The Vanir goddess wore a different outfit this time, a long green and blue dress, the edges of which showed intricate embroidery, far too finely detailed for it to be for everyday wear. To Dani it looked like something one would wear on a festive occasion, it wasn't elaborate but the rich detail added to the impact of the garment. This matched the garland of flowers in her hair that now flowed down from its intricate braid to fall loosely down one side of her chest, the braid entwined with even more flowers.

The wide beaming smile on her face also took Dani aback. Given the stern self-control and barely leashed anger the other woman had radiated the previous time they had met, this almost ecstatic joy was welcome, but somewhat off-putting.

"I can feel it in the air," Sigyn went on before Dani could voice her questions. "The Lifebringer's Avatar, she is with child! I had not felt that until you returned here, into the center of our power; but now being this close to them both it fills my very being with the feeling! Such a thing radiates on levels that you mortals cannot truly comprehend. I do not mean that as a slight, simply as a truth."

"I… see…" Dani replied slowly, looking around her for a moment then back at Sigyn. "I honestly wasn't expecting this," she said gesturing to the dream world all around them. "However, I had been meaning to talk to you."

With a thought Dani was holding the dream image of the shape-changing staff that she had found beside her after her last meeting with the goddess. Holding it out in both hands towards Sigyn, she bowed slightly from the waist and her voice took a very formal tone when she spoke. "I have been remiss in not gifting you something of equal value that which you gave to me. This shape changing staff is a magnificent gift, which will no doubt be worth its weight in gold when I use it in battle. In the spirit of that, I ask if you can see my actual memories, or just my dreams in this realm?"

"I exist in your blood and in your soul, but that is a… distinct realm from the mind, dreams may cross over, but not actual memories. The amount of flow between the two is limited however," Sigyn stated, cocking her head with a wry smile. "Magic of this nature does not lend itself well to strict description I'm afraid."

This time her voice was softer than it'd been previously, as well as sounding somewhat less intoxicated if Dani was honest, but no less joyous for all of that. Dani smiled in return, nodding her head and concentrated. This meeting was happening in her own mind after all, she should, in theory, be able to control the dreamscape around them. "If I may?"

Sigyn nodded at her, and Dani reached out with her will (in a way she likened being similar to the way she used her mutant power) on a given area to the dream around them, substituting the artificial background Sigyn had created for some of her recent memories. Specifically she chose her memories of the combat against the various critters infesting the Kree ships, followed by the battles against the Kree themselves. She thought given how combative Sigyn had seemed the first time they met, this sort of thing would appeal to her, a change of pace so to speak.

The whole idea of giving a gift to repay someone who had done you a favor or given you a gift before was something Dani had stumbled upon after her first brush with the Asgardians then forgotten. Unlike Harry or even, though she didn't know it, Dr. Vorlus, Dani hadn't looked for information on the Asgardians themselves but rather the ancient Norse way of life, the societal mores and common elements so to speak. When she recalled the concept of re-gifting, Dani had realized what she'd have to do if the occasion ever arose and she was happy that her idea seemed to be working out so well in practice as well as she'd hoped.

"Remarkable," Sigyn murmured after watching the action closely through Dani's eyes and asking a few questions here and there. "I have said before that we Asgardians were based upon or around Earth since none of us have ever left the solar system before, after all why would we? So I'm afraid these blue skinned mortals, these Kree, are entirely new to me."

She gave the battle scene aboard the ship Dani, Paige and Nikolai had boarded a deeper look then the others, seeming to look at the Kree soldier's expressions. "They appear a worthy foe, if only due to their numbers and their, how do you say it, technology base?"

She smiled at the younger girl in appreciation. "That was fascinating, thank you."

"You're welcome," Dani replied smiling in turn and putting away her staff. It had helped her concentrate on changing the dream, but since her reciprocal gift to Sigyn was over, it seemed politic to put it away.

"I myself never took part in battles such as that, although I was occasionally called upon to officiate challenges, or Holmgangs, between warriors. Mostly for this or that girl's hand or ownership of land, with the occasional bout over an insult mixed in." Sigyn went on, "Certainly nothing as interesting as what you just showed me ever came into my purview, though there was this one time where a suitor for my daughter's hand thought that hunting down one example of every magical beast found in Norway and presenting their heads to our family would make us look favorably on his suit. Of course, because he called upon us by name after every kill, we did follow his exploits closely. He had more than one adventure like your friend Paige did which ended with him covered in gore from head to toe."

"What happened to him? And what do you mean when you say 'make us look favorably'? From what I read, I thought that the Norsemen were patriarchal, and that the Asgardians would have a similar social and family structure."

"Ahh, that is somewhat false," Sigyn said waving her hand gently from side to side. "As to what happened to that particular suitor, he faced an ancient example of a wurm, or a dragon without wings in your parlance. They grow smarter as they age, well, most of them anyway."

Sigyn seemed almost to return to her barely reined in anger for a moment before shaking it off. "And this one was ancient by mortal reckoning, and equally fell to match its age and cunning. It was a good battle but his courage failed him in the end, and he fled. Thus he ended up meeting my daughter in her professional capacity rather than as a suitor...and rather winded at that." Sigyn chuckled at her own phrase, then sighed as Dani didn't seem to get the joke.

"As to your other question, we Asgardians were indeed patriarchal. That is to say that the male head of the hall, if there was one, would have final say on any decision affecting the entirety of the family. But women had quite a lot of power within the household, the day-to-day running of the house fell to us, and it was a very foolish man who did not listen to his wife in matters affecting their daughters and sons. The sons training, his vocation, that was all controlled by the man, but basic care such as food, clothing and everything that went with looking after a child, that was all in charge of the woman. If a woman became a widow, she could assume her deceased husband's role in controlling the household and the land or other property, even rule or lead in battle should her position require it."

Dani suddenly realized this was a chance to get some more information of what might be afflicting the Asgardians if she could direct the conversation in that direction. Sigyn didn't seem to be in the mood to discuss it, though if that could be due to her general euphoria about being close to Jean and her pregnancy Dani couldn't say. Still, Dani owed it to the woman to try.

"It's funny that you mention that, because there was a rumor going around the Castle that Hela might have flirted with Harry the time they met after I passed on her message. Did Hela have many suitors? She apparently was passing a message or a gift on from her mistress, but the rumor is she also took the time to banter with him. Did Hela flirt often in her youth?"

Sigyn's eyes widened in shock, "Good grief no! Oh my daughter had no end of suitors who wanted her power, her future realm, or her body, but she was always a shy young maiden, never warming to any of them."

Dani tried to picture the aloof, wry, controlled and forceful goddess she had met as a 'shy maiden', and failed miserably. "I see…"

She attempted to keep her disbelief out of her voice and face, but something in her manner seemed to escape her control and Sigyn's lips twitched into a wry grimace. "Alright fine, she was about as prickly as a thorn and as warm as an ice flow to the whole notion! But what kind of mother would I be if I went about saying such hmm?"

Sigyn frowned softly staring off into the distance for a moment. "I think that came from having known early on what her powers and responsibilities would consist of. She knew right from the start a certain level of distance and...objectivity would be needed to perform her task as mistress of the dead, and she cultivated it."

She shook her head, a smile appearing again on her face as she turned back to the original topic. "But Hela flirting with your young Jarl? That I did not see coming, I must say, a bit like the moth to the flame or… or perhaps a bit of rebellion in that choice I feel."

Suddenly her eyes darkened. "I certainly hope she wasn't 'flirting' as I've seen occur in some of your dreams, for many reasons. What you call 'flirting' would certainly happen late in the process of any courtship if at all in my time."

"Oh, nothing of that sort, just light banter and interest shown I think. But was flirting so different back then, I have to confess that sounds odd to me." Dani asked, grateful she could allay the older woman's fears but also now wishful to change the subject somewhat out of dangerous waters... at least until Dani was out of range of a literally over-protective mother-goddess.

"Of course, such things change over time. For example, I've seen a few dreams of yours about 'dating', such an odd concept. Young people being allowed to choose the girl or boy they are with without consultation with their parents? That's just asking for trouble in my opinion." Sigyn sniffed disapprovingly.

Dani paused before replying to that, going over her own aborted attempts at dating before her mutant powers activated. "I… can't exactly find it myself to disagree with that, though I think I'm more of an exception to the normal way of things there."

"In my time courtship was a serious affair, a thing of compatibility between the betrothed, an investment between the two families involved. I've also noticed that people these days, at least according to the dreams of yours I've seen, throw around the word 'love' too much. In my time love was expected to come after the marriage, not before, but if it did...it would come with the thunder."

Sigyn chuckled at a hidden joke there, before going on. "It was called the 'inn mátkimunr', the mighty passion." After saying that her chuckle changed to a low throaty laugh, the sound of which sent Dani to blushing so brightly she could've been used as a neon light for a moment. "It certainly was that way with my husband and I. And don't get me started about Thor and his wife. Now there was a courtship whose passion reshaped the very land!"

Dani heard that and filed it away, but was too busy blushing and stammering at the tone of the other woman which left nothing to the imagination to do much at the moment.

Sigyn saw this, and went in for the kill with a rather...suggestive smile. "There were actually a few times I can remember which embarrassed the life out of my daughter and sons. One I remember distinctly. My husband came back from a successful fliyting, those were contests of intelligence and verbiage, against a large group of Aesir. We got into a contest of our own to see which of us could make the other more embarrassed. Though from what I recall, neither of us ever reached the level of red you are currently showing before the clothing started to come off. Really dear, how do you plan to join that strapping young Cossack and your Grecian friend if you can't even listen to a story like this without blushing like a plum?"

"But in the beginning…" Sigyn sighed faintly, pulling back from her teasing and giving the beleaguered young woman a chance to recover. "It certainly wasn't like that. Our marriage was arranged just like most of the others among the gods at the time. The only real exception I can recall being that of Thor and Sif. Our marriage was one of many supposed to solidify the alliance between Aesir and Vanir in addition to the exchange of hostages, but we actually became lovers shortly after."

She laughed once more in a bawdy manner, a rather smug, almost victorious expression coming across her face as she did so. "Indeed we courted and married so quickly the other marriages were still being considered by the time we entered our honeymoon. I heard from Loki that his brother was rather put out with him because it transpired so quickly he could get no political favor from it."

"It didn't bother you that he had children from previous assignations?" Dani asked hesitantly, unsure if this was a touchy subject or not.

"They were from before, not after." Sigyn said simply her smile turning somewhat saucy, an odd expression on that regal face, yet also somehow right at the moment. "After the handfasting he was as faithful as can be, believe me."

"The one called the Trickster God was faithful?" Dani felt her eyes cross slightly at trying to work out the implied paradox.

"Foolsbane the humans sometimes called my Loki, but also friend of humanity." Sigyn replied passionately, but not angrily Dani was thankful to note, suggesting it was an old topic. "He was never one to do as was expected of him, always looking to push the boundary and go his own way regardless of laws or society. Indeed his courtship of me was but one example of that since it began when Aesir and Vanir were still officially at war putting his life doubly at risk beyond the usual flouting of the men folk in my family."

She paused considerately. "Actually, thinking on that I really should have expected that young Hela would take after him in some fashion. And she has always been willing to go her own way since she was a youngling."

She frowned in deeper thought before turning to Dani once more. "Do you know exactly how serious was their flirting? Your Jarl has won the hearts of three maidens already and I would hate to see how the Avatar of the Lifebringer or the chosen of Gaia or even the mortal who you oft term the 'Ice Queen' would respond to that, especially now."

"I'm sorry I don't," Dani replied, shaking her head as she shrugged. "It was just a rumor at the time, though what wasn't a rumor was the 'gift' he came back with." Then she frowned in turn before continuing. "If your daughter was just passing on a gift from someone else, does that still mean that Harry should have given her a gift in like kind?"

"Yes," Sigyn nodded decisively. "Ignorance of that social nicety is excusable for a time of course, but he really should have figured that one out quickly. Something small but which both my daughter and her mistress would enjoy would be appropriate and prevent ill will or implied insult from brewing between them."

Sigyn frowned thoughtfully once more, almost visibly shivering for a moment. "Her mistress, Death itself embodied. My daughter has always stood slightly apart from the rest of us because of that, but she also embraced that power and her duties rather than simply acknowledged her connection to Death, like Odin and Freya did. Hmm…I wonder what your Jarl did to attract Death's attention."

Dani took a moment to think about that, putting it away in her mental databank for a moment. "I think it was the same thing that attracted your daughter's attention really. He apparently killed some monsters, he called them Dementors. I'm not certain how to describe them, but Harry said they were souls that had been torn from the weave and made into monsters that fed off sadness and other people's life forces."

"They sound rather monstrous, and yes, that sort of thing would definitely attract Death's attention if only slightly, and if those mortals were Asatru it would have incensed my daughter. She always took her duties seriously, far more than my other children, and anyone who she considered to be 'poaching' of those belonging to her got short shrift indeed. Outside of her duties she was sometimes as shy as a young maiden even after assuming the mantle of ruler of Niflheim, but inside her domain she was incredibly serious."

Sigyn almost glared at Dani playfully, daring her to comment on her description of her daughter again, but Dani merely held up a hand, smiling in surrender. Sigyn sniffed in satisfaction, going on with a smile on her face. "Word to the wise, tell your Jarl to never mention the Greek gods to her. She always thought that they were all worthless, especially her alternate Hades, with all the times he was tricked or simply allowed souls to return to the land of the living. She called him a…, what was it now, oh yes, a "blind old buffoon who should be made to retire immediately for the good of his realm." The harrumph that Sigyn ended the recitation with told Dani that the goddess agreed rather strongly with her step-daughter.

From there the conversation segued into further tales of odd courtships both modern and old, and what Sigyn could tell Dani about her children's younger years, which wasn't much at all despite Dani attempting to help her along. Sigyn had initially asked for her help and Dani wished to meet that request not because she felt she owed the goddess, which she did, but because Sigyn was a good person and Dani wanted to help her.

But whatever was keeping Sigyn from speaking was an invasive, all-encompassing thing. Several times during the conversations Sigyn had to stop speaking, clearly running into walls which she simply could not get around, but even that was telling to the observant young mutant.

Even so, Dani got a decent picture of their family, of Loki's general personality, and how he and Sigyn seemed to fit together so well. Sigyn also was able to find a way around her block by telling amusing anecdotes and not using names. Several times Dani nearly collapsed into laughter when Sigyn described the adventures a 'young wolf of our acquaintance' got into, and the hilarious teasing Sigyn would lay into Loki with about Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse.

Most of her tales dealt with her husbands' oh-so dubious sense of humor':

"That joke thing you humans have, the 'woopy cushion'? Imagine that filled with deadly gas that if you don't sit on it properly will explode, and if you do, will embarrass you from Vanaheim and back while causing all around to laugh at you or with you. Couple that to a master tactician's ability to find and exploit your weaknesses and you have an idea of Loki's sense of humor."

As time went on, Sigyn was able to find similar ways to get around the guise to describe Hela and her early life. Dani came away with the impression of a young woman who willingly took up a terrible burden, distancing herself from all but her family, who had supported her for the most part. A young woman whose will was of steel, and whose manner was distant not by choice but as a defense mechanism in both her duties and personal life. Not to say that all the stories about 'a pretty young child' was so serious in nature, some proving rather hilarious, including her attempts to garden, and her first meeting with Garm, whose name Sigyn could use for some odd reason.

Dani in turn told Sigyn a few stories from her own life, and even shared a few of her own waking dreams. That ended abruptly when Sigyn began to make suggestions on how to make her racy dreams better or more believable and Dani was left blushing fiercely once more. Dani had thought to herself rather ruefully that it was clear that the years with Loki had rubbed off on her, only to feel like her ears were about to burn off when Sigyn had replied to her accidentally voiced thought with the words, "Oh he certainly did, often and...vigorously."

All in all it was a fun time for them both, Sigyn having some companionship after centuries alone and Dani finding a sort of elder sister in the goddess. But it made Dani even more determined to share what she had learned with Harry and see if they could help the Asgardians.

OOOOOOO

Jean ran her hands through Harry's hair where he was asleep on her thighs then over to Ororo, who was splayed out on the right side of the bed completely comatose. Jumping to the Hellion from Earth had taken it out of both of them, and Ororo had only been up for one round before falling asleep, while Harry had lasted for three. This had left Jean and Emma the only two still awake, and Jean lazily turned her head, gently leaning in and kissing Emma first on the cheek then the neck, nuzzling into her. "Damn I missed this."

"Hmmff, if anyone had told me I'd enjoy this sort of thing I'd think they were on drugs, but I have to admit it does have some appeal." Emma chuckled quietly, leaning her head against Jean's for a moment. The two of them had concentrated on one another for the last round of lovemaking almost to the exclusion of Harry, who didn't seem to mind at all given how tired he was. It had been everything both of them had imagined, even though they hadn't experimented with telepathically reaching out to one another at the time.

But there was one question that Jean had to have the answer to right now. "Emma, are you…okay… with this?" She gestured down to her stomach. "You looked a little worried or maybe even disturbed when I made my little declaration."

"'Little' she says," Emma muttered, pulling away slightly to look at Jean for a moment, then down to where Harry laid out across all three of them, practically dead to the world. "Well first of all, I was a little surprised that you didn't want to wait to make the announcement. It would've been much better to learn about your upcoming 'bundle of joy' in private."

"I thought about it, but I honestly didn't see the point to waiting. Nikolai and the others already knew, and I felt as if I had to get it over with quickly. In hindsight I suppose I should have waited until we were all alone, but," Jean shrugged. "That's water under the bridge. And it doesn't tell me the real reason why you were so disturbed. Out with it Em."

Emma was silent, visibly gathering her thoughts, and possibly tact as well before speaking. "Jean, you're barely pushing 21 years old, and you and Harry and even Ororo all talk about this as if it was such a wondrous event! Are you sure you're up for this? Shouldn't you, I mean couldn't you," she paused, trying to think of a way to say what she wanted that wouldn't sound cold and overly-calculating.

Despite her lack of articulation, the gist of what Emma was implying thankfully got through and Jean shook her head. "No. I honestly thought about that at first, but I couldn't decide to take that step by myself." The word 'abortion' hung in the air between them unsaid for a silent moment.

Shaking her head Jean went on. "Then I talked to the Phoenix, and I suppose you could say it was a sort of quasi-religious experience. I'm not fully prepared to say I was happy about it at that point, but now the idea of aborting my child, our child doesn't appeal to me. I can easily understand why abortion would be an option for any other 20-year-old, and believe me, I fully support the idea that it should be the parent's choice, but that choice isn't for me. Besides, you saw how happy Harry was."

"I can understand that," Emma said, still looking a little disturbed now staring down at Jean's flat toned stomach, wondering how long it would remain that way. "But still…"

"Emma, you don't have to worry about the child. You don't have to try to be a mother or a big sister to it or anything, though it will probably grow up believing you're his or her aunt." Jean teased, grabbing one of Emma's hands bringing it to her lips to kiss the back tenderly.

She went on much more seriously however, still holding Emma's hand to her chest. "You're not your mother, you're not your father. However you interact with this child is up to you, but never fear that you will go down the same road either of your parents did with you and your siblings."

Or mine with me, Jean thought somewhat angrily. Emotional distance and restriction wasn't physically scarring, but it hadn't been pleasant either.

"Thank you for that," Emma said, then shook her head smirking a little. "But it isn't just my fears about what my family was like. I just don't like the thought of being pregnant that's all. The idea of something growing inside of you is a little cringe-worthy if you think about it. Gives me the willies something fierce."

There was also the caveat that for years Emma's body had been one of her greatest weapons, used to beguile men's minds, never used to its fullest extent, but that just added to the allure. And it had been hers, whatever her father's ambitions and power over her. Even now Emma prided herself on her control over her body, something which would disappear if she was ever foolish enough to become pregnant, regardless of whether she wanted the pregnancy or not.

"I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one," Jean laughed. She could also tell that Emma was lying slightly there. Oh, she was telling the truth that she was weirded out about Jean being pregnant, her age, and the whole process, but it went deeper than that. A concern there for their relationship, or something more? "And what else is bothering you?"

Emma paused, looking away, biting her lip in such a way that almost made Jean forget what they were talking about entirely in favor of more physical things. "I, can take children or leave them, I think I've proven I can deal with them well enough with my younger sister, but… but they are a weakness Jean."

She held up a hand as Jean made to speak. "I know you and Harry will do your best to protect your child, but I can't just forget that there are people out there who wouldn't hesitate to strike at us through your baby. Pierce tried to strike at me through Cordelia, and my father killed my brother just to send me a message for god's sake!"

Cocking her head to one side, Jean looked at Emma, and realized she still wasn't being totally honest. Yes, that was a concern, and one Jean understood, but with the resources of Camelot and all the rest, the idea of anyone getting to her child after he was born was almost laughable. No, Emma's fear was based on something else: the idea of family.

The Frosts had maintained a tradition of backstabbing and infighting against one another for generations, making the word 'family' mean the same thing as 'enemy' behind closed doors. Emma had once told Jean that her brother Christian had been the first child in four generations that hadn't taken part of the family pastime. Even Cordelia, young as she was, had been partially trained in that harsh school of familial threats, though thankfully her indoctrination in it had faded quickly after their father and older sister's deaths.

"Emma, our child, our family is not like yours, this child isn't a threat to your position, or Harry's or my love for you. It doesn't mean I've become more important in Harry's eyes, he loves us all equally and that's not going to change, nor will he or she grow up to be a threat to you or anyone else." Jean said slowly, choosing her words with care as she pulled the other woman into a hug. "You don't have to be afraid of anyone in this family acting like yours did toward you."

Emma stiffened in Jean's arms, and the redhead knew her words had been spot on. But after a moment her blonde lover relaxed against Jean's chest, sighing faintly. "I, I suppose you're right Jean, I can even admit that intellectually. But emotionally, the idea of family in general still bothers me. I sometimes twitch and fall back into my old Ice Queen persona around Cordelia at times. But, while it will take time for me to get used to the idea, I promise I will."

"That's all anyone can ask love, after all, you are trying to change the indoctrination of a lifetime," Jean smiled, kissing Emma lightly on the lips.

Eager to change the subject for something else, Emma leaned forwards as Jean pulled away, capturing the redhead's lips with her own in a gentle but insistent kiss, her tongue flicking into the other girl's mouth. Since their mouths were thus occupied, Emma opened up their telepathic connection. "I've had just about enough of this serious conversation. I vote we… find some other way to amuse ourselves…"

"Now I'm feeling tired." Jean groaned an hour later. Falling back onto the bed, her hair flared out on one of the conjured pillows Harry had created when the four of them had fallen into her bed. He'd also expanded the bed quite a bit, something all of them had been grateful for more than once this night.

"Pity." Harry's voice murmured, his arms suddenly going around her from one side as he leaned over her to give a still panting Emma a heated kiss on the lips. "That was one of the sexiest things I've ever seen."

Jean regretfully pushed him away slightly. "Maybe in a few hours, but we need to start having a serious discussion now."

"Where and when you want your wedding?" Harry quipped teasingly.

"Later for that," Jean replied though she was smiling as she said it. "I'd like to have a wedding sometime down the line, but I'm not looking for a big to-do or anything. Small and somewhere private would do for me."

"For myself as well." Ororo turned her head with difficulty to face the other three, not moving from where she was still splayed out on the side of the bed. Like Harry she had woken up during Jean and Emma's bout of lovemaking, and now she smiled happily if wearily at the younger women and Harry. "All I would request is that you and I have a Mediterranean-style wedding rather than a European-style Harry."

"Ahem, back on the actual topic at hand," Jean said, smiling at the other woman and reaching over Harry to kiss Ororo on the forehead, shuddering lightly as her still sensitive nipples slid across his chest. "We need to talk about what my pregnancy means for my team participation."

"It means your time as a field agent is very sharply curtailed from now on, and two months from now it ends entirely." Harry replied firmly, pushing himself up the bed to lean against the headrest, gaze switching between the three women.

Jean made to speak and he held up a hand. "I'm serious. For one thing, other than finding Magneto there doesn't seem to be any big issue on the horizon down on Earth, and it will be at least another month and a half before another Kree fleet shows up. Right now we need to wait until we find Magneto, do what we can to curtail mutant-norm violence, and build up our industrial capacity. I won't say that I will forbid you from coming out with the team if a major threat appears, but I'm not going to risk you against smalltime threats. And every time you do leave the castle or High Note, you're going to be covered with so many protective spells you're going to be able to survive a bloody nuke, even without your powers!"

While Emma rolled her eyes and Ororo laughed at Harry's protectiveness, Jean shook her head, almost ready to push out of the bed, but Harry pinned her in place with an arm around her waist. She scowled, thumping him on the chest with one fist, but refrained from lashing out telekinetically. "I'm not made of glass Harry!"

"No you're not, you're my beautiful phoenix, my firebird of passion and power, but while you can look after yourself, you're not on your own now." Harry saw that hit home, and he went on slowly even as he caught her fist in his free hand. "It's our responsibility, yours and mine, to protect the little life growing inside of you Jean. I'm not going to keep you sequestered for your own good or something like that, I respect you too much to try and take your freedom away, but I will make certain you're both as protected as I can possibly make you."

At his serious, loving expression and both of the other women murmuring agreement Jean subsided. She wasn't happy, but she could understand his concerns. Not only would her pregnancy slow her down, but it would also limit what damage she could take on her own, so the idea of being covered in defensive spells was actually reassuring.

"Besides," Harry went on. "It isn't like you're going to be bored after all. I have dozens of projects back home I want to throw you at."

He smirked, staring into Jean's jade eyes as he began to count on his fingers, each finger tapping against her side in turn. "We need to get the AI core Stark gave us up and running on defense while at the same time augmenting our scanners and work out how to speed up our response, get the X-Men accoutered entirely, follow up Mystique's report and hunt down Magneto. Hopefully he's the one behind the upsurge in violence between mutants and normal humans. We need to expand our industrial capacity and our energy business, make certain Saab's new hover-ambulance design is ready to go, possibly start setting up a real space-based military, figure out a way to start building more repair droids to throw at everything we've got in space at this point, figure out how to best utilize the ships you brought back, and oh yes…"

Jean eyes had widened at each new project, and she finally shook her head with a laugh. "Enough! Wow, you guys really have been busy since we've been gone haven't you? All right, I'll agree to that I suppose, so long as I can stay busy I guess I can understand you not needing me in the field. But you will let me join you when you go after Magneto so long as it happens in the next two months or so."

She stared into Harry's eyes until he nodded reluctantly and then went on. "But you didn't mention the Hellfire Club or the issues there. I take it things came to a head there while we were away?"

"Oh yes," Emma purred while stretching like a cat, her smile a mix of hedonistic and vindictive pleasure. "Yes, you could say that. The leftovers from that climax are still with us alas, but overall I have to say it definitely ended as well as we could hope…"

Sharing what had occurred on Earth since Jean and her crew of pirates left took several hours, so it was near the start of the ship-day by the time the quartet began to reluctantly pull themselves out of bed. Ororo and Emma moved to use the ship's sonic shower, wondering what it would feel like. Jean declined to join them, knowing it wasn't exactly pleasant, but when Harry made to join them, Jean grabbed his arm, pulling him back lightly. "Wait, Harry, we need to talk a bit more."

Harry cocked an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. "Nothing about us Harry, I think we've hammered that out for now." She held up her ring finger, staring at the symbol of their union happily for a moment, making a mental note to get with Ororo and Emma, who despite not willing to marry Harry was an equal in this relationship, to come up with something for Harry to wear. A simple silver ring just was not going to cut it. "No, something happened when we were heading out of Sol. Dani had a sort of out of body experience, only to hear her tell it that's rather inverted…"

Forty minutes later the quartet exited their room, slowly making their way up to the bridge. Most of the people who had been present when Harry Emma and Ororo had arrived had gone to bed long since of course, and the fleet had slowly made its way further in system under the direction of Reed, who had decided to drop off the other ships on the far side of Jupiter from Earth, before continuing on alone. Susan, Richard and Doug Ramsay were the only three awake, with Reed and Douglas going over something on the main viewscreen, while Susan was reading something on a data pad while maintaining watch on the sensors.

Susan looked up as the quartet entered, smiling brightly at them all, an expression that morphed into a smirk when she noticed Ororo and Emma were noticeably exhausted, and Jean looked to be limping slightly. "Heh, looks like you all had fun." Then she went on more seriously. "Harry, we didn't have time to ask last night, but has anything happened with our family while we were gone?"

Reed looked up at that, gesturing Douglas to take over whatever they were working on as he moved over to take a seat by his wife at the weapon's console. "Yes, can you tell us anything you know about Ben and Johnny, and of course Franklin. This is the longest period of time we've been away from our son since his birth."

"Nothing major," Harry said with a faint smirk. "A woman named Thundra came from an alternate dimension or something, can't remember the full story there but she and Benjamin are either an item or moving in that direction. She and Crystal's big sister did not get along but Medusa also seemed nice enough."

He went on much more seriously shaking his head. "Ben broke up with Alicia a few weeks after you all left. It was a mutual breakup, Benjamin was worried about protecting her after she was again kidnapped by one of your enemies, and she was concerned about the future I think. He seems to have gotten over it, but I don't know him well enough to know if that's a mask or not."

"I'll take him out for a few beers when we get home and get the whole story out of him." Reed nodded. "It's almost certainly a mask, I'm not certain if it started out that way but Ben was honestly in love with Alicia." What Reed thought about the arrangement was something he would keep to himself.

"And our son?" Susan asked impatiently.

"No issues there. Madame Harkness is still looking after him and you know I assigned a house-elf months back to the two of them just to make certain he had help if he needed it. However, I believe he's begun to exhibit some powers of his own. I don't know what those powers are based on, but they at least include telekinesis, and possibly transfiguration."

"He is so young though," Susan said, while Reed shook his head sadly.

"I think Madam Harkness can handle teaching him some control but we might wish to start training him sooner rather than later."

"Speaking of," Reed said, gesturing over his shoulder to Douglas. "I'd like to take that young man under my wing if I may? He is a master programmer, and it would be fantastic to help him on his way and have his aid with various projects."

"If you can put Doug up in the Baxter building I'm fine with that idea so long as he is," Harry said with a shrug. While Douglass' ability to understand any form of communication like he was a native was useful, Harry had never intended for him to be a field agent, and the rest of his education was such that he'd be better served by Reed or Xavier than Avalon anyway. "You might have to talk to his father but given how well defended the Baxter Building is I don't see him having a problem with that."

Reed nodded then gestured to the sensor section, which was still showing where the derelict fleet had been left in Jupiter orbit, well out from its rings, but stationary in respect to its gravity field. "What do you have planned for those?"

"A lot of things, because we need to get our space-based defenses up and running fast." He shared a look with Jean, who had been told about the Kree's attack on Earth earlier. She nodded grimly and Harry went on. "You see, Earth was attacked while you all were away. Five or six days ago actually."

"A small group of Kree frigates whatever they are called to check up on the missing Hellion?" Reed asked. That was what they all assumed, one more probing raid then a serious attack before another even larger and deadlier assault if that first one was beaten off.

"No, this was a full-on assault. They weren't even out of hyperspace for more than a few seconds before they started to fire on Earth." As Reed and Susan gaped in horror he went on quickly. "Sorry, I should've said I had been prepared for such before they arrived. Ororo, myself and several other wizards we're allied with both covered Earth with a Disillusion spell of sorts and created a magical illusion of Earth which drew their fire."

"It was a simple enough idea in theory; just create an illusion of Earth a day back in its rotation around the sun. Creating the illusion however was extremely difficult both in terms of mental ability and magical strength," Ororo said, shaking her head. "It exhausted both myself, Stephen Strange, Harry, Wanda, and Clea, Stephen's girlfriend. It's no exaggeration to say that Stephen and Harry are undoubtedly the most powerful wizards on the planet by a wide margin, but even so both of them were stuck in bed for days and the rest of us didn't recover for even longer."

"Stephen actually recovered a day before I did," Harry replied with a self-effacing shrug. "He might not have as much raw power as I do," though even that's debatable given how he can call upon multiple gods of magic to help power his spells, "but he uses what power he has somewhat more efficiently than I can. It's an experience and personal style thing."

"Understood, now what the hell happened with the actual Kree attack!?" Reed asked, restraining himself from reaching out to smack the younger man upside the head with difficulty.

"Earth wasn't attacked," Harry said with a shrug. "Doctor Doom, myself, Thundra, Ben and Johnny responded along with Carol Danvers, I think I've mentioned her once?"

Susan nodded while Reed looked confused for a second, before placing the name in his memory. "The woman you said worked for SHIELD yes? The one who might want to quit. Ben knows her from her NASA days."

"She did quit, and has been working with me ever since. Carol's been a major help setting up a think tank that has been working on the Ravenspires and other projects. We're going to be expanding that think tank hugely in the next few days, and I'd like your recommendations on who to bring in on it but frankly we just need more people, more bodies to throw at the problems we're facing."

"I understand that, but the aftermath of the battle was…." Richard asked leadingly. Good grief, keeping Harry on task here was getting rather irritating.

"We won of course, they didn't have time to figure out that the Earth they'd fired on was fake, at least we don't think so. We didn't take any prisoners this time. They did however find a way to get around the spell hiding the Ravenspires and destroyed several dozen of them which cost me several men and women who had been training to work in space from Carol's original group."

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Doom has created a device to pull a fleet out of hyperspace where we want it, but it's not tested yet, and it will be weeks before we're ready to do so. What we need to do immediately is set up Stark's AI and set up the sensors you developed, sending both you and Douglas on this mission was a mistake in hindsight. But even they won't give us much warning unless we can merge that idea with one I had after Jean telepathically told us you all had returned."

"You did mention something about that last night," Reed said, much calmer now that he knew Earth hadn't taken massive casualties. Already ideas for orbital defenses, shield arrays, and weapons were going through his head however. Some of them based on what they had learned from the derelicts but several others were from his own brain. We will never be able to match the Kree or the other powers out there in numbers, but I think we can exceed them in quality for certain.

"Jean's telepathic message was instantaneous despite the massive distance between where you all came out of hyperspace and Earth. At least it seemed that way. How much of a lag time was there between the message you sent us Jean and us arriving?"

"No more than a few minutes," Jean said after a moment's thought.

"And most of that time was spent gathering together," Ororo said with a nod. "So it was instantaneous over a system-wide distance."

"But telepathy can't cross interstellar distances," Jean cautioned. "I tried a time or two to reach out to you during our hyperspace trip back, and couldn't do it until we had emerged into Sol. I even tried it once when we were working on getting the derelicts up and moving, nothing."

"And if you can't, no one else can," Emma mused. At Jean's look Emma shrugged her shoulders. "Oh don't give me that look, you might not have my subtlety, or Charles' experience, but you have us both beat in terms of brute power."

Which matters quite a bit to determine how far away you could be heard, and not at all in mental combat, Emma sent to the redhead teasingly. This caused Jean's jade eyes to narrow slightly before she sent a mental picture of her smacking her own ass back to Emma, a picture that nearly made Emma break out in laughter. But she refrained with difficulty, turning her attention back to the discussion at large.

"Interesting…" Reed mused. "But I fail to see…" he paused trailing off as he stared at Harry. "Harry, are you thinking of trying to create some kind of device that can send a telepathic signal? As far as I am aware, telepathy is impossible without an actual living brain. The telepathic spectrum doesn't even exist in the real world. You can create devices to monitor brain waves and warn of any changes in them, even block some of the mental bands with the equivalent of a shield, but not to send an actual telepathic signal."

"Genetics could hold the answer though…" he mused after a mere second, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not a geneticist by choice, merely a dabbler but that could be possible if you could determine what genetic structure actually allows for telepathy in the first place."

The mere idea of taking on such a project would have seemed either incredibly daunting or simply insane to any geneticist who understood how tough even labeling mutants as such was in terms of genetics. But to Reed it was simply a challenge. Not one in his chosen fields, but certainly doable if given enough time.

"Back on task mad scientist," Harry said smirking at the older man who gave him a 'Hello Mister pot, I'm Mister kettle' sort of look, knowing full well Harry was his equal in his own field of magic. "Something like that yes, but not an actual mind, something simpler. But I'll leave that up to you Reed, that will be your main project when we reach Earth."

"Oh joy another one," Reed said, smirking lightly. "I've already developed several theories along other lines, which I'll share with you later on but I'll agree to that for now, since the distance question was one I had not found a solution to heretofore."

His smirk widened into a warm smile and he reached across to grab and squeeze Harry's shoulder. "Congratulations by the way," he said softly, gesturing to Jean. "Fatherhood is difficult at times, but it is also one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever felt in my life, and I do not doubt that you and yours will feel the same."

Harry and Ororo both laughed, shaking their heads while Jean simply smiled and Emma smiled wanly if willingly. After all Jean was right, she wasn't going to have to be this child's mother. She could be the distant and rather standoffish relative. She already had enough issues with Cordelia.

But Harry simply laughed. "I've already discovered the joy of parenthood with Melody. And possibly Illyana as well, though I'm uncertain where the master and apprentice connection starts and the big brother's employer/semi-father figure begins there."

Jean frowned suddenly. "Oh, Melody, I, I hadn't thought about her reaction to this," she said, gesturing down to her stomach. "You don't think she'll be worried about being replaced or losing your affection or anything like that, will she?"

Harry and Ororo gave her their very best deadpan expression saying as one, "No."

OOOOOOO

Melody was at that moment waking up back on Earth stretching her arms and smiling brightly at the sun which was beating down outside, a bright happy day. It was nearing the end of August, and she knew that autumn would truly begin soon, but until then she, like all the other kids in the castle, were determined to enjoy as much sunlight as they could.

After a moment Melody turned her head to look over at the other bed which had recently been permanently installed in her room. She couldn't figure out the exact point where Illyana had stopped sleeping over with her and simply moved in, but she didn't care either. The two of them were practically inseparable during the day, only separating when they had to for classes, and when Illyana had to put in an hour on meditating on her magical core under Harry's instruction. According to Harry, meditating on her magical core would heighten Illyana's control when she began to actually learn magical spells.

Illyana was still asleep, and Melody slowly got out of bed, moving towards the door thinking to head to the bathroom without waking the girl up only to feel a pillow hit the back of her head. She turned quickly, grabbing the pillow as it fell to the floor hurling it back at the giggling Illyana for a moment then rushing forwards only to be stopped as a female house-elf popped in, one of the middle-aged ones whose name was Glora. "Mistress, mistress, the breakfast is ready. Mrs. Brown be asking you to join her class in the main hall, they be going down to the lake to collect some plants."

The two girls nodded, and quickly pulled on their clothing for the day, jeans and T-shirts of course. Dresses were all very good, and in fact both had dresses taken from Snow White so they could feel like princesses in the castle, but for this that wasn't really appropriate. As she pushed said outfit to one side to grab a shirt, Melody wondered where her father was. Normally he'd be the one to wake them up, for some reason he enjoyed waking the two of them up when he could, (just like they did to Harry but without the pranking) and there hadn't been anything on the schedule for today.

Illyana looked up as Hedwig alighted on their bedpost smiling at the owl, her English containing a bare slip of a Russian burr. Ororo and Mrs. Brown both had seen to it that Illyana and the other young Russians had learned enough English to nearly talk like a native by this point. "Hello Hedwig, are you going to join us today?"

The owl hooted at her softly, nipping at her fingers when Illyana began to stroke Hedwig's chest but shook her head in the negative. Hedwig had been kept up most of the night by one or the other of the odd raven duo even after she had returned from a successful hunt, which one of them had the gall to try and interfere with! That just wasn't done in the avian community.

The other had shown up with a dead mouse of its own in an attempt to placate her that morning, but Hedwig would have none of it. She was the queen around here, she would hunt on her own and prove her dominance. If the two of them were trying to butter her up for something, Hedwig figured it wasn't anything she wanted to know about. For some reason she couldn't escape the idea that the two of them were Fred and George Weasley reincarnated, troublemakers in the extreme.

Fighting that irritation however was the feeling of pure joy she was getting through her link with her Harry, though he was so far away Hedwig wasn't willing to attempt to pop to him. It was equal parts interesting and frustrating, because she had very rarely felt Harry this happy before, and she wanted to know why, but she knew her limitations.

Melody cocked her head as she looked at the owl. "I think she's tired Illyana, but I'm getting something else, a happy song but it's far away." The almost elfin girl shook her head. "Let's let her sleep for now. Come on, breakfast this morning is supposed to be waffles!"

With that Illyana nodded once at the owl, gave her a final scratch on her chest before racing after a friend. Waffles waited for no one after all. As they went, Melody could not help but ask aloud "I wonder where father is?"

Several hours later, the two young girls were the first to both see Harry and the others returning, and to realize the answer to that question. Harry, Jean, and Ororo all appeared suddenly in the dining hall, as Melody and Illyana were cutting through it to head back up to Melody's room.

"Father!" Melody said, skidding to a halt and staring at Jean before rushing forward to give her a hug. "Jean, you're back!"

Illyana crowded in as well, giving her own greetings, hugs all around. She had truly come to see Harry and the other adults, save Emma perhaps, as family, nearly as dear to her as her grandparents and big brother. She stopped as Melody suddenly pulled away from Jean to look up at her face. "There's something different about your songs, some of them are much happier, and there is a new one to, it sounds like a child's song almost…"

Jean laughed, putting an arm around Melody's shoulders as she leaned down to give the girl a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Well Illyana, Melody, Harry and I have something to tell you both."

Joy was too small a word to encompass the feeling that Melody felt after Jean explained. Illyana was surprised, but she had been part of the farming community and had seen families with babies before with women who were even younger than Jean, and she was happy for them. But her joy was next to nothing to Melody's who bounced up and down, her multi-colored hair flying as she exclaimed, "Oh this is so wonderful. Can I teach the baby how to sing?"

OOOOOOO

Ignoring her near sobs of exhaustion and fear Taavi pushed his newlywed wife into the doorway behind him staggering as a brick slammed into his shoulder. Taking up position between the door and the approaching mob Taavi had a moment to reflect that his large frame, dotted as it was by large patches of heavy tortoise-like slabs of shell, made him uniquely suited for defense of small places like this. Of course, if I didn't have this body this wouldn't be happening to us. "Get inside and lock the door!"

"No! Taavi I won't leave you!"

"Do it woman! Then hide yourself somewhere I…"

Another brick slammed into his head, and Taavi saw stars. The next thing he knew a axe was slamming into his chest, shattering against the shells that festooned his chest, followed quickly by a blow to the head. Taavi lashed out blindly, catching one of the rioters and lifting him off his feet with the force of the blow while another tried to hack at his legs. That one flew backwards his teeth missing thanks to Taavi's knee slamming into his face.

For a moment Taavi held them there, his mutant strength and armor allowing him to overcome any two of the rioters, and the doorway forcing them to come at him a few at a time. "Come on you sons of whores, come on!"

Suddenly there was a scream behind him. Taavi turned away from the doorway, racing into the house. A house he remembered now with growing despair which had another entrance hidden in the alleyway between it and the next house over.

In the main sitting area Taavi saw two men who had grabbed his wife. They had pushed her to the floor shouting "Whore! Mutant's bitch!" and other hateful remarks, while one of them raised an axe above his head intending to cut her head off.

Taavi barreled into them roaring, pushing them away from her.

Gunshots now rang out from behind him, the rioters from the front of the house having rushed in as soon as he had retreated. One bullet smashed into his shoulder, breaking one of the slabs of shell there while another followed quickly, piercing flesh, and he gasped, that arm going dead. He killed the man who had been about to behead his wife, but before she could get to her feet and flee another shot rang out.

Taavi watched in horror as his new wife, the girl he had married that morning and had hoped to spend the rest of his life with spasmed in a rictus of agony. The bullet had taken her in the side of the neck, blowing out her spine as it travelled through her body."

"Damn you!" Taavi shouted, sobbing, grabbing the would-be ax murderer and hurling him into the crowd around him, even as more shots rang out and other rioters came forward with makeshift weapons. "Damn you!"

Several days after the riots died down, investigators would come to believe that the riot had been caused by a mutant with obvious physical mutations apparently being seen walking around with a woman who was somewhat attractive in public holding hands in an out of the way section of the city. Within a bare hour the two of them had been mobbed, eventually ripped apart in a berserk mania.

From that beginning the riot spread to encompass the entirety of Ankara, Turkey. Even some mutants who had not been bothered previously for one reason or another, be they born into wealthier families, or with minor physical deformities and no powers, had been swept up in it. By the end of the day there wouldn't be a single mutant alive in the entire city.

But of course as always the riot became about something else rather than the hatred of mutants quickly. It was depressing for most people to think about, but when you peeled away the thin veneer of civilization, practically every common man had a bit of darkness inside of them. The riot spread, rioters looted, burned, and raped until the army was called in to restore order since the police had long since joined the rioters. Hundreds would die or worse, but the mutant issue had been the spark.

This didn't matter to the two individuals watching the current violence from a safe vantage point on the nearby rooftops. They would claim they were mutants, and proud of it, but if anyone thought they had anything in common with the genetic deadends dying to the mindless horde below them, that person would die in short order. "This is survival of the fittest at its finest," murmured one to the other. "You think we will be able to harvest anyone from this sorry lot?"

"Doubtful," the second said bluntly pointing to the house from which the sounds of combat still raged. "That one is possibly the only mutant in the city with a truly usable power. And he was willing to bed a common Homo Sapien? Such a waste of his genetic legacy, but at least he is paying for his folly."

"True. Yet despite the conflicts here in the Middle East and elsewhere, we have to admit that the First World powers are turning toward equality between Homo Sapien and Homo Superior. It is disturbing, but given the amount of positive PR that foolish point of view has gotten, it isn't exactly difficult to understand why."

"Yesss… Sinister seems to have a plan to turn that around, though it isn't one he wishes to share with us. Odd that, was he not supposed to be the Great One's chief scientist?"

"It has been several centuries since the Great One last walked the Earth and Sinister has never been one to wait or to seek advice even when he needs it," the first speaker said with some amusement in his voice. While he would never wish to meet Sinister one-on-one, he did hold a certain amount of contempt for the other man, who he knew chafed under his master's control.

He went on much more seriously however. "Magneto's disappearance is still an issue. Have our spies in his so-called Brotherhood told us anything?"

"They haven't been able to report in months as you well know," the second one said irritably shaking his head before smiling when a pain-filled scream reached their ears. "The sound of Darwin at work," he murmured shaking his head with a faint smile.

"Despite being a Homo Sapien that scientist certainly had a few excellent ideas," the first one murmured. "Still, with Magneto not acting out, and with Sinister seemingly playing his own game I think we have to assume that this trend towards equality may well continue without outside interference to turn things back onto the right direction. The Great One will not be pleased, but we might… have to wake him up…"

"The time has not yet come for that surely! Besides, that is a topic for full quorum of the clan, not just the two of us."

"We need to bring it to the attention of the clan, call that quorum," the first speaker said firmly. "I don't care where we meet, but we need to do it. We also need to figure out a way to spy on this Magical Minds company, and this new superhero group that has given equality such good PR."

"There I will agree with you. I will contact the clan and even take on the task of attempting to spy on Magical Minds and this Potter fellow. And if they decide we should, you will contact Lord Ozymandias, agreed?"

For a moment the first speaker turned away from the riot still going on down below them to stare out through the cityscape toward the south. It would be a tough journey, a true test of my physical and mental skills, just as much as figuring out a way to spy on a superhero group which doesn't apparently have any set home base. It is a proper way to prove my worth to my lord!

"Agreed," he said sharply nodding his head. "I will prove my worthiness by taking this journey. Only the strong deserve to survive."

"Only the strong deserve to survive," the second one intoned formally in return, clasping the first one's hand. Then as one they turned away, jumping away over the rooftops in two different directions unseen by any of the rioters or watchers elsewhere.

OOOOOOO

Later that evening, Harry called Dani up to the headmaster's room for a talk. "I understand that you had a sort of 'in-body experience' Jean called it? She told me a lot about what the two of you talked about, but I'd like to get your impressions about this Sigyn woma-er, goddess."

"I was going to talk to you about it tomorrow morning Sir," Dani said, somewhat more formally than normal, sitting straight but not rigidly in her seat. "And I have to say, I had another experience of a similar nature to when Hela first made contact. Sigyn pulled me into a dreamscape the night we spent coming in from the outer system. She wanted me to pass on congratulations to Jean, calling her the Lifebringer's Avatar, and you for the baby. Sigyn could feel her pregnancy on levels she said most mortals wouldn't be able to feel apparently."

"It made her somewhat...uninhibited at first if I'm going to be honest. It was kind of funny at first, and then it got really, really embarrassing for a time, though that could've been the discussion matter," Dani said flushing slightly and looking away, missing Harry's amused look.

"Like I said, I want to know about your impression, so why don't we start with the first conversation you had with her, and then this latest one after that. Particularly, I want to know what kind of blocks Sigyn has on what she can say, directly or otherwise, what kind of powers she has, and if what you learned completely contradicts anything I've learned since you lot left." Harry smiled ruefully. "Trust me, I'll interrupt your tale when we get to those kind of points."

Dani did so, making a point to mention the reciprocal nature of giftgiving in Asgardian culture. Harry made a note of it, nodded with a small wince and said he would get about that in the next few days. He wanted to think about an appropriate gift to bring the next time he saw the death goddess, as well as everything else Dani was telling him. He interrupted her tale many times, asking probing questions about the conversations in general, and like Dani built up a picture of what Sigyn could and could not talk about that did not make him happy.

"I like the Asgardians I've met so far," Harry murmured, running one hand through his unkempt hair. "They're good people if a little larger than life. But there are things that just aren't matching up here. You're certain that Sigyn said Thor was married?"

"Sigyn was certain about it, and ummm…." Dani blushed rosily as she recalled the relevant part of the conversation. "Very, very happily so apparently."

Harry nodded, making no comment about the younger girl's reoccurring blush. "So why's he apparently shacking up with a human woman now? It doesn't fit someone of his reputation at all from what I've been able to gather." Harry looked away from Dani at this point, mumbling to himself as he continued to process the new information. "Could they have had a falling out at some point? Occam's Razor would say certainly, but I don't know, something about that idea feels off to me."

This entire thing has baffled me from the very beginning, but this is proving to be something else, the threat must be far larger than I originally thought. Sigyn went to a hell of a lot of trouble to hide her soul like this, I can't even imagine the skill it must have taken. For Loki and her to go to such lengths... no one would do something like this except as a last resort. And now the Asgardians that I've met don't match what Sigyn related to Dani, let alone what Vorlus has turned up. How deep does this rabbit hole go?

"Thank you Dani, that was informative to say the least. I'll probably ask your opinion about the gifts when I come up with them, but could I look at this staff that Sigyn gave you?"

Dani nodded, and raced off returning not only with the staff she had been given by Sigyn, but also the lynx skin that she had killed in her out of body experience when she met Fenrir.

Harry had already analyzed that, and not found anything magical on or about it. He scanned it again now, coming up with the same response as before that he met with a satisfied nod. The staff however was a different matter. It read almost like a wand with an unknown core but not completely, with some magics he couldn't understand but which felt like some kind of transfiguration spell somehow buried within it. It was also tied directly to Dani, he could feel her life-force within every inch of it to the point where it read almost like an extension of her body.

Harry couldn't have used it, in fact he wagered that to anyone but Dani it would be a simple staff. On the other hand, it didn't give Dani any magical ability either. She didn't seem to have the magical spark within her, or if she did, it was so intertwined with her mutant powers it was impossible for Harry to discern. "What are you going to call this?"

"What else can I call it but Sigyn's gift?" Dani replied, smiling softly as she took the long staff back, her smile widening as it became a bow in her hand. With a nod toward Harry, Dani turned away and made her way out of the office. Amara had asked to talk to her, and she had a feeling it wasn't going to be good, but felt it better to get it over with now.

Harry watched Dani go, frowning as he thought to himself. I like the Asgardians, they're good people but dammit I already have so many other things going on, I really don't want to get involved in this. Yet at the same time he could hear that little voice inside him going, 'yes but if they are being mind-controlled then don't you owe it to your friends, or at least acquaintances to try to free them. And aren't you researching them already?'

"Merlin, Morgana and Maeve damn my people saving thing!" he groaned.

Shaking his head, Harry kneaded his lightning scar thoughtfully as his mental rumination continued, I wish Dani had asked more about this so-called 'overgrown lizard', that could describe so damn many Asgardian monsters it's not even funny. Starting to wonder if they weren't the ones to start the whole 'snakeskin' fashion trend, with the number of beasties with scales considered "extremely dangerous, kill on sight they seem to have. I want to know more about why that keeps riling up Sigyn, and I think I also want a way to get to Asgard myself without aid. I also think it's time to go straight to the source, and definitely ask Hela some questions. But subtly Harry, subtly, let's not trigger a violent response from whatever this is…or insult the queen in her own hall, that would be bad.

OOOOOOO

While Mystique continued her stakeout in Alaska, and there didn't seem to be any other Earth-based problems on the horizon, Harry and his faction were able to deal with more mundane issues. Done with what they could do for Tokyo, the Custodes concentrated on their training for the most part, with Harry and his ladies joining in every evening. Their training now consisted of facing Magneto or other super-powered mutants in preparation for the time when they found Magneto's base or when he began to move openly once more.

But the lovers' days were given over to other projects.

Of the quartet Ororo possibly had the easiest schedule, setting up a system to allow Illyich and the other teens who had volunteered to help Avalon bring in new students to do so. To aid this she and Kitty created five larger, more protected versions of Harry's magic carpet to fly them wherever they wanted to go faster than the speed of sound. She also continued training Kitty on the mental aspect of magic in the morning, in preparation for further training, and worked with Kitty's parents on creating a few interviews and FAQs for parents whose children were found to be mutants.

At the same time, Kitty worked with Harry and their new runic assembly line to complete work on the runic arrays for the X-Men and Jean designed and built weapons for the team after a brief discussion with Charles and Scott. The X-Men now each had four self-chosen items and an Orihalcum knife they could call up from a purpose built bag of holding, along individualized runic arrays to their specifications as part of their uniforms.

With that done, Jean turned her attention to working with Sage on okaying Saab's hover ambulance design and making certain that Arc Technologies was ready to expand across the UK, handing over the day to day running of the company to Sage and AC's newly hired president, who was more of a personnel director than anything else.

There were lots of protests about that of course. One reason was that Arc Technologies had a monopoly on the arc reactors. But of course Stark Industries also had arc reactors, they just weren't selling the energy from them to anyone else, so that argument wasn't getting any headway except among those people worried about what could possibly be foreign influences in their economy. Other protests were spurred on by companies who were looking at losing their own market share.

But the British Government, ecstatic about the cut to their energy budget, had gotten behind the idea and pushed. They clamped down on any protest that looked to turn violent as a matter of course, and provided security to the teams looking over the places chosen for the next wave of reactors.

After that work was done, Jean gleefully went on to the next few projects on her list: looking at the ships her team had brought back, working with Carol's think tank and, more importantly, going over shipboard weapon systems across the board.

Emma continued her work expanding their electronic espionage arm, and worked with Sir Dennis and Sage to expand their physical espionage apparatus. She also oversaw the purchase of some raw materials companies to cover what was being mined out of Forge 2 with Sage. Sage in turn continued to take over the day to day running of Harry and Emma's growing business empires, and helped Emma plan out a meeting the two of them were going to set up soon with the Hellfire Club's New York branch. All the covert moves they could do had been done there by this point, now it was time for an overt show of force and business deals.

True to his word to Jean, Harry first pushed forward with creating runic tattoos similar to the one he had on his palm. But these were not tied to his mokeskin pouch, they were purely defensive arrays, the strongest he could devise.

Emma had issues with the process due to the number of diamonds Harry had to grind into powder for them, but she got over it quickly. Ororo's and Emma's went off without a hitch, though surprisingly Emma wanted a second array like Harry's own as well as the defensive one. On the other hand Jean's array flashed red when he finished it for some reason, and for just a moment the shape on her palm almost seemed to change shape before stabilizing.

With Carol's help, Harry began a major recruitment drive, billing it as being for underwater work, the actual destination of which would only be told to the employees who passed the training and wished to stay on. This consisted of dozens of various repurposed diving schools scattered around America, the United Kingdom, many scattered across Europe and even a few in Canada. He also turned over the AI he had gotten from Stark to Douglas and Reed for inspection, but given the work the two of them were working on, expanding and upgrading the space-based sensor platforms and the 'telepathic triggers' as Reed called them, Harry doubted he'd be getting it back until they were done. He wasn't happy about that, but while the AI would be a major help, expanding their sensor range was a must.

He also had a meeting with the king, General Mountebanks and one other person to set up yet another meeting.

Flashback:

Harry held onto Melody's waist as the two of them flew the magic carpet around Windsor Abbey. Situated between his outstretched legs Melody began to sing A Brand New World in near perfect pitch. She sang that song at least once every time they rode on a magic carpet.

She had been singing off and on or simply staring around them as the two flew down from Scotland, Harry playfully rubbed her hair as he stared at the large castle below them, amused anew by the ward schemes that someone had come up with to protect the domiciles of the British royal family. The relationship between Wizardkind and the royal family seems to have been closer here, I'm happy to follow the trend. These at least don't seem to be as inventively violent as the ones around Buckingham Palace. I should be able to send a message through the wards that I've arrived at least.

With a flick of his hand, Harry conjured up a Patronus, the giant, solid stag of silver and gold standing on the air to one side of the carpet, reaching down to nuzzle at Melody's hand as she jumped up and ran over to it. Shaking his head at that, Harry stood up and moved over to it, speaking into the stag's ear. "Your Majesty I've arrived for our scheduled meeting and if you could formally invite me into your home that would be a good idea. These wards don't seem to be as… darkly amusing… as the others we've run into, but they're still violent and rather powerful." Like London Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle was built over a ley line.

The Patronus nodded after Harry finished speaking, quickly dancing down to ground level and through the walls heading into the house towards its intended target. "I wonder what the security guards inside will make of that," Harry murmured, smirking wickedly.

Melody smacked him lightly on his elbow. "Bad father! These people might be nice, you shouldn't tease them so."

"It's not teasing Melody, it's just gentle prodding that's all. So, how did you like the trip?"

"Very fun of course!" Melody said bouncing up and down magic carpet for a moment, then as Harry sat back down plopping herself into his lap, leaning back against his chest. "I really liked spending time with you today."

Harry sighed sadly, stroking one hand through her hair. He wished he could spend more time with Melody, hell with all of the kids who had come to view Camelot as their home, but Melody and Illyana in particular. But he couldn't, he had too many demands on his time, despite having finally learned how to delegate.

He knew Piotr thought the same thing about his sister, and perhaps more poignantly about his grandparents. Both of them were very old, and while the change of environment had done them a world of good, they spent at least 12 hours a day sleeping, and they weren't exactly mobile for the rest of the time either. They both had led very long, hard lives and it was catching up with them quickly.

Like a good grandson, Piotr wanted to be there with them, but both of them urged him to spend as much time as possible with the team and his friends, taking more solace in the young children than anything else. Illyana didn't seem to realize what was going on with her grandparents, which Harry put down to the normal self-centeredness of youth, but it would come eventually.

At that point in his musings Melody poked him in the nose, her finger nearly going up his nostril. "Yes, can I help you?"

"Don't brood," the young girl ordered smacking him lightly on the chest. "Your songs go all melancholy and slow. You're doing precisely what you should Father, don't blame yourself for not being able to be in more than one place at once, I know that was what you were doing."

Harry nodded dutifully and Melody nodded back promptly, then pointed to one side and down over the carpets edge. "I think your message got a response."

Below them the Patronus had appeared again, along with three wary security guards from a regiment Harry didn't recognize offhand. One of them, his face looking both confused and as if he felt he was being made fun of, held up a phone, which apparently had been put on speaker. "I, King William, make welcome my wizard allies, the one called Guardian and anyone with him, into my domicile for the day so long as he means no harm to any within."

Harry nodded cancelling the notice-me-not and disillusionment charm over the carpet. He watched with some amusement as all three of the guards twitched, their weapons nearly coming up to their shoulders before falling back down. Skimming over them, well out of sight of the tourists outside the walls, he said, "I'll just park this in the backyard shall I?"

Moments later, Harry had flown entirely around the castle and was about to 'park' the carpet about a foot off the ground when a little girl raced up to them from the castle, shouting "Aladdin!" She was around eight or so, with dark brown hair in curls down to her shoulders, dressed in jeans and a good shirt.

Harry looked at her, then back to Melody who laughed, waving her hands at the other girl. Behind the girl came William, General Mountebanks, and another, younger man who was laughing lightly at what might be his daughter.

"I thought I told you to never appear in front of my granddaughter with the magic carpet unless you were willing to sell it Potter," Williams said tartly, holding the little girl back with one gentle hand. "Let him land at least before you swarm him lovey."

Harry chuckled, stepping off of the carpet quickly. "I can set it so that it will follow Melody's commands, and there are numerous protective spells on it. If you want, I can allow her to take your granddaughter up on a little ride around the palace."

The little girl's eyes widened noticeably, and she turned a full on kicked puppy expression on her grandfather who stared down at her then at Harry. "You're positive it's safe?"

"Wizards honor," Harry said holding up one hand. "I'll even put a permanent sticking charm on her, she'll stick to the carpet whatever she tries, and it'll stay there until I remove it later."

"I don't know," the younger man said frowning and scratching at one chin. "Her teachers have said Victoria doesn't seem to want to pay attention, I'm not sure she deserves to ride a magic carpet."

He winked at Harry, who smirked back at him, as William nodded gravely.

The girl's pout became even more adorable if that was possible. "Ohh please daddy! This is like a dream come true! I promise to do better in classes, I promise to pay more attention! Please!"

The man went to one knee in front of his daughter, touching her chin gently. "All right, on one condition. I'll have that promise in writing from you later today, and if you don't start paying attention, you're going to start losing privileges. And I won't hear any back talk about it, do you understand?"

Watching this Harry began to wonder if he should be taking notes…

The girl looked at him in the eyes for a moment then nodded solemnly and he smiled pulling her into a gentle hug before twisting her around and patting her rear towards the carpet. "Then go on with you. Your grandfather and I have to talk to this wizard about serious matters."

Harry lifted the little girl up and onto the magic carpet, where she laughed and quickly raced over to Melody exchanging names with the other girl. Harry shot out a quick spell, and the girl's rear and legs glowed green, suddenly sticking to the carpet at the same time Harry cast a specialized version of the Notice-me-Not. No one who hadn't seen the carpet already would now be able to see them.

"Just around the palace okay Melody? If you try to take it further than the outer walls I'm going to be very cross with you." Harry said warningly, shaking his finger in front of his daughter's nose.

"I understand, Father." With that the two girls whooped and the magic carpet started to ascend into the sky. Strangely enough the Patronus joined them, forcing Harry to quickly hit it with another Notice-me-Not spell before it could appear over the outer wall to the tourists in the gardens beyond. With that done, Harry turned back to the three men. "You would be Duncan, correct?"

"Duncan, Prince of Wales," the man said, clasping forearms with Harry quickly. "My grandfather's told me as much about you as he can Mister Potter, and requested since your message said this was a military discussion that I sit in with you two and the good general."

Harry nodded, though he was somewhat surprised at the younger man's inclusion. Still, it was definitely a step in the right direction. "If your father and General Mountebanks trust you, then I will too, provided you and they allow me to put some magical protections around your minds for this discussion and the memories from it."

William frowned, suddenly leery. "What exactly is this about Harry?"

"Forging the sword, Your Majesty, forging the sword."

End flashback

But right now, Harry wanted to try and set up another sort of meeting. Harry and Jean were currently walking through the grounds of Camelot towards the forest talking quietly about Jean's latest project. She called them 'acceleration rings', and they were the first of many items devoted primarily to revamping existing military weapons platforms. That would be important soon, even if it was a side note at the moment.

As they walked around the soccer field Harry looked up, smiling as Hedwig came out of the sky to land lightly on his shoulder, preening through his hair and butting his head with hers affectionately, "Hello Hedwig, are you joining us today?"

Hedwig precked agreement, turning her head entirely around to stare at Jean, nibbling gently at Jean's fingers when she began to caress the bird's plumage.

"I still wish Ororo and Emma could've joined us for this. I know Ororo's met Hela before, but Emma hasn't, and I would've still enjoyed getting their impressions on what we're going to talk to her about." Jean paused as Hedwig's gaze seemed to harden as she stared at Jean. "Not that your ability to read people isn't a major help Hedwig, but Harry's the only one who can understand you as well as we can understand one another."

The owl glared at her for another second before turning away, seemingly mollified. Harry chuckled at his familiar's response then shrugged philosophically. "I think we'll miss Emma's subtlety in the actual conversation more, especially with my Hedwig along to give us her opinion on Hela herself, but it couldn't be helped."

That day Ororo was busy interviewing the new language professor at Xavier's as she had promised months ago. She had not been willing to put it off considering that the next class of 'Gifted' students was going to start arriving within two weeks. It would be incredibly difficult for Charles to get another teacher to come in on such short notice if she did not vet his current choice quickly, and while she might have moved out of the mansion, she cared too much about the school and her former charges to leave them in a lurch like that.

In contrast, Emma had been scheduled to join them for this from the get go, only to call out this morning. Apparently Hammer Industries was trying to make trouble with some of her larger contracts, trying to undercut her sales to various police forces. At the same time several of her employees had been lured away, taking with them some of her weapons designs. Not complete designs thankfully, but enough to possibly create similar weapons, although Emma reassured them Hammer Industries' lack of quality control would show in short order. Emma was doing her best to combat the strong arm tactics, especially since Cold Steel would eventually be their public face for further weapons design and creation in the future.

Why Hammer was interested in the civilian sector at all was a mystery to everyone. Justin Hammer had taken over the military contracts Stark Industries had previously held, which were worth far more money than the civilian sales could ever be, at least in civilized nations anyway, and Cold Steel didn't sell to anyone outside first world countries to begin with. But Hammer seemed to be unwilling to settle for 89% of the pie, which was typical of the man from what Harry could remember Emma telling him a while back as well as more recent updates from Sage.

Emma had also begun to sense rumblings from another source, that of Ozcorp and its owner. Nothing concrete just yet, but Sage had come up with hints of cyber warfare, clandestine meetings, and even criminal activity aimed at Cold Steel, Frost Pharmaceuticals, and even Magical Minds in Britain. Why Osborn was interested in them remained to be seen, but he was definitely laying the groundwork to move against Emma and Harry either financially or criminally and the both of them were keeping a close eye out for any serious sorties against them from the bizarrely quaffed tycoon.

Shaking his head Harry put that out of his mind for now, wanting to concentrate on the upcoming meeting with Hela. A few minutes later he felt the three of them pass the outer edge of Camelot's wards, and smiled suddenly, recognizing the area. "This is the place we were all sitting at when I first created my Weatherby persona."

"I remember, though I don't remember it for Weatherby but for 'Anastasia'. You did a very good job impersonating a love-struck female teenager Harry. Is there anything you want to tell me?" Jean teased as they got closer to the suitable spot, while Hedwig precked in laughter.

"Let's just say I had experience impersonating female voices. It involved copious amounts of drink, my Marauding godfather, and a house-elf who didn't understand I was a minor. Or maybe just didn't care," Harry replied, chuckling. "But now, to work."

Jean nodded, watching as Harry took out two silver chalices, setting them on the same table they had all eaten at that night. Then he conjured up two small cushions, about an inch thick. Joining him, Jean sat down on one across from Harry, so close their knees touched, while he set the small geode Hela had given Ororo to pass along to him between them.

Setting the silver chalices to facing them to either side of the geode Harry poured a small amount of wine into each of them then closed his eyes, with Jean doing the same. After a moment spent clearing their minds, both of them spoke aloud the words Harry had found among Dr. Vorlus' notes on basic prayer. "Hela ruler of Niflheim and goddess of the dead, we ask you to hear us…"

OOOOOOO

Hela stared into her scrying globe, smiling slightly. At first she had been simply viewing her realm with Garm besides her, checking for any issues arising therein with the new souls she had taken recently, or old souls growing restless and impatient. But for some reason after about an hour of this she found her scrying pool showing her the image of Balder walking around Asgard, greeting some of his friends and talking about some sort of food he had brought back from Midgard. At first she couldn't say why her globe had homed in on him rather than her own realm, but after only a few moments Hela forgot why she had questioned it in the first place, entranced by the handsomeness of the god of light and diplomacy.

"He is rather attractive and well-spoken is he not Garm? One of the finest of gods," Hela mused absently, fingers tracing the edges of the visage of the god she gazed upon. "I wonder what I would have to do to gain his attention and regard? Surely I am prettier than any of the other girls who flock to him, particularly that cow Karnilla, but my duties here restrain my ability to actually meet him in the flesh."

Garm snorted, his massive head shifting from side to side as he stared from the image to his mistress. For all her words, he couldn't smell any hint in his mistress's scent that told him she was actually interested in Balder, nor hear true longing in her voice when she spoke of him. The Shining One might be handsome, but my mistress seems about as interested in bedding him as she would a pretty painting.

This was very unlike when she had watched the odd human siedr she called Potter. The powerful 'wizard' had certainly grabbed her attention, like an alpha wolf would have a potential pack member or mate. "I suppose mistress, but he is neither the right gender nor shape for me to find him so."

"Heh, quite true my Guardian," Hela replied ruefully, reaching over to scratch at the scruff of Garm's neck, her attention diverted from Balder for a moment. It remained diverted because at that moment Hela felt something she hadn't felt in a long time: a mortal trying to get her attention, just her, not the entire pantheon's attention or seeking to bypass her to speak to one of the departed. Someone was performing a sombel in her honor, someone whose presence on the ether she recognized...

Immediately her lukewarm interest in Balder disappeared from Hela's mind, replaced by curiosity and quickly rising excitement. Garm noticed the change in her and rumbled a question at her, but Hela ignored him for the moment, waving a hand at her scrying pool. The image of Balder disappeared to show a small woodland area where Harry and the redhead Hela knew was the Phoenix Force's Avatar knelt on cushions, Harry's familiar on one shoulder.

While somewhat miffed that Jean was there, Hela still found herself rather intrigued and wondering why Harry was trying to get her attention. Concentrating a brief moment, she sent out a pulse of magic through the ether, reigniting the teleportation spell on the geode which had brought Harry to her realm the first time they had met face-to-face.

Seconds later Jean and Harry stood up from where they had been kneeling. With Hedwig still perched on his shoulder, Harry smiled faintly at Hela. "Greetings, Queen Hela."

"Greetings, Harry Potter. To what do I owe the pleasure of your attention?" Hela asked, putting a slight skew on the word attention as she said it, a small wave of her hand blanking her scrying pool as she observed her new guests.

Garm stood up, and Harry and Jean both glanced at the massive wolf. While only a little larger than Dani's description of Fenrir made him out to be, it was obvious this wolf was full grown and just as obviously an experienced and dangerous fighter. The amused expression on his snout however made it clear he wasn't going to attack them at the moment, instead cocking his head at Harry and Hedwig.

Before Harry could speak, Hedwig flew off his shoulder, zooming forward and around the massive wolf's head. The two animals stared at one another, then Hedwig moved toward Hela, alighting on her forearm when the black-haired goddess rather bemusedly held up her arm to let the owl land. "Well hello to you too beautiful one."

Hedwig stared at Hela closely for a moment. Hela got the strong impression that she was being weighed by the familiar somehow, and idly wondered if this was what souls who passed through her realm felt as they were weighed for their deeds.

But evidently the bird found something to like in her because after a moment the glare faded as she hooted contentedly. She nipped Hela's finger lightly, then took to the air once more, moving over to land on Garm's back. The massive wolf huffed once, answered by a preck from the bird before moving over to curl up where they could both watch the three humans.

"Heh," Jean laughed lightly, shaking her head. "The three H's." The others looked at her and she shrugged. "Hela, Harry and Hedwig. Sorry, it just struck me as funny. And don't worry about Hedwig's regard, if you hadn't passed she would have tried to peck your eye out. At least I think so anyway. She's rather a good judge of character and rather scary at times."

"So I've been able to discern through my watching events around Harry, but what she is judging me for is the question," Hela replied leadingly, looking between the Lifebringer's Avatar and Harry for a moment, one eyebrow raised, which they could barely see behind her red half-mask.

Jean shook her head slightly, remembering Ororo's description of her meeting with the goddess. "Not what you might wish, sorry but as much as Harry relies on Hedwig that isn't her call. Though I have to say, you really don't look anything like the images that have survived from the Viking era. You were right Harry."

"Harry here said the same thing when we first met. Hmph, I could look the way mortals used to picture me easily enough." Hela said, and suddenly her entire image changed. Gone was the red armor and black cloak, replaced by a green outfit of similar type but of a slightly different style, with less metal, more leather and even more skin showing along one side of her body, the other half hidden underneath a voluminous dark green cloak. The skin still displayed was white as the driven snow, and her face on the side of her body still on display matched it, a sculpted neck and high cheekbones that the most beautiful actress would kill to possess.

On the other side however was a face ravaged by some monstrous disease and then followed by the decay of the grave. The paleness now was of death, pasty white, the features mangled or sunken, the perfect lips torn or absent completely, revealing yellowed teeth. Even the mask seemed contaminated, crumbling at the edges. "Is this not how they picture me in song and story?"

"Yes it is", Harry replied, shaking his head. "I much prefer the red myself, brings out the color of your hair better than the green. Besides, I doubt that you ever pictured yourself in that manner."

"Excuse me, but what exactly are you talking about?" Jean asked, frowning as she stared at Hela, who had flushed slightly at Harry's compliments and regard. "Did she do something because I don't see any change to how Hela looks, Harry."

Both the others turned to her, and Hela frowned briefly, before shaking her head with a rueful chuckle. "Of course, as the Avatar of my Mistress' opposite number, I doubt any illusion or shape changing spell I use could fool your…" Hela paused as her senses suddenly told her the same thing that Sigyn had told her about Jean's condition.

She grimaced while moving back, dispelling the illusion as she sat down on her throne, regarding her two guests somewhat coolly now, which matched her tone when she spoke. "I see congratulations are in order, Avatar of the Lifebringer. Was it a blessing sought or come by happenstance?"

"Accident, but a happy one," Jean replied as she lightly touched her still flat belly, making note of the tone in Hela's voice, but not commenting on it.

Harry nodded, gesturing as if he was about to conjure up a pair of chairs for himself and Jean. He first looked at Hela for permission however, and she thawed slightly as she nodded her head, pleased that Harry remembered himself. Sitting down, Harry smirked lightly at Hela. "Still, you're having that other form you're known for interests me. Was that tale of being Hela 'Half-fair' created by jilted suitors? We heard that you had many such when you first assumed your position here in Niflheim."

Garm barked a harsh laugh remembering some examples of that, while Hela laughed too, a hollow humorless sound. "True enough and I would not put it past many of my suitors, Mortal, Aesir, or Jotun to do such a thing. Such prideful creatures men can be," she said primly, giving a face like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Jean chuckled, shaking her head and suddenly feeling right at home. Hela's caustic reaction and her tone were so similar to what Emma used at times it was astonishing and actually put her at ease. "I had a boyfriend named Duncan for a while, but then as I grew out of the mold my parents and others had pushed me into I outgrew him too, and finally saw him for the asshole he was. But when I dumped him, I was immediately approached by muscle-bound meatheads and others. I'm sure you know the type?"

"Oh don't remind me!" Hela said, her cold air disappearing as she too laughed gaily, her face brightening up noticeably to Harry's totally unbiased eyes. "Ugh, that sort can be found among even the Vanir, let alone Aesir or the giants." Her expression darkened as a particularly irritating specimen evidently came to mind. "I remember once, there was this one moron who thought because I served Death that death itself interested me, and assumed that shoving it in my face constantly would go over well."

Hela described a somewhat similar tale that Sigyn had told Dani in the dream, only from her perspective. Harry however noted that she made no mention about her parents, either her father or mother, or even referenced them. She mentioned her siblings, including one she called Jormungundr, a name Harry hadn't heard before. He filed that away, as well as the rest, but let Jean drive the discussion, laughing as the two of them debated the merits of various means of dealing with unwanted suitors.

At last Hela shook her head as the topic ran its course and her expression grew somber once more, looking between the two of them. "But surely just talking like this isn't why you contacted me? As pleasant as it is, I doubt you have the time to waste on such frivolous things all that often, and given that young child, Melody her name is I think? Or your young apprentice, I rather like young Illyana from what I've seen of her. I doubt you'd spend it with me if you could."

"Actually spending time with you was indeed one of the reasons we called on you. Ororo met you already, and she and Harry have both mentioned your interest in him. You realize that if you wish to be with him, you'll be joining us as a family as opposed to simply marrying Harry alone, right?" Jean asked, smiling in an attempt to take some of the sting out of her words.

More and more she was getting the impression that Hela was like Emma in many ways: haughty exterior, demanding and powerful. But socially, again like Emma, Hela was a bit of a recluse: someone who had few real friends she could trust, as well as desiring a man who she could see as an equal.

"I have realized that yes, and if this is some sort of test of our compatibility, then I welcome it gladly," Hela said in reply, her rich red-painted lips curving upward in a smile. It somewhat surprised her really, but Jean and Ororo both were impressive women, and getting to know them could be pleasant even if they eventually decided against her or she decided her pride would not allow her to share.

"But actually that was only half of our reason for contacting you like this. I found out that among your people, when one is given a gift, you should respond in a similar manner." Harry said with a somewhat embarrassed smile. He tapped the mokeskin pouch on his side, looking once more at Hela for permission.

Hela nodded her permission again, her smile widening slightly at Harry's far more respectful attitude this time around. "He's learned manners since the last time we met," she said as an aside to Jean. "Well done training him."

"Ha, wish I could take the credit for that, but that's all Harry. He can be charming and even respectful when he wants to be, it's just making sure that he wants to that's the problem," Jean laughed, giving Harry an arch look.

"Ahem, as I was saying," Harry said repressively, shaking his head at the united front of womenfolk. "I have two small gifts for you Hela, in return for the magnificent and very useful gift you passed on from Death. Tell me which you prefer, one of them was my idea and the other was Ororo's. We couldn't decide between them, and frankly given how useful the globe proved we decided to go with both of them."

From his mokeskin pouch Harry pull a more generic if expanded bag of holding and held it out to Hela who took it, opening the bag to reach inside and pull a small piece of chocolate out. Jean chuckled, shaking her head. "That was Ororo's idea. Knowing you Asgardians don't have as much choice in food as we Earthmen do, she thought a supply of various sweets might be a good idea."

"It's a nice thought, if a rather generic seeming…" Hela stopped speaking, having popped the piece of chocolate into her mouth. She moaned lightly as the taste hit her, leaning back and letting her eyes flutter closed for a moment. "Oh my, I take that last bit back, that is a wonderful taste. Where does that whatever it was come from and where has it been my whole life?"

"Cocoa beans, which originally came from Mexico and the ancient Aztecs. I think they might have been around when you were on Earth last, not certain," Jean said, brow furring momentarily in thought as she tried to recall the respective timelines.

"The name doesn't ring a bell, but that really doesn't say much, we Asgardians never travelled further than our worshippers. I recall a few expeditions that crossed the ocean, but none that ventured that far south." Hela nodded pensively before popping another bit of chocolate into her mouth, moaning again before turning to Harry with a challenging smirk on her face below her mask. "Your gift is going to have to be something truly special to top that Harry."

Both her guests chuckled but Harry smirked, pulling out a large tome the size of his two hands put together. The front and back were blue leather, and the front had a small bossed dark bronze plate directly in the center surrounded by small runic script, the nature and language of which Hela didn't recognize. As he held it out he said, "Color of Magic." The words appeared in that area, and he held it up, showing the interior. "This is a magical compendium. It has the assorted works of a famous human author in it. Simply hold it, say the book you want to read, or say 'next book' and it will go to the next book. Since each book has a list of all of the books in the series at the back you should be able to navigate between them easily enough."

"Interesting, I will say I love the color. Too many people think that just because my realm is purposefully dark and dreary in places that I prefer it that way. Splashes of color like this make for a nice contrast." Looking at the book with consideration, Hela turned it around, noticing that the back had a similar bronze plate, only somewhat larger than the one on the front.

She read the description with a faint smile, before looking up at Harry, shaking her head ruefully. "A book series which includes an anthropomorphic personification of Death? I cannot fathom why you choose it for me Harry. Alas, you'll have to wait for me to actually read them before I say which gift was best."

Harry laughed, then asked carefully, "So, we've, well, you two have talked about suitors and things, and Dani told me about your brother Fenrir. What about the other siblings you're supposed to have, Sleipnir and the other one you mentioned a moment ago, what was his name again? Did you ever all live together, and if so did you get along or not? I don't have any siblings, nor does Jean."

"Jormungundr. As for us living together and getting along, I suppose I got along with Fenrir well enough. He was always a pleasant, if inquisitive youngster. His temper can be rather disturbing, but he knows who not to bite so it was never an issue," Hela mused for a moment before she laughed suddenly, leaning forward and pointing at Harry's hair. "He and you have something in common though, unmanageable hair. I remember once, he got into my hair care products in an attempt to…"

That conversation went on for some time, painting a picture of an odd family, but one that, generally speaking, got along, or at least did when all the siblings were young. While no mention was made of their mother, other than calling her a giantess at one point oddly enough, Jean made a mental note to ask Dani about that, recalling her mentioning Sigyn telling her of Hela's birth mother, Hela was able to paint a good enough picture of her sibling's personalities. Fenrir was the easiest and youngest, a rambunctious inquisitive youngster with the brain of a preteen in the body of a growing wolf.

Sleipnir was next. The oldest sibling, he was rarely at home, spending most of his time as Odin's steed. When Odin was mentioned, Hela could not keep the loathing out of her voice, and made no attempt to. Loki too, when he was mentioned, was spoken of with scorn, even hate. Nothing about him matched the picture Sigyn had given Dani, and only some of it matched the ancient tales of him that Vorlus had compiled, despite many of the tales Hela shared matching up somewhat with the ones Sigyn had shared of her.

As for Jormungundr, everything they learned about him was new, since Vorlus had not mentioned him, nor had any of Harry's own computer searches turned up the name. He was a vast sea serpent or dragon of some sort, who Hela described as arrogant, standoffish, somewhat of an oaf who was constantly thinking with his stomach. They had gotten along somewhat when they were younger, but not after Jormungundr had grown larger than their home. He had quickly become arrogant after that, looking down his snout on anyone smaller than him until he was banished somewhere by Odin. Where he was now Hela didn't know nor care.

Jean in turn shared Emma's dealings with her older sister and brother, as well as her problems with taking care of her younger sibling. Hela seemed to at first sneer somewhat at the tales and Emma herself, but as Jean detailed how Emma dealt with her father and older sister Hela seemed to gain some respect for the mortal woman or at least her methods and willingness to be ruthless when required.

But the silences were even more telling to Harry. She simply didn't seem to have any memory of Sigyn at all. Though it wasn't obvious Harry could tell the way she described some of the scenes in her story, mentioning eating or waiting for food but not who cooked it, mentioning learning some womanly skills but not who taught her, and even once someone punishing Jormungundr and Fenrir for fighting, but not giving the name of the one doing the scolding. All while Hela's tone was normal and jolly, with nothing in it to hint at a hidden anger or grief or anything of that nature, just as if the scene she described was complete without those things.

Seeing Hela becoming more maudlin as they talked, Jean decided to change the subject, asking about Niflheim and Hel in general, asking how she ruled her realm and the dead within it. Hela responded with more enthusiasm than she'd been displaying towards the end, speaking about her hall and realm for a time before cocking her head and narrowing her eyes shrewdly at Harry. "But I'm sure Harry here could tell you about ruling if you but asked. You rule a growing business empire, a growing faction of warriors and others, are building and in charge of even more. Your fame rises with every day even when you yourself are not out in the world beyond your Camelot."

"I'm no king, nor any other sort of ruler, not yet," Harry demurred, giving a shake of his hand at the idea. "I'm just a part-time businessman and warrior fighting what I see as the good fight while attempting to prepare for the next one, nothing more."

Hela and Jean both shook their heads then looked at one another before Jean waved her hand, indicating that Hela should go first. "False modesty does not become you Harry," she said sternly. "You have performed great deeds and should be proud of them. You are a leader and a commander, do not try to downplay that for it denigrates both your deeds and those who follow you." She laughed suddenly, smirking broadly as she went in for the kill. "Besides, while you don't call yourself a king that is the title given to the individual who creates the kingdom in the first place."

"She's right Harry." Jean said softly. "Besides, given what's been happening in the Middle East and the growing number of clashes there, the Israel Initiative is looking better and better. If we have to move in that direction, do you really think anyone but you is going to be in charge?"

"I realize that, and I'm not trying to downplay the accomplishments we've already achieved or that I'm in charge. I'd like to say that when it becomes time I certainly don't hesitate to show that. But I'm not a king just yet, I don't have to deal with politics or special interest groups or foreign or domestic policy or all that! Let me live free for a bit longer before tying me down to all that cursed paperwork," Harry begged plaintively, giving Jean his best puppy eyes to admittedly little effect.

Jean laughed at Harry's antics while Hela rolled her eyes even through a smile of her own, but Harry pointed at her and dramatically intoned. "And don't you start, you don't have to deal with any of that."

"Don't point your finger at me like that Harry Potter, you're the one who turned down godhood. You only have yourself to blame." The gorgeous goddess of death retorted, smacking his hand away lightly while in the background Garm chuffed to himself, sharing a glance with Hedwig before the two went back to their own conversation, ignoring the two-leggers and their odd mating rituals.

"'So," he said, desperately changing the subject, "I've met both Balder and Thor, they impressed me with their warrior skills. Can you tell me about any other Asgardians that might show up on Earth for good or ill?."

As Harry said Balder's name, Garm turned his head slightly. Bringing his nose to bear on his mistress for a moment, Garm sniffed lightly before turning away, satisfied. His initial impression was correct; Hela was in no way attracted to Balder. She might find him aesthetically pleasing, but the nose didn't lie, there had been no sign of increased interest when Harry said his name. So her interest in Balder the past few days wasn't anything more than idle musing. Good. Her interest in this young wizard however, is definitely real.

While Garm was surprised that his mistress would take notice of a mortal, he felt Harry might be better for her in the long term than the Asgardian pretty-boy, despite apparently being involved with a few females already. Garm had thought that humans didn't do that anymore, but who was he to argue if some of them had realized how sensible a pack arrangement was? And it was clear Hela was very interested in Harry. The nose doesn't lie about these things, he thought to himself contentedly.

That all this would also bring him into further contact with the snowy owl currently perched on his back was a bonus. He had so rarely met other animals which he could have intelligent conversations with.

"Hmm…" Hela pondered, letting Harry off the hook for now, not noticing Garm's sudden interest or his turning away. "I have few dealings with any other Asgardians, their treatment of my brothers and I for the bad fortune of being our father's by-blows has never been over-kind, save when we were younger. Easier to handle in other words."

She nearly spat that last sentence, and had to take a moment to calm down, smiling lightly as Harry and Jean both waited for her, making no move to help but neither looking impatient. "And most of them are leery of me for my powers. I had thought Tyr was an exception, and was even friendly with him, but then he threw Fenrir out at Odin's request. As for old One-Eye... Odin is dangerous more for his mind than battle prowess, formidable though he is in direct combat and he will never travel to Midgard. Hah, he used to move among the mortals often enough disguised as a wandering old man among other forms. But that time is long past and now he merely sits in his hall in judgement."

"The only three that truly spring to mind that you might see on Earth are the Warriors Three, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun. I like to think of them as the vast but strong one, the egotistical but somewhat handsome one, and the skilled but dour one."

Jean snorted at her descriptions of these 'Warriors Three'. "Is he really handsome, and is that what he's got an ego about?"

"If you like them blonde and well-groomed," Hela replied drolly, pulling up an image of Fandral in her scrying bowl for her guests to see.

After taking one look Jean shook her head. "Oh god, he's trying so hard to be handsome! I have to wonder if he's overcompensating to hide that his interests lie elsewhere."

It took a moment for Hela to get that, and when she did, she burst out laughing for several moments before getting herself under control once again. Still using her scrying pool, she showed images of the Warriors Three while describing a few adventures they were known for.

Harry noted that a few matched mythical tales that Vorlus had passed on. But the doctor had laid most of them at Tyr and Thor's feet.

He didn't interrupt though as Hela concluded her tale, "They are a pack of revelers and brawlers, interested in drink, food and valorous deeds in that order, but their loyalty to Thor is commendable. They might show up at some point, but I wouldn't worry overmuch about them causing much trouble outside the occasional wrecked tavern. Sif too might show up, but she and Thor have been oddly distant of late. None of the other Asgardians will show up on Earth without One-Eye's orders, the sheep."

Noticing Hela's darkening tone and how few true details she was giving, Harry didn't ask any more questions about that, instead changing the topic to the first few times his godfather had taken him out to drink and the mayhem that would inevitably ensue. He did note however that those three names certainly had not been mentioned among Vorlus' expanded lists of Vanir or Aesir. And he also noted the last bit about Thor and Sif, wondering if that was a hint of something bigger, or simply a sign that his worry about that was a red herring.

Frankly once again this whole conversation had served to make it even more obvious that something was wrong with the Asgardians. It's like reading my Gringotts bank statements when Dumbledick had control of it. Christ, my saving people thing™ is going haywire so much it makes me want to pull my hair out.

"By the way how exactly does this book work?" Hela asked, holding Harry's gift up to the light. Such a pretty blue color, pity it would make me look like a pale ghost if I tried to wear a color that light. "I cannot recognize the runes."

"I can well believe that, that runic array is almost entirely based on the Japanese runic language. They aren't able to handle much power, but they have a wide range of effects, and can be used on softer substances like leather and paper without burning them away."

"Truly, an entirely different runic language? I had not thought such a thing was possible. How many such languages do you know Harry?" Hela asked as she leaned forward hungrily, very interested in this new revelation. "While I am not much of a rune-smith myself, I do use them occasionally in the ruling of my realm and hall. An entirely new language which can create different effects sounds fascinating."

Harry smiled, and then went into a technical discussion for a moment. Then, wishing to get a bit more information out of this, he said, "It's funny though. I've run into nearly every runic language here in this dimension that I did in my old one, but I've not seen any Norse runes."

His host blinked behind her mask, then one hand rose to rub her forehead lightly, her face seeming to twitch a little but Hela still responded. "One-Eye might normally be stingy with his secrets and wisdom, after all they are the source of his power and even I have to admit he has paid for them over his lifetime. But he shared his runic knowledge with the people of Midgard freely on many occasions. Indeed, from what little I can remember they were a major part of the Asatru, the faith based around honoring us."

She scowled darkly and shook her head sharply, sending her luxurious black hair flying around her slightly. "For such to disappear like that is beyond the pale."

"The Christian missionaries which the Norse kings let in went out of their way to erase any sign of the faith and culture. That might be why," Jean said carefully, exchanging a concerned look with Harry.

Nodding his head, Harry checked the time. "This has been lovely, but I'm afraid we've been here for, Merlin, hours." They had been, and Harry wasn't exaggerating. It had been a lovely conversation, even without his need to sift for information.

Hela was witty, learned, interesting, drop dead gorgeous, and simply fascinating. Even after only an hour, talking to her was easy and almost natural for both Harry and Jean. Moreover she hadn't really attempted to flirt with him, simply getting to know him better. Harry didn't think she had given up on him, but Hela was definitely willing to play the long game.

"True, and I have another meeting this evening I need to get ready for. One I'm certain won't be as fascinating or fun as this one," Jean said, standing up and leaning over to exchange a hug with Hela, who, though surprised, hugged her back.

Hela stiffened slightly when Jean began to whisper in her ear, but otherwise made no sign of hearing. "This was a good start. Let's keep it slow for now until we're sure about this and everyone's had a chance to meet you as a start. We're not saying no, but we are leery of letting anything really happen without more of a foundation. And, again, it's a group decision."

"But don't think this is the last time you've seen us Hela," Jean said in a louder volume, stepping back and looking over to Harry. "I know Harry has some more questions, and I know Ororo wants to talk to you about ruling, just like Harry should when he bites the bullet."

"Ughhh…." Harry groaned, looking away with a pout, and causing both women to actually giggle. He too exchanged a hug with Hela to her palpable delight, not used to people being this friendly toward her. That she got to run her hands over Harry's well-muscled back had nothing to do with why she was enjoying the hug she told herself firmly...and she was equally firm in ignoring Garm's chuff of amusement behind her.

After a final round of goodbyes the two mortals (loosely speaking) left and Hela sighed faintly but with satisfaction. "Well that was fun, wasn't it Garm?" She asked, turning her head to look at her protector.

"You certainly had fun mistress and I enjoyed hearing you laugh so often. I rather liked speaking to Hedwig, other intelligent animals are so few and far between," Garm replied honestly, remembering some of the tales of 'her reckless human' the somewhat beleaguered owl had decided to share.

Neither of them noticed the Shadows in the room lengthening or moving toward them. While unable to erase this memory entirely from Hela's mind, the Shadows Which Watch Above, they who controlled the Asgardians in their endless cycle, could force her to think of the meeting as nothing more than old business for Death coming to a conclusion, and even downplay her interest in Harry. Or perhaps change that interest somewhat, shift it over to Balder. It would take subtlety and power, but they had both in spades.

That was the plan anyway. It ended abruptly, the Shadows retreating with the near-psychic equivalent of screams as Death herself appeared next to Hela. She whirled around, bowing swiftly to her mistress. "Mistress, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

Death merely held out a hand imperiously, gesturing to the blue leather bound book Hela still held in her hand. Hela looked at it, then to Death and smiled, handing it over. Death nodded, then moved back to Hela's throne, sitting down on it effortlessly, perforce requiring Hela to sit in one of the chairs Harry had conjured. Which she did, taking out the bag of holding and popping another chocolate into her mouth as Death began to read.

Only once did Death's eyes, those orbs of bottomless blue light, look away from the book. They flicked up staring into the shadows of Hela's hall before looking back down at the book, satisfied.

OOOOOOO

Two days after Jean's return, Doctor Doom, Harry, Jean and Reed met with Carol's team of designers. The think tank had expanded tremendously over the past two days, though not as quickly as it could have given the secrecy that Harry still had to follow on his space-based projects. While the Custodes Mundi had gotten a lot of good publicity the governments of the world were still not exactly happy with a power like them which didn't answer to any of them, something which would get significantly worse if they realized how many space assets Harry already had.

Thanks to the influx of new blood Carol had made the decision to split her teams up. Carol still led one group personally, the reverse-engineering group, which had grown to nearly sixty people now. Most of them were new of course and still getting their feet under them but all of them had passed the security reviews, magical and mundane, just like the rest of the new blood across the board. All told there were over four hundred scientists, engineers and ship designers working for Harry now, with the number growing slowly but surely on a daily basis.

The influx of so many 'medium sized brains' as one wit put it had been noticed by many in the intelligence community of course. A few, Mossad, the CIA and SHIELD in particular, had attempted to get some of their own people into the growing think tank, only for them to be ousted early on in the hiring process. Even that however had allayed some of their concerns about this being an AIM operation, though Harry felt it was just a matter of time before either AIM tried to attack his people directly or someone decided to be upfront and simply demand answers to what the think tank was doing.

Another group had been broken off to handle the design of the Ravenspires. Despite the near-total destruction of most of the first batch, some things had been learned in their construction, and Agda and Jerry were confident they could both excavate the next group quicker and make them actually defensible faster. It also helped that they both were looking at it from the perspective of using construction droids for the initial work of mining the spires out, then handing over everything else to human workers, which hopefully by that point would be ready to step into that job.

Carol felt certain that they would be able to start designing human warships using the Kree designs quickly. She was due to join Jean and the others for this meeting to talk about that, but had yet to arrive. Carol had reacted badly to the long range teleportation, and Harry had left her in the nearest bathroom puking her guts out.

"I must say Mister Potter, the fleet you, or rather Ms. Grey has assembled is impressive." Doom waited a moment then went on, swirling his fire whiskey in his glass. He had taken a shine to it, and his efforts to create his own version had heretofore failed. "Until you think about the size of the enemy fleets we might be facing. My own contribution of course should be able to allow us to at least achieve tactical surprise once it has been built, and any fleet that stays in one position for too long we can destroy, but how long will we be able to rely on my device being a surprise?"

Doctor Doom shot a sideways glance at Reed, smirking behind his mask. That Doom had been a larger contributor to the defense of the earth and to Potter's plans long-term was something that amused him greatly, and he could not stop himself from poking fun at his rival.

"A true point, but I'm more worried about setting up our space-based infrastructure as fast as possible. I've already thought of several ways we can use your Hyperspace Distortion device without letting on its full ability." Harry said, not looking up from where he was fiddling with the controls of one of the screens, trying to set it up for the presentation that he and Jean were going to be doing. "Should've done this before," he muttered, "but I wanted to do a final survey of the ships with Carol."

"You really do need to learn how to delegate more," Doom said shaking his head. "A good king knows what to delegate and what can't be delegated." That Doom would've delegated setting up the TV screen for this meeting to a subordinate was left unsaid, as was the fact that he probably wouldn't have been able to ignore his own interest in the ships. Let the younger man take his critique anyway he would.

"I'm getting better at it," Harry said rather defensively. "My businesses mostly run themselves by this point, and eventually even the industrial side of my space-based ventures will be able to, once we have enough of a work force. It's just we're not there yet."

"And you were interested in the ships," Reed said. "Trust me I understand that."

"The Doombringer is of particular interest, and not just because of its name," Doom said setting down his glass with a light tap on the desk, then running one finger around the edge of it, the metal of his gauntlet making a squeaking noise against the glass. "That ship concerns me because of what it represents." He had personally looked at the armor that ship had, and it was both heavier and tougher than anything Earth could make in the foreseeable future.

"It is a monstrously tough ship," Reed said with a nod. "That ship alone could slag everything else we were able to retrieve without blinking."

"We stole them you mean," Harry said with a laugh, sitting down as the door opened once again revealing Jean, who came in quickly followed by Doctor Banner and a still queasy looking Carol.

Bruce stopped, staring at the sight of Richards and Doom sitting at the same conference table, suddenly wondering if he had somehow entered the twilight zone between one teleportation and the next. He stared at Harry then over at the two 'scientists' again, shaking his head. "You really are a miracle worker."

Harry chuckled understanding what the man was saying, while Doom and Reed pointedly did not rise to the bait. They didn't like one another, and probably never would, but they respected each other, and when it came to space-based endeavors with Harry was willing to put their animosity aside. At least when Harry was around to act like a living wall between them anyway.

"Before we begin your presentation Ms. Grey," Doom said, nodding his head to the redhead. "Might I inquire what it would take to buy a few of the frigates you brought back?"

"What would you use them for?" Harry asked cocking his head. "You've already got a battlecruiser."

"Indeed I do but its sensors are insufficient for what I wish to use it for. I would like to survey the Oort cloud, as well as take a close look at several of the planets in the outer system."

"Harry, ask him about the specific planets he wants to investigate," Jean asked quickly.

Harry did so, making no outward sign of the telepathic connection. Doom frowned for a moment then shrugged his shoulders, his armor moving in exact parity of the move. "I have two goals for this survey mission. One, planetary knowledge is something that we need to learn about if humanity is ever to spread to the stars. Long term but small scale surveys like the NASA probes just won't do. There are also hundreds of minor mysteries about the outer planets that we could solve. For example, Titan and Ganymede interest me greatly, given some of the secret NASA recordings of missions toward them I've seen. And why do rumors of Venus having a moon still persist today despite there being no proven evidence of such? Not to sound like those moronic conspiracy theorists, but there are questions we need to answer."

Reed shifted uneasily in his chair, something that both Harry and Doom spotted along with Jean. "Something you want to share with the class Reed?" Harry asked cocking his head to one side.

"Nothing that I can share in good conscience without breaking my word to other people," Reed said obliquely.

Doom filed that away, then began to go over what he knew about the Fantastic Four's other enemies and adventures. It was easy from that point to make the connection. "The Inhumans, Crystal, Medusa and that lot," Harry said getting it at the same time Doom did. "They aren't based on Mars surely?"

"No not on Mars, but that is all I am willing to say. I'm sorry, but I gave my word."

"You realize that the more we move into space the more likely it is we will spot them wherever they are, however they've hidden themselves up to this point?" Harry asked.

"I realize that, and I've been trying to get in touch with Black Bolt since we returned about that very subject. I wanted to set up a meeting between the two of you so you could assure him that you had no designs against his people, and so he wouldn't react badly if one of your ships did spot their home. But they haven't responded yet. Indeed, neither Medusa nor Crystal have shown up since a few days before we returned apparently."

Harry nodded slowly. "They would be a major help you know," he said fishing slightly. "Their own tech-base and possible origins might make them more at home with working in space."

"That will be between you and Black Bolt if I can ever set up a meeting with him," Reed said scowling a bit. "One of the agreements we had reached between us was to keep an open line of communications, especially given Crystal and her ongoing treatment for her time with that mad alchemist. Johnny has not been happy about that to put it mildly."

Harry nodded, though he hadn't noticed anything about Johnny's attitude the last time they had seen one another. "We'll leave that aside for now then, since we are getting sidetracked here. So scientific curiosity is the only reason you want those ships Doctor do? Forgive me if I'm skeptical."

"Skepticism can be a survival trait. Although," Doom said, his tone going from deadpan to slightly whimsical "I do quite like the idea of publishing the next great paleontology study, and of course shattering some long-held beliefs in the scientific community. The idea of the screams of outrage our fellow so-called scientists would make at that warms my heart."

Reed actually chuckled at that, and Banner's eyes widened. Reed and Doom actually sharing a joke, god I really have entered the twilight zone.

"He's lying about something Harry, I can feel it even through his mental defenses. But it isn't anything aimed at us, though I wish I could be more certain of that. Nevermind, let's just table that discussion for now." Jean sent, to which Harry sent a mental affirmative back down their mental connection.

With that of the way, Harry turned the presentation over to Jean. She quickly went through the most interesting items they had discovered while bringing the derelict fleet back to Earth, which included an analysis of the ships different types of armor, the fuel they all used, and how they could power them better.

"Arc reactors would give each ship the size of a cruiser a 320% greater output, putting two reactors on such ships, one for the engines and defense one for weapons loadout might possibly be the best idea, even though we'll lose at least half the interior capacity or offensive weaponry." Jean said, pulling up some plans that she and Carol's planning group had come up with already. "Thanks to having the Hellion's design to work with, Carol and her team have even begun a design to match that idea.

"It will take a while to perfect the design once we start to get down to the nuts and bolts of it, but I think Earth-based ships could potentially be as good as two or even three Kree ships. We'd still be sucking wind given the sheer number of ships they can send against us, but it's a better idea than going with their own designs."

From there Carol and Jean took turns, pointing out mistakes in the Kree designs and going into detail on the differences between them and the initial Terran design. What it boiled down to was fewer but more powerful weapons and the defense of the Terran ships being designed to emphasize defense over offense.

"What I would recommend is we set aside eight of the most damaged ships as testbeds for this basic concept." Jean said, bringing up the ships one after another. This consisted of three light cruisers, two heavy cruisers, two battlecruisers, and one battleship. The last was one the list because a survey of it had reported that while it had come through the trip to Earth, its engines and shields both had sustained damage.

"For the others I'd recommend we concentrate on repairing them to full capacity without any sort of refit work, starting with the Doombringer."

Doom asked Jean and Carol several questions, some of which Reed helped field. Dr. Banner too asked a few questions about the Kree shielding technology in particular. Then Reed took over the discussion with Jean speaking occasionally, talking about the weapons of the Kree, and a few designs for better weapons or versions than the Kree. Two of them were interesting in particular, one which Reed called a Graviton beam and the second the positron beam.

The graviton beam was a gravitonic weapon made to exert shearing gravitonic forces on the targeted ship. Reed was unclear what it would do against a shield, but estimated it would be impressive. The positron beam would hit and create a fission event in any matter it struck. It would be nearly useless against energy shields however, and both weapons were energy guzzlers.

After that, Harry took over. He did not continue discussion about the fleet or weapons, Jean and Reed had covered those points well enough. Instead Harry talked first about their growing industrial capacity and his overall plans for it. He didn't give any details, just enough to let his allies know a time table going forward, the timetables for getting the fleet repaired following Jean's recommendations, the amount of industrial capacity he was using to create more industry, and that he was indeed concentrating on fully outfitting a Ravenspire this time instead spreading his limited work force out.

After that he began to tap commands into the conference room's computer and a view of the Milky Way galaxy popped up, the entire spiral arm and then some in miniature. "Okay, this first part is going to be sucha wide synopsis it barely qualifies, but Douglas and Sage were able to put this strategic overview together by piecing together bits of astrogational data from all of the ships Jean and Reed brought back, and I've been going over it with them since in my copious spare time."

His droll tone won a chuckle from Reed while Doom simply made a get on with it gesture. Harry did so, punching in a few keys. Each time he did, the hologram updated itself. "First, this is an overview of what we know of Kree, Skrull and Shi'ar space. It's not entirely accurate, but it can give us an idea of the size of the empires we're talking about here. The green is Skrull space, the blue Kree, the orange Shi'ar, and the Badoon over here in pink. The white dots mark battles these ships took part in, the blinking dots mark the battles they were heavily damaged in prior to decommission. Shi'ar space is obviously the most iffy, as are the Badoon."

Harry waited a moment, letting the enormity of the space involved with these fleets, the size of the empires sink in, before going on. He detailed what they had learned of a few individual Kree systems from the ships, which included the type designation of many of them, then a few things about the systems along the borders, which of them were dead systems, which had refueling stations, that kind of thing. He also detailed a few fleet bases, before pulling up the list Douglas and Reed had found on the Doombringer's system.

"That, plus the list of what a main battle fleet looks like, gives us an idea of what we're facing. And here is little old Earth." Another punch of a button, and one of the symbols denoting star systems glowed bright yellow, pulsing. As they had thought, it wasn't actually inside any of the empires, rather set in a small dead zone to one side of the main areas of contention, an area where none of the empires seemed to have any control, and somewhat close to the beginning of a spike of space from the Shi'ar Empire, which was set somewhat above and to the left of Earth.

Doom understood the implications immediately. "Ah. The Skrull and Kree are somewhat interested in Earth because we would make a good forward base around the edge of the so-called front lines. But we're so far out of the way they don't want to devote resources to the idea. I wonder if the loss of that last flotilla will force them to rethink their priorities?"

"We have at least a month and a half before any response to their flotilla's death can arrive since we stopped them sending off any of their hyperspace drones. I think we can handle one, maybe two more attacks on our own without the rest of the world getting behind the idea of space defense and pushing for support for our own or their own programs. Though that brings its own set of problems, obviously." Harry said with a shrug. "Before we get into that however, I found something interesting. Eventually we might be able to find some allies."

He moved his finger gently through the hologram, demarking a large almost sphere-like area of space. It was nowhere near Earth, but it also wasn't under the control of any of the empires, a blank sector of space with the closest empire being the Badoon. "This isn't unknown space as we first thought given the data from the Hellion, it is Independent system space. This area is populated by dozens, maybe hundreds of races. None of them alone could hope to stand against the big empires, but they are out of the way from most of them save the Badoon."

"One of the battlecruisers was part of a mission to this sector of space, and its computer was rather helpful once Sage and Douglas got to work with it. Apparently these systems have banded together in mutual defense treaties to keep out influence from any of the big powers. I doubt that would be enough if any of the big four wanted that space and were willing to pay for it in blood. Yet we might have allies here in the future if we can figure out a way to get to them and back and of course if we have something to trade."

Reed made to speak for a moment then subsided, staring at the hologram. Harry and Doom both noticed this, but made no comment. After a second, Harry continued. "Now to get back to the matter at hand. We're doing as much as we can to enlarge our industrial capacity, but even so, we might not have the defenses in place to stop the next Kree fleet."

"Actually we could probably finish work on the defenses and weapons of some of the Ravenspires by then. Our decision to concentrate on a few of them at a time and the fact Forge 2 is up and running already means we'll be able to put in weapons and shields as we go," Jean broke in.

"True, but we can't assume that. No, I've come up with another way of stopping them." Harry smirked evilly. "I took a chunk of the Doombringer's armor and tested a little theory on it, and I think a bit of magic and the use of Dr. Doom's hyperspace interdiction device can see off the next fleet easily enough, so long as we see them coming."

"I've made some headway on the long range communication device Harry, but it won't be ready for a while yet," Reed objected. "You've no idea how much research that's going to take!"

"That's fine, you have a month and a half to get it ready," Harry replied bluntly, smirking slightly as Reed grimaced, but nodded. "To that end, in two week's time I'm going to pull half our droid workforce off every other project and throw them into creating our part of the project. Your Majesty, Jean, will your parts of that be ready to go?"

"My plans for the device are completed and ready, so long as you can provide the energy for it. Where exactly are you going to put it?" Doom asked.

"Pluto for now. We might want to think about putting it somewhere else later on, but Pluto will do for now."

"I don't suppose you're willing to share what kind of magic you think can destroy an entire Kree fleet?" Doom asked.

"No, just that it actually is kind of simple if you think about it. I call it operation skeet shoot." Harry smirked. "Anyone else have anything to share?"

"I do actually. Working on that telepathic communication device reminded me of the blood you gave me to look at before we rescued that young purple-haired mutant." Reed said, taking out a small memory stick and plugging it into the table in front of him as Harry relinquished control of the computer to him. A second later two genetic samples popped up on the screen. "The one on the right is the one you gave me Harry, the one on the left is from a Skrull infiltrator."

The others at the conference table leaned forward, staring, and Doom was the one to get it first. "They share far too many points for it to be coincidence. I take it this individual was a shapechanger of some kind Potter?"

"Yes, or rather she was posing as a human woman. A woman who had magical powers actually," Harry murmured. "But when she died and reverted, she didn't look like a Skrull."

"I don't think we're talking about a Skrull here. I think this whatever it was is an offshoot of the Skrull race. Moreover, I think they diverged millennia ago. Just a hunch really, but I don't think this group has evolved as much as the Skrull have, and might not be able to change their forms as freely. I honestly have no idea what that could mean. I am trying to come up with a security system that would be able to detect them, but that is going to take some time. I could pick them out via a blood sample, but not through a simple body or brain scan. Where did that sample come from again?"

"Russia, specifically she was part of a government sponsored superhero team which was part of torturing and experimenting on mutants, and the creation of Iron Man knockoffs," Harry mused, thinking of magical means of detecting individuals with similar blood. "How likely is it that there are more of these things out there?"

"Not very, most Skrull infiltrators work alone or in small groups of four, and they would need to remain in near constant contact with their empire, something which I would have spotted by now with my scanners." Reed shrugged. "I imagine however that if there are they would concentrate on one nation at a time, so if there are more, they will be in Russia."

"That might eventually have impact on what I would like to speak of. Because my spies believe that the Red Skull has retreated to Croatia. And if I move against him there, Russia will no doubt take umbrage at my interference in what they still consider their backyard. If that occurs, I might start infiltrating their government with some of my doombots sent in spy mode. The DNA scanner you mentioned might be useful then Richards."

Reed nodded and Doom went on. "I can stop that easily enough. Latveria's military might be small, but we are very advanced. The issue I wished to speak of however… "

The metal-clad monarch looked uncomfortable for a moment before going on. "As you know I have been annexing territory from the countries surrounding Latveria in an attempt to hunt down the Red Skull. I know that this has concerned you Richards, but the people of those territories have not had reason to worry about my rule thus far. But I have… come to the limits of my resources in seeing to their administration. Thus I am searching for various resources there, technology Latveria can provide but food, transportation, construction and other resources of that nature it cannot just yet."

"Hmm…" Harry mused then smiled evilly. "Heh, I might have an idea there, your Majesty…"

OOOOOOO

Magneto sighed faintly as he stood in front of the magnificent window that dominated half of his throne room. He didn't honestly call it a throne room, but more than a few of his Acolytes had come to call it that in the past few weeks. Really their attitude towards Erik was sometimes off-putting, but for the most part rather… gratifying.

At least now that that traitorous snake in the grass Fabian Cortez is dead, and with him those who deify me will hopefully stop, such things can be taken too far after all. If not for my suspicions and Zaladane's magical powers he might've gotten away with his plans to usurp my position. Magneto thought coldly. He really was quite good at brown nosing, and organizing.

It was Fabian who had organized the supply runs, found the ancient submarine for the last leg of them, and, even before Magneto's move to the Savage Land, had been the chief trainer and organizer for his Acolytes, the combat-only arm of Magneto's Brotherhood movement. His power to amplify other mutant's powers also had been useful. But that wasn't enough to save him from Magneto's wrath when Magneto found out he had been trying to foster a sense of addiction on Magneto through use of his booster powers.

Still, even now he serves the cause. Erik thought, looking towards a doorway which led into a series of laboratories, in one of which Fabian Cortez' desiccated corpse lay in a chair hooked up to several devices of Erik's design. Magneto had found out how to heighten mutant powers through dissecting Cortez, and had added that into his new mutation-awakening machine, which had helped to create his growing army of mutates.

But that was not the reason for Magneto's present pleasure. No, that came from the last of the resistance against him in this Savage Land being crushed. Admittedly that had come with a few surprises, namely the two prisoners that were hovering in the air in the middle of the throne room, each of them encapsulated by a bubble of pure magnetic force. They were not a threat to him of course, but they had stood against Erik, and his conquest of the Savage Land along with Ka-zar.

Yes Ka-zar, Magneto thought, turning to stare at the two prisoners. Only one of them was awake, Logan's healing factor having healed him almost immediately while his friend had fallen into unconsciousness because of his own wounds.

"I wish Ka-zar had lived," Erik said aloud. "Delusional he might have been, and normal human he was, but he was also a skilled tactician and warrior. I could've made use of him just as I will make use of Shanna."

"Why don't you remove this damn field and we'll see you which of us will make 'use' of the other," Logan growled, his claws popping out from between his knuckles.

"I think not," Magneto replied dryly. "Given our respective powers, I think you know full well how that would end. Still Shanna at least will be useful but you two..." He shook his head regretfully. "Your skills would be useful indeed but I'm afraid that any attempts to convince you two of the rightness of my cause would be futile."

At that Puck opened his eyes, shocking Magneto slightly who had not thought that the short acrobatic mutant had it in him to be awake after taking such pummeling. Puck had sustained injuries ranging from internal bleeding up to and through shattered legs, and a missing eye. The last battle between Ka-zar and his guerrillas against Magneto's growing army had not been for the weak of heart.

When Puck spoke his voice was rasping with pain, his Quebec accent even more pronounced than normal, but his words were clear enough. "When I first 'eard of you and y'r fight for mutan' rights, I was intrigued and impressed. But evar since, 'ou 'ave fallen deeper into the trap of false logic, that raising one group means putting down the ozer. Now you've taken to conques' and brute force. What makes you so different from any other supremacist group in the world!? You are no better than Hitler!"

Magneto saw red. How dare this little man compare Erik, who had lived through the Holocaust, to Hitler! It was an effort of will not to send any of the several metallic objects in the room straight into the man's skull, and for a moment Erik stood there, his teeth gritted, his fists clenching breathing deeply in and out.

"You speak out of ignorance," he said through clenched teeth. "Hitler wanted to wipe out the Jews. I simply want to protect mutants from normals by striking first. And do you honestly think any of the groups in the Savage Land were saints? The Sun People had a religion based on human sacrifice, the Lizard People were cannibals who ate every other race in the Savage land, and the Man Apes were xenophobic in the extreme."

Erik smiled, his temper under control once more at this reminder of his victory. "All I've done is consolidate them under my banner." And the mutates will keep my fellow mutants from dying he thought but did not say aloud. Only a few of the mutates had truly useful powers but most of them had enhanced strength or speed which made them good cannon fodder.

"Couch it however you 'ish, but you're not fighting for mutant equality, you're fighting for mutant zupremacy, and zat is the same as Hitler wiz his Aryan race!" Puck said, before lapsing into silence, blood bubbling out of his mouth. He had a healing factor, but it was nowhere near Logan's, and his injuries had been equally severe.

"Truly, you would've made a good addition to the cause," Erik said shaking his head in admiration of the other man's strength of will. Even if his thoughts and desires were so totally misinformed.

Again he idly wondered if Mastermind and Zaladane between them could turn these two to his cause. Good lieutenants were always so hard to find, and given the news he'd been hearing of the outer world recently he would need every good lieutenant he could muster.

He'd been astonished to learn of Sabertooth's death along with a few others, but what truly worried him was the Custodes Mundi. He knew that Guardian was Potter, and knew his long term goals of equality were so stupidly unrealistic it astonished Erik how such a man could still follow them. The violence springing up in nearly every country, and more importantly Africa, Russia, China and the Middle East proved Erik's point for him, but Potter was too blind to see it, just like Charles and his X-men.

Deciding to wait on that decision until he could talk to Mastermind in person, Erik sighed and waved a hand towards a few of his Acolytes standing by the door. "Take them away, chain them up somewhere for now, I will speak to Mastermind about them when he returns. They are Homo Superior like us after all, they deserve for us to at least attempt to bring them about to the rightness of our cause."

The Acolytes bowed quickly and moved forward pushing the spheres containing the prisoners out of the room. This left Magneto with his top lieutenants, Exodus his second-in-command, Zaladane the former Priestess of the Sun People and Erik's first ally in the Savage Land, and Sauron.

Sauron, Erik knew, was untrustworthy but his mutant power and his leadership of the Ptero People forced Erik to make him a commander in his growing army. Thankfully his own powers protected him from Sauron's power of absorbing mutant powers or life force, so long as he kept the pterodactyl-like mutant at a distance that is. Both his other commanders also had their own ability to counter the treacherous energy vampire, and Sauron knew it.

Turning away Magneto stared out over the Savage Land for a moment again, staring at the pillar of advanced technology which could barely be seen in the distance of the impossibly large underground cavern that was the Savage Land. He had not yet made much progress on studying that technology, the war against the other factions in the Savage Land had taken precedence unfortunately, and Erik knew he could no longer put off rejoining the world, too many of his fellow mutants were dying out there.

"With Ka-zar and his guerrillas finally finished master, what are our priorities now?" Exodus said after a moment.

Magneto turned to smile at him, grateful yet again that he had released the powerful mutant and convinced Exodus of the rightness of his cause. Ever since then Exodus had been his most powerful ally and follower, and his most loyal.

Exodus was a tall, black haired mutant, whose skin showed either Native American or Middle Eastern ancestry. Eric was not certain which and Exodus himself had no memory of the time before he had been sealed away by someone. He wore the uniform of the Acolytes, with the addition of a white cape and golden shoulder guards, and was a monstrously powerful telekinetic and telepath, among other things. His healing ability was near to Wolverine's, he was super-strong, and he was incredibly durable as well.

"We will begin running the surviving Savage land barbarians and Aerans through the mutation program," Magneto said. "That might take a few weeks given their numbers and the numbers of our own people who have not yet been given the same treatment, but it will be well worth it in the end. Zaladane, I think you should be in charge of that, since your people make up the majority of those who haven't gone through the process."

Zaladane was a woman who seemed to be in her early thirties with curly black hair falling in a cascade down to her elbows, a suit of blue cloth and white feathers denoting her status as a priestess, and an almost Aztec-like headdress. Since she was a sorceress of some power her actual age was debatable. She had challenged Magneto to single combat when he began his conquest of the Savage Land, and he had defeated her with ease, welcoming her by his side afterward. "It will be interesting to see what becomes of my people when they become mutants my lord."

"Indeed. At the same time, we will run the Acolytes and the Brotherhood through my new mutation strengthening device." Which, unlike the last one won't make them lose their minds because of their newfound powers. Thank you again Fabian, without your albeit unwilling aid such a thing would've been impossible. "Exodus, you will be in charge of that."

Exodus nodded his head in wordless agreement, and Erik favored him with another smile before going on. "Meanwhile, I will winnow through our ranks to pick out spies which we can send abroad when Mastermind returns. We need to begin getting more information about what has been occurring than we've been able to get just from randomized news dumps."

"While we are doing that Sauron, you will be in charge of keeping order within the Savage Land. I want no hint of further rebellion, do you understand?"

The pterodactyl-like mutant bowed his lizard head, but even so Magneto knew not to take his obsequious nature for truth. Sauron was a weapon that was all too likely to turn in Magneto's hands if he allowed it. "I will see to it my lord."

"I know you will not fail me," Magneto said, both comment and threat in one. Watching Sauron through his specially created contacts, which allowed him to ignore the other's hypnotic powers, he saw this hit home, and with a wave of his hand sent both Sauron and Exodus out of the room.

Zaladane remained for a moment, but at a slight shake of Magneto's head she too left, frowning sadly at this dismissal. With that Magneto turned back, staring out over the horizon once again.

OOOOOOO

While Puck was merely thrown into a regular jail cell and not given any medical attention, thanks to his healing factor and adamantium claws Wolverine could not be treated so cavalierly. Logan was placed into a special prison cell which was magnetized, pulling his adamantium clad bones in every direction with the force of seven G's. It was one of the most painful experiences Logan could remember and he was completely unable to move.

Logan didn't know how long he hung there, but he knew his self-control was fraying badly, the pain pushing him towards his inner berserker, until inexplicably, the pain stopped. Logan dropped to the floor, gasping there for a moment before extending his claws and jumping forwards claws extended towards the shadow outside the cage's doorway.

"Logan, stop!" Said a female voice, and he stopped, his claws a single finger's width away from slicing into a woman whose face he had never seen before. He turned to look at the woman who had spoken. It was Shanna, Ka-zar's girlfriend/partner in leading the Savage Land barbarians. "S, Shanna, what's going on?"

"I'm getting you and Puck out of here," said the woman in front of him. "You two and Shanna. You three are the last hope of any kind of resistance that the Savage Land has, and I'm terrified of what will happen if Magneto's able to launch his war machine against the rest of the planet without any warning."

Logan glared. The lighting in the prison cells was dim, but he could still make out the outfit the woman was wearing, it was one the Acolytes wore, that special gold around the shoulder plates made it pretty obvious. "You're betraying him, why?"

"I joined up with Erik because I thought there was no possible way humans and mutants could coexist peacefully, and I would rather fight for a cause then fight to retain the status quo." The woman, Amelia Voight said, not wanting to go into the full history she shared with Erik and Charles Xavier right now. "But for a while now I've been worried about Erik. He's become a megalomaniac. Worse, he seems to be unable to see that equality is slowly gaining ground in the outside world. Yet Magneto wants to change that. I, I cannot support that."

Logan stared at the woman for a moment, taking in her scent. He could smell fear on her, anger, but also some level of determination. The fear wasn't directed towards him either, nor did she smell like she was lying. "All right," he said nodding. "Get us out of here, and the three of us will do what we can."

"Head towards the main entrance to the Savage Land," Amelia, said as she unlocked the door. "Hide nearby there, maybe you can ambush the supply group when they come in, or stowaway on it when they have to go out again. That might be your best bet, but you have to do something! I've tried to talk to Erik, but…" she shook her head. "I don't think words will reach him anymore."

Logan nodded, and moved over to Puck, glad to see that his limited healing factor had begun to fight the wounds the short man had taken. "You know where my daughter is?"

Amelia blinked, then made the connection in her mind. "Oh, you mean Laura? She's out with a group of hunters, bringing in meat for a feast tonight I think. You can't be serious about talking to her right now can you?"

After a moment Logan shook his head reluctantly. "No, I've been trying to catch her alone in the jungle for weeks, but I suppose events just sort of haven't brought us together yet. Still, it will eventually."

With that he picked up Puck, setting the shorter man on his back and nodded to Shanna to lead the way. He turned back once to see the woman who'd freed them still standing there for a moment before moving off herself. Logan didn't know what to make of her, but decided not to over think things. She was right, they had to get out of the Savage Land, get the warning out. Because if they didn't, the idea of human and mutants equality would never be realized.

Further down the passageway, Sauron smiled to himself, wondering how he could use this to his advantage.

OOOOOOO

Taking a sip from the drink he'd grabbed from one of the several small desks set out in the large meeting room Sean McIntyre narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on here. That was 'tree' there at the end, not 'tire'. Everyone had little red buttons inside of them that no one wanted to push, and getting Sean's last name wrong was one of his.

Captain Sean McIntyre, United States Marine Corps was known as a hard charger in a branch that was almost entirely made of hard chargers. He had led several combat operations in the past against terrorists in the Middle East and Africa, including a mission a few weeks ago where he and a company of Marines had been called in to aid a SHIELD operation in South America. He was also known as a proponent of the idea that the Marine Corps needed to develop its own technology center, though most felt that was a whim on his part. It wasn't, it was because he and his marines had run into a group of mercenaries who had toys well beyond the weapons his marines had on a secret operation in a country whose name he could not even think of sharing with anyone else.

Their enemies had direct energy weapons, heat seeking bullets and grenades the size of their pinkies. His marines had still won, but Sean knew their casualties would have been far less if the marines, part of what was thought of as the strongest military in the world, had weapons to match those in the hands of what were essentially modern day Bedouins.

But that was neither here nor there, and wasn't actually on Sean's mind at the moment. No, the questions rattling around his mind where what was he doing here, and what was going on.

Sean had been sent an invitation to what he had thought was a seminar on leaving small units of diverse nationalities hosted by General Mountebanks of the United Kingdom. It had been a sign of professional respect that Sean had been extremely pleased by at the time. Now he was wondering if accepting had been a mistake. Although it's not as if I don't recognize a lot of my own age group here, but the number of brass was definitely unexpected.

In this signal room there were at least six admirals and generals of various nationalities, four Navy Commodores, and seven, count them, seven captains: three naval, two army, and two other marine captains, one Royal Marine from Britain, and one from the Korps Mariners, the Netherlands amphibious infantry. Two of the Navy Commodores, one of the other captains, and one of the generals came from America, and though Sean hadn't met most of them before, he knew their faces from several leadership and tactics seminars he'd sat in.

He waved his hand at the one other captain he knew by sight, then blinked and held up his hand even higher in the air as another man he knew entered the room. "Marcus, over here."

Marcus Greentree was about as black as the ace of spades, and proud of it. He was also one of those rare First Sergeants who could step into a captain's slot even better than most captains. He was not book smart, but he understood people and how to motivate them, was a very good organizer, and had been a First Sergeant for years before Sean even entered the Marine Corps. The fact that he was still only a First Sergeant was because he wanted to be one, not because he hadn't been offered a commission.

Both Marcus and the original woman that Sean had gestured to moved toward him. Sophia Madeira was a captain in the US Navy, a middle-aged woman off the cruiser Vicksburg, which had both dropped his marines off and then answered their call for missile fire in the same operation against the terrorists with the high-tech weapons. She was a decorated officer who was coming off a very bad divorce in her private life, and Sean knew she was also a proponent of integrating more energy-based weaponry into the Navy.

"Captain," Sean said, taking Sophia's extended hand and instead of simply shaking it bowing gallantly over it, kissing the back of her hand lightly. Before she could respond with a pithy phrase or a laugh to his overdone gallantry he went on quickly. "Have you noticed the common theme here?"

"I think so, though I'm having trouble with two of the generals, and you, Marcus, no offense," Sophia said nodding politely to Marcus and using the unofficial nickname for all First Sergeants.

Marcus nodded back, though he immediately went back to looking over his shoulder as he did so, staring at the door. "Damn," he muttered shaking his head. "Just damn."

Sean chuckled a little. "Which of the hostesses did you see Marcus?

"She didn't introduce herself, she was talking into a cell phone most of the time she brought me into the room," Marcus said shaking his head. "But damn that is one foxy lady! Er, sorry Miss," he said nodding his head once again to Sophia.

"Keep it in your pants gentlemen," Sophia murmured, shaking her head before exchanging a nod with one of the Commodores, a Japanese woman who she'd previously met at a conference years ago. "I doubt any of the generals or admirals would be very interested in watching your primitive mating rituals."

"Ouch," Marcus muttered shaking his head. Then he became more serious. "But those are experienced admirals and generals, and by experienced I mean some of the best ones still alive, from India, the United Kingdom, Canada, America, Israel… am I missing anyone?"

"France isn't represented, neither is Greece, but there's an Italian over there I don't know," Sean murmured, cocking his head to one side. "And then there's us, captains and lower, I count at least nine other noncoms. Can you put a name on some of them? I think all of them are from America or the United Kingdom."

"'Fraid I can't. I know one of them wrote a paper a few weeks ago about how energy state weapons fundamentally changed urban warfare tactics, and I think another one actually helped write a new rule-book about defending against said, but don't quote me on that, since I only've seen their pictures once or so," Marcus said with a shrug. "As for the others, I don't keep in touch with the noncoms of other services sir, sorry."

"Not a problem, I'm just getting a distinct feeling of collusion here on some level that goes well beyond what I thought this might be about."

"At the highest level at least from the United Kingdom," Sophia said suddenly whistling quietly.

Another Captain had just entered, and Sean immediately recognized his badge, a silver sword with golden wings growing out of the blade halfway down its length with the words 'who dares wins' written out on a blue ribbon floating below that. "SAS, good grief someone really is pulling out all the stops. And that is General Mountebanks with him."

"That's not just any SAS captain, that would be bad enough. That is Prince Duncan, who's married to Princess Anne, King William's daughter. Whatever this is, he wouldn't be involved with it unless his father in law had already signed off on it."

Marcus scowled a little shaking his head. He was one of many Americans who didn't really like the idea that there was still a royal family that had so much power as the United Kingdom's. He didn't deny that William had done a magnificent job as king, but it still deeply disturbed his democratic sensibilities.

Sean on the other hand was much more pragmatic, and he exchanged a nod with the other young man. The Prince nodded back, he and Sean sizing one another up as two young men who had seen the elephant often would. "Would General Murphy's presence also mean that America is involved at a high-end?" Sean asked out of the corner of his mouth, while he watched the young captain turn away to talk to General Mountebanks for a moment before moving over to a table to grab a drink.

"I don't think so," Sophia said shaking her head. "Him and Admiral Whittaker are known to be friends of course, but are also retired. They aren't even consulted by the Pentagon normally these days, despite being nearly as experienced as Mountebanks. I think… holy hell!"

Both Marcus and Sean looked at her, then towards the door to see what had caused her exclamation, and hissed in surprise. Another US Army captain had walked in just now, but not just any Army captain. This one had a face that was known to literally every person in a uniform in America and every child as well. "Steve Rogers." Sean sucked in a breath. "Okay, I think I know what all this is about, though I'm surprised it isn't an official SHIELD summons. Aren't they supposed to be the ones dealing with extra-ordinary threats?"

"I don't think so," Marcus said cocking his head to one side as he thought rapidly. "This is a little too much cloak and dagger to be officially unofficial if you know what I mean. The Brits might be at that level, but not the rest of us."

"Then explain why Captain America's here?" Sophia said. Despite being older than the two men she sounded almost as giddy as a schoolgirl about to meet her crush for the first time.

The object of their attention stood in the doorway for a moment, then spotted General Mountebanks, and moved over to him, saluting first and then extending a hand. The general saluted back, and gripped the younger man's hand firmly saying something that the others could not over here from where they stood. The fact that the two men respected one another was obvious, and Sean had to think a moment if the general had ever met the captain during his early years, but if so he couldn't bring it to mind.

Duncan had turned away from his drinks and moved over to Steve, holding out a drink to him as he smiled happily at the other man, saying something that put a smile on Steve's face as well and earned him a respectful nod.

"What was your thought on what's going on here?" Sophia asked, gesturing the two men to follow her as they moved away from the corner they had been inhabiting towards where Steve was beginning to grow a bit of a crowd as everyone wanted to pay their respects to the living legend. That the so-called living legend looked rather put off by the attention spoke well of him Sophia thought, remembering that Steve was supposed to be a rather humble sort.

She caught what looked like a strange design on one of the walls and turned to stare at it before shaking her head and moving away. It looked like some old-fashioned kind of writing, Celtic maybe or something similar. What it meant she didn't know, nor care at present.

"I thought at first we were here to talk about putting together a coalition to figure out a way to start integrating energy-based weaponry and other word high-tech into our various services. General Mountebanks is known as someone who thinks ahead like that. It was the only connection I could think of to most of the people here, and that kind of cross service/nationality thinking is somewhat more common than the civvies ever realize."

Sophia nodded. The other woman in the room, the Japanese commodore, was much the same as her, a proponent of energy-based weapons, though she came from it at the other end of the spectrum, the defense against said and the need to come up with new metals to do so. "Makes sense, but Steve's being here doesn't, does it? He's one of the Avengers, and they answer to SHIELD which is…"

"Which is death on any other service having access to weapons like that. Tactics and strategies against said sure, but they don't want to be a part of spreading such. Shortsighted of them, almost as much as Stark's grandstanding months back," Marcus said shaking his head. He had actually been scouted for SHIELD nearly a year ago, and had turned them down. He hadn't wanted to leave the Marine Corps, and while he had a lot of respect for Nick Fury, that wasn't enough to overcome his distaste for spooks in general.

"But then what's the other connection here? If this was an antiterrorist coalition, it would be above board and through normal channels rather than an invitation to a party, regardless of who was giving the invitation. And if it was a SHIELD run game, it'd be happening in America on the helacarrier. And would've come from Nick Fury rather than General Mountebanks."

"I thinka were about toa find outta," said another man nearby with a thick Italian accent, cutting into the conversation. "Victor Gregorio," he introduced himself gesturing with his hands towards the doorway. "Anda if youa think Captain America being here isa surprising, prepare for surprise number two."

The three Americans all turned, and their eyes widened slightly as Ben Grimm entered, followed quickly by Mister Fantastic, and a hero who had personally been in the news recently, first with the combat up in Montréal and second with Bruce Banner's interview afterward, then a lot of speculation about what had happened during the Sentinel Debacle.

"Guardian," Sean murmured. "Oh, this is going to be interesting."

"I just thought of another connection here between all of us," Marcus said suddenly, watching as the sexy woman who had shown him into the room came in behind Guardian, standing next to him in a superhero costume that allowed him suddenly to recognize her features as that of Storm of the Custodes Mundi.

Another woman entered, one none of them had seen before. She was wearing a suit showing a bird of flame on a background of red and was a redhead a foot shorter than the tall black woman. Even from here they could tell she had the same air of power and authority around her despite her shorter stature. Both of them were standing behind and to the side of Guardian, explicitly stating their loyalties.

There was a lot of murmuring going on all around them, though Sean saw that Steve Rogers, after an initial moment of surprise didn't look all that concerned or worried. Interested was what Sean felt he looked like, but not worried or concerned despite the Custodes Mundi and SHIELD not exactly being allies from what he had discerned of late. Unless they are now, they were rather friendlier in Tokyo that they were in Montréal. "What was that connection you thought you spotted?"

"I can't place a few, but the ones I can from America and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands," he said nodding to the Netherlander who caught it and nodded back. "Were all proponents who've written papers or otherwise spoken out about changing our standard recruitment policies to start including mutants."

Sean nodded, though he personally had only stated that occasionally. It wasn't his main thrust, it wasn't like he didn't care about mutants and the problems a lot of them faced. He just didn't really think about it one way or the other.

"Gentlemen and ladies," Guardian said, standing forward, his voice not sounding muffled by the mask he wore. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here, and why the deception. So I will as one military man to several dozen others, cut to the heart of the matter. Eleven days ago Earth was attacked by an extraterrestrial threat consisting of a small task force built around the Kree equivalent of a battle cruiser constituting several dozen light cruisers and frigates."

There were several loud exclamations of shock, and more than a few laughs at what they thought was a joke, but that ended abruptly when the lights went out, and a giant TV came out of the ceiling along one wall. Sean had only a moment to note that Steve didn't look shocked by the news, rather his eyes had narrowed and then he had simply nodded once, before the lights went out.

"This is a recording taken by the ships themselves, as well as an installation in space, and admittedly a bit of a dramatic representation of what happened. We'll stop it when we get to the dramatic representation parts of course, but since Ben here and myself were involved in defeating this attack, trust me when I say that we know what we're talking about."

More than one had turned to the Thing at that point, and he nodded grimly. "He's tellin' the truth. Earth was attacked by the Kree, not probed not spied not, but outright attacked from space. And if not for Guardian's preparations, we'd be mourning upwards of twenty million dead."

That number made more than one man cringe, though Sophia heard more than a few mutters of "I told you so," and one wise ass said arrogantly "Control the orbitals and control the world."

For a moment all they could see was the curvature of the earth, then suddenly several bright dots appeared in the distance with one being much closer than any of the others so close they could actually make out some of its features. It was a blocky ship, wider than human ships to the beam by at least three times. As it was moving away they were able to see more of it. Weapons emplacements could be seen here and there, and finally what looked like the engines at the back.

The image changed to what was possibly another camera, and suddenly from those distant dots that must be ships came beams of coruscated light, standing out against the backdrop of space much more easily than their motherships. A few voices rose in shock seeing them's heading straight to what looked like Earth, and then heading on for some reason, out into space.

"What just happened there," said one of the admirals Sean hadn't recognized, frowning. "Have we gotten to the dramatic representation part?"

"It isn't, don't worry," Inwardly Guardian smiled, happy to see that professional interest and worry had overridden their shock at his appearance. "I set up an illusion of Earth that could fool Kree sensors, and it was lucky I did." He smirked at the looks of disbelief that gained him, and shook his head. "Trust me, it isn't based on science, but something else entirely."

He went on from there, describing the attack as it happened, going into detail on what cities had been targeted, as well as the estimated damage from each strike. There were more than a few winces, but the depth of his knowledge, and the fact that Ben Grimm backed him up several times made a believer out of most of the people there.

Moving through the crowd Sean stood behind Captain America, and as the others began to question Guardian and the Thing on the attack and why the Kree had attacked in the first place, he whispered, "I take it SHIELD knew about this? Not this meeting I mean, but the attack?"

"Fury passed on a message about it yes, we knew something happened, some kind of combat and that someone had fired energy weapons past Earth, but that was all our sensors could tell us," Steve said, shaking his head.

"Huh," Sean mused, looking at Steve closely. "That makes me wonder what Guardian wants to get out of this meeting, and your being here in particular."

Steve chuckled. "Why don't we ask him?" With that he raised a hand raising his voice at the same time. "Guardian, I understand much of what we've been shown today, and that we, indeed all of Earth owe you a debt of gratitude for what you did, but can I ask, what is the purpose of this meeting? If you simply wanted to inform our various institutions of the attack you could have done so more easily through regular channels. And to be frank, very few of us represent associations which have anything to do with space."

Behind his mask Harry smiled to himself. He had not been sold on the idea of including Captain America in this meeting initially, but general Mountebanks had spoken rather eloquently in favor of it. And after talking to him and to Piotr, Harry had made the decision to include Rogers in the group he asked General Mountebanks to invite to this little shindig. Now Harry saw it had been a good move. Steve's words carried a lot of weight here, even with the men from other nations and their militaries, and he wasn't being directly confrontational, a win in Harry's book.

"My reason for organizing this meeting is twofold, but I am afraid we are at the point where we need to talk about security gentlemen. I will neither ask nor try to coerce you into sharing secrets this is about the dissemination of information from me to you, not the other way around. But to that end I am afraid I need you all to sign nondisclosure agreements here, to make certain you can't discuss anything we talk about from now on unless given permission. It's the same sort of thing many of you have no doubt seen before, but with a little extra added on."

More than one of the military men groaned, but they all nodded. After all, while their nations were technically allies, through the UN if nothing else, this was obviously a clandestine meeting for a reason. They watched as Jean calmly levitated several pieces of paper to each of them.

"These are magically binding contracts. So long as the writing itself actually has magic, all you need to do is smear a bit of your blood on that spot marked at the very bottom." That was actually a simplification in the extreme, but Harry wasn't about to share how much research and experimentation had gone into these contracts. Or that they were merely a part of the security over the meeting. The majority of the security had already been accomplished by getting these men and women into this room, which was rigged with a Trust-Me runic array with extremely specific rules behind it.

More than one man was now looking askance at Harry unsure what to make of that despite the sheer number of abilities and skills Guardian had been recorded using during the set-to in Montreal. Magic didn't really exist surely? They watched bemused as both general Mountebanks and Duncan unhesitatingly pricked their thumbs and wiped them across the mark Guardian had described before writing their name down. There was a bright but localized flash from the pieces of paper, and Harry nodded at both men. This was followed by the Canadian general doing the same, ignoring the confused look from his American counterpart.

Steve looked between his contract and Guardian, reading it carefully. Basically it said what Guardian had implied, that he, the signee, would not attempt to talk about or share any information mentioned from now on in this meeting with anyone else. "It says we can't share what we hear 'from now on'." Steve said thoughtfully.

Yet again Harry noticed that all eyes turned to Steve. He commanded the room not through simple force of personality, but through a mix of earned respect and charisma. "It's like watching you at work Harry," Ororo sent along the telepathic link Jean was maintaining between the three of them.

"Given what Captain America did during WW2, that makes a lot of sense. If we convince him the rest will follow along, if not then we might not be able to persuade any of them to stay. Yet despite his presence making our job harder, it could be very interesting talking to him later on."

"That's correct," Harry said aloud, nodding. "You can share the previous information about the Kree attack on Earth with anyone you think you should, but realize I don't think any of your governments are in any position to do anything about it. Indeed, most of them still refuse to admit that Thanos was an alien rather than a mutant."

That was true Sean thought, looking from his contract to Steve's. They were about the same, and Marcus' was the same as well.

"What exactly would happen to us if we tried to break this agreement" said one of the American noncoms.

Guardian shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing fatal, but certainly debilitating. If you attempt to break that agreement, you simply won't be able to. If you keep trying to communicate any information you learn from the rest of this meeting, you will lose the ability to speak entirely. If you continue to try after that, no matter the medium you use, your throat will close up, asphyxiating you."

At that more than one person quickly put down his contract and made for the door. Harry didn't bother to stop them, and only two of them continued to move when they realized that Steve, the Americans and the Brits hadn't moved. The Brits had obviously expected this, while the Americans had all looked to Steve for his response.

Steve frowned looking from the paper in his hand up and Guardian, staring or trying to anyway stare past that mask to the man behind it. "…I talked to Colossus, and some of your other Custodes Mundi," he said slowly. "They seemed to hold you in high regard. So I will ask why you think such a violent method of keeping this whatever it is a secret is necessary. Further, I am leery about putting my name on anything given to me by someone in a mask."

He laughed suddenly, moving through the crowd which parted for him automatically until he stood in front of the black clad Guardian. "Tell you what Guardian," he said, smiling thinly. "Throw in whoever his behind that mask, and I'll agreed to sign this."

"Deal," Harry said instantly. That caused some odd looks, and snorts of derision. Harry held up a hand looking around at the rest of the crowd, breaking eye contact with Steve for the first time since he had handed out there contracts. "This whole meeting is about the defense of Earth! It is not about self-aggrandizement, it is not about rubbing your nose in the fact that I've been defending Earth on my own. It is not about making you all party to something you will later regret. It is about gathering allies!"

Harry strode forward from the position he had taken by the large TV screen, moving around the room. "Look around you. You, all of you, are representatives of either the largest or the most well-trained and professional militaries in the world. But none of you come from a country that has even looked into the possibility of defending Earth or even just your own country from space! But even if any single country could, could they do a better job than the world united? Would the rest of the world even trust them to?"

He paused for a moment, letting that sink in, which it did quickly. Credulous these men were, but they were also intelligent and realistic.

"We are stronger together then apart," Harry said softly. "That is the meaning of this meeting, to foster relationships between me and all of you. So yes, I will agree to take off my mask. But you all must do something for us in turn, and keep that secret and everything else we ask of you from now on. If you feel unable to, I will understand, and hope that you will at least pass on all you've already learned here. That was the minimum goal for this meeting.."

"The taxpayers hate paying for anything," Marcus quipped, trying to break the tension in the room. "I'd hate to see what would happen if someone asked them to pay for something like that."

"We would hear the screams from here," Duncan said with a smile.

That rather lame joke and Harry's words seemed to break the stasis on everyone in the room, and more than one man used a small pocket knife or something else to prick their thumbs, pressing them on the spots on their contracts. It was an easy decision for the noncoms and the mid-ranker's to make, after all even those of them that had been on black ops missions weren't really high up enough to compromise their various groups, and Harry's vow to not ask them to do so carried a lot of weight with the admirals and generals.

Only two of the generals left, the Frenchman and the other Canadian. They were shown out the door by one of the Custodes Mundi that none of them had seen before this, a woman by the shape of her costume, but one with a strange birdlike helmet.

Once everybody had signed and the contracts had been collected Guardian made copies of them, which he handed back. Then as everyone watched, he lifted his hands up to his mask touching it directly below his ear. The mask retracted into the neck piece of his crysis suit.

When the men in front of him saw Harry's face there were more than one gasp, a few groans, and even one, 'oh dammit why didn't we see that coming!' from his audience. However he still introduced himself, a faint smile on his face. "My name is Harry Potter, owner of Magical Minds and other things, but I am also Guardian of the Custodes Mundi."

A few moments later the meeting continued, with Harry giving more of an overview of the battle against the Kree ships. Nearing the end of this explanation he was interrupted by Sophia asking wait, "Did you say capture? Do you mean you captured one of these alien starships?"

Harry nodded, and Sophia shuddered, muttering under her breath. "As the Brits would say I just had a crisis." Standing nearby Duncan and general Mountebanks laughed, while the others who heard her didn't seem to get the reference for a moment. "Where do I sign up?" she asked in a louder voice.

"We're going to get to that in a moment," Harry said with a faint smile. Then he turned to the rest of the group. "So we know that alien attacks on Earth are a distinct possibility. The Custodes Mundi and the Fantastic Four can stop them if we see them coming and if they are bunched up enough so we can engage the entire attack force at once or even in small groups."

"But what if we're busy with something else, after all the Custodes Mundi has another mission as well, and the Fantastic Four…" Harry looked over at Reed and Ben who shrugged their shoulders. "The Fantastic Four have their own missions as well. Worse, what if they don't come just to destroy, but invade wholesale?"

"If they come within atmosphere they won't find that so easy." A US Air Force, Lieutenant said, but his eyes flicked over to the Fantastic Four, and it was obvious he was speaking more from ego than anything else.

"True, at that point you'd be able to see them coming. But would you be able to do anything about it?" There was silence, and then Harry smiled. "For various reasons, energy-based and other more technologically advanced weaponry have not been made available in large numbers to the world's militaries. We will not go into the reasons for that, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't. However, in the face of an alien threat, all of those reasons matter not a bit. So if Earth ever is invaded we, the Custodes Mundi, are prepared to arm the units you all command for the duration of hostilities."

"Hoooly shiiit," Sean muttered, and Marcus actually cursed under his breath for several moments. Licking his lips, Sean looked around, and noticed he wasn't the only one stunned. He held up a hand slightly, asking. "Um, arm us with what exactly? You realize we'd have to work up tactics and strategies around any weapons before you even hand these weapons to us right?"

"That's part of why you're here Mister Macintyre," Harry replied, pronouncing Sean's last name correctly which made the marine smile. "As for the weapons…" Harry tapped a few buttons on the small computer in front of him, and the vision of the Kree battle cruiser, which Harry had not mentioned Doom had captured, disappeared.

It was replaced by several different weapon systems, guns for the most part spread out over its screen. Next to them appeared bulleted information lists about them.

Suddenly these images disappeared to show one of the Custodes Mundi, another one which most of them didn't recognize. He wore a red suit of spandex covering him from head to toe with an equally red shield with a single large white star in the center on his back. He was also carrying what was obviously a rifle of some kind with a sniper scope on top.

The man's uniform caused Steve to start and he looked sharply at Harry for a moment, then frowned, scratching his chin. But he remained silent as the video began.

The video showed the man in red running through a woodland stopping occasionally to hide behind trees. At one point he laid down a blistering fire of what looked like energy rounds, small finger width bits of plasma or laser perhaps. The damage they did to the targets which popped up in front of him was extreme, blowing through them easily. As the man raced on the audience saw a side view of these targets, and saw that most of them were made of metal about an inch thick. The ones that weren't were stone which was cracked and broken where the round hit.

The audience began to talk among themselves, but most of their attention remained on the video, in which the man had just come to a clearing in which stood what appeared to be a tank. It was a very high-tech looking tank, and was a style none of them recognized but it had a large main gun mounted on a turret, heavy seeming armor and what looked like heavy wheels. It was moving in a circle, it's turret up and swiveling from side to side.

Here Harry paused the video for a moment. "This is a Kree Heavy Land Assault Platform, their equivalent of a tank. It was taken from the Battlecruiser's hanger bay intact. The armor is about four times as heavy as an equivalent MBT. It's designed to stand up to anything an infantryman can carry and then some, though it actually isn't the largest LAP they have in their inventory. However, our weapons have been designed to equalize the playing field, as you will see in a moment."

The Custodes Mundi in red took to one knee, sighting down his sniper scope at the tank. He pressed a button along the side of the rifle's stock, and the audience could hear a faint hum in the background for a second. Then as they watched a white-hot bolt around four times as long as the previous 'bullets' shot out, impacting the tank and blowing through the armor where the turret connected to the rest of the tank.

It didn't seem to do much damage, but it had definitely holed through the tank's armor. Then he pulled of rifle off his shoulder, and fired again, aiming for its side, somewhat back of the center of the tank's body. The bolt punched through, and hit something which began to smoke out of the holes in the tank's armor, before suddenly exploding.

"A rifle," Sean said slowly, "which can do that? And which can also be turned on to full auto?" His brain was going, 'me wanty me wanty!' completely destroying his ability to actually speak eloquently.

"That's nice and all but what do you have for those of us who come from more sophisticated services?" Sophia said archly, ignoring the booing hisses from the grunts from the Army and Marine Corps.

Jean in her Phoenix garb stood forward, moving toward another wall. Once there she tapped another button and a second screen fell from the ceiling to block out that wall as well. On it was shown various designs for heavy weapons. "These are what we have designed long-term, but putting them in place would be a job and a half. So what we're going to have to offer you lot for the short term are acceleration rings."

"Something that would turn our normal guns into rail guns?" Sophia asked. She knew a few of the newest American Battleships had rail guns on them, but minimizing them for cruisers or other, smaller ships didn't seem to be in the cards.

"Exactly. Installing them would be simple enough, though you would have to replace your ammunition at the same time. Normal shells wouldn't be able to withstand the gun's speed and would break up in the air," Jean said, pressing some more buttons. The screen changed once more to show a small ring around four feet long, its width obviously supposed to go over the end of a cannon's barrel like a silencer.

One of the Army captains coughed apologetically. "Sorry to ask ma'am, but have you come up with one of those for tanks?"

Jean nodded, and a moment later the screen showed another, smaller, ring. "Yep, and this isn't exactly a finished process, were coming up with new weapons all the time."

"What we'd like to do right now," Harry said, regaining command of the meeting quickly, "Is break up into smaller groups. One group will go over the handheld weapons, we have a shooting range outside waiting for you all. Vanguard, the young man in the movie you just watched, is waiting out their along with Coyote and Ghigau, they are our rifle experts.

"Unfortunately, we don't actually have any tanks or ships, so you're going to have to make that up as you go," he said to the Navy captains and cavalry captains. "And for those of you not interested in that, I would like to talk to you about something else entirely.

"Point of order if I may?" Steve asked. "One of the reasons why SHIELD is leery about letting even those services it is allied with have weapons like this is because it fears they would not be getting them back. What's to stop Sean say," he said nodding over to the Marine Captain "from absconding with the weapons when you have to hand them out?"

"I'd never…" Sean said, though he was looking a little shifty.

"They all have teleportation devices on them, and if you try to remove those, the weapons won't work and will in fact melt down. Nor can they be opened or scanned in any way without melting down immediately," Harry said succinctly, unwilling and seeing no purpose to say those defenses were magical in nature. "These are to be used against alien invaders. They will not be used against human opponents, regardless of the reason. If you want to get better weapons than you are currently issued, I suggest you look on the market. Even with Stark Industries no longer in the game there are still some very good weapons out there."

After some muttering most of the noncoms, the army and marine officers all made their way toward the door following Storm, leaving the navy types behind. Steve followed them, wanting to talk to the young man in red for a moment. The navy officers all crowded around Jean and Reed, asking questions from the woman who seemed to be Harry's chief designer and the brain of the FF.

The remaining officers, a few of the generals and one Air Force Lieutenant General, moved to talk to Harry and Ben. That discussion touched mostly on the Kree tactics and their weapons, as well as ship sizes, and the Kree order of battle, as much as they knew about it. One of the generals in particular was interested in the Kree mentality, and came away with a bad case of the shivers at the idea of sociopathic racists in space.

From there the discussion moved to how much communication they could honorably agree to, how that communication would occur, and how they could eventually be given the weapons. This was a problem in particular for the two senior-most Americans, considering they were practically semiretired, but they were still on the books as Admiral and General respectively.

Eventually Harry handed that discussion over to General Mountebanks, who could talk them through the various communication devices Reed had made and the security on them, having been introduced to them a few days before this meeting.

Harry did this because he had noticed that Steve had come back from the shooting range early and was waiting nearby. Harry moved towards him, gesturing towards one of the bars. "Can I get you a drink, Captain?"

"You put me in a precarious position Harry," Steve said a moment later, swirling the beer in his bottle for a moment looking at Harry shrewdly. "Nick really doesn't trust you and he is going to go… what's that British idiom, spare? He's going to go spare when he learns this mission was organized by you and yours."

"Nick is too wedded to the current Powers That Be to enjoy the changes my presence has made. He's a good man, and I love the work your Avengers and SHIELD have done. But you need to ask yourself, does SHIELD defend the Earth and humanity, or only certain countries?" Harry replied, drinking from his own drink, a non-alcoholic lemonade. With Jean's pregnancy, all of the lovers had changed their drinking habits to match. And Harry had honestly noticed he'd been drinking too much alcohol anyway.

"Perhaps…" Steve said, looking away. He honestly was not at home with a lot of the tasks SHIELD seemed to be in charge of anyway, but then he wasn't a spook. "I'm not going to argue that your goals for this meeting weren't a good idea long term, but even so it makes me uncomfortable knowing I won't be able to talk to him about anything we've seen."

"Remember the contracts only cover what you heard after you signed them. I don't mind you sharing the information about the Kree assault with Fury." Harry grabbed up a plate of finger food, holding it over his shoulder as Jean came in, grabbing it as she passed by heading towards her computer followed by a few of the navy officers. To Steve's amusement Harry didn't even seem to notice he'd done so, his attention still on Steve. "In fact, I hope he and anyone he tells starts thinking seriously about defending against space-based threats."

"So you don't want a monopoly on space? I noticed you mentioned having captured some of the Kree ships, but made no mention of them other than that," Steve asked shrewdly.

"I have a monopoly on space, which has nothing to do with the Kree ships we've captured and that's not going to change anytime soon," Harry replied bluntly. "Three reasons. I can operate in space far, far cheaper than any government could, I'm already there, and no other government has even tried to move into space beyond a few short trips up to that bloody cheap looking international space station. With people like Stark and Richards to call upon, and NASA and co. make that? Uninspiring that is."

"And you've got no connection to any of those governments whose vision for space you so deride. How long have you been operating in space?" Steve asked.

"A little over half a year or so. And you'll note I've not used or even created any kind of orbital death-ray. Nor have I made any demands or in any way shown myself to be the threat I've no doubt Fury thinks me as," Harry replied dryly.

"Except of course that battle with the alien on Mars. You have to understand that show of power worried a lot of people, Nick being the least of them. I've no doubt a lot of governments the world over are wondering if they could contain you if they had to."

Harry frowned, then looked down at his plate only now realizing he didn't actually have one. Waving one hand at Steve, who chuckled at his confusion, he stood up. The two of them moved quickly over to the buffet table, still talking. "I had no choice in that battle, I was losing and knew that none of my team could handle Thanos, even injured. I regret that, but I can't change it."

The two of them filled plates, nodding at Jean and the navy officers, who seemed to be arguing over whether or not heat dissipation of all things should be the deciding factor between solid state and energy weapons for ocean going ship conversions in the future. Both Harry and Steve shook their heads at that.

Steve was more interested in observing Harry's face as he looked at Jean, then over to Ororo. The African woman was talking to the Indian and Canadian generals about something they couldn't hear in French, which for some reason the Indian seemed to be following as well as English.

Harry's love for the two women was rather obvious just then, even if Steve couldn't decide what form of love it was. That actually put Steve more at ease with the other man, as did this whole meeting frankly. Nick had painted Harry as a naïve, well-meaning but over the top loose cannon with far too much power at his disposal, but Steve just wasn't seeing it. In fact, from what he had seen, Harry was simply a man doing what he could to combat a problem no one else seemed able or willing to tackle.

"All men should be judged by their actions, not the judge's fears." Harry went on as they moved back to the table the two of them had been sitting at originally. "I don't want to use my power to make a point, I want to lead and defend, not dominate. You and the rest of the world learned to trust the Fantastic Four because of their actions, give me and mine the same benefit of the doubt regardless of my powers. And also, ask yourself how much damage Thanos and I would have done fighting on Earth. With Thanos having already said he would sacrifice the whole planet to his mistress. Still haven't figured out what that means."

Steve nodded slowly. "All men should be so treated Harry. Alright, I'll agree to, if not ignore then at least not worry about your apparent ability to burn the whole planet to ash." Harry chuckled wanly at that, but Steve went on more happily. "I have to say, the fact you know you can't go it alone against everything is also a point in your favor. Too many super-powered people seem to think that they can handle anything that comes along, but that's just not true."

He sat down, looking at Harry shrewdly. "Which brings to mind something Colossus said when I tried to get him and Magma to settle down: That I was just a normal man underneath the mask, indeed that I'd been a bit of a runt before given the serum. He said something you apparently said to him, so I ask you, what were you like before you discovered your powers?"

"Say magic why don't you. In the dimension I was born in we didn't have superpowered individuals, aliens or anything like that. At least, I don't think we had aliens, much more certain about the superpowers. We had magic. But before then, I grew up with a family that treated me like a cross between a slave, a burden and scum. I could only ever escape from them in the local library, where…"

Harry went on from there to describe his life growing up, Voldemort, and all the rest of it. Steve asked questions throughout then responded by talking about his battles against the Red Skull, Baron Zemo and others during World War 2. They shared both the dark gritty bits, as well as the good parts, laughing occasionally at a joke the other told, never noticing how the meeting around them had slowly wound down, or when Ororo came by to refill their drinks, smiling lightly as she left the two men alone.

They also talked about the ongoing violence against mutants the world over. Luckily in most first world countries outright violence had died down for the most part. America still had occasional outbreaks thanks to the FoH putting a religious spin on their rhetoric of late and the Federal government unwilling to get involved. But the Middle East, Asia, and South America still saw flare-ups on a weekly basis.

Harry admitted his group was slowly becoming overwhelmed, unable to be everywhere they needed to be, but they were doing all they could. Just earlier that day they had rescued four mutants scattered across the Middle East, and another in South Korea. But in those countries Harry and his team couldn't operate openly or legally, so they were limited to their own resources, with no local partisans to help them. His growing industrial might however could eventually turn the tide there, with far less bloodshed and general upheaval than direct action. Though Harry didn't rule out such a thing in the future if he felt the need for it.

Harry was careful to point out violence could be started from either side of that divide. Some mutants acted out believing their powers made them 'superior' to those around them, while many humans simply attacked any mutant with visible mutations out of fear or hate of the unknown. Harry and the Custodes stood against both sides, and were working toward equality, something Steve had already seen in Tokyo.

The next day, Steve left Britain, heading back to the helacarrier, and like he had anticipated, Nick called him into his office. "So, you have a nice get together with General Mountebanks? Was he really the one who sent out those invitations or was it someone else?" Nick of course knew that several American servicemen of all stripes had gotten the same invitation as Steve.

"Arthur was doing well thank you Nick. But you were right, he wasn't really the one behind the meeting. You're not going to like this…"

Steve was right, Nick didn't like it, but for his part, Steve felt the meeting, both the bit he could talk about and the parts he couldn't had been both thoughtful and interesting. He always enjoyed making new friends.

OOOOOOO

For the rest of the week Harry, his lovers and the rest of his faction went about their normal business, with Harry training with the team for longer periods of time while he waited on various projects to come to fruition. That wasn't to say everything was going smoothly, or that random problems and events didn't show up from time to time. Some were humorous…

OOOOOOO

"Time to wake up fath… Why is mother Ororo bouncing up and down on your lap like that?" Melody asked innocently as she and Illyana barged into the headmaster's quarters, skidding to a halt. Illyana nearly ran into her back, then looked around the older girl's shoulder for a moment before both of them suddenly found their heads covered by two towels.

Jean laughed as she came fully out of the bathroom, shaking her head as she telekinetically began to tickle the two troublemakers. "Someone needs to give his daughter The Talk Harry. And install a spell to keep them out or at least warn us someone's coming up the steps."

"I did, but we were rather too busy to notice," Harry groaned, torn between embarrassment and irritation as Ororo quickly pulled herself off him. "And why's it me who has to give Melody The Talk?"

That conversation went on for some time.

OOOOOOO

Harry and Emma turned as the door to their private box opened. The two of them had come out for a date, having gotten a brief break from their busy schedules to take in a Broadway show that Emma had wanted to see since it first came out nearly a year ago, Wicked. The evening had progressed splendidly, with Harry making a note to take Melody out at some point to see this show, thinking she'd love it.

Then during the halftime, as the two of them were discussing the play and flirting their door opened unannounced. "I'm getting a serious case of Deja-vu here," Harry muttered, checking his concealing spells for a moment.

"Too true, but I think this interruption will be more beneficial than the one you, Ororo and Melody had to deal with," Emma replied verbally, before continuing telepathically. I think it's Banshee, Harry, his surface thoughts have that name and his own in his mind.

The man coming into the room was indeed Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, late of Interpol, who had last been seen by any of the Custodes in the flesh during the battle in Paris which led to Sabertooth's death by magma. He doffed his disguises hat in their direction, no sign of recognition in his eyes as he looked at Emma, his gaze on Harry. "Beggin' yuir pardon and all, but you're a hard man to get in touch with Harry Potter."

"And you didn't think of calling the line we gave you, or use the one I gave your bosses?" Harry asked tartly, scowling at the man. He was beginning to hate his dates being interrupted like this.

"Heh, nah, wanted to keep my hand in so to speak."

"I see, well that's nice and all, call that number of yours when you're ready to move into our base of operations, we won't have you in the field just yet, you need to get fitted for your armored suit. I also know the French government released your daughter to your custody, so we'll have rooms prepared for both of you tomorrow. Now bugger off and let me get on with my date."

Of course not all of them were so humorous, such as the one the day before the next planned event.

OOOOOOO

Christ, why the hell did Kitty and Ms. Munroe not come up with some other way for us to get around? Flying carpets, ugh… Illyich scowled, stepping off the hated device as he stared around at the middle class suburb of the city of Rimini, Italy. Looking around he saw that not only was no one looking at the carpet, but the few passerby didn't seem to notice anything about him either, his image inducer working properly as well as the spells on the carpet. But that was scant comfort after several hours of flight on the cursed thing.

Sighing faintly, Illyich looked down at the piece of paper he held in one hand, reading off the address to the name which had, up until a few hours ago, been bright green, but had since shifted to dark orange. This was the first mission he would be going on for Avalon, and he wanted to get it right.

Walking down the street towards the house the prospective student lived in, Illyich stopped suddenly around the corner from the house in question, kneeling down as if one of his shoelaces has come undone as he whispered into his microphone, the earbud portion of it having just given him one heck of a fright when it went off with a buzz at his neck, like a bee had just landed inside his shirt. "What is it Father Garnoff?"

"The name just went from orange to red just now. I don't know what's going on but…"

Illyich cut the connection quickly ducking back behind a tree set into a small bit of grass by the road and then leaping up over a wooden fence by his left to land on the other side, hiding in among the bushes as he stared out.

"I think I do," he said dryly watching as a bundle about half his own height was swiftly and efficiently moved from the front door of the small house to a waiting car, an SUV of some kind or maybe a Transit van, he wasn't certain. Regardless, it was the kind of car that would literally disappear on any street with any traffic, and he scowled angrily, putting his hand in the bag of holding Kitty and Ms. Munroe had made for him. It didn't hold much, but it did have a small tracking device inside it, a small disk of metal which transmitted a signal to the receivers the Custodes used.

"We have a possible kidnapping here," he reported grimly. "Two adult males, both fit looking, a little older than middle-age, think I might've seen a hint of something metal hidden under one jacket. They just removed a largish bag of some kind from the house, could possibly be carrying a young kid."

"Confirmed," Father Garnoff said after a moment. "The name is on the move, and is now deep red."

At that confirmation, Illyich cocked his head, waiting until both men were inside the car and he could hear its engine start. With the sound and the windows hopefully muffling their ability to hear, he hurled the tracking device through the slats of the fence, watching as it stuck to the bumper of the car. It didn't have much power, and the adhesive would wear out quickly, but it would last long enough for the Custodes to start trailing them.

When the transit van moved out of sight down the street, Illyich leaped back over the fence hurrying towards the house they had left behind. Looking through the front door's windows, he could see two adults he took to be the kid's parents, both of them unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell which. Unfortunately the kidnappers had been smart, and had locked the door after them. He could break it down, but there was no telling who was watching the house, or why.

So he simply looked down at the piece of paper in his hand as if he had gotten the wrong address, then walked casually back down the street towards the nearest street sign, whispering into his pickup. "Two adults left behind one woman one man, both unconscious or dead I can't tell. Should I check on them, or try to tail the van right away?"

"So it's not money they're after it's something else," Father Garnoff mused. "If you can get into the house quickly, check on the two parents. We're going to be sending you a few of the Custodes down to help, the house-elves can use the carpet as a focus for their teleportation."

"Affirmative," the cat-boy nodded, heading around the house to the back. Here there was a small overhanging Willow tree hiding a bit of the fence and the property from sight of anyone too far away. Using this for cover Illyich leaped over the fence and into the property, quickly heading towards the back door. It wasn't locked thankfully, but not so thankfully the effort proved worthless. Both the parents were indeed dead, and he scowled angrily. "The parents are dead! Whatever is going on, it definitely has nothing to do with money."

"Agreed," said a new voice over the intercom, that of Gian-Diep-Chu, Sir Dennis. "Powers in Italy that could possibly be involved in child kidnapping for any reason, include AIM, the Mafia, and a local terrorist group whose stated manifesto reads like a HYDRA spinoff which calls itself The Sons of Mussolini."

"Not the Brotherhood or any pro-mutant supremacy group?"

"Pro-mutant Supremacist groups would not have killed the parents, not if they wanted the child's willing cooperation. And if mutant supremacist groups have begun to kidnap and somehow indoctrinate their people, that would be a very bad sign. It would be a conscious decision to forgo the supposedly moral high ground in favor of brute force," Gian-Diep-Chu responded.

Moving back to where he had left the carpet, Illyich was unsurprised to find that a few of the Custodes Mundi had already arrived. On days when they only had training, the Custodes were expected to respond quickly to any call for aid from Father Garnoff, or spymaster. The three in question were Nikolai, Dani, and Amara. They all seemed to be dressed normally, but Illyich doubted that was the case, they were more than likely underneath several illusion spells or ward schemes.

He filled them in on what he had discovered so far, and Amara quickly took charge. "All right, if there isn't anything we can do for the parents we have to move on to tracing that name instead. I want to be close by when they finally stop. Father Garnoff, check the list of names, let's see if there are any other new mutants in trouble in the area."

The transit van didn't stay in the city for long, instead heading up and away into the mountains following one of the main roads before cutting off onto a side road. It did this several times, almost doubling back at one point until they came to what looks like a small, abandoned airfield.

Ghigau frowned as she stared down at it. "Is this from World War II do you think, or was this simply abandoned for economic reasons?"

"World War II," Nikolai said firmly, pointing down to a rusted pile of metal at one end of the airport. "That looks like the remains of an Italian fighter. And Verona was known as a hotbed of resistance against their German 'allies'."

Magma frowned, but began to guide the carpet down to land on the far side of the mangled remains from the main building of the airport.

"Give me a one of your weapons," Illyich demanded suddenly, holding out his hand to Ghigau. "I don't want to go into combat unarmed if I can help it."

"No," Ghigau said shaking her head firmly, her helmet mimicking the move and even creating a strange little sound as if the stylized feathers in the headdress were real. "You've not been trained on any of the guns, and besides I don't use any of them anymore remember? I use Sigyn's Gift and a knife."

"Speaking of," Vanguard said, interrupting his countrymen's imminent explosion, gesturing to the control tower. Staring at it the others saw what he had spotted, several snipers were up there guarding the area, one facing out from each corner of the building. "Hmm, I'm thinking we should've taken the van once it was past all of the traffic"

"Maybe," Ghigau murmured, "but hindsight is always twenty twenty. Father Garnoff, Gian-Diep-Chu, are you reading any other names from the Big Book of Students at our current location?"

"No, but remember the limitations on this. There could be more mutants there who had already activated their powers before the Big Book of Students went online. Or this could be simply a holding place, and they're moved elsewhere. If they're no longer in danger after they leave here, would we notice a name in the green or even yellow being on the move? Especially with all the names in the Middle East showing up and then going black grabbing our attention?"

Father Garnoff made a sound somewhere between a groan and a curse while the teens shuddered at the mention of the Middle East. Islam was moving towards being the first major world religion to take a stance on the 'mutant question', and worse seemed to be leading to one which made all mutants abominations in the eyes of Allah, inhuman monsters that could be put down by any right-thinking individual. Given how those countries had already been treating the mutants, it was sort of a foregone conclusion, but that didn't help them get over how many mutant children were dying in those countries the moment they showed their powers.

Only Israel seemed to be leaning toward equality. There had been many mutants named in that country, but only one had gone into the red, and before they could respond to it they had shifted first into the orange then into the yellow and stayed there.

"I should scout around," Ghigau said after a moment's thought. "None of you have stealth gear on you, but I should be able to get in and out without being seen."

Magma nodded. All of them had a set of wards designed to cover their uniforms which would let them blend into a crowd, but only Ghigau was a stealth expert. The carpet covered the rest of them in its various spells and wards, but they would become visible the moment they left it behind. And those spells wouldn't stand up to them using the carpet as an assault platform. "Good luck."

"Hey, it's me," Ghigau smirked, kicking up and off the carpet, her own runic array covering her as she landed easily on the tarmac, skating forward and around the airport, moving randomly just in case at first, and keeping away from anything that would kick up dust to give her away. Behind her, Amara guided the carpet down to land behind the rusted jetfighter.

Moments later Ghigau was back, dropping down behind the rusted jetfighter startling Vanguard who was hidden among it, his rifle out and poking through a hole in the jetfighter's side towards the control tower. Amara and Illyich turned to her from where they had been staring out around the debris, doing their best to remain hidden.

"There's another kid here, another boy. This one's got red hair, and he looks as if he's either been drugged or something. They've also got some kind of weird chair. It sort of reminds me of the X-Men's Cerebro, it could be some kind of brainwashing device maybe? Regardless, I also know what the group is calling itself, I overheard a few of them call themselves the Maggia."

"Maggia, that's a crime syndicate correct? They want mutant enforcers or something?" Vanguard murmured, not taking his eye away his sniper scope. "Joy. Any adult mutants already working for them?"

"None that I spotted, or at least none with obvious mutations. There's about 17 people here, most of them dressed like heavy muscle and armed with conventional guns, with one or two more high tech weapons among them. None I think up to Custodes level though. One of them looks like the boss, he's dressed like one of those mobsters from the Godfather."

"Excellent movie series, Piotr and I enjoyed those immensely the other night," Magma said nodding her head. The two of them had had an in-castle date the previous evening, but she winced realizing she shouldn't of said that in front of Ghigau. Dani and she had talked about Piotr's decision the night after Dani returned to Earth and while the girl seemed alright with it, that didn't mean Magma wanted to rub her relationship status into her friends face like that.

But Ghigau didn't seem to hear, simply going on with her report. "They brought in the boy they just kidnapped, he's out of it too, looks like unconscious I'd guess chloroform or something similar. They stowed both him and the other boy in one of the old restrooms in the main terminal. They are using the check in area as their main base of operations, the rest of the building doesn't look like it gets any traffic, though I didn't scout it out seeing all the dust on the ground."

Magma touched the concrete of the runway gently. After a moment she smiled. "Yes I can work with this, heh, might even alleviate enough pressure that a nearby volcano won't erupt a few years down the line. Ghigau, Illyich, get ready to move forward on the carpet. It'll be your jobs to get in there and get the kids out. Vanguard, wait until the majority of the gangsters have rushed out of the building, then take those snipers out."

"One shot each, or a special round to the tower?" he asked.

Magma thought about it for a moment then smiled grimly. "I think we want to send a message here. Take the entire tower out."

"Music to my ears," Vanguard murmured. This would be the first time he had used the enlarging charm on his rifle in battle, and he was anxious to see if he could still function afterward. Kitty had made some modifications to her first attempt, and promised the effect wouldn't even be half as much, but he wanted to make certain.

With that in mind he moved his steadying hand down the rifle's stock, sinking them into specialized grooves, feeling the tiny runes cut out inside them under his fingertips. He then aimed again downrange, centering on the center of the control tower. "Ready."

Magma turned, saw that Ghigau had already pulled herself up onto the carpet, as had Illyich. She nodded at the two of them and they ascended into the air, once more covered by the carpets invisibility and Notice-Me-Not charms, rushing over to hover right above the main building. Once they were in position, Magma reached out through her powers deep into the ground, and suddenly for about a mile in every direction of her the ground began to quake.

While Italy wasn't the most tectonically active place in the world, its citizens certainly knew how to react when they felt the ground began to shake. Within a minute after she began men began to rush out of the building, knowing it was safest in wide open areas rather than inside. She counted as she saw them, still hiding behind the rusted aircraft.

"We'll want that boss character for questioning, other than that, I can't think of a reason to take prisoners." Magma mused grimly, seeing that fellow in particular, pushing several other men aside as he rushed out onto the tarmac to put as much distance as he could between himself and the building behind him. He was indeed as obvious as Ghigau had thought, dressed in a well-tailored suit while the others wore regular clothing.

"Now," she ordered, and a second later her ears were assaulted by the "FZAARK" sound of Vanguard's gauss round heading downrange at speeds. The magically enlarged shell slammed into the top of the tower with all the power of a tank round, or more actually considering its speed. The tower shattered, bits and pieces of rubble flying everywhere, including the four snipers.

She jumped up to join Vanguard on top of the jetfighter, her hands suddenly full of small balls of magma as the earthquake stopped, and the Maggia enforcers seemed to realize they were under attack. They weren't spotted at first and her magma balls hit several of them but then the Maggia enforcers began to return fire, forcing Magma to duck and cover.

Vanguard on the other hand simply stayed where he was, ignoring the slight gurgling coming from his stomach, his rifle now on auto as he took out enforcer after enforcer. None of them had anything that could break through his shield, and indeed two of the Maggia died when their attacks, low powered energy beams, bounced directly back and killed them before they could dodge.

Behind the group of criminals Ghigau took up position right at the doorway, bow out and firing at the Maggia members who had turned to try to get back to the building at the same time Illyich raced inside.. There was no cover on the tarmac, and now they were caught between two fires.

By the time Illyich had found the kids and returned to the entrance the battle was over. All of the Maggia members except for the leader were dead, and he was unconscious tied up and with his mouth gagged as well as his eyes covered by a cloth.

"Call it in," Magma said with grim satisfaction. "And I think you and those two should get back to Haven. Dr. Druid and Ms. Brown have been informed about what they might have gone through, and will be waiting to talk to them." The teens all exchanged looks, and Magma pointedly looked away when Illyich took the opportunity to kick the prisoner in the side.

While they were waiting Ghigau went into the building, touching the chair they assumed was some kind of indoctrination device. Thanks to her empathic psi powers, Ghigau could create illusions from the residual thoughts or emotional impressions of an area or single item if the thoughts were strong enough. They were here, but she didn't see any evidence of the chair having been used previously.

Walking back outside, she found that Harry and Storm had appeared, teleported in by one of the house-elves. Harry took one look at the bodies then at the surviving leader and nodded his head grimly. "Good work. Magma, after we're done do you feel comfortable with demolishing this place? You don't have to do anything with the bodies, but make it look as if an earthquake hit."

"Can do Sir," Magma said, nodding her head.

"Good," Harry murmured having already turned away. Storm had already disappeared, returning quickly with Emma via her own style of teleportation. "Jean is hip deep in work with one of the think tanks. Someone seems to have come up with a new idea for how to speed up work on the Ravenspires, and they are testing it out right now."

Harry nodded, and turned to Emma. "Do you want to take the knowledge from his brain, or do it the magical way?" Harry asked holding up a glass vial full of Veritaserum.

Emma eyes locked onto it with avaricious intensity. The amount of money Harry could get from marketing a truth serum was astronomical, but she knew he wouldn't, not yet anyway. "Given the type of things that Maggia members routinely get up to, I'd rather not look into his mind if I can help it."

"Understandable," Harry nodded, tore off the cloth over the man's mouth and tilted his head back pouring the serum three drops onto the man's tongue before waking him up with an Enervate. "What is your name?" he began.

The questioning went on for about three hours and two more applications of Veritaserum as Harry pulled all the information he could think of from a man about the Maggia's current activities, in particular their plans to make any mutants into enforcers. That plan had just started thankfully, pioneered by this man himself who had a connection with AIM, from where the brainwashing device had come from. Unfortunately he didn't know anything about any of AIM's current projects or bases in Italy.

He did know where several meetings were going to take place soon, as well as dozens of Maggia bases. Harry passed on a lot of that information to Duggan, along with the man himself, tied up with a pretty pink bowtie over his head. Over the next few weeks Maggia would quickly find itself under the same kind of attack in Italy and the rest of Europe that AIM had faced in South America, while Harry and the Custodes won more points with SHIELD. Unfortunately this goodwill did not extend to SHIELD's backers, or even Fury himself, who was becoming increasingly paranoid about Harry's resources and goals, despite his good deeds.

When Jean and Harry got back to Camelot, Harry found Emma waiting for him with Ororo. She smiled at them, an evil little expression on her face at the moment. "Sage and I are ready," she said simply. It's time you got in touch with Doctor Doom if he wants to be involved with this."

"I'll send him a message tonight. Tomorrow evening?"

Emma nodded, a predatory smirk on her face. "Imminently suitable. Paris is on board, so it's time to get the Hellfire Club moving to our tune."

OOOOOOO

The New York branch of the Hellfire Club wasn't certain what to make of their sole remaining King. He hadn't handed out any new rules, nor had he been seen much lately, not since Sebastian Shaw had disappeared and Edward Buckman had been arrested. For many of the lower tier members, that was all to the good, business as usual after all was very much to be preferred rather than the kind of topsy-turvy chaos that had begun after the two kings had fallen.

That feeling of complacency did not last very long on the morning of the sixth day after Jean's return. Every member of the Hellfire Club woke up that morning to find a message either waiting on their doorsteps, in their mailboxes or on their phones. Each message was the same: there was a meeting of the Hellfire Club and missing it was not an option unless they wanted to be ejected from the club. The wording was such that many of the members feared that if they did try to leave the club their dirty laundry would instantly become known to the authorities. These were successful businessmen: practically all of them had dirty laundry of one sort or another, so that thought was rather terrifying.

The only exception to that rule was Warren Warrington the third. He disdained business entirely, leaving the running of his company to his company's managers, something his father's will had enforced. Besides, he had personal issues to deal with.

Most of the members arrived promptly at the time their notes indicated, entering the club en-mass believing that numbers could possibly give them power, or at least the illusion of said. It certainly made them feel better anyway. As surprisingly did the changes they found inside.

The décor of the main room of the Hellfire Club had changed. A screen had been erected around the dance poles, most of the tables had been moved to create seven extremely long tables, turned toward a fourth far smaller table in the direct center of the room. No strippers or servers were in attendance, but the tables all had food on them and several wine bottles had been set out on the tables.

Emma Frost sat at the head of that small table while Harry stood, leaning against it next to her. Paris too was there, sitting on Emma's other side. And unseen by any, hidden behind the screen and through various magical means, the Enchantress and Jean waited. They would use their powers in various ways to make certain that the club members would either be telling the truth and be dealing honestly with Harry and his allies or be outmaneuvered.

Harry nodded cordially to the men entering, gesturing them into their seats. "Please sit anywhere you like our announcements will wait until all of you are present. I do apologize for the inconvenience."

That first batch quickly sat down, murmuring to one another as they took in how close Harry and Emma were to one another, and the smiles on Emma and Paris' faces as they talked about something. There was something going on, but it was obvious now that Emma and Harry's previous animosity towards one another might have been, if not completely fake at the very least overdone. That had big implications for the future, and more than one Hellfire Club member winced at the idea of the sole remaining King apparently being allied with the two remaining queens.

A man called Nathan Clark, a lawyer and financer who was nearly rich enough to qualify as a bishop was one of the final members of the club to arrive, and he quickly took a position nearest the main table as he could. If this discussion moved in the direction he thought it might, he was fully prepared to take advantage of it.

His thoughts were so obvious Emma caught them without even trying, and passed them on telepathically to Harry. "Nathan seems to think he's going to be named king because he's the strongest remaining candidate. Won't he be surprised? I know I was when you came up with this idea Harry."

"Seemed an obvious one to me after Doom made that inquiry to me," Harry said mildly. "The only other idea I came up with was to reach out to Tony, and frankly I still think he's a little too indiscreet and far too wild to really be a good ally." That, and Emma knew Harry still had problems with Stark still refusing to go back into the weapons industry, especially because this had allowed Hammer industries to gain all the military contracts Stark Industries had previously held.

"I suppose, though if you asked me a few years ago if I thought this was a good idea, I would've not only told you no, I would have tried to get you locked up in an insane asylum! He's one of the Terrible Trio you know the three scientists/developers every good businessman fears would enter the business market."

"I know," Harry replied complacently. "But it's still a good idea now, isn't it?"

"So long as he keeps to his word, and I have to admit that he has so far, so, reluctantly, yes. That's the last of them," she went on more brusquely, tapping one hand on the glass for her lightly, and Harry nodded at the obvious and telepathic signals.

"Gentleman," he said, "Good evening. I realize that many of you are probably feeling rather disturbed or even leery of having been so unceremoniously summoned to this meeting. For that I apologize, but considering that this meeting is about the future of the Hellfire Club, I thought it appropriate."

"You thought it appropriate to act in such a manner because you're the sole king remaining. There should never be a single king in the Hellfire Club, it says so in our charter! Either there should be no royals, or there should be a balance on the great Council!" Clarke claimed loudly, standing up quickly.

"True enough," Harry said, deflating the man somewhat. "And that is part of the reason why we are here. The other is, I have unfortunately been busy with my own businesses, but I believe it has become time to reach out and start conducting business with all of you." There was a lot of muttering at that, and Harry could almost see the gleam of avarice appear in every face in the club.

"But first, I believe it is time to introduce… call it my nominee… for the place of a King." Harry shook his head slightly as he mused, "Yet I've always found that bit of anachronism rather strange. A king should declare himself rather than be declared by others."

"In that case," said a deep sonorous voice. "It is lucky that you reached out to me is it not Mister Potter? For I am doubly a king by my own hand."

The crowd turned as one to gape at the staircase leading up to the second floor and more than one man there flinched, several even went white. Doctor Doom stood there, his cloak in one hand billowing behind him, a small goblet of wine held to his metal mask as he stared over the crowd, visibly dismissing them before locking eyes with Harry.

"Your Majesty," Mister Potter said, nodding his head slightly, not giving an inch in front of the Latverian monarch even as many in the crowd winced, expecting to see a live immolation any moment now. "Please, join this august body, give us your wisdom and your strength."

Doctor Doom allowed his eyes to roam the crowd once more, many of whom now began to get over their shock, putting his appearance here into the frame of their world views. There was more than one face among them now lighting up in avaricious eagerness, and he smirked inwardly. Fools. Yet they represent economic power, and resources. Resources for my country, more importantly resources for the countries I've annexed, and resources for Potter and his goals.

Doctor Doom move forward, smirking slightly inside his mask as he stared at one face after another, and they all bowed their heads in submission save those three at the main table. That Emma and Harry would not bow was something he had come to expect. Though he did not know Ms. Frost as well as he had come to know Ororo or Jean, he knew Potter well enough to believe that any woman involved with him would have a spine of steel.

However Paris Lourdes caught his attention. She was older than Emma, but still a beautiful woman, somewhere around Susan's age or perhaps somewhat younger Doom felt. He hadn't researched her age of course, only her financial holdings, and found them and her to be intriguing. She was a formidable businesswoman who had carved out her own empire from the ground up with an ambition and vision that he could respect. She might be rather normal in comparison to the people Doctor Doom routinely interacted with, but her accomplishments still spoke well of her, and she was attractive and spirited if her current non-reaction was anything to go by.

And the fact my mother has been on my case about ensuring the succession or rather giving her grandbabies is another factor, Doom thought to himself. If anyone had ever called him henpecked to his face Doom would have made their death a thing of nightmares before scattering their ashes across the solar system. But that didn't actually change facts…

After the swearing-in ceremony to place Doom as the new Black King, Harry smiled grimly. "Now, let's talk business…"

Working together Harry, Emma, Paris, and Doom had browbeaten and otherwise brought the entire membership of the Hellfire Club to heel by the end of the night. Not only had they overawed the members, they expanded their business holdings tremendously, if in very different ways. So great was the awe Doom had evoked, only four or five times did Amora and Jean warn them about the people they were dealing with, and it soon became clear to all that Potter, for all his liberal social platform, was a business shark on the same level of the others.

Paris had the easiest time of it. She and her companies were almost entirely self-sufficient, and her interests were far narrower than any of the other power players. She did expand her connections quite a bit, keeping a notary expert at work on various advertising deals and moving deeper into the online sector than she had previously. Those deals would make her a lot of money if PNN and her other companies could make the jump from the TV screen to the computer screen in the next few years.

Like Paris, Doctor Doom had very specific desires. Latveria was almost entirely self-sufficient, but the annexed territories he'd taken over in an effort, ostensibly, to root out the Red Skull were not, especially with their governments mostly demolished. Managing them had stretched his resources and Doctor Doom also knew there were rumblings from Russia about his recent move into Croatia. His agreements were mostly with those businessmen who owned construction companies, metal manufacturing companies, and above all companies who had shipping concerns or food distribution companies in Europe.

A lot of what he was doing was out right buying goods and services in return for providing security not only for those companies when they began to operate in his country, but outside it as well. Many a businessman there thought erroneously that this meant he would be willing to share his technology with them, but that was far from the case. Any security he provided would be by his own people, and none of them would be so foolish as to share the secrets of Doom with outsiders. Indeed, any attempts to extort them would end badly for the perpetrator.

Emma and Harry worked together a few times but for the most part went their own way. Like Paris Emma went into electronics and anything online while Harry went into factory businesses in a big way, making agreements and deals here and there so that he could use those factories the other businessman owned as if they were his own, sometimes for a bare pittance of what they were really worth. He would have preferred to keep using his own, but frankly his needs outstripped what his own factories could make several times over. He would eventually be able to meet that need, but not for several more months, which was time he, and Earth, could not afford.

What was most interesting however was how Dr. Doom and Paris seemed to hit it off. The Latverian monarch actually flirted with her a time or two, and vice versa as they moved through the crowd of businessmen like sharks through minnows. Some of the poetry he used and a few of the lines, especially one comparing her hair to that of the ancient goddess Aphrodite, were particularly good. Harry could see them having an impact from where he was looking over some of his notes by the bar as the evening wound down.

"That is interesting," Harry sent along their mental link to Emma as he watched Doom bow gallantly over Paris' hand before turning away, teleporting away with a bare pop of displaced air between one step and the next. "And I'm not just talking about his ability to teleport away like that. We might need to ask Reed for some help in putting up anti-teleport defenses."

"It was," Emma mused. "I don't think Paris is in emotional position to wants to start a new relationship just yet, but she was definitely interested in the not-so-good Doctor."

"Meh, I guess some girls go for the bad boys." Harry mentally shrugged his shoulders, before switching to verbal speech as Emma joined him. "Still, I think this was a good day. We'll start looking over the various factories tomorrow, figure out how to re-purpose them, and then start laying down more of the groundwork to build up the industry that we need, specifically droid workers. We can use our new resources to build up more infrastructure while using the force we've already built up to start work on the Ravenspires and other things."

"Agreed, but remember you're going to have to deal with an entirely new brand of parasite now Harry." Harry looked at Emma quizzically, to which she smirked slightly. "A lot of those factories have union workers, so you'll have to deal with the unions for the first time."

She laughed mentally as Harry groaned, shaking his head in dawning horror. He tried to wipe that expression off his face as Paris made her way over to them followed by Amora and Jean. He evidently did not succeed because Paris smirked at him. "What's that look for Potter, some bad news?"

"Unions," Potter replied, still groaning morosely at his surely inevitable doom at the hands of legalized cliques.

"Ahh, enough said there," Paris said with a moue of distaste appearing on her face. "I understand the necessity of unions, and in some industries they serve a purpose still. But they are really irritating to deal with even in the best of times."

"Hngh." Harry grunted shortly while Emma nodded agreement. "Back to the matter at hand, I presume you're happy with the way the evening went?"

"I am most pleased by the way this event turned out, very happy indeed, though when you first mentioned bringing in His majesty I had severe doubts about your sanity. However he was… not what I expected, and rather charming," Paris replied, a small smile on her face.

"I thought him interesting as well," Amora said contemplatively, tapping a well-manicured finger to her full lips. "He has magical powers, much more than I thought I'd find in someone who is so technologically inclined." She suddenly smirked at her friend/employer. "I wonder however, if his interest in you could survive some competition."

"I'm not that interested in him, not so soon after Edward and everything that happened there. On the other hand, watching you crash and burn because I already have his interest could be funny, oh goddess," Paris retorted archly.

Harry frowned, not making the connection for a moment as the two blondes shared sneers then began to giggle like much younger girls for a moment. Emma chuckled too, shaking her head at the all too rare moment of levity from her recently bereaved friend. "So what's next on your agenda for the next few days Paris, Amora? I have a trip to France coming up and wondered if you might join me for a day's shopping in Paris, Paris."

"I've never heard that joke before, seriously," Paris replied dryly, rolling her eyes at the pun, reminding Harry of anyone exposed to his godfather's 'Sirius' brand of humor. "As for joining you, I'm afraid not, I have work, and I'm sending Amora to talk to a few special interest groups about their reactions to the whole mutant equality question. Did you know that a law about that's coming up again in the House?"

"I did hear about that from our political expert, but special interest groups?" Jean asked, looking at Harry with a little concern for a moment as he seemed to be trying to bring something to mind.

"Religious leaders and other groups. A few priests, popes, rabbis and others who have spoken out one way or another about mutants in general. The main religions either seem split on the issue or, in the case of Islam leaning towards calling mutants abominations. In contrast the children of the Torah seem to be leaning towards making it a question of conscience rather than god, as do the Buddhists."

Amora looked a little uncomfortable talking about the various religions before smiling slightly. "But then there are some of the smaller religions, one of which, the Asatru seems to be going the other way for the most part. Hah, but getting the Kindreds to all walk in the same direction would be as impossible a task as herding cats."

"Asatru?" Jean asked, the word sounding familiar.

"Humans that have chosen to follow one or other of my fellow Asgardians, the better known ones anyway. Those who revere the Vanir more might call themselves Vanatru but the principle is the same. They ask for strength, virility etc. from them when they ask for anything at all. They tend to be a somewhat, what Americans call libertarian in nature these days. Heh, humans and your politics make for funny, if interesting, reading." Amora shrugged her shoulders carelessly, then looked over to Paris. "I called for the car already, isn't there that movie on tonight you wanted to watch?"

"Oh, yes, we should go," Paris said, brows furrowed as she looked at Harry's suddenly shocked expression before turning aside. "Um…anyway Emma, I might be able to join you for a half day, I'll call you if I can get away."

"Excellent, I hope you can," Emma said, walking with the two other blonds and talking to Paris as they made their way over to the entrance to the club's parking lot.

Jean turned to Harry, now officially worried about him. "What's got you looking so shell-shocked Harry?"

"I cannot believe I forgot Amora was an Asgardian, damn it!" Harry ran both his hands through his hair in frustration, grabbing and pulling at the bird's nest and making it even more untidy. "I could be asking her questions about, but...huh, come to think of it I've never seen her name mentioned among Vorlus' notes. Still, just because she wasn't worshipped or revered doesn't mean I can't ask her some questions about them," Harry mused, kneading his lightning bolt scar thoughtfully.

"I think if Amora knew anything about the mental blocks or whatever else the Asgardians are dealing with she would've hinted at them already," Jean said cautiously. "Besides, she might not take kindly to any questions about her past, women are sensitive about that kind of thing. And, if you want my opinion about her in general, I'd say Amora's too flighty and far too arrogant to willingly admit she or her people are under anyone's control. And, not to make too fine a point about it but we've both said before we've got enough balls in the air right now without getting involved in this one."

"I suppose you could be right, but she's a resource we might have to look into. And as to your second point, I know we do, but the Asgardians are good people, if we can help them, we should," Harry said, torn between his realization of that very fact and his Saving People Thing™.

Jean nodded wearily, recognizing that fact. "Can't argue with that I suppose, but just go slowly alright? Last thing we need is anyone burning out with all the problems we still have to deal with. Speaking of other problems, where's Ororo? I thought she was supposed to meet us here tonight."

"She's trying to hunt down a certain polarizing issue with our newest teammate," Harry laughed as Jean groaned at the pun, turning toward the exit. She and Harry were due up in High Note to talk to Carol. Busy, Busy, Busy.

OOOOOOO

In the intervening weeks since she and Irene had discovered the shipments of supplies disappearing somewhere in the ocean between Alaska and Russia, they hadn't turned up any more clues no matter what they tried. Indeed Raven was close to tearing her eyes out. And if not for Irene's presence, and Raven's desire to spend as much time as she could with her, she would have. Then at last she had found a clue which had led her to another cargo ship.

But Raven couldn't get on the ship itself. It was guarded round-the-clock by a tightknit private security team with passwords both at the entrance, and round-the-clock changing every hour. She'd been able to figure out the password to enter, listening in on it in the guise of a drunk sailor who was puking his guts out into the water of the bay (not the most pleasant disguise it must be admitted) but that was all.

Still, she'd been able to find the ship and sic Storm and Banshee on it, picking it up after the ship left port. The two flyers followed it high up in the sky for the most part but unfortunately they had to come closer than that quickly because it joined with several other ships at one point. After several days the ship split off again, nearly losing them out into the deep oceans toward Russia. After that they could follow it much more closely, the better to see when they rendezvoused with the submarine they all felt was the next leg of this pipeline.

Considering that both of them were covered by Dissilution charms and Notice-Me-Nots, Storm was certain they wouldn't be spotted, and feared if they kept their distance the ship would find some way to give them the slip. But when a blast of light which looked strangely like Cyclops optic blasts, only a far lighter and thinner, shot out towards her, Storm had cause to rethink that certainty.

"Goddess blessed!" Storm cursed, dodging to one side. Even so the beam slammed into her foot, spinning her around in midair as she switched to Arabic, cursing luridly. There really was no other language save perhaps Russian that loaned itself to cursing so much, every other language was simply unimaginative in comparison.

Could Magneto have found a wizard willing to work with him!? She thought as she righted herself. Even as she watched several crewmen rushed out onto the deck, climbing up the stacks of cargo containers and entering a few of the containers on top. All of which were set along the side facing her. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she muttered to herself, pushing herself further up into the air and away from the ship.

It was well she had, because those cargo containers quickly opened, their sides falling away and the tops retracting backwards to reveal heavy Gatling guns and even a flak cannon. "Oh joy!" A second later the air around her was filled with tracers and small puffs of shrapnel.

For a few moments it was all Storm could do to dodge the incoming fire. At the range she was at it wasn't exactly accurate, but there was so much of it!

As she dodged frantically Storm could only fire a single lightning bolt off in reply. But even that didn't help, the bolt intercepted by a second type of energy beam well away from the ship. This one was circular in nature, a series of consecutive purple rings almost like a Stupefy except for the color.

Banshee came screaming out of the air right above the ship diving down onto the flak cannons from directly above, his sonic scream shaking one of them apart and knocking its crew out. But he was nearly hit in turn by the same energy blast that had broken through Storm's spells initially and was hit by a string of Gatling gun tracers as he pulled away.

This time however Storm saw the individual who had fired that beam. He was a mutant, short of stature and wide of body who wore some kind of metal helmet covering his entire head. Beyond that he wore a purple and yellow uniform, with the purple being at the joints.

As Banshee flew up to join her just out of range of the flak cannons storm concentrated for a moment, bringing up the area of effect which was at the heart of most of the spells Gaea had taught her. With that done she sent out the magical equivalent of an EMP, shutting down the ship's electronics. It wouldn't work on pure mechanical things like the guns, but it would keep the ship from radioing anyone for help or continuing its journey.

Wincing in agony Banshee joined Storm hovering in the air several yards away from her, shaking his arm out. "Where the buggerin' hell've you people been all my life?!" Like the other Custodes uniforms, his had been modified to include small scales of Orihalcum.

"You could've joined up months ago, don't complain," Storm growled then opened up her communicator to High Note. "This is Storm, we have a situation here! Somehow the Brotherhood were able to see through my spells, we're going to need some help here!"

"Roger that," Danielle replied, having been on standby up in High Note just waiting for this call with several others. Not the entire team unfortunately, just her, Piotr and Husk.

All of the others were busy with other things. Wyatt was in the Baxter Building doing his part to keep Johnny from going crazy over worry for Crystal. Nikolai was spending time with his sister, helping her move into the X-mansion. Amara and Betsy were again down in Brazil trying to get to the bottom of where Dacosta's girlfriend had got to.

An excursion that would end badly alas. It turned out that his girlfriend had indeed died in the battle at the high school. The family moving away had simply been to stop them from asking questions without piling up more dead bodies. Roberto's mental problems would continue for some time, because he truly had wanted to simply run away from everything, hiding underneath a new persona.

"Good," Storm said crisply. "Colossus, Husk, get ready." Closing her eyes she allowed the wind to carry her along for a moment, concentrating on reaching out magically towards her two teammates in High Note directly above them. Once she found them, she opened her eyes, staring down at the ship trying to figure out where to teleport them to.

It was only when Banshee shouted "Look out lass!" That she realized she had drifted downward into the range of the anti-air cannons. She winced as a flak round exploded nearby, ducking downwards away from where they were aiming, almost heading straight down towards the ocean. "Colossus, Husk, I am sorry in advance for your rough landing!" she shouted, now concentrating instead on the air directly above the ship.

"Wait, what kind of rough…" Husk began, only to cut off, squawking in shock as she and Colossus suddenly appeared in midair about fourteen feet above the ship. They plummeted downward, and she cursed in a way that would've gotten her mother to wash her mouth out with soap.

Even the normally calm and collected Colossus shouted in shock. "Boshe Moi!"

They smashed into the ship bouncing off several of the heavy duty containers piled high up on the cargo ship. Quickly the two metal clad teens pushed themselves to their feet, heading towards the front of the ship where the bridge was.

At the same time, Storm flew around the ship right above the ocean, hurling lightning bolts out towards the Gatling guns and flak cannons, specifically aiming for the flak cannons. Unable to dip down far enough they couldn't range on her and the crewmen manning the Gatling guns didn't seem to know to fire ahead of her route.

But the two mutants with energy powers were still a threat, a fact proven when Storm was forced to stop and dodge to one side so abruptly her shoes kicked up water. Rocketing straight up allowed her to dodge more fire from the Gatling guns and the two mutants, while also giving her a glimpse of the second mutant.

He was a tall wide shouldered man wearing the same uniform as the first, with a head that looked almost lizard-like but not quite, with red eyes and albino skin. Like the first, his beams seemed to come from his eyes, but they were slower, and he wasn't nearly as accurate. They were wider, but even easier to dodge.

Dodging downwards to the now undefended back of the ship, Storm became close enough to the ship to use her magic. A second later three of the four remaining Gatling guns froze before shattering.

Following her lead Banshee took to strafing the front of the ship with his sonic blasts. A few of the crewmen had posted themselves there to guard the control deck and had begun trying to fire up at him with handheld machine guns, but just like the people manning the Gatling guns, they didn't seem to realize they had to lead him, so it was easy to dodge them.

Husk and Colossus were having a much tougher time of it. They had taken out several crewmen including two teams who had attempted to get to the cannons on the other side away from Storm's initial attack, but then they ran into more Brotherhood opposition.

From out of one of the containers came a mutant with the head of a snake complete with a long scaly neck. He had shoulders almost as wide as Colossus and it was obvious that along with his snake mutation came super-strength. This was obvious because he smashed his way out of the cargo container he'd been hiding in and rushed Colossus, smashing into him and hurling the Russian off his feet for a moment while pounding two hard punches into the surprised steel-clad Custodes' head.

Behind him Husk moved to help, only to stumble when a woman only a few years older than her jumped on her back, pounding the back of her head with her fists. Husk grunted in pain, going to her knees as the woman screamed, "Finally some action! I don't know who you are, but Frenzy's been dying to get down for a while!"

Using what she had learned from Shiang Chi, Husk quickly reached up behind her head, grabbing one of Frenzy's arms before going with the movement of collapsing to her knees, hurled her forward over her head. Frenzy squawked her back impacting the container underneath them then Husk was on her, a punch smashing into her face nearly burying the woman's head in the hull.

"How you like it bitch I- yipeee!" Paige shouted, throwing herself aside from a small but highly beam of fire that looked hot enough to melt metal, something which was proven when it impacted the cargo container behind her previous position.

Her attacker was a thin middle-aged man with light blonde hair wearing the same uniform as the others with the addition of a metal chest plate. As she watched the beam of flame flicked out of the container like a whip before coiling around him like a living thing almost, growing as he gestured with his hands. "Be more careful Frenzy! She works with the race traitor Storm so she's probably been trained! Don't underestimate them, and you and Slighter, stay together! Basilisk and Peeper try to keep the two flyers off us while we deal with these two. Stinger, where the hell are you?!"

Another younger woman came out of the control tower ahead of where Colossus was dealing with his own enemy, immediately firing off several small bolts of electricity at him. In reply Colossus ducked away from his opponent for a moment, wincing. They might not actually do his body any real damage, but electricity attacks stung like all blazes. "I was trying to get the radio to work Crucible! We're cut off!"

"We aren't supposed to be using the radio anyway!" The man apparently named Crucible replied, now shooting a wave of fire at the two metal -clad attackers. Both of them backed away while their opponents got out of the fire's way quickly dodging to either side glaring at the man for a moment. Then Husk and Colossus broke to one side of the on rushing flame, dodging in between several containers, and the two super-strong Brotherhood members went after them quickly.

There wasn't really that much room to maneuver aboard the cargo ship. There were little walkways between stacks and levels of cargo containers, but unless you wanted to destroy them you couldn't really move that quickly except in straight lines.

But Colossus and Husk should have realized that their opponents were willing to destroy their own cargo to get at them. The two of them had retreated from the flame user, trying to get around him by ducking several levels down before moving around. Fire might not burn through Colossus' armor, but Paige was much more wary of it, and he wasn't willing to leave her alone.

Frenzy burst out from between one container and the next, slamming Husk back into another container causing the entire stack to wobble precariously for a moment. "Got you now bitch!"

Husk had barely a moment to right herself flailing out almost blindly for a moment, the debris from the inside of the container getting into her face as Frenzy continued to pummel her. The girl's punches weren't actually doing much damage, but Husk wasn't having much luck hitting back either.

This ended when Frenzy got in a little too close, and Husk was able to grab her by the hair. Pulling her in, Husk slammed several hard blows into Frenzy's stomach, hurling her backwards and out of the container the crazy woman had hurled them both into. Husk quickly followed, trading blows with the other woman for a moment, now getting the better of the exchange.

Thanks to Frenzy having jumped the gun on their ambush Colossus was ready when Slither tried to ambush them in turn. He grabbed Slither out of the air right before impact, twisting and hurling them both down to the ground. Now he was behind Slither, locking in a hold around Slither's long snakelike neck, repeatedly slamming his head down into the deck below them despite Slither turning his head almost entirely around, attempting to bite Colossus' arms.

A nearby Banshee wail sounded out, and one of the two mutants that Storm first saw dropped from one of the tall crates, hiding from Banshee's assault for a moment. Seeing his fellows in such distress, he turned his eye beams on their attackers. "Always it is Basilisk that needs to clean up after you both!"

His eye blasts hammered out, impacting Husk in the back, and surprisingly nearly knocking her unconscious. It wasn't the force of them or anything of that nature, the beams simply had the same effect as a Stupefy would. Thankfully for her, and rather ironically, Frenzy's continued pummeling actually kept her awake and upright, though she began to stumble backwards, her mind still woozy, unable to focus.

Colossus too stiffened, but he fell forward, slamming his head into the container underneath them for a moment right by Slither's, which woke him up. And by that point Slither was already unconscious from his hold. Rolling forward Colossus came to his feet, grabbing up a piece of debris and hurling it backwards at Basilisk.

By this point Storm had gotten close enough to the ship to call in the far less durable Danielle, who had swiftly taken out Peeper with a single concussive arrow slamming into his chest and hurling him away. Now Ghigau was stalking towards the front of the ship, where Crucible and Stinger had joined the defense against Banshee and Storm, with limited success.

Every time Crucible tried to hurl a fireball at either of the flyers a wave of wind and rain would intercept it, putting the fire out quickly no matter how hot it was. Stinger was much more accurate with her attacks, but both flyers were far too maneuverable to be hit by them.

Seeing this Ghigau had moved in to support Colossus and Husk. Firing off explosive arrows at both Frenzy and Basilisk she kept them away from the two tanks until they got their bearings again. Colossus did so quickly, nodding up at her in thanks and closing with Basilisk who had turned his eye beams on Ghigau, who had skated out of the way easily. Basilisk turned away from her right into a single punch to the face which knocked him unconscious.

Frenzy however had turned, taking Husks legs out from under her before she could get her bearings, and then shoulder blocking into her, hurling Husk off the side of the ship. "Hope you can swim bitch!"

"Husk!" Ghigau cried, moving towards her swiftly. Frenzy tried to attack her from behind, but Colossus was in her face immediately, grabbing her head and slamming it down into an uprising knee with enough force to create a small shockwave in the air around them. He did this several times, the girl desperately trying to pummel his chest in turn, before looping around behind her with an acrobatic flip in the air before locking in another hold on her. They were after all supposed to take prisoners.

Ghigau raced forward to the side of the ship where Husk had disappeared only to jump back as a rejuvenated Slither attempted to grab her around the legs. A kick to his face with one of her hover boots sent him away, but he came back, throwing another punch, only to take another kick to the side of his head. The kick didn't even phase him, but the stun arrow which slammed into his wide open mouth did, shocking him into unconsciousness.

Kicking Slither's unconscious form away, Ghigau turned away quickly, racing back to stare over the side of the ship. Concentrating for just a second, her magical bow shifted into a rope with a heavy weight on the end of it which she twirled over her head before hurling it down into the water with all her might. At the same time Colossus moved towards her quickly, grabbing the end of the rope behind her and nodding towards the front of the ship. "Go!""

Instead, Ghigau merely nodded at him, remaining where she was. "I don't know if Sigyn's Gift would retain its form if I let it go, and besides, Storm has it under control."

Having come close enough to actually land on the ship Storm did indeed have it under control. At a wave of her hand the deck under Crucible and Stinger became coated with ice, before she followed up with a blast of wind. Crucible desperately tried to conjure enough flame to protect himself from the wind, but the wind was so wet that it overcame his defense quickly, pushing both of them off their feet. Banshee then landed next to Crucible, and a swift scream in the man's ears knocked him out cold.

Seeing this, Stinger sighed, holding her hands up above her head. "I know when we're beat."

Storm actually paused for a moment looking at the young girl, she couldn't be more than 16, if that. She had wild blue hair done up in short spikes sticking up from the top of her head, but she seemed more morose than anything, certainly far less combative than the others had seemed. "What is your name child? Your real name please."

"Wendy." Stinger said shrugging her shoulders. "My powers sort of gave me my nickname."

"If you give me your world you will not try to escape, I will not knock you out as we have your compatriots."

"My word?" Wendy asked, before chuckling and holding up her hands once again. "You've got it I suppose. So long as it doesn't get back to the others that I gave up without a fight anyway I should be fine."

"The life of mutant terrorist not all it's cracked up to be lass?" Banshee asked. The girl was the same age as his daughter for goodness' sake.

"Are there any other Brotherhood members aboard?" Storm asked, cutting in quickly.

"No, it was just the six of us. And you might say that mister. I thought we'd be, you know, fighting the good fight. But all we've done is…" Wendy nee Stinger cut herself off, looking away. "We might've had a home I suppose safe from persecution, but it wasn't ours in the first place."

There was a story behind that but Storm wanted to make certain the battle was over first. Quickly she made her way through the ship, flying over it and making note of the unconscious forms of the defenders but then paled landing quickly beside Ghigau and Colossus, who were pulling at a rope stuck over the side of the ship. "Where's Husk?"

At first, Husk had dropped like a particularly not aerodynamic steel ball bearing through the water. But she had regained enough of her senses from Basilisk's assault to realize what was going on quickly and almost immediately began to peel at her steel body, peeling it off return to her base form before she could transform again, fear and terror of drowning fueling her speed. This was a weakness in her mutant power she had yet to get around, she had to return to her human body if only for a moment before transforming into a second form.

She stopped for a second when a rope zipped through the water right next to her, mentally thanking Ghigau's marksmanship but by the time she had finished peeling out of her steel skin, she was nearly out of breath and had fallen too far to reach the surface on her own power. Swiftly she began to peel away her now normal skin, uncaring of her nudity thinking that there was no one around.

After she had transformed her face and body into pumice, a type of stone that could actually float in the water, she realized this was not the case. She stopped and stared for a moment at two pale blue humanoids riding huge seahorses treading water in the ocean about ten feet away from her. Both of them were grinning unrepentantly at her, and she growled angrily, finished stripping her skin off and then flipped them both a finger with one hand, while grabbing at Ghigau's rope with the other.

One of them actually had the temerity to come over and say something to her, speaking a language she didn't understand. When he went to smack her ass however she smacked his hand away with as much force as her stone body could handle.

He cried out in pain holding his arm, which was now at an odd angle the bone in it having broken under the blow.

She snarled at him, giving him the finger once again. Serves you fucking right, she mouthed then finished peeling away the last of her skin, wrapping the rope around her pulling herself up and away from the strange blue-skinned men.

A second later she found herself being pulled out of the water as if she weighed nothing at all, smiling as she knew that meant Colossus was on the other end. Seconds later she was pulled up out into the air to fall back onto the deck of the ship.

"Are you all right?" Colossus said going down to his knees next to her.

"There are frikkin' blue-skinned perverts in the water!" She shouted pointing back in down into the water.

"There is a story I trust behind that my dear," Storm said, kneeling down beside the young woman and pulling her to her feet in and into a swift hug. "And the next time you decide to go swimming, please don't do it in your metal form?"

Husk shook her head with a laugh, taking strength from the older woman's presence and her friends. That had been one of the most terrifying experiences she'd had in her life. "I didn't exactly choose to go swimming you know. And there is a story behind it."

It took Husk a few minutes to explain what had happened, and Colossus studiously looked away, torn between laughing at her misfortune and simply groaning at it. They really did have to figure out a way to let her keep her clothing on regardless of her form. When she was fully transformed most of her feminine features went away, but her clothing simply couldn't survive the changing process. Not unless she pulled it off first and then put it back on, which like was not often doable.

"While interesting I think that is a mere sideshow to what we have done here." Storm said. "Well done everyone. Gather the prisoners together, along with young Wendy."

Husk and the others looked at her in surprise, and Storm explained about Stinger and her willingness to surrender. Having a live and willing prisoner was a boon that Storm had not seen coming.

"While you're doing that, I'm going to call in Diamond at the very least." With Jean and Harry still busy with the discussion with the big brains, and with Betsy down in Brazil, Emma was the only available telepath.

They could have called in Charles too, but he was busy with his various patients. Indeed, at that moment he was slowly bringing Lorna Dane out from underneath Shaw's indoctrination, after having already woken Alex up.

Moments after calling her, Storm had Cory teleport Diamond in. Now that they were in possession of the ship he was able to do that relatively easily, and at her command he stayed around, just in case. Diamond immediately went to work on the unconscious prisoners, frowning angrily after only a mere few seconds in each of their minds. "Dammit! Magneto is a paranoid bastard!"

"You were unable to find his location?"

"No, it's been erased from their minds, something only another telepath could've done."

"We do know at least one telepath that works with Magneto," Storm said soothingly, rubbing Diamond's neck for a moment from behind. "Don't take it personally."

"I do take it personally! If he'd just occluded the memories I could find them, but erasing them entirely is both final and much more dangerous! There are shadows there," Diamond said most of her attention still on delving into Crucible's mind. As the leader, or seemingly anyway he'd been the only one who attempted to order the others around she expected he would have the most information available. "But nothing solid. I'm getting some flashes of water? And some kind of underground tunnel? But it's all disjointed. There are a lot of very vague memories of combat too, in a jungle of all things."

Storm turned to the one conscious prisoner, who had not been making any trouble. She'd simply sat, exchanging a few words with Husk, who she recognized as a girl near her own age or maybe a little younger. She had spoken to Ghigau too, but seemed put off by Ghigau's costume. "Can you shed any light on this?"

Wendy looked back at her, then at Paige and around at the others before her face firmed up noticeably. "I… I'll agree to answer your questions if you'll answer mine."

"Do it," Diamond chimed in telepathically. "Whatever is hidden in the girl's memories she's been having second thoughts about Magneto and the brotherhood for a while now. Her mind's practically swimming in guilt."

"I could tell that without telepathic powers Diamond, thank you," Storm replied drolly over Diamond's link. "Alright Wendy, what do you want to know?"

"We weren't ever allowed off the boat on the few times we were sent out to guard the supplies. But sometimes we could hear the conversations on the docks or Peeper would share what he saw on the news."

"Point of order," Diamond said, holding up a thin finger, even as she sent telepathic tendrils into the young teens mind. After all, just because she knew Wendy was questioning her life choices up to this point didn't mean Diamond was going to trust her unequivocally. "Peeper? That's a rather bizarre codename."

As Diamond had hoped, the question sent Wendy's mind to picturing the man in question, a short, almost goblin-like mutant with wide eyes. "Peeper's powers allow him to see through walls and anything else that could block his sight, shoot low powered eye beams and even have X-ray vision if he concentrates hard enough. He's pretty harmless besides that though. I wouldn't call him a friend really, but he's not as bad as the Acolytes or the Acolyte wannabes."

"We'll come back to those terms when it's our turn to ask questions. But I believe you wanted to know something?" Storm asked.

"Some of the conversations were about mutants and what's been going on in the news lately. Is, is it true that equality is gaining ground in America and other places?" Wendy asked.

"Yes," Storm replied firmly. "It's not been easy, and the process is far from finished, but the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway, have all enacted laws or are close to enacting laws that put that equality into law. Other European and even a few Asian countries might follow suit in the next few months, and Israel is also close to doing the same thing. America is considering a law of that nature even now, but our political analyst isn't certain it will get through the House let alone the Senate."

She paused, frowning slightly. "I won't say it's all been going our way, because it hasn't, and there are still many more countries where mutants have no protection against discrimination under the law. But we are doing all that is humanly possible to help the concept of equality along without turning to wholesale violence, which would be counterproductive at best. Yes, mutants still are prosecuted, but there is hope for a better future."

Wendy stared at her, then around at the rest of the Custodes, before seeming to deflate slightly. "So while we were following Magneto in trying to carve out a haven for mutants, you and the Custodes Mundi have been the ones actually fighting the good fight. Damn, that's really depressing."

With a shake of her head Wendy threw off her odd mood, nodding somewhat grimly. "Ask your questions."

"Can you tell us anything about where Magneto and your Brotherhood have been hiding? Are you willing to tell us about the Brotherhood and this group you call the Acolytes?" Diamond asked quickly.

"Magneto's been using us to help him conquer… wherever he's been hiding. We've been fighting for a while against normal humans, and some other groups." Wendy frowned, her hands moving through, her spiked hair. "Some of them had high-tech weapons I remember that but most were really low-tech, like spears and flint arrows low-tech. Not all of them were human, there were cat people, lizard people, and these weird Pterodactyl people. And…" Stinger paused racking her brain. "There were dinosaurs? Does that make any sense, or is that just part of what Mastermind did to us? "

Before either of her listeners could ask the obvious question there she nodded quickly. "Yes every time a group left to guard one of the shipments we had to submit to Mastermind's probes. He's in charge of the submarine which actually brings in the supplies after we meet up with him."

"And if you protest?" Storm asked.

"No one has. I was sort of leery about it, but Ms. Amelia was there to reassure me that he wouldn't, you know, implant anything." Wendy shuddered.

"You can't trust him not to as a fellow member of the Brotherhood?" Diamond asked archly.

"If you ever meet Mastermind you'd know that's a stupid question," Wendy replied sharply. "He's a damn letch! No girl in their right mind would want him in their mind. I remember an incident there, he used his mental powers on one of our newer recruits, I…I can't remember the details! Dammit! He was only supposed to…" she shivered, leaning against the back of the cargo container behind her, putting her arms around her knees for a moment.

Diamond nodded, shaking her head. "I wish I could help you," she said honestly. As a telepath herself, she knew what damage a telepath could do. "If he had simply occluded your memories, I could bring them back, but he erased them. I will say however there doesn't seem to be anything traumatic there, something of that nature would have carried over into the more primal centers of your brain, but I don't see any hints of that."

Wendy nodded, uncoiling slightly then looked over at Storm, who cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you willing to continue?"

Before Wendy could answer, Colossus spoke up from where he had been leaning against the cargo ship's railing. "Storm, I believe we're about to have company."

Storm turned quickly moving towards the railing followed by the rest of the team and a curious Stinger. Almost immediately upon reaching the railing they saw what Colossus been talking about. From out of the water came several dozen of the same seahorse riding blue-skinned men that Husk had seen while drowning. Seeing them in person Storm groaned. She'd hoped that the two had been out-of-control, and indeed they might've been, but they were definitely Atlanteans. Worse at the head of this band was Prince Namor himself.

Harry had known of Namor for some time, having read about him in the Fantastic Four's journals and despite representing a highly advanced culture hidden from the rest of the world was loath to actually contact him. The dealings the Fantastic Four had with Namor had shown an arrogant, narcissistic streak, as well as a standoffish nature almost equal to the Inhumans. That plus the fact he'd tried to kidnap a married woman even after she'd married had told Harry very bad things about the man.

Without preamble Namor jumped from his mount onto the deck, staring at the group of strangely clad mutants. "Which one of you is the harlot that assaulted one of my men?"

"Harlot!?" Husks snapped, stepping forward quickly her anger overriding her caution. "I'll give you harlot!"

Storm grabbed her shoulder and pushed backwards. "Let's not start a diplomatic incident dear," Storm soothed then turned to Namor. "Your pardon your Majesty, but we had no idea that Atlantis was anywhere nearby. Further, Husk cannot help transforming like that. She was sinking in her metal form, and had to change back into her normal human form before changing into another. She did not realize she had an audience, nor could she have changed anything about what she was doing even if she did."

"Your ignorance of your location does not save you," Namor said grimly. "You assaulted this ship, a ship which was passing peaceably through my waters. It might not be one of mine, but it displeases me to think you attacked it in my waters, just as much as your teammates assault on my men."

"Really, I did not see any markers to that effect," Storm asked, one eyebrow rising in mock surprise. "Indeed, as far as I know no-one really understands where your national waters are in relation to what are known as international waters."

"There is no such thing as international waters, all the oceans belong to me!" Namor said arrogantly.

"I think you would find it very hard to prove that," Storm replied with a laugh.

She then stepped forward, her magical aura swirling around her, her mutant power crackling from her eyes. "I know not why you wish to make a big deal out of this, but this was a matter purely between ourselves and the Brotherhood of Mutants, a terrorist group who tried to style themselves as liberators of mutant-kind. It has nothing to do with you your realm or anything that goes on below the surface of the ocean. You could make an issue I suppose about Husk's attack on your scout or whatever he was, but considering he was reaching to slap her ass while she was desperately trying to change back to stop herself from drowning, I can't find it in myself to care about his injury."

"These are my waters woman, you would do well to curb your tongue!" Namor growled, stepping forward himself to get into Storm's face in a blatant attempt to intimidate her.

It didn't work. "You are not the first king I have spoken to, nor do I think you will be the last. As I said, this was a small and regrettable incident. Why exactly are you trying to make a mountain out of a molehill?"

Namor scowled angrily, turning away. In reality, he didn't want to make a big deal out of this. But he was looking for an exterior enemy to rally his people against. Recently one of his generals had attempted a coup, and his people were fractured and rather demoralized thanks to the minor civil war which had resulted from this. He needed something to rally them around him, and had hoped to use this as a Cassis Belli.

But Storm was right; it was a remarkably small incident to make anything over. If they had polluted the waters, or if Husk had killed the guard she had struck, perhaps it could have been usable. But as it was, no.

"Very well," he growled angrily. "So long as you leave these waters as quickly as you may I will not make any further issue about this. But know I will be watching you and yours whenever you ride upon my oceans."

With that he turned, jumping back into the water. A moment later he and his followers had disappeared into the depths.

Storm actually blinked a little then turned to stare at Diamond. "You didn't… did you?"

"Nothing invasive I assure you," Diamond said shaking her head quickly. "Merely the telepathic equivalent of a calming charm, Namor was looking for a fight. It might occur to him that his mind was manipulated if he's ever run into a telepath before I don't know if he has, but I didn't do anything other than try to calm him down. And isn't it better not to start a war right now?"

Storm nodded. "I suppose you're right." She shook her head looking over the prisoners. "Now, I believe you were answering some of our questions."

While the rest of the team made certain the prisoners didn't wake up, Wendy answered Diamond and Storm's questions. They learned about the Brotherhood, its organization and numbers. It turned out there were around forty Brotherhood members and another twenty plus Acolytes or so, Wendy wasn't certain about their numbers.

There were also upwards of two hundred or more 'mutates' groups of locals which had been converted to Magneto's cause. She didn't know how that was accomplished, an actual point of ignorance rather than something caused by Mastermind. What she did know was that nearly all of them were bestial in nature, superstrong, durable, near mindless, and brutal in battle. She had a lot of memories of them, Mastermind apparently not thinking them worth deleting from her mind.

The Brotherhood was the junior branch almost of the Acolytes, though the demarcation wasn't a solid one, and really depended on individual powers and attitude. Nearly to a man the Acolytes were fanatical in their devotion to Magneto and the majority of them were killers many times over. Their powers also tended to be more powerful or deadly than the normal Brotherhood members.

Moreover, the Acolytes were nearly all firm believers in mutant supremacy. Most of the Brotherhood was too, but many of them had also joined up to simply fight for mutant rights and equality, rather than supremacy. Wendy herself had initially thought mutants needed to be on top to keep from being on the bottom simply as a measure of self-defense, but that thought had faded in the battles since then. This was made worse by the progress the Custodes were making.

While eating a meal Cory had popped in with for them all with a certain amount of relish Wendy was able to give them physical descriptions of what she called the power players. Most of them were Acolytes, two were locals wherever they were hiding, and two were Brotherhood members. Storm recognized Quicksilver's description from that, but the other, an 'irritatingly flirtatious man' with a Cajun accent, she did not.

But she wasn't able to tell Storm about any of their actual abilities. Diamond, still in Wendy's mind, found that any example of those powers being used had been erased. Even glimpses of them during pitched battles with groups that looked almost primeval in their garb had been erased from Wendy's mind. And when she checked their prisoners mind, Diamond found much the same thing.

Satisfied that Wendy had no inclination to lie to them, Diamond left her to Storm's gentle questioning, turning her attention entirely on the other prisoners. Delving through their minds, she was able to build up a large number of mental imagery she could later use to describe most of the Brotherhood and many of the Acolytes. With that done, she signaled Storm, believing they had gotten as much information as they could get from their prisoners and Wendy.

Moving over she found Storm describing Avalon academy and its growing academic resources to Wendy, as well as the number of students they had already enrolled through various means. Wendy was eating it up, asking questions of her and Cory surprisingly. She seemed fascinated by the little house-elf.

"What's the plan now?" Diamond asked, waving her hand to encompass the entire ship and the prisoners behind her.

Storm frowned for a moment thinking. "Can you erase the memories of this battle from all of their minds? And I think implant a memory of Stinger going overboard while in port?"

"I can do the first easily enough, the second will take some work. Erasing memories like that is a lot easier than implanting false ones which will stand up to another telepath's scrutiny."

"What's that for?" Husk asked.

At the same time Ghigau smacked one hand into her other palm making a 'Ohhhh', noise inside of her helmet. "Trojan horse?"

"Something of that nature yes," Storm replied. "And a stalking horse besides."

Wendy frowned at that. "Wait a second, you, I mean, I get that you think that taking me with you is a good idea, and I'd jump at it, but I don't think any implanted memories are going to pass by Mastermind. That means Crucible and the rest won't be allowed in, the whole ship and everything on it will just be turned around, that's how fanatic Mastermind is about keeping this place a secret."

At a look from Storm, Diamond nodded, indicating Wendy was probably correct, while the younger girl went on. "And… and if you all are the ones really fighting for mutant rights rather than domination, I want to do my part to take Magneto down."

Looking at Storm and the others, Wendy's face firmed decisively. "That means me going back to wherever Magneto and the rest are. Erase my mind of this too, but maybe plant something on the ship or on me that will give them back maybe? Then you can use me as, I don't know some kind of spy or something?"

"While I applaud your courage, that's not needed Wendy. I can plant tracking charms on everything on this ship, that will lead us to wherever Magneto is hiding."

"But remember what I said, if I'm missing, the entire ship won't be allowed in, it'll be too suspicious."

Storm looked over at Diamond again, and she nodded once more, confirming what Wendy said a second time. Before Storm could speak again however, Cory surprisingly spoke up, staring up at Wendy. "You are very brave missy blue-hair. I's think though you's will be needing help."

"Cory?" Storm asked, startled.

"Miss should have help. I's could go with her mistress. You's know, er I mean you know no one sees house-elves less we want them too. I's could go along with missy blue-hair."

Storm's eyebrows rose from where they had narrowed at Cory's backsliding speech, and she frowned thoughtfully, staring between the two of them. "Are you certain you want to do this Wendy?"

"I don't want to do this, but I know I have to. Magneto, if you let him, he'll unleash war across the whole world, and any chance for mutant-norm equality will die," Wendy said, shaking her head. "And besides, I was part of the fighting that secured wherever this is from its natives. Maybe in this way I can atone a little."

Running a hand through her hair, Storm stood there for a moment, thinking. Her guts were telling her to go along with this, but this was really a decision Harry should make. With that thought, she turned her eyes to Diamond, and asked her to contact him.

Moments later, Harry nee Guardian appeared in person, teleporting down with Phoenix in tow. It took about twenty minutes to fill him in after which he talked some more to Jean and the others, hoping someone had a better idea than possibly sending Wendy/Stinger back into the lion's den. But after a few minutes, Harry realized no one did, and that Cory's inclusion could make this plan a viable one.

With that in mind Harry turned to Wendy and Cory. The house-elf volunteering for this was interesting. It could mean Wendy might be able to grow a magical core in time, and, more immediately important, Cory could teleport them both away. "You're a brave and good elf Cory, thank you for volunteering for this."

Corry beamed happily, and Wendy smiled, knowing they had decided to go with her plan.

Staring at Wendy, Harry fought off a small sense of Deja-vu. She looked quite a bit like Nymphadora Tonks at her punk-rocker best, with different hair color sure, but the face was nearly the same as Tonk's normal form.

While originally part of the Order of the Plucked Chicken, Tonks began to help Sirius and Harry after Sirius was exonerated during Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts. She and her parents had aided Harry's group of New Marauders with information and resources even though she had never joined them on their attacks, having severe reservations about killing even in war.

As a friend, Harry had always kept Tonks at arms-length because of her attempt to bridge the gap between Remus, Sirius and Harry, being interested in the older man for some bizarre reason. Luna had once said it was because of his 'porn mustache' which made Harry question how the younger blonde knew the word, and more importantly why the mustache could be called that.

She had been with her parents when they were personally targeted by Voldemort, and died before Harry and his people could arrive. That had struck both Sirius and Harry hard at the time, but they had been forced by the ongoing war to keep going despite their grief.

"I want to make certain you know what you're getting into here," Guardian squatted in front of the girl, pointing at her head with a finger. "There's a way to remove your memories for a short time, store them so you can get them back later. So I am going to remove the memory of this battle and everything else, give those memories to Cory to carry, and, when you are back to this hidden base, he'll give them back to you while we use the tracking charms and everything else to teleport ourselves in. Once that's done, you'll have a choice, to either stand and fight with us, or have Cory teleport you out. Either way, this is an amazingly brave thing you're doing right now, and I, we, cannot thank you enough for it."

Wendy nodded. "In that case, we should get a move on sir. No offense, but we were on a time table, and it's only so flexible. We had to allow for sudden storms and bad seas, but even so…"

"Right. Storm, get repairing, everyone else, gather up the wounded, heal them up either through the potions or bring them to Storm. Diamond, Phoenix, you know what to do," Guardian ordered.

An area of effect Reparo from Storm later, the ship was back to looking as it had before the battle, save a few scattered chips of paint and quite a bit of missing ammunition for the flak cannons and Gatling guns. Wanting to be thorough, Harry popped in some more from supplies they had taken from Shaw's weapon's factory after removing Wendy's memories and knocking the girl out..

After she was done with that, Storm went around, methodically opening every container and tagging some of the supplies inside with tracking charms, then doing the same with the prisoners, and finally the ship itself. She did not bother with the normal looking sailors. They had not been fighting in top form, and were quite obviously mind0controlled in some manner, something that Emma confirmed after a bare second's probe.

While Storm concentrated on the physical evidence, Jean and Phoenix did their bit on the mental. Putting the Brotherhood members back to where they had been before the battle was somewhat tough, but they managed, and soon the ship was on its way, none of the people on it any the wiser for what had happened.

OOOOOOO

Contrary to Harry and Ororo's hope it would take several days before the magical locator devices Ororo had emplaced even showed any change in the cargo ship's direction. Cargo vessels were not after all very fast. Not to say they weren't putting the time to good use.

Harry, Jean and Ororo had ceased all other work, cancelled all other meetings to work with the Custodes full time. They used the contacts Dennis and Banshee had brought with them to put powers to the faces and names Emma supplied from the Brotherhood, and trained relentlessly against them in large scale combat scenarios. They didn't have information on all of the Brotherhood or Acolytes, but they had enough to get by for now.

Despite that the wait was getting to Harry and two days after that battle he was still upset about the necessity. "I thought we would have a single day off, then be able to plan our attack on Magneto right away. I don't like how he's been able to hide himself away for so long. 'The unseen enemy strikes the hardest.'"

"That sounds like a quote," Jean said, as she came out from their bathroom in the headmaster's tower, where all four of the lovers had gathered for a short meeting.

Harry smiled at her, then stopped and stared at her get up, which consisted of short Daisy Dukes and a tight T-shirt. "Very nice!" he said then shook his head for a moment going back to the topic at hand. "It was, a quote I mean, from Sun Tzu I think. I am seriously worried about Magneto. Not personally, I think I can handle him alone. But he commands too many mutant's loyalties and our progress toward equality between mutants and humans is still damned fragile even in first world countries."

"I too am worried about it," Ororo said from where she lay on the bed, reading a book from one of her favorite authors which had come out earlier that day. "But I am more worried about young Wendy. She was very brave to volunteer as she did, as was Cory but I hope it does not come back to haunt them both."

"We covered her with as many spells as we could," Harry said with a shrug. He wasn't being uncaring, just understanding that they had done all they could to defend the young woman.

"I agree with both your concerns, but I'm not going to allow either of you to mope about it," Jean said authoritatively. "Ororo I know you've got that book to read, get your nose back into it and don't worry about things we can't do anything about yet." Ororo laughed but obeyed as Jean moved towards Harry grabbing him by the chin gently and tilting his head up towards her. "And you and I are going on a date mister."

"You have any requests?" Harry asked bemusedly.

"Yep," Jean replied, smirking. "Something that you would never catch Emma or even Ororo doing. Well, the second bit anyway."

"Too true. Why does one of your faults have to be your taste in music Jean?" Emma mused, her eyes not leaving her book where she was laid out in bed next to Ororo. Her book was quite a bit more salacious than Ororo's but just as gripping.

"Quiet you," Jean growled, before smiling over at Harry. "But first, we're going to go over to America. We'll fly down from Charles's place and go driving out in Oklahoma."

Harry shrugged then leaned over kissing Ororo ardently on the lips for a moment before whispering in her ear. "Seriously, don't worry. Wendy will be fine with Cory there. You know that he'll teleport her out the moment she's threatened."

Ororo nodded, her eyes still closed from the passion of the kiss leaning her forehead against his for a moment before opening them and staring into his eyes. "Thank you Harry," she murmured, "that is a load off my mind."

Harry smirked kissed her once again whispering "I love you" in her ear, before moving off reluctantly to join Jean by the doorway to this spiral staircase, where she had been smirking at them, gentle and loving amusement in her eyes.

At the entrance to the Room of many Doors (temp title) Jean patiently stood still for a few moments as Harry continued to cast spells on her, the runic array now embedded into the back of her hand glowing white occasionally, until he finally stopped and nodded. "Have you figured out why the runic array you gave me acts up like that Harry?" She asked, holding it up.

For just a moment Harry thought the microscopic array shifted somehow in Jean's skin, but then it was gone, and he shook it off as a trick of the fading light of that array of spells he'd just cast. "Afraid not Jean, just put it down to a minor mystery, something caused by your connection to the phoenix maybe?"

Harry shrugged, though internally he thought that was really close to the truth. The phoenix took power or gave power to the basest energy level of the universe, with magic several steps above that. It made sense phoenix power could impact magic in odd ways.

The two of them headed down to the runic doorway room and through it to Charles' place, taking a few moments to say hello to him and to the other X-Men, who were scattered around the place taking it easy for a time before the new students arrived next week. They began to fill Charles and Scott in on the progress towards finding Magneto, only to be interrupted.

"Wait, what do you mean you've got a lead on my old man!?" Wanda Maximoff shouted jumping around the doorway to the sitting room where Jean and Harry had been talking to Charles. Behind her came Kurt, torn between looking amused and rather irritated at something. Wanda had arrived that morning for a tour of the mansion prior to moving in to be closer to Bayville.

Clea and Stephen had, after their first real argument, decided Wanda needed to rejoin society. Highschool would not have been their first choice, but it was a necessary one.

"I… had honestly forgotten that," Jean said blankly for a moment shaking her head, while Harry remained silent. He hadn't forgotten it, but he had been undecided on whether or not to inform the young magic user about it at all. The girl hadn't exactly been the most mentally stable when they had first met after all, and while Stephen and his girlfriend had made a lot of progress with her, she still had control issues.

The choice was taken from him however when Jean filled Wanda in on their progress towards finding Eric Lensherr, and her further saying that Quicksilver still followed him. Indeed judging from the memories Emma had seen in their captive's minds, he had been upgraded to an Acolyte.

"I. Want. In." Wanda declared heatedly, her magic aura flaring out and around her for a moment before she clamped down on it hard. "I've wanted to kick my old man in the balls for years, and my brother deserves much the same treatment for going along with leaving me in the nuthouse! You, you can't leave me out of this Mr. Potter, you just can't."

Harry looked at her tortured face for a moment then sighed, looking over at Scott who after a moment nodded. "If you can get Stephen's okay, then you can join the X-Men when we call them in."

As Wanda pumped her fist in the air jubilantly, Harry turned his full attention to the senior team leader. "I'll have a dossier for you to input to the DG's computer tomorrow morning early."

"Agreed sir, forewarned is forearmed," Scott nodded. "I'd like more intel on the place where we're going to be fighting, but I suppose that knowing as much as we can about our opponents will have to do. Sam's already worked up with the team, and he's ready to go, and if the next batch of students arrive before the ball drops, I'll probably bring Thunderbird along too, there is no such thing as too much firepower after all."

"Heh, true enough," Harry chuckled, while Jean watched Kurt lead Wanda off, one eyebrow raised in amused surmise. Harry turned his attention to the girl too as she left, shaking his head. "Now that's gonna be an explosive family reunion."

"Actually… I think it might be beneficial, both for her and young Lorna." Harry gaped at Charles and the telepath held up his hand. "Please, let me explain. We have broken much of Lorna's mental conditioning, and Alex is completely free of his. But Lorna is now an immensely confused young woman, and much of that confusion is based around her feelings of abandonment by her father, and her wish to get to know him despite that."

Harry nodded. Charles had proven that Lorna was Magneto's daughter more than a week ago. Wanda had been informed of her half-sister's status, and her anger towards Eric and Pietro had climbed further, but she had controlled it relatively well. The two of them hadn't really connected yet, since Charles had yet to release Lorna from the medical bay, but he was hopeful they would in time.

"Lorna needs to confront him, to see how he acts towards the daughter he knew about, to break that bit of interest. And let her anger out on a worthwhile target all at the same time."

"I don't like the idea of taking two possible loose cannons into battle, especially against a foe whose strength is as unknown as this," Harry replied bluntly, then he sighed. "If she can control it, if she can prove she can work with the team and take orders, then I will consider it. But it will be me and Scott making that judgement call when the ball drops. I won't agree to it right now."

"Agreed. I think the idea might have merit psychologically Professor, but I want to run her through some team exercises once you give her a clean bill of mental health." Scott's voice was soft but firm even as he tried to make a joke and he shook his head. "Alex has problems working with the team as it is, and taking orders from me too, so adding Lorna might make him calm down or act up more, but I need to know what to expect from them before letting them or even Wanda come on a mission that important. Wanda at least has had a few days to work with the team, and has proven she can follow orders both from me and from Harry. Alex and Lorna don't have that."

Once again Charles nodded, smiling proudly at the way Scott had said that. The young man had truly come a long way. "Agreed, I just wanted to bring it to your attention."

With that the conversation ended, and Scott walked Harry and Jean to the door, where both of them took to the sky, flying faster than all but the fastest jet, heading down toward Oklahoma. That took them a surprisingly short amount of time, as did finding an empty road to set down on, whereupon Harry pulled his Huayra out of his pocket, set it on the road and enlarged it.

"So," Harry asked moments later as the Huayra began to pick up speed, zooming through what little traffic there seemed to be on this road. It was an old highway which stretched out as far as the eye could see both before and behind them, with nearly nothing in sight to break up the monotony of the scenery.

"There's an open-air concert I want to go to, Rogue got me the tickets," Jean said, letting one of her hands fall outside the car, waving it lightly in the area as it sped past. "I figured given the fact that we haven't spent much time alone together since arriving back on Earth it might make for good change of pace."

"I am sorry about that," Harry said. "There's just been…"

"Don't apologize Harry." Jean leaned over slightly to smack him on the side. "We've had time with Ororo and Emma, both inside the bed and out of it." She smirked wickedly at him, and Harry laughed turning lightly to give her a kiss on the cheek before turning his attention back to the road, not like that was really needed here really.

"Keeping our various projects moving forward takes a lot of time. I'm never going to complain about that, or you not spending time with me or anything of that nature. I'm not that egotistical, and you're not the sort to let work consume you to that level anyway."

"Understood love," Harry said, leaning sideways to rub his cheek against hers for a moment. "So an open-air concert, is the band anyone I might know?"

"Doubtful, you just listen to any music that's playing, so I don't think you follow country."

"You would be correct. But that means I'll probably have to activate the disguise wards around my car doesn't it? Wouldn't a car like this seem out of place at a country concert?"

"That's stereotyping!" Jean laughed. "It's not just country hicks and southern gals who listen to country you know. You might want to change the color a little bit, but I don't think anyone is going to realize what your Huayra is so they won't be astonished by it."

For a moment the trip was silent, while the two of them stared out on the road, with Jean's hand now on Harry's thigh. Then she began to speak again. Then Harry smiled, reaching down lightly to twine his fingers with Jean's. "By the way, have you decided on your car yet?"

"A Toyota people carrier, or maybe a Transit van," Jean deadpanned then laughed. "What I want to do is buy a Bugati Veyron and then take it apart, figure out how they did all of that work on that car. It is a real technological marvel you know! I'm not a fan of the body, I think it looks great for what it is, but it doesn't stand up to the looks of this Huayra for example. I just want to play around with them you know, given our own tech level I might be able to change the Veyron's body a bit, or a lot, we'll see. I was looking through old car magazines the other day, and they came up with some really damn pretty cars, the Jensen Interceptor for example."

For several moments the two of them talked about cars, then Jean reached over to the radio, turning it on and putting the country station on in the background to get Harry used to it once more. Then she began to talk about the first time she had ever seen a car that she had fallen in love with, and Harry replied with a story about how he had fallen in love with the local library, and the first book he had ever loved, 'Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn'. "The idea of running away to live on my own like that and have adventures really intrigued me at the time."

The two kept talking as Harry's car ate up the miles, the wind in their hair from their open windows. Neither noticed the time or two where they passed hidden police cars, or moved through areas with more traffic. The spells and charms and wards Harry had placed on the Huayra concealed them easily. Occasionally they kissed, and twice they pulled over to the side of the road to make out when the kissing became a little too passionate for Harry to concentrate on his driving. But for the most part, they simply spent time together and loved it.

At around six o'clock local time they began to see signs for a town in the distance, and they stopped in a small diner on the outskirts but decided not to eat there after they saw the menu. Jean was rather spoiled by the food available thanks to the house-elves, and Harry had no desire to eat food that was more fat than anything else. Instead Harry pulled a basket out of the Huayra, and the two of them ate sitting on the top of the car watching the passersby. They got a few odd looks, after all, neither of them were dressed to match Harry's car. Moreover they were both young looking, and the number of young people that could afford a car like Harry's was very small indeed.

They spent about forty minutes there before moving on, heading through the town to the other side where they began to see signs for a concert center. They arrived just as the crowd began to form, and were able to get in and pick a place near the front of the crowd. Not even a few moments later, the first of the warm-up crews began to play, and people began to dance here and there in the crowd, most of the crowd was still arriving.

This continued for about 40 minutes, with the crowd becoming larger and larger, and the music becoming louder in turn when the main events began. Eventually it got so loud that their conversation, which had been about Namor and what to do about him in the future simply stopped. They turned their attention to the music and eventually began to dance with everyone else, with Jean throwing her hands up in the air matching the lyrics of the song as Harry tried to sing along in her ear, much to her gurgling laughter.

Then another singer came on, singing 'Shake it For me', and Harry laughed as the lyrics of that began to beat around them holding Jean against him as they danced in place, practically but not quite grinding. After the song came to a close Jean leaned in, kissing Harry on the lips.

Harry returned the gesture, and the two of them simply stood there ignoring the crowd and even the next song, lost in one another. "I love you Jean Grey," Harry sent along their telepathic link. That connection was on at all times now, only shrinking or expanding in size if it was presently in conscious use.

"I love you Harry Potter," Jean replied in the same manner, shivering slightly as the feelings of love washed over her, responding in kind.

The two of them continued dancing there for another two or three more hours, before eventually deciding that while the concert might keep going for a while, they were getting hungry again. Making their way out of the crowd they passed the outer edge of the concert venue heading towards Harry's car.

Their good feelings ended about halfway back to the Huayra. There they came upon two mutants being harassed by a group of seven or so young punks, ranging from ages 18 to 24 or so if Harry was any judge. The two mutants didn't seem to have very many physical deformities, they had six fingers on both of their hands, and their skin looked a little bluish, but that was all. Their appearances were so alike that it was obvious they were twins.

"We don't want your kind here mutie!" said one of the punks, pushing the brother who had stood in front of his sister protectively, putting her between him and the back of a pickup truck.

"Leave us alone!" the brother said, pushing back quickly, then bringing his hands up in a somewhat decent looking boxing stance. "We don't want to fight, we just came here to enjoy the music! We've done nothing to you and last I checked America was a free country!"

"You fuckin' freaks don't deserve ta listen ta music like good, normal people! The Lord God will strike you down for the 'bominations you are!" said one of the punks. He was one of the older looking ones, looking as if he even had to shave regularly. "Ya'all need to be made an example of!"

Harry and Jean exchanged a glance, then sighed and moved forward, fingers flexing. Neither of them were willing to use their powers or weapons deal with this, but pounding on this group with their hand to hand skills alone seemed fair enough.

"You know, this being a free country and all we have to listen to that kind of crap, but your rights to free speech ends when you try to take someone else's rights away." From out of the gloom of the parking area beyond the altercation came four men of varying ages and three women. Two of them were dressed like stereotypical cowboys, denim jeans long-sleeved plaid shirts and cowboy hats. All the women were dressed similarly to Jean, and the entire group seemed to have just arrived. Two of the women and three of the men had pistol holsters strapped to their sides, empty now of course, but that didn't seem to impact their confidence any.

The man who had spoken stepped forward from the rest, crossing his arms over his broad chest. He was a somewhat stocky man, but he was massively muscled in the arms, torso, and waist, his skin tanned and weathered like someone who worked outside for a living, much like the men and one of the women behind him. "No one wants any trouble here, a concert like this is supposed to be a place to enjoy yourselves, it's not a place for violence. You want to get violent, you can come down to our Althing in a few weeks and step into the boxing ring. For now, leave off!"

The others fanned out from behind him, emphasizing his point. Harry noted that the expressions on at least a couple of the men suggested they might actually enjoy this confrontation, though he couldn't quite say why. Save for the fact their smiles exposed a lot more teeth than was normal.

Harry smirked in satisfaction, and began to clap lightly. Jean joined him, causing the punks who seemed to have been puffing themselves up to fight turn toward them. They stared at the young couple behind them, and something in those eyes, jade and emerald sparkling in the light of the scattered parking lights caused them to stop. They began to back away grumbling quietly to themselves, their courage fading with their former numbers advantage.

After they left, Harry and Jean moved forward, smiling at the newcomers. "It's nice to see that there are people around willing to stand up for those in need."

One of the women, the oldest looking of the trio, barked out a dry laugh. "I'm a high school gym teacher, I have to deal with that kind of testosterone laden bullshit for months on end, why the hell would I want to deal with it here?" She gave a Snape-worthy sneer in the direction the thugs had walked away from, looking about this close to spitting on top of it but deciding against it.

"Besides, mobs should never make the rules," Said one of the other men, a wiry fellow with a rather impressive mustache and glasses, his accent that of an educated professor rather than the cowboy he was dressed like. "We all know how well that worked out for Rome."

"I completely agree," Jean replied, looking over at the two younger teens who looked thankful for the reprieve. "Will you two be all right? Those idiots don't know where you live or anything?"

"No ma'am, we don't live anywhere nearby. We came into town specifically for the concert." The two mutants exchanged a glance, using twins speech Harry was ever any judge. Having watched Fred and George for years, he'd become quite good at spotting that kind of thing.

Eventually the girl spoke up, nodding her head slightly towards her brother. "We'll check out of the hotel and see if we can get an early flight instead of the one we planned for tomorrow. We only wanted to walk around tomorrow anyway so it isn't that big a deal. Thanks again for the help," She said nodding towards the other group and then Jean and Harry, before pulling her brother along through the rows of cars.

The other group nodded as well and turned to go, but Harry followed them for a moment. "You mentioned a word I've heard recently, one I've been meaning to look up but never got around to. What is an Althing?"

"It's a major gathering of the Kindreds of the Asatru, those of us to pray to the Norse gods," said one of the women looking at him closely then Jean. When she saw no eye-rolling or derision she smiled faintly. "Jews and Christians and Muslims call us heathens, though given what they've got up to over the millennia I don't think they have any room to talk."

"Though to be fair the Children of the Torah leave well enough alone for the most part and the worst we can expect from most Christians is well-meaning if pushy conversion attempts most of the time," Said one of the men, giving the woman who'd spoken before him a level look. She returned it with one of her own, suggesting this was an old debate for the pair at least, if not the group at large.

"We're not exactly religious," Jean replied dryly, then she cocked her head, recalling the odd method of pronouncing the term the first speaker had used, making it sound almost as if he'd said 'Ultheng.' "What does an Althing consist of?"

The group turned back motioning Jean and Harry to join them as they walked through the parking lot, while the older man, who introduced himself as Ivar explained. "It's basically an annual gathering where we all meet and determine the basics of what's considered 'common law and custom' amongst the various Kindreds that have their own titles and set ups. Keeps us all from turning into the 'Viking' versions of Wiccans. Most of us don't want to tell anyone how to live their lives day to day, but if there's a major change or concern on the horizon, the Althing is the place to deal with it. This one is going to be huge, the largest in memory, thanks to...well you probably follow the news."

Harry and Jean nodded that they did and Harry gave a polite wave for the man to continue.

"Most of the time Asatru will gather in 'blots' on important days for their respective Kindred, where the group will pay homage to this god or that holiday honoring a famous ancestor. These will usually be small meals on the level of picnics or buffets. Next up are the 'Things', which are generally regional gatherings and are, if not rare, than not as common as the Blot. The Althing is usually much bigger on an almost exponential scale, so there's usually a lot more than that. There'll be contests, songs, reenactments, boxing, sword fighting, boat building, sailing, arts and crafts, that sort of thing, the kind of thing you would see if you went to a culture or heritage festival almost, but with a particular...focus you could say." Ivan paused and turned to give Harry and Jean a chance to respond.

"Thor and Balder," Harry nodded at what the older man was driving at. "I've been wondering about that myself," he said, not giving any hint about his real interest in them or his identity, with Jean following along for the moment.

"The one calling himself Thor is the real problem, hence the real reason this Althing is so important," said one of the men, a rather grizzled looking fellow, grumbling angrily. "The one called Balder wasn't around long enough for anyone to get a real read on him, but Thor has appeared occasionally in the public eye since his initial return, and is known to live over in Arizona in one of the cities there, Phoenix it is said."

"With a mortal woman," said one of the women shaking her head in consternation, her voice heavy with skepticism. "I've no doubt she's a damn happy woman, but he was supposed to be married to Sif, Goddess of Fertility, Vegetation on the Earth and...well we don't really know much more unfortunately, but the principle of the thing is the same: Inconsistencies like that bother us."

Harry nodded, remembering how Sigyn had mentioned that, and that their marriage had been a 'ahem' lively one, which was rather fitting for a marriage between a god of the storm and a goddess of the earth and soil. "Can I ask, what are your main problems with him?"

"Other than Thor's supposed to be married and with kids?" Ivan asked dryly. "Well, there are a lot of them ranging from his missing cart and those that draw it, Toothgnasher and ToothGrinder. Thor didn't fly on his own like this...being seems to be, as well as…"

That conversation continued while the group made their way slowly through the parking lot, with Harry asking leading questions here and there, and getting back a lot of the same information that he already had from Dr. Vorlus. However these people went more into the actual religion and culture than Dr. Vorlus had, including the basic tenants of their faith and points they considered societal touchstones, why they call themselves followers and those they revered 'Fultrui'. The impression Jean and Harry got from this was that the Gods were less "worshipped" in the modern sense. Instead they were offered loyalty, respect, and honor as one would a liege lord or lady, held up as examples to live up to by their particular Fultruii. Ivan in particular ended up mentioning a few modern issues.

Specifically the mutant question. It turned out they hadn't just stood up for the mutants out of the goodness of their hearts, though that was certainly part of it. An equal part however was that the Asatru were also stepping up in making a consensus on mutants in general, whether or not they were simply people with 'blood gifts' and therefore human rather than monster, to be judged by their actions rather than their apparent mutations. Although from what the oldest of the women said, that was just the general tone from the various social media outlets and the like, the Althing would truly determine what the common outlook for the 'blood gifted' was.

Harry didn't miss the murmurs from a couple of the men that if the pro-mutant groups that were springing up went the way of the 'False Friends of Humanity' the Kindreds would stand against them as well. Jean couldn't help exchanging a look of concern with Harry at the idea of these people facing new editions of the Brotherhood or worse, but felt a sense of pride in her countrymen and women that they would stand for what was right regardless of the side they faced.

It was an interesting meeting all around and Harry found he liked these people, each of whom seemed an independent sort, with, as Amora had said, a strong libertarian bent which resonated with Harry. But they had little trouble coming together in a manner that reminded Harry of the Ogg clan from the Discworld series he so loved. Although he had yet to meet anyone he could call the Nanny type just yet.

But there were two points that really stood out that they had mentioned which Vorlus had not: that Balder and Thor had both been married and had children, the former's son being full grown and a god of justice and honor in his own right. The latter had at least 3 children if not more with Sif, their ages ranging from a child up to just below adulthood.

Neither of the men in question struck Harry in his meetings with them or in the tales about them as the sort to sleep around or leave their children and wives behind. That made Balder's flirtatious if courteous nature and Thor living with a mortal woman jarring in the extreme.

Indeed, he began to wonder where their kids were, and began to get an even worse feeling about what the Asgardians might be dealing with. Yeah, this whole issue's just gone up my list of Shit That Needs to Get Done. Straight up to number two, tied with the ongoing work on my space-based works and just behind dealing with Magneto. Harry thought grimly.

Eventually Jean and Harry broke off from Ivan's Kindred after a round of handshakes to begin heading back to his car to continue their date in an appropriate fashion. But before they did, Jean asked, "So does this Althing thing sound as interesting to you as it does me?"

"Yep. I wonder if there's any way to invite Hela along?" Harry mused, while Jean began to chuckle at the idea of taking a goddess to a fair created by people who revered her and her brethren. "Could be interesting on multiple levels."

OOOOOOO

Staring through his binoculars, Dr. Vorlus smiled broadly , even though from the ship he couldn't make out any details of the mystery he was here to investigate, "It is definitely some kind of ancient writing, and I think I can indeed make out the symbol of Thor, fantastic!"

All around him his undergrads grinned before they turned their efforts to loading the two small motorboats with their equipment. At the same time, his coworker focused on navigating the ship, a somewhat large but very streamlined private vessel which they had rented out on his employer's tab through the shoals all around them.

In the distance, well above the fjord the ship was trying to enter was what they were here to investigate, a sheer cliff face with ancient text. A recent storm had knocked down several of the trees, which had previously hid that cliff face from the ocean, and a few Norwegian fishermen trawling nearby had taken pictures, passing them on to Vorlus' university.

At that point he had quickly organized this trip, eager to investigate what could be the 'second home of Thor' hinted in a few of the ancient tales passed on verbally by ancient times among the Asatru. Getting here had been tough by ocean, the shoals and rocks in this region of the Norwegian coast were unmapped since there was no nearby human population. Going overland would have been worse, if it was possible at all.

Hopefully I'll find something that the Christian missionaries didn't despoil burn or otherwise destroyed. Vorlus thought sadly, with a hint of old anger. The idea of willfully destroying religious artifacts no matter their stripe or history bothered him, and as he delved more and more into the mystery of what was hypothesized and believed in about the Asgardians, he had come to loathe the missionaries and the kings who had let them in. From the oak trees at the center of many of the villages to many of the tales and common stories, as much as possible that could dispute the new ways had been suppressed or altered by the missionaries.

Soon enough the ship eased into the fjord, though they began to hit rocks nearly immediately, forcing them to anchor right inside the mouth of the fjord. The small motorboats were quickly lowered over the side, and Dr. Vorlus, his coworker and his eight grad students made their way to shore, leaving behind two men to watch the ship and keep it from being stuck by the tides.

Once on shore, Dr. Vorlus began to organize their camp. Of course they would spend nights on the ship, but they still need to dig a latrine, a cooking pit, a protected area for their equipment and all the other necessities for a potentially long stay in the area if the find proved fruitful. But Vorlus's coworker and other undergrads were decently trained and experienced. Thus it only took them about thirty minutes to get the basics set up. After that, they spread out through the woodland behind the cove, heading off into the crags which backed it. The cliff face was well above the rest of the cove so many of the undergrads split off before reaching it, heading deeper inland and getting acquainted with the area.

They spent the rest of that day and the next on that, with Vorlus controlling his eagerness to head towards the cliff face with the Norse scrollwork and runic symbols on it with ease because of what they had already found with a mere visual perusal. Here and there they found evidence of human habitation, ancient, of course, but still visible and decently preserved from the elements.

A few rocks mortared together here, hidden by a tree from the effects of wind and rain. A few trees growing almost in a row, far closer and more uniform than could ever be found in nature, all of oak and other hard woods that would prove invaluable for ship building. Nails and other pieces of metal were scattered around the general location, including one amazing find which two of his undergrads had spotted and initially not understood the importance of; a small blacksmith's forge. It was rusted and eroded in places to be certain, but still proof that this had been a settlement of some note to warrant the set up and presence of what was, at the time, an incredibly valuable and rare skill set.

By the end of the second day they worked out an estimate of the size of the small community here. And it was small: given the size of the area within which they'd found clues of ancient human habitation, there could only have been four or five families here, making it a hamlet rather than a village.

This was rather strange in the face of the smithy they'd found, although Vorlus supposed that with how isolated the settlement was, it had behooved the inhabitants to entice metal workers or possibly take them in a raid with others in the area. Sometimes Frankish or other smiths would be taken in raids if their work was deemed valuable enough and they would be 'encouraged' to stay with their captors. Not torture or anything of that nature, nor polite at all even at the time, it was often necessary. (not sure what this sentence is supposed to say)

While interesting, they didn't find any evidence as to what this community had been, who had lived here beyond the fact someone had, nor anything about them as people or families. There would be no breakthroughs of the understanding of ancient life in Norway here, although the find itself was nothing to be sneezed at. Leaving his fellow professor and three of the undergrads to go through their various finds, cataloging them and making notes, Vorlus took the others with him towards the cliff face he was here to see.

A cliff face, he was astonished to find, which was actually somewhat further away and far higher above the cove than he had initially thought. It took the group nearly an entire day to move their way through the crags along goat paths and up rock faces heading in the proper direction until they found it. And once they did, again the find didn't quite prove what he had expected.

For one thing the cliff face Vorlus had thought was a piece of solid stone wasn't. Instead, it was a piece of sheer rock sticking out from the ground of a small clearing, blocking much of the cliff face beyond it from the sea. That clearing had another entrance to one side of where they had come up, which was heavily overgrown and seemed to be blocked further along, but which had obviously been made by man in the distant past.

Clearing it out would take equipment they didn't have with them and a lot of backbreaking effort so Vorlus ignored it for now concentrating instead on what was revealed between the two pieces of rock. Underneath the runes and scrollwork on the cliff face from where they had entered the clearing from was the entrance to a cave.

Or that was what he thought until they were close enough to the entrance to see that it was not a natural formation but artificial. Someone had gone to great lengths to create this stone doorway and the tunnel beyond. The walls were not only smooth but uniform as well, with small piles of mold and rust here and there denoting where torches and sconces might've once been placed.

That was all they could see from the entrance however, and it was getting dark out, so Dr. Vorlus made the decision not to enter the cave/tunnel just yet. Instead, he sent two of his undergrads down to transfer most of their equipment up here, setting up ropes and pitons to anchor them in order to help people along the paths they had been forced to traverse. When told about the find, his fellow professor, Nate Price, agreed wholeheartedly with his decision. Setting up the new camp and moving all the supplies and equipment between one camp to the other took the rest of that day and well into the next.

The day after that Dr. Vorlus and his team, with each man holding a high-powered flashlight, entered the cave. Almost immediately after he passed the threshold however Vorlus stopped, staring ahead for a moment at the apparition coming towards him.

It was two men, middle aged or younger, with heavy beards, stripped to their waist as they battled it out in what looked like a training match of some kind with bare fists. One of them pummeled the other into the ground laughing before he reached down to haul his defeated opponent to his feet, dunking him in a bucket of water before walking off with a laugh.

Though there was nothing about either man that looked familiar in their visages or body, Vorlus had to blink in shock as he saw the victor's hands. They were big, powerful hands, marked and bloody from this match and others. Vorlus saw those hands every day, and even had used them in a similar manner when he was younger. Is this my ancestor then? He wondered to himself, though the fists of a prize fighter weren't an uncommon sight, Vorlus still felt a connection that seemed to defy an easy description.

The scene abruptly changed, showing the same man, or possibly his son, since this one looked younger in the body and face. He was rushing toward the entrance Vorlus and his men had just entered, shouting over his shoulder. His hair was black tinted with a bit of red in the beard, and he was wearing chain mail armor over a leather jerkin, with a simple leather cap on his head.

This time Vorlus looked at the hands immediately, hence why he thought there was a familial connection between the first vision and this one, the same hands. But the sword also interested Vorlus, since he knew that in the ancient days, the sword was the most important possession of a warrior and a status symbol at that.

This sword was a broadsword, double edged, coming to a wicked but wide point. It gleamed like well-cared for steel, but it was a different shine to that of modern recreations, somewhat darker of blade, which Vorlus put down to the higher iron content in ancient steel. The blade itself was pocked and dented here and there, but still in very good condition, with a guard just bigger than the users hands in a simple slightly curved 'U' shape.

But directly above the hilt was a very detailed indent right where the hilt met the blade. This mark was of a fist raised upright. Vorlus had to wonder if it was the makers mark or personal heraldry. That was the last thought Vorlus had before the vision reached him, passing directly through Vorlus' body and out of the tunnel, disappearing into the light of day.

Shaking his head, Vorlus stared down at himself where the spirit had walked straight through him and out towards the sunlight. Looking around he noticed the undergrads were staring at him in concern or simply moving around him heading deeper inside the tunnel. From their faces, it was obvious none of them had seen the vision he had, which he suddenly realized made some sense.

None of them are Norwegian or Asatru, so most likely they feel nothing. So what was that? Magic, a genetic memory of some kind triggered by this place? Asgardians were known to be able to do that, to send someone into the past to see their ancestors, to better understand their orlog. I wonder if this place will tie into the Asgardians currently living among us here on earth. Nonetheless, I am beginning to think that Potter might have had more reason to look into the Asgardians than simple curiosity…

For the first few moments of looking around the small, what first appeared to be, hall with a slightly long entranceway Vorlus was gravely disappointed. There didn't seem to be anything here, nothing momentous at any rate, nothing to explain the vision he had just had other than this being someone's home. The fact they had carved it out of stone rather than building their home elsewhere in the small hamlet was a surprise, but nothing important, nothing to connect to the sign of Thor above the mantle of the entrance.

He said so aloud, ending the chattering of the undergrads as their professors looked around. This startled one young man so much he stumbled sideways into one of the larger piles of rust in the room. The large brazier did not break or fall sideways however. Instead it canted halfway and stopped. Immediately thereafter there was a low deep creaking sound and a distant click.

"No one move," Vorlus ordered quickly. "Shine your light around at your feet and ankles, then around at the walls. Do not move, but be ready to the moment I say."

"I did not think the Vikings went into booby-traps," Nate murmured, standing up from having just flashed his flashlight over his legs, turning to do the same to nearby grads.

"They don't, but they were masters of sail-work, ropes, tackles, weights, and all that entails so it's better safe than sorry. Not to mention they were also very decent stone workers when they needed to be, although wood was their preference."

"Which probably explains this Professor," said one of the youths standing directly across the room from where the brazier had been. He was flashing his light down a short flight of steps that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Though I'd love to learn about the mechanics behind it."

"Be cautious, watch every step you take and don't move far from your fellows," Vorlus cautioned strongly, taking the lead as they moved down the formerly hidden steps, excitement once again welling up inside him. He frowned suddenly, waving his hand forward. "Curtis, Marsh, Nate, flash your lights at the ceiling and around where the ceiling meets the walls."

The men he'd named did so, and after making certain the tunnel floor was uniform with no traps apparent he stepped forward staring up at the carvings revealed. There were a lot of them, scrawling rune work and connecting scrollwork moving along the roof and to where the roof met the walls. And he couldn't read a word of it.

"Actual Norse runes, but I can't follow them. Damn missionaries, too few examples of this art has remained to this day," he muttered, pointing out two runes he knew. "That one is the Ansuz, and the other Thurisaz and that third one, I think is the one meaning 'hall' or Othala but they are all...different if only minutely." Othala had been found previously on or associated with several dwellings that could trace their origins well back into the Viking era, and the others were used in ancient carvings or to mark famous battle sites or places of judgement.

"This is amazing!" Nate gushed, moving forward slightly so that he could stare straight up at the carvings and ceiling. "There are more Norse runes right here than have ever been reported before! If we could figure out what a few of them mean, we might be able to translate the entire thing!"

"True," Vorlus mused absently, "but it is how they are laid out that interests me right now. It looks very… focused and directed, this isn't something that was simply for decorative purposes or for general enhancement."

"Couldn't it be one of the sagas of Thor?" asked one of the undergrads hesitantly, even though most knew runes weren't meant to be used primarily as a written language, or at least their originals weren't.

"Yet we've seen no evidence that they would be writing that kind of thing out, certainly not on the ceiling in a spiral pattern like that with offshoots leading all around…"

"Professor," said one of the others who had moved beyond Vorlus slightly. He was kneeling on the floor, shining his light deeper into the tunnel which Vorlus noted seemed to be slowly going downwards. "The runes appear here too, in fact, I think they're all connected. Also-" the young man went on, straightening up and moving back towards him, shaking his head. "It's getting colder the further we go. I mean, I know that it's supposed to be colder underground like this, but cold enough for me to see my own breath in here while outside it's still warm enough to go around in short sleeves?"

"Really?" Vorlus moved around the undergrad, striding forward down the tunnel. He stopped when he too noticed that his breath was beginning to show in the light of his flashlight. "That's strange and rather disturbing." He also saw what the younger man had seen. There was a line of runes on the floor that traveled back up into the rest of the writing.

But Vorlus also saw what wasn't there, that is to say that some of the lines of ancient script seemed to start to branch off going further down into the tunnel, only to disappear into the stone. He came to one such spot, and as the young man held the flashlight up, Vorlus began to play a brush along the wall for a moment, getting rid of dust and cobwebs, but revealing nothing. "Hmm…"

"Maybe whatever it was is unfinished?"

"Doubtful, they would have started something like this by working on it as they carved out the tunnel."

A tunnel, Vorlus realized suddenly, which was very uniform. There were patches here and there that were as smooth as skin! No stonemason could've done that. And something was telling him that the runes were very important. I think I need to call this in. With that thought Vorlus turned, and motioning the young man to join his fellows.

A hasty conference with Nate saw them all spreading out in the living area they had originally found within the cliff or outside making notes about the writing above the mantle, and the first few feet of the tunnel. They began to make copious sketches and rubbings where they could, brushing away the dust of millennia slowly but surely and setting up lighting as they went to ensure no detail was missed.

At the same time they were doing that, Vorlus went back to the ship. Once there, he tried to use its antenna and onboard phone to call Harry Potter. However out here he couldn't get any connection, the phone networks simply didn't have enough coverage here even with the ship's boosted signal unfortunately.

Just as he was about to give up, which would have left him with a very tough decision to make, he turned, startled at a low 'preck' from behind him. Sitting on the table by the door leading up to the deck of the ship stood an owl. But its presence down here in the bowels of the ship wasn't the most surprising thing. What was surprising was that it held in its beak a pen, and under its claws there looked to be a roll of paper. That set the owl's presence out of the realm of the unusual but natural and into the realm of the mystical.

Vorlus stared, all the old legends going through his mind, with the thought Well at least it's not a raven, oh wait it isn't a raven, craaappp… coming to the fore for more than a few moments as his mind percolated with possibilities before he could control himself. Taking a hesitant step forward he asked hesitantly, "Um, and where did you come from miss?" How Vorlus knew the owl was a female he didn't know, but he was willing to go with it for now.

The owl seemed to glare at him for a moment, then over at the phone before turning away dismissively, before thrusting the roll of paper at him with one talon. How she did that or how he knew that was what that look meant Vorlus again didn't know, but his intuition hadn't failed him yet. "I see...you, you want me to write something?"

Again the owl looked from him to the radio and back again. "To, to Mr. Potter?"

The owl actually nodded, and Vorlus hesitantly reached for the pen it was holding in its beak. The owl let him take the pen, then hopped backward lightly, letting him grab the roll of paper. Still staring at the owl, Vorlus began to write a short note, trying to tell his employer what they had run into without taking too much time about it. He wouldn't put it past his young redshirted-minio-er students to go further down the corridor they had found without his permission.

OOOOOOO

Not half an hour after the call Dr. Vorlus was somehow not surprised to hear a few thumps coming from the deck of the ship, as if someone was landing lightly on top of the ship's upper deck. Heading up there, he found the two grads on watch staring at five newcomers. All of them wore armor of some kind though it was by no means uniform, with two of them clad in steel bodies underneath the armor. Vorlus had of course watched the news, and knew who these people were. "The Custodes Mundi, I must say when Mister Potter agrees to send help, he does it with style."

"Thank you," Guardian said drolly. "Now, why don't you show me these ruins of yours?"

Moments later, Guardian and his team entered the tunnel, ignoring the grad students and Nate for a moment as the Custodes Mundi stopped to watch Guardian work. "Hmm… I recognize some of these, but not all." This drew looks of surprise, interest, and even confusion from the grads, Vorlus and Nate, but Guardian ignored them as he examined the rune work closely.

Could the differences I'm seeing be because of lingual shifts, the differences between one dimension and another, or something else, the ever growing mystery of the Asgardians? Some of them do almost look like another language, but not quite. And why am I not getting any sense of magic from this array? Hell this entire place feels like any other nonmagical site, it's not even on a ley line. Could they be powerless then?

Holding up a finger, he began to trace a few of the runes he didn't recognize, trying to think of the runes they later became. Contain, channel, but then, where's the unifier, or the target?

In this manner Guardian moved down the tunnel, stopping when he ran into where the runes disappeared into the wall. "Hmm." With a wave of his hand, Guardian tried to summon up a Lumos, only to blink behind his mask as the spell didn't do anything.

Frowning, Guardian turned down the tunnel, thrusting his hand out and casting a wordless Reducto down the passage. Or he should have, instead nothing happened. Trying again, Guardian concentrated on feeling the magic within him. He felt the magic begin to leave him shaped as the spell demanded, only to suddenly dissipate the moment it left his fingers. "Huh…"

"When you make noises like that I become worried tovarishch," Colossus quipped, coming up to place a metal hand on the shorter man's shoulder. "What is it?"

"Just a second mate, I'll tell you after I conduct a few experiments." Guardian tried several different types of magic, ranging from the color change charm to a few 'dark' attack spells, but every time the magical left his body it dissipated immediately.

Guardian felt the magic surge within him, responding, but the instant it left his body the flow was redirected, dissipating without accomplishing anything. Even when he called for the weapons in his pouch the magic didn't work. However the magic was still within his body, which made Guardian assume that his Magia Erebea spell would be unaffected. What was even stranger was he couldn't see wherever the hell the magic was going, it just wasn't there anymore even to his mage sight, just seeming to not exist the moment it left his body.

"You know from this perspective it just looks like he's just making random gestures like a crazy person. Kind of funny really," Husk said, smirking over at Ghigau who snorted as she saw what her teammate meant.

"These runic arrays are cancelling my magic. Colossus, try to punch out some of this wall. Husk, you see if you can destroy a few of the runes up by the entrance."

"So these really do contain magic? Magic really does exist?" Vorlus asked, then sighed as his students and even Nate began to talk excitedly to one another. "Ah well, there goes my neat concept of reality. Really I'm surprised its lasted this long given what Potter has had me researching."

Ignoring all this, Husk tried to smash her fingers into a few of the runes along the walls, but her finger bounced off. At the same time Colossus punched one of the walls with all his strength, only to be thrown backwards into the opposite wall. "What in the world!?"

"So we have three little mysteries here," Guardian pondered helping Colossus back to his feet, still staring at where the runes disappeared into the rock of the tunnel, then down into the dark behind the reach of their flashlights. "In that case, I suppose we'll need to fall back on physical means. Let's head back outside."

Once the team had retreated back outside, each of them began to pull out their weapons from their various bags of holding, a name that Guardian had tried, and failed to keep from sticking. Vanguard frowned, staring down into the hole then pulled out a plasma rifle rather than his regular gauss. The gauss rifle could fire quickly in a pinch, but it really wasn't meant to, whereas the plasma rifle was. He also pulled out a few Cold Steel submachine guns, strapping them to his back, directing the others to do the same, while also adding a knife and placing his shield on his forearm.

Colossus put a knife at his side and took two submachine guns, and a few 'Jean Special' grenades Jean had given him this morning. They hadn't been tested in battle yet, but she promised they would make a 'big bada boom'. He was a little leery about such booms occurring underground where the force would be more focused but decided to take them anyway. He, like all the others, also fitted night vision goggles, just in case.

For her part Ghigau tooled up as much as she could, strapping various types of arrows around her armored body, as well as a few more 'Jean Specials'. She had a knife strapped between her shoulder blades, but didn't expect to use it, unless she lost her primary weapon. She had tested Sigyn's Gift extensively by this point, and knew what to expect from her mainstay weapon, which turned out to be a lot. Next to her Husk followed Colossus' example but instead of a knife she had a small club, whose weight had been magically modified to be twenty times what something its size should, thus ensuring that whatever she hit would feel it in the morning, assuming whoever was struck survived the experience that is. Like the grenades, this would be the first time she had used it in battle, and Husk had to wonder if it would perform as expected.

Guardian followed Vanguard's unspoken advice, taking out a submachine gun, the sword of Gryffindor, and funneling 2/3rds of his magic into his Magia Erebea. As a final touch he changed his eyes, using the same spell he had used in London on Ororo to give her the eyesight of an owl. With that done he wrote out a small message to Storm for Hedwig, telling her to pass it on then come right back, a superfluous order which earned him a sharp nip on the fingers before she left.

He wanted the rest of the team on standby just in case. He hadn't intended it, indeed he had thought this little trip more of a break from the intense training they were going through in preparation for facing Magneto's faction, but that runic array changed his perception of the danger here.

After consulting with Dr. Vorlus, Guardian reluctantly agreed the man could come along so long as he stayed out of the way, and even gave him one of the Cold Steel guns. When the undergrads asked to come along however, he ordered them to pull back down to the ship. Their protests fell on deaf ears and Price at least didn't argue, simply chivvying them along the way. "Just because we like to call you our minions doesn't mean you get to die like them."

When the oversized-kids were out of the way, Guardian turned to his team. "Alright people, let's move. The instant we get to where the runes disappear entirely, be ready for anything. Advance in pairs, and cover one another as we go."

At Guardian's gesture Colossus took point with Husk and Guardian followed right behind him, Vanguard behind him in the sniper's position in turn. Ghigau used her hover boots to skate along the top of the tunnel, upside down but apparently comfortable with it. Sigyn's Gift was in her hands and an arrow on the string as she glared ahead of them.

For several hundred more feet the slope of the tunnel seemed to carry them slightly downward, but within a few dozen yards the runic array disappeared into the rock entirely. It was like someone had transfigured the walls, after those runes had been embedded in them, burying the runes in the very fiber of the stone cliff. It was a fascinating technique, one which Guardian wondered if he could reverse engineer somehow. The use of this technique was literally endless in potential applications.

At the same time, Ghigau tested her weapon, and was happy to note that whatever was blocking Guardian's magic did not stop Sigyn's Gift from being able to transform. She had no idea why, nor did Guardian when she asked, but neither were going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Guardian also noticed that with every few steps the temperature began to drop from being able to see your own breath to actually feeling cold, almost freezing in fact. Still mulling on the runes Guardian nearly bumped into the back of Colossus, who had suddenly stopped, staring ahead of them. "It might just be me, but it looks as if this tunnel is coming to its end."

"All right everyone get ready. If something is going to happen, it'll happen soon."

The rest of the Custodes Mundi nodded, spreading out as much as they could in the tunnel to give each other fighting room, with Colossus and Guardian still in the lead. There wasn't that much room however, so Husk and the others couldn't get past the two of them. By extension, any foes would face the same bottleneck, which hopefully would be a good thing.

"Are you sure you can't do something about the runes? With them out of the way we might be able to widen this tunnel if we needed more elbow room," Ghigau asked, getting a very bad feeling from the area up ahead.

Guardian shrugged. "You saw me try Ghigau. My magic fizzles out and the walls themselves are protected by something which acts almost like Vanguard's shield, though I don't know if that is from the runes, something done specifically to the stone, or a spell on the area at large. I'm looking forward to finding out though!"

His listeners, even Vorlus, chuckled at his animated tone, but Guardian smirked at Ghigau, the twitch of his lips showing slightly through his mask. "I could try doing the same thing now that I've activated my Magia Erebea I suppose. Then again, I might just bring the whole tunnel down on top of us. Still want me to try?"

"No, I'm good thanks," Ghigau groused from above them, and the group moved forward amid further laughter, this time at her expense.

Colossus had been right, the tunnel ended abruptly about another twenty feet in front of them, exiting out into a smallish cavern that Guardian estimated was about the size of a tennis field. The darkness of the cavern seemed to suck away the light from all of their flashlights, making estimating its size difficult at best.

Seeing this, Guardian frowned darkly before snapping out orders. "Ghigau, Vanguard, Vorlus, remain here and provide cover. Colossus and Husk with me, advance into the center of the cavern, then cover the others as they come forward."

With that Guardian moved forward with Colossus next to him, then Husk after them as they moved out from the tunnel entrance, spreading out quickly to allow one another fighting room while still close enough to go to each other's aid.

Behind them Vanguard knelt in the doorway as he used both his hands for his rifle, covering the right flank. With no words needed Ghigau swiftly moved to cover the left side, bow raised and ready. Vorlus too raised his gun, aiming toward the center, while placing his flashlight down on the ground and pulling out several more for when they entered the cavern.

"Keep your eyes peeled and your back to one another or the tunnel," Guardian said rather unnecessarily. All of them were tense, anxious and beginning to worry about what was hiding in the shadows of this strange, underground cavern. Worse was how little of the cavern their night vision really illuminated. They could see about twenty feet in front of them, but that was all.

The three of them made their guarded way forward, but nothing happened. Soon they had reached the center of the cavern, and yet everything remained calm. While Guardian was looking around them warily Colossus and Husk both began to relax slightly.

Then the ground seemed to leap up at them, as something burst out from beneath Colossus' feet, slamming him to the floor. All around the cavern along the floor, and even from the ceiling sharp, shattering cracks or a rumbling sound could be heard as things ruptured out of the rock which had encircled the cavern, surging through it almost as if it had been water. Blasting out with his gun in one hand even as he punched out to help free Colossus from whatever had grabbed him, Guardian caught a glimpse of the creatures currently attacking them.

And promptly wished he hadn't.

Some were children, others women, many more were men. But even the children were so warped and corrupted they were objects of fear and horror instead of pity. The bodies underneath their ragged, ancient clothing were black with age and swollen in places, seemingly frozen in others. The smell of decay came with them like an almost physical force that caused almost all of them, save Ghigau and Guardian, to gag.

"What the hell are these things!?" Husk shouted, sounding close to panicking even as she opened up into the dark around them.

"Draugr!" Vorlus shouted from where he was crouching next to Vanguard, firing his own gun wildly as his voice rang out taut with awe and rising fear. "Norse undead, stronger, faster and far more durable than most modern interpretations of zombies, they are also somewhat intelligent in some tales. Don't underestimate them!"

This statement was proven when Colossus threw a punch that should have shattered the Draugr creature in front of him into so much offal. Instead the beast took it on its shoulder, turning slightly before bringing its own hands down, smashing Colossus to the floor with a grunt and shattering his night vision goggles in the process.

"They hit harder than Husk!" The Russian shouted, kicking hard at the Draugr while Harry smashed another aside. "Don't try to go hand to hand with them!"

But worse than the strength of their emerging enemies was the incredibly poor visibility plaguing the defenders. The cavern was so dark that even their night vision goggles could only do so much to illuminate it, making all of them save Guardian unable to see more than ten feet around them. Colossus was practically blind now, having to rely on the flashlights set up in the doorway to see anything. The only thing that saved them in those first few moments of the ambush was that the Draugr didn't work together, and the ones directly beneath their feet had attacked before the rest of them.

Guardian slashed at one Draugr with the sword of Gryffindor, the blade scoring across the flesh of its arms for a few inches, before he pulled back, assuming the poison in the blade would kill the zombie like it would an Inferi. Twisting around he engaged another one that had just been about to bite him in the back of the neck. A short punch in the solar plexus threw that one backwards, and a slash from his blade opened up its chest.

Then he went down with a yell of pain as the one he had thought dead body-slammed into the ground. It was only Shiang Chi's lessons that allowed him to throw it off, and he winced after several blows had landed on the back of his head and shoulders. Not enough to break through his Magia Erebea, but they still hurt like blazes.

By the entrance Vanguard began to blast out on full auto with his plasma rifle. The pulses of plasma lit up the dark of the cavern something fierce for a few seconds before impacting their targets. Those impacted by the burning shots howled in pain, their cries inhuman in timbre and volume but kept on coming. The darkness and their sheer numbers made this one of the most terrifying moments in any of the Custodes Mundi's life, and the Draugr were not shy about pressing those advantages.

Colossus rapidly found himself surrounded, nearly blind, and desperate. The Draugr were strong, but thanks to his durability their blows couldn't do much damage outright. But despite that, they were still dangerous to him which he found out the hard way when he got a finger stuck in one of the Draugr's eyes as he attempted to squash its skull. Another one seized his wrist, wrenching it sideways, and Colossus could feel the metal of his wrist bending and twisting. A desperate kick got him free, but he stumbled backwards to dodge another blow, only saved by Guardian's hand on his shoulder keeping him upright.

Guardian forced the metal-clad Russian to turn slightly keeping Colossus facing outwards. "Back to back! Aim for their heads! Take out their heads, crush their brains and the body should stop moving!"

"That's the way it always works in zombie movies, but I-AHH!" Husk shouted from nearby, her words turning into a yell as one of them smashed her to the floor while more pulled themselves out of the ground, trying to pin her in place. One of them even moved back into the very ground itself, grabbing at her from below.

Rolling away, she kicked out at the hands trying to grab her, but her night vision goggles were smashed to pieces by a lucky blow from one of the Draugr, leaving her nearly as blind as Colossus with only the light from the flashlights letting her see anything. Luckily her frantic dodge had brought her close to the entrance, and she took up position to its left, grabbing at the club from her back. Swinging it out vigorously, she sent one Draugr flying while the others faded away slightly, trying to get around her defense. "But these things don't seem to be cooperating!"

Vanguard continued to fire into the horde around his friends. Thanks to his own goggles and the lights of their flashlights he had the best vision of them all, and used it as well as he could, cutting down a Draugr with each plasma burst now, aiming exclusively for their heads. Whatever durability these things had did not extend to plasma fortunately, but even so he had to spend several blasts in order to confirm a kill thanks to the speed of the undead monstrosities.

Hands emerged from the dark to the right side of the entrance, grasping for him. Letting his rifle fall to the tunnel floor for a second, Vanguard grabbed the Orihalcum blade from his belt. A second later he swept it forward, cutting off the hand thanks to the blade's supernatural edge. But behind that Draugr more of them came, and he quickly pushed Vorlus backwards. "Go! Get out of here!"

"Find my owl!" Guardian shouted back, cutting at the neck of a female Draugr trying to grapple with him. "Tell her we're in trouble and to find Storm! She'll know what to do!"

His last words cut off in a grunt of pain as another one of the Draugr caught him in the center of the chest with a punch that flung him backwards. Thanks to his Magia Erebea technique, the blow didn't actually hurt much but that spell didn't make him any heavier and the blow took him off his feet.

Several other Draugr immediately tried to pile on top of them as their fellows had Colossus and Husk. Two of them lost limbs to his sword before another grabbed his head and began to pound it down onto the ground. Several more clawed at his crysis suit from above, another Draugr coming up from beneath him, pulling and tugging from below.

Even with his Magia Erebea technique Guardian couldn't get enough leverage for a moment to free himself as more Draugr grabbed him, crushing and grinding him against the ground as though they'd decided if he couldn't be beaten, he'd be pulverized. Jerking and thrashing Guardian tried to throw them off or cut at them with the Sword of Gryffindor but to no avail, he just couldn't get enough leverage or room to maneuver. "Ghigau a little help here!?"

In response to his radio command she dropped a grenade into the group covering Guardian. The explosion took several of the monsters off their feet, loosening their grips enough for him to throw them off. Getting to his knees Guardian grabbed two of the Draugr hurling them into their fellows. This gave him enough room to regain his feet and once more put his back to Colossus, covering his friend's back as Colossus continued to punch, kick or hurl the Draugr around him aside.

Guardian took a second to look up about to thank his savior, but what he saw caused him to instead quickly fire his machine gun up at the numerous Draugr still half in, half out of the ceiling. His bullets struck a male Draugr through the head before it could grab onto Ghigau, and the skater quickly put distance between them, trying to stay ahead of the Draugr.

"Vanguard, switch fire to helping Ghigau!" Guardian ordered, trying to feel out the battle as well as he could despite the chaos everywhere. "Switch to knives Colossus, cut off their limbs instead of trying to smash them, they seem more susceptible to cutting edges! Keep your back to the sound of my voice whatever happens! Everyone, keep one eye on your feet!"

Behind him Colossus did as ordered, and began to perform better against the undead monstrosities in short order. The darkness and numbers were still a major problem though, as were his opponents speed. Even stranger as well as perilous, the larger ones could somehow change their body shapes such as becoming larger at need, and the Draugr began to fight better and smarter as well.

It was as if their brains, or whatever passed for them, had taken longer to come awake than their bodies. While the men and women kept on attacking the Custodes head on for the most part, the undead children began to try and ambush them from below at every opportunity, forcing the group to have to split their awareness over more avenues of attack.

Realizing this Guardian silently sent more of his magic into his Magia Erebea spell, and could feel the increased strength and durability flow into him in response. Now every blow he landed crippled or killed one of the Draugr. The crippled Draugr were still dangerous, but they like their fellows couldn't take Guardian off his feet any longer and could only hope to delay or distract him.

The rest of the team continued to struggle however, and the horde's numbers showed no signs of declining. There were hundreds of them now, with more and more appearing out of the walls, moving through the same rock that Colossus had been unable to damage like it was water. Occasionally they tossed a grenade into a larger than normal group, but the explosions only slowed the monsters down unless the grenades actually hit one of them. Even so, it let them survive for a moment.

Near the entrance Husk was grabbed from below, and nearly lost her head to a blow from another Draugr when she hesitated to kick the first due to it being a child. Thankfully her training allowed her to dodge the blow at the last moment, grabbing the giant undead monster and tossing it over her shoulder into a nearby wall before stomping down hard, crushing the 'child's' head in before it could escape back into the rock.

With that done she picked up and let loose with her gun once more, peppering and blowing off chunks of bloated flesh from dozens of the Draugr who actually retreated for just a second. To add to her assault she hurled her last two grenades forward, backing up as they exploded, sending several Draugr shrieking backwards.

As she did Husk noticed something. "They aren't trying to move through the rocks near the entrance, it's safe there!"

On the ceiling, Ghigau continued to use her hover boots, skidding backwards from the first rush and down the wall, dodging the hands of the Draugr coming out of the wall, dropping grenades as she could into groups of Draugr below. But then as she raced back onto the ceiling, more of them had come halfway out of the stone of the ceiling, grabbing at her and blocking her way forward.

The one Harry had killed was only the first but luckily for her there didn't seem to be as many Draugr in the ceiling as there were in the walls and floor. And they had to leave their bodies halfway in the rock of the ceiling in order to prevent themselves from falling as they attacked her, which badly hampered their maneuverability, as did the fact most of them seemed to be children.

After but a few moments Ghigau was in dire straits once more, swiftly losing any room to dodge as the Draugr quickly boxed her in, showing far too much cunning for her liking. Her explosive arrows took out the nearest ones but then she felt something grab one of her feet, pinning her down. Before she could fit another arrow to her bow she was completely surrounded. Desperately she cut the power to her boots at the same moment Sigyn's Gift shifted into a glaive, its heavy blade slicing the head off the shoulders of the child Draugr holding her boot.

Ghigau fell like a rock from the ceiling for a second while she twisted in midair, putting her feet below her before activating her hover boots again. The hover boots let her skim over the heads and shoulders of the Draugr horde for a moment, and she sprinted forward before they could get a hold of her again, dropping the last of her grenades behind her.

But one of them was faster than she thought, reaching up quickly to smash a fist into the side of her boot, sending her tumbling out of control into the ground. It was only the boot's armor that saved her from receiving a broken leg but even so she was swiftly encircled, a dozen Draugr reaching for her. "Fuck!"

With his owl-eyes Guardian saw this, and charged forward to save his comrade with consummate Gryffindor recklessness. "Colossus, keep falling back towards Vanguard, Vanguard lob some grenades in front of me then guide him in until he's within the light of the flashlights. Hold the entrance!"

As the grenades went off clearing the way for Guardian's charge, the Draugr in the ceiling began to drop towards the ongoing battle. On the ground more and more of them piled in towards the entrance where Vanguard's rifle chose that moment to run out of power.

Grimly Vanguard flipped his rifle behind him, pulling one of his small submachine guns into one hand and his shield in the other as he stood there doggedly trying to hold the entrance. "Colossus, head right and backward, I'll cover you!"

Beside him Husk continued to pepper the horde with her own covering fire. Hers was nowhere near as accurate as Vanguard's thanks to her personal skillset and her lack of goggles, so she hit on a plan. On full bore her submachine gun cut into the legs of the Draugr trying to close with her, dropping them where they stood to crawl on and through the earth. This bought her enough time to turn her attention to helping her teammate and she began to do the same to the Draugr between the entrance and Colossus. "Come on big guy you're almost there!"

By the time Colossus entered the ring of the lights, Guardian had reached Ghigau, slaughtering his way through the host, killing several Draugr that had pinned her to the ground and pummeling her all the while. Her armor was badly dented and even ripped away in places, her helmet just as badly damaged if not worse.

Despite that Ghigau was still game. She went back to back with him, Sigyn's Gift having changed into a long double-ended pole arm which she whirled around her head and body in a defensive posture, cutting off the limbs and heads of any Draugr that moved too close.

"Move toward the entrance by step count with me!" Guardian ordered. "One, two, step! Ready, now!" Then he grunted as a child Draugr came out of the rock directly below him, grabbing his leg behind the knee and twisting.

His durability held, but he lost his footing for a second. Lashing out with his sword, he slew the midget Draugr, but used his gun to block an overhand blow from a larger member of its brethren, its arm enlarging to twice its size right before impact. The gun shattered, and a second blow from an equally large fist landed right on his eye piece, flinging his head back and making his ears ring for a moment. His durability held again however, and Harry lashed out with sword, fist and feet, slaying several Draugr before they could retreat out of range.

The two moved slowly but surely towards the entrance. But all the while, there were more cracking and shrieking sounds as more Draugr emerged from the stones all around them.

OOOOOOO

"Eyaahhh…." Hela groaned in agony her back spasming slightly as a feeling of wrongness filled her, a feeling of distortion and corruption that seemed to scrape along her spine and awareness. The feeling was very hard to describe with any single portrayal. In some ways it felt as if someone had dipped her soul in sludge, a wrongness filling the connection between Hel and Hela, warping and debasing what made her a goddess of Death. Another part was as if she had just suddenly remembered she had a limb, or a finger, only to find at the same moment that it had long festered with gangrene. A sickness which, once she became aware of it began to spread to the rest of her body with all the speed of a crashing wave.

Someone had abused her powers or her charges, those dead given over to her to be returned to the Weave in time. Worse still, the feeling grew, expanding to make her feel as if ants were crawling underneath her skin, pulling and tearing at her power and sanity, the impression growing with every passing second without pause or relief.

After a second Hela ground her teeth against the anguish, gripping her throne's armrests with crushing force as she sent a thought out to her scrying globe. Because just as whatever was going on was abusing her power, so too she could use that to discern whatever was going on.

To one side Garm had stood up the instant the sensation of foulness struck his mistress, feeling her pain, anxiety and fury. He did not have Hela's connection to her realm, but rather was connected directly to her. "Mistress? What is going on? Tell me who has hurt you my Queen, and they will feel my fangs, I swear it!"

"Something is wrong, not as it should be, tainted!" She hissed through clenched teeth, her face a rictus of pain behind her half mask. "Someone has created Draugr!"

These were not Draugr who had been made so by their own desires or malicious hearts after death. Such was right and proper in the grander scheme of things, and most Draugr would remain after death to guard the treasures they had accumulated in life or the site of their fall with equal fervency. Some Draugr became wild and fed on people, especially shepherds, since they feared being shepherded to the afterlife, but their numbers were never great and they never attacked guarded halls or towns.

If either of those had been the case now, it would not have been such a perverse twist on her rightful powers. No, these felt even more evil and twisted, than even a normal Draugr could ever be. A few of them might have been such, but the others had been victims their bodies and souls being abused into creating these things in some fashion.

After a few moments of sheer torture Hela was able to find where this impression was coming from, and she let loose a wild, almost frenzied laugh somewhere between a chuckle and a sob of distress as she noticed Harry in his Guardian personae along with several more of the Custodes Mundi. "Of course, why does that surprise me?! They're not the ones who caused this thankfully, but they certainly unearthed whatever it was. But it is not their duty to deal with this, it is my duty, and my pleasure!"

And since Draugr fall under my purview, I can legitimately break Odin's law and appear on Midgard physically! I just hope that whatever foul entity has created them still resides there... Snarling with wrath Hela practically threw herself out of her chair, gesturing slightly.

At this gesture a bastard sword of black steel appeared in one hand while a heavy wood and steel shield appeared on her other forearm. At the same moment her normal armor shifted slightly, becoming no less feminine, but covering her body more thoroughly. Even her mask shifted slightly, coming down to protect her cheeks and nose but leaving her mouth free, it's contours changing to form the visage of a wailing skull.

With a wave of the sword Garm too was layered in armor. His nails and fangs were suddenly covered in metal sheathes, his body with light chain mail from neck to tail tip. His head too wore a tight helmet, protecting his ears and throat and enhancing his already daunting features into a countenance that had made grown men and giants wet themselves with fear at the very sight. "Come Garm, there is work that needs doing!"

Garm took one look at his now armored mistress, his own body, and the scrying globe before chuffing slightly as he turned to follow. But not before having noticed Guardian's image in the globe. Hmph, protective females. Still, the Mistress is right and it has been a long time since I killed one of the wretched dead.

OOOOOOO

Colossus grunted in pain as another blow landed on his chin, twisting his head around trying to move with the strike. But another Draugr kicked him hard in the side of the knee while a third grappled him from behind, pulling him backwards as his balance wobbled. He could feel his metal body beginning to creak in agonized protest as more and more of the Draugr piled on, doing their very best to tear him apart or bend him into breaking. Regaining the lights by the entrance had helped him immensely, but he had lost his knife somewhere along the way, and was back to flailing around with his fists again...to predictably poor results to his dismay.

Elsewhere Guardian and the rest of the Custodes Mundi were not faring much better. Husk had lost her machine gun and worse her club was stuck in a Draugr's head somewhere in the piles of corpses surrounding them. She'd killed it, but that had left her weaponless as it had fallen backwards, her weapon lodged in its skull. One of her arms was badly gouged, the metal in it warped and dented, and one of her legs had almost been wrenched off completely. Husk knew she could heal from any damage done to her skin, but she doubted that would extend to replacing a whole limb.

Guardian was still going strong. He stood back to back with Ghigau, cleaving limbs and heads with his sword whenever the, now much cagier, Draugr launched themselves out of the stone or tried to grab him from below. But he couldn't cut his way through the massive horde back to his friends by the tunnel entrance, and all of them were out of grenades now. Ghigau and he were held in place several dozen yards away, unable to break through the wall of foes thanks to the sheer number of undead between them and the doorway held by their companions.

Worse yet, the Draugr now seemed the cream of the putrid crop, faster, bigger, stronger than their fellows and more intelligent to boot. Even the children seemed larger than they had been, and far swifter. Thankfully the flood of new Draugr had stopped, but even so they were in a bad way and getting worse by the second.

By the entrance Vanguard groaned in pain as a Draugr launched itself at him, tackling him to the earth. Vanguard was able to get his shield between the two of them in time however, and his mutant power activated, turning or redirecting the blows back at the Draugr, allowing him to regain his feet. But one of the creature's first blows had trashed his submachine gun, and he had lost his goggles to the second blow despite having dodged it enough to avoid having his head caved in before his mutant power could activate.

This left him with only the knife at his belt and his shield to defend himself with. Vanguard knew he was neither strong nor durable enough to last against these beasts, but still he stood, refusing to fall back and abandon the others. Another Draugr lost his arm to the knife, but a second slammed a blow into the back of Vanguard's head, bypassing Vangaurd's mutant power thanks to the hit coming from outside of the Russian's line of sight.

The blow sent him flying forward several yards deeper into the cavern, his head only remaining attached to his body thanks to the Orihalcum scales in his body armor, and the thing having slightly overreached itself, diluting much of its blow's power. He landed painfully half in and half out the area illuminated by the flashlights by the entrance, his senses swimming as he tried to collect himself as fast as possible.

Two Draugr were on him immediately. They grabbed his feet, and before his powers could activate began to pull in different directions, apparently trying to split him apart. "Gahh!" he yelled aloud in pain as he felt his bones begin to twist, the tendons coming apart despite Vanguard's power now activating, trying to protect him from the force of their grips and their steady pull. But his power couldn't break their hold on him, and they simply kept heaving in different directions slowly as if savoring his agony.

Husk tried to come to his rescue, sliding under one Draugr's snatching grab at her to kick out at one of the ones holding Vanguard. It worked, but she found herself on the ground and more of them instantly piled onto her, bashing her down and battering her with punches the strength of which knocked the breath from her lungs, denting her steel body as if her ribs were giving out. "Help!" She cried out desperately, flailing away at her tormentors to little effect.

Guardian saw the defenders by the entrance being overwhelmed, and took a bare second to look between them and where he and Ghigau were still fighting. He knew if he left Ghigau she would be overwhelmed, the girl had been battered already and was slowly losing strength. But the choice was to stand with her and let the tunnel entrance fall, possibly letting this undead horde out to attack Vorlus and his students or let her possibly die before he could return.

Before Guardian had to make that choice a howl of frothing rage rose up from behind him, a warcry that had not been heard on Earth for millennia. "Your bane is nigh!"

Hela leapt forward out of some kind of dimensional gate on the back of Garm, her sword swinging out the moment its mistress could find a target. That sword spelled doom to the undead abominations, the Draugr falling like puppets with their strings cut at its barest touch, their bodies decaying into nothing even as they fell.

At the same time she raised her free hand, gesturing forward, but nothing happened and she snarled angrily. "Some kind of seidr trap?" Hela cursed as more rapid gestures proved as fruitless as Guardian's had earlier. Pointing ahead she continued to shout. "Garm, head for the girl with the bladed staff!"

The dark of the cavern was no detriments to either Hela or Garm. They saw exactly what they were doing, and the numbers they were facing... They were undeterred and unimpressed at least at first.

Garm's feet and fangs flashed out, slicing, bisecting, and hurling Draugr aside, all aimed to either knock down or disorient their fellow abominations. Hela was just as deadly with her blade as he was with his natural weapons, her sword flowing and gliding through air and Draugr flesh with equal ease. Her shield was either deflecting their retaliatory strikes or launching her own bashing heads and fists aside to create openings for her blade, her entire form constantly moving and shifting with the flow of battle.

They quickly cleared a path around Ghigau and Guardian, whereupon Hela slid off Garm's back, pushing him towards the girl. Just then however, a child Draugr popped up out of the floor, clawing and snapping at her legs with enough strength to shake even a Vanir.

She kicked it away only to stop and stare, only now realizing the enormity of the horror in front of her. Her eyes flashed behind her mask as she let loose wordless, wailing shriek of pure fury, bringing her sword up and around to bisect two of the larger Draugr in one sweeping blow and cutting further into the horde, grief and ire fueling her assault.

It might have been highly inappropriate, but Guardian couldn't help but feel he had rarely seen a sight so beautiful as Hela on the warpath. Shaking that errant thought away he shouted, "Form triangle with these two Ghigau, let the two of them take the brunt of the combat for now!" With that order given he leaped backwards towards the entrance, taking to the air in an arc that carried him the rest of the way to his teammates there.

Upon landing he smashed into the horde, knocking them off Vanguard first then aiding Colossus in freeing himself with several well placed swings and punches. The trio moved swiftly to aid Husk, who was reaching her limit, Harry and Colossus ripping them off her or splattering their heads against the floor, with Vanguard following behind aiding as he could, which, given his injuries wasn't much. Soon after they moved to regain control of the entrance, pushing back a few Draugr who had begun to move into it. With the three of them now firmly back in control of the entrance, if badly battered, Guardian left them there, leaping over the heads of the undead horde once more to rejoin Ghigau and their welcome allies.

Hela swung her dark sword powerfully, cleaving one violated soul after another from this plane of existence with every hit, dodging and blocking as many of their own strikes as she could. Even so, the sheer numbers of Draugr were horrendous, and her form suffered badly due to the continuing sense of corruption permeating through her body.

Every time she faced a child Draugr she hesitated slightly unable to overcome the sheer revulsion and dismay their existence evoked in her, and it often cost her. In the few moments since her arrival Hela's body had become littered with bruises and small cuts from these continual distractions. But she could not help it, the contamination in the former children simply washed over her, and she let lose a frenzied cry of rage and loss every time she was forced to strike one down.

Garm was not feeling anything of that sort and raged and howled unhindered, smashing without pause through the Draugr mass. He took blows in turn of course, one of which nearly took out his eye despite his helmet. But his armor turned most of the blows and strikes effectively, even as it was being slowly torn to shreds through the sheer desperate strength of his foes.

And still the Draugr came on, their numbers still formidable in spite of their tremendous losses. "Pull back to the entrance!" Harry shouted, pushing Ghigau up onto Garm's back. Normally this would have caused Garm to turn and rend both of them into shreds for the sheer impudence of using him as a beast of burden. But a gentle touch from the battered mortal girl to his neck right underneath his helmet caused him to calm slightly, as did the slight nod of approval Hela gave him where she was still locked in combat.

The three of them moved back as one, covering one another, something which came in handy a second later. As Guardian decapitated another Draugr he saw another one slammed the stump of its arm into Hela's face blinding her for a moment. Before the thing could capitalize his blade sent it to the afterlife. "Careful there Hela! Can you tell us anything about these things?! And, not to sound ungrateful, but I thought you said you couldn't appear physically on Midgard without making a deal with Odin?"

Hela growled, stepping behind him for a moment to clear her face and eyes of the foul black puss. "I can appear here because whoever did this manipulated some of my powers to do it. They are Draugr, tainted souls who refused to leave their bodies upon death due to some great malice in their hearts and souls. But for children to be so, and for there to be so many in one place, held in stasis and hidden from me, that speaks of fell magics and power most insidious. Now, less talking, more killing!"

Just then two child Draugr burst out from either side of Harry, clawing at his legs while two more Draugr pressed in hard. His sword bisected one of the child Draugr and stabbed another of the opportunistic ones while Hela caught the second child, the blade of her sword passing straight through it. But the blow from the fourth caught Guardian in the same spot on his mask where he had been hit earlier in the eyepiece.

His mask's eye shattered, and he grunted as the Draugr grabbed him by the flaps of it, hurling him down to stomp on his back as two more burst out of the ground, clutching him with limbs of steel, pinning him in place as several more jumped on his back. Once more Guardian couldn't get enough leverage to use his prodigious strength to lift himself up and he lay there helpless for a few seconds until Hela cut enough of the limbs holding him away for him to surge back to his feet. The instant he was free his legs and feet lashed out, smashing their targets into offal, including one who would have taken Hela from behind.

"Le, less talking, more killing, right…" Guardian muttered in between panting breathes, moving back to back with the Norse goddess of death, guarding her wolf's back as Garm carried Ghigau to the entrance through the horde.

Hela snorted slightly, before gritting her teeth as a Draugr tried to smash her blade out of her arms with a piece of stone. "We need to find a way to somehow destroy the seidr trap or whatever it is. Get me my magic back and I can deal with these creatures all at once, but until then, we're stuck doing this the hard way!" Her blade lashing out to cut off the offending rock wielding arm at the shoulder only served to emphasize this point.

Just then a voice from inside the tunnel shouted, "Let's rock!" Led by Storm and Phoenix the rest of the Custodes Mundi appeared, piling into the fray.

Phoenix had point flying forward with Storm trailing behind her before exiting out into the cavern. Storm's flight wasn't as straight as normal, showing the effect of the cheering charm on her concentration, but without it, she would never have been able to overcome her claustrophobia enough to follow their teammates underground. Even so the sonic boom of their arrivals flowing outwards flung the Draugr away from the entrance, knocking down Vanguard and Husk. But both of them recovered as quickly as they could given their injuries, falling back into the tunnel as their places were taken by their teammates.

Blazing like a small supernova Phoenix lit the underground cavern with enough light to finally let the humans see completely. Their skill and ability to fight back immediately rose despite their injuries, and the Draugr at last began to lose ground, seeming to cringe away from the light of the Avatar of the Lifebringer.

Next to her Storm paused in her own assault when she saw Hela here. She shared a single startled glance with Phoenix then turned her attention to the mass of undead. Time for questions later, now there was a battle to win. But something else caught Storm's attention, and for a moment she simply hovered there in the large cavern, shock, horror and fury overcoming her lingering questions about Hela or the bit of fear that could get through her cheering charm at being underground.

Because she had spotted the former children among the Draugr. Ororo did not have Hela's connection to the realm of the dead, she couldn't actually feel the foulness of what had been done to the children to create the undead monstrosities, but she didn't need to. Thanks in part to her beliefs and thanks in part to her powers Ororo had a connection to the natural order that went well beyond the norm, which more often than not gave her a nurturing, caring side when dealing with children and the innocent.

The sight of those little bodies so distorted awoke a rage in her fit to remind all that saw Storm that she had once been worshipped as a goddess. "This shall not be!" She howled, lightning and blasts of wind shear enough to slice Draugr in two flowing down from her into the horde in such numbers that the Draugr almost seemed to melt away.

Beside her, Phoenix flung fireballs and telekinetic blasts of sheer force which ripped the Draugr apart regardless of their durability. Her attacks lacked the sheer rage of Storm's but her own anger at this distortion of nature lent her attacks just as much force.

At the same time, Magma, Psylocke, and Banshee followed on their heels, moving in front of their battered fellows. Charging forward, the Custodes began to push the Draugr back towards the center into the killing ground under Storm and Phoenix, catching the un-living mob in a deadly trap they could not escape from.

Hela and Guardian formed the center of the line, with Garm anchoring one side and Magma the other, the newcomers and Colossus set behind them, killing any Draugr that attempted to attack them from below. Vanguard and Husk grabbed up new weapons, and dug in at the entrance, providing renewed covering fire and support despite their injuries and weariness.

After the entrance was cleared Banshee joined his fellow flyers, raining down sonic screams on the hateful dead below, but when his sound based assault didn't seem to add much to the attack he switched to two submachine guns instead. Even the guns couldn't do much damage, not even if they hit the heads of his targets, but they at least weakened the Draugr a bit and made the task easier for those on the ground. He concentrated on attacking any of them attempting to regain the ceiling in an effort to attack the flyers from above, calling in strikes from the other two as needed to great effect.

"Press them!" Guardian bellowed, pushing forward. "Don't give these moldy bastards an inch!"

To one side Garm howled a challenge of his own charging ahead, and the rest of the line pressed forward under the cover of their flyers. Unable to use surprise, unable to hide in the dark or attack from below any longer, the Draugr had to attack solely head on now. And with the newcomers there, they couldn't hold. They didn't go quietly or easily, but their numbers at last began to dwindle as the battle went on.

Until finally the last of them, a giant of a bloated monster twice the size of a normal man, fell to a combination of Magma's tectonic energy balls and Garm's fangs, making a very satisfying thump when it hit the floor.

Standing in the center of the cavern, Guardian gasped in breath, staring at first at Hela, then up to his ladies as they began to descend, then around the cavern itself as he began to feel a sort of shiver of magic beneath his feet. It was as if the death of the last Draugr had broken the invocation or whatever it was that had held the runic array and the anti-magic siphon in place.

The broken, shattered remains of the stone walls all around the cavern splintered like glass, turning into dust as they watched, to be replaced by more stone, sconces and murals covering the walls from one end to the other. The torches in the sconces burst into life, giving the hall a bright, almost cheery atmosphere despite the carnage of moments before.

For a moment Guardian was silent, staring about him like everyone else. Then, as he looked from the murals to the dead and to Hela and his ladies, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Well… there's a thing."

End chapter

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I tried to write a lemon for Jean and Emma in that first section, but frankly it felt forced and the writing was not up to standard, so I deleted it. Not going to force that sort of thing going forward.

This chapter was intended to show the industrial side ramping up without going into detail, and the mystery of the Asgardians growing as Dani, Harry and co become more invested in them, and a segue into dealing with Magneto. Please note how I have dealt with most enemies up to this point… That will take most of the next chapter, which will make up for this chapters general lack of violence… up until that last scene anyway. This was also the last chapter where meetings will make up a large amount of the chapter. The foundation is complete now, everything else will show specific tests and other things, but not a lot more meetings.

Anyway, as always read and review, remember to vote on September's poll, and I will see you all in three months.