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.

41. Starting Shit Shittily

I don't own Marvel nor am I a matronly British lady.

This won the March large story poll and is thus being updated. It will rejoin the rotation in May.

I made a small mistake in the last chapter. The Emperor for the Shi'ar is called the Majestor or Majestrix. Not Emperor or your majesty. My bad. I will go back and make that correction sometime in the next week.

This has not been edited by anyone but me and my Grammarly. I sent it off to Tomon but he has not gotten it back to me just yet. Blame the COVID virus. This alas means that the chapter will no doubt be changed in various ways once he does get it back to me. He's a decent small mistake guy, and also often gives me great feedback on the story flow aspect of the chapter and there were a few points I wanted his input on. That being said, it did win the Large Story poll, and that means it has to be updated by the end of the month. If that bothers you, please be on the lookout for this notice changing in the future.

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Chapter 41: Starting Shit Shittily

Steve stumbled a little as he came out of the teleportation doorway. I am never going to get used to those, am I? Captain America then straightened his tie, and smooth down the front of his best suit, as he made his way from the teleportation room down through Hogwarts.

He waited a moment at the entrance to the runic doorway room, then smiled as it opened for him and a house-elf bowed to him from the other side. "Mister Steve Sir, I's be Darry. If you want, I'd be taking you down the street to the groom's room?"

"Thank you, but no, Darry I rather think I'd like to walk it. Although you could give me directions?" Steve replied.

Darry did so, and Steve walked to the nearest flight of steps heading downwards. As he did, he listened, shaking his head at the number of distant voices, the pitter-patter of feet large and small, the voices of teachers in the various classrooms as he passed by them, some of them all the same, showing those classrooms were being taught by Pinoptes. The wedding was a small thing to the majority of the people living in Camelot. School and learning continued all the time, the school last extracts are that Ororo and Pinoptes put together running like a well-oiled machine by this point.

He walked by several groups of students, sixth and seventh graders, who are going about their business from one classroom to another, carrying books that look like science books to Steve's eyes. Several of them smiled, and a few even gave him salutes, which he returned gravely, keeping a smile off his face with difficulty. As he passed them by, he asked, "how many students are here at this point?"

There was a faint pop, and Darry's voice answered him. Steve had been told at one point that most visitors had a house-elf assigned to them unless one of the magic users was with them. "More than two thousand kids be here now Mr. Stevie." Then he popped away again.

"No wonder the place feels so alive," Steve muttered to himself, shaking his head again as he waved at a few students heading up the stairs as he was heading down. They all cheerfully greeted him in several dozen languages, their looks showing Indian, Middle Eastern, European, South African, and Asian descent.

There were no doubt a few Americans in among them, but despite what a lot of people actually thought, American accents were normally not strong enough to be picked out of the crowd of English speakers. And thanks to the spell on work on the castle, all of their voices no matter what language they were actually speaking reached his years as English.

And this is only the younger half Steve thought, with a faint smile on his face. He knew there were at least 600 older students by this point, ranging from starting high school age up into the college years. Many of those students, those who could be trusted to look after themselves among non-mutants, or who didn't have physical deformities were preparing to transfer to Charles his mansion and would be doing so slowly as dormitories were added to his complex over the next few months.

Others, the vast majority, were in the Savage Land taking part in lessons and ongoing education there. These were run mostly by Pinoptes with Ororo's aid in creating the lesson plans. It was an amazing sign to Steve that Harry had kept all of the educational side of things going, growing and becoming more organized and simply better thanks mainly to Ororo and Pinoptes of course, with all the other balls he was juggling.

Eventually following Darry's directions Steve found a room on the first floor labeled the groom's room. Inside, Steve was amused to find that the interior, of what must have been at one point been an office of some kind, had been turned into a man cave. There was a giant TV on one wall, showing some kind of game, which Steve eventually placed as rugby, which Steve sneered at good-naturedly. His nod toward his American upbringing done, Steve took in the rest of the room, seeing there was a bar to one side. Ben was there leaning on it and staring at the screen with boredom written large on his face holding a beer in one hand, the bottle looking almost childlike in his massive paw. There was a pool table to one side, where Harry and Piotr were playing, with the quiet Russian apparently learning the game from the wizard.

All of them were in tuxedos of course, with dark blue undervests, and shiny black shoes with small dark blue lacquered buckles on them. Instead of ties, they all wore cravats, the same black as their tuxedos to offset the white that dominated the ladies' outfits. Even Harry wore a similar outfit and had spent an irritating 20 minutes with the house elves getting fitted for it the day before. His grumble of, "I just don't understand why I can't just transfigure something," had caused even the lady house-elves to stare at him as if he was retarded, shaking their heads and clucking at him.

Now Harry didn't look up from where he was directing Piotr how to take a shot, simply waving his hand at Steve. "Grab a beer, the games just getting good too."

"What, no pre-wedding jitters, no getting cold feet? It seems to me that is almost as unnatural as your magic," Steve teased as he moved to the wet bar, exchanging a nod with Ben.

At that, Harry paused, looking up at the ceiling trying to put into words why he wasn't nervous about this. "In a way, this is simply sitting in stone was already been packed for months, it feels more like a natural step then a true change of state I suppose you could say. No, I don't feel nervous at all. Although you're right, it is kind of strange."

"And can you say the same about the women?"

"Emma yes. Jean, not so much. For obvious reasons alas," Harry replied with a sigh, feeling his lover's distress through their telepathic link.

OOOOOOO

Indeed flying in the face of all tradition the bride was feeling quite calm about everything. If anything she was feeling eager to get this whole folderol over with. Emma was all for romance, but weddings to her mind were just a sort of necessary step. Nothing would really change, it was simply to acknowledge that her and Harry's relationship had reached that point. Something that they already knew, and which frankly she felt was no one else's business. So Emma was calm, staring at herself in the mirror with a faint, satisfied air.

Elsewhere, in their own ready room, Jean grumbled, staring at her reflection. As the chief bridesmaid, she was dressed in a dress that was the same color of white as Emma's, even if it wasn't nearly as elaborate. The dress in question was wide trapped dress draped from the shoulders on down to just below the knees. It was tight in the waist, but loose around the legs, and over it, Jean wore a jacket that was cream colored bar a few red highlights here and there.

"All right, I know I said this a few months ago, but now no one with eyes could possibly argue with it! I look like a freaking blimp!" Jean's mouth quivered as if she was trying to cry for a moment before she shook her head angrily. "I know that with Emma there no one should be looking at me, but damn it, I look like a tethered blimp dressed in white! Part of the freaking scenery instead of an actual part of the wedding!"

Hela and Emma both rolled their eyes, as Ororo, dressed for her role as priestess rather than bridesmaid, shook her head at the emotional outburst. "If you believe that, you are both truly blind and rather foolish. You look gorgeous my dear. Perhaps not sexually, but there is a distinct glow about you, one that has been given to you by your current status." Jean pouted, and every woman there was able to follow her train of thought without the use of telepathy.

Deciding to head it off, Ororo let a wicked leer cross her face, an odd look for the regal black woman yet she somehow made it work. "And if you think you would look better in that wedding dress when you're thinner, why don't you just keep it around and have it retailored in the future. I guarantee that Harry would enjoy some role-play of that nature."

The other two ladies laughed, which caused Jean to pout at them all, before sighing and nodding her head. "I am being rather ridiculous aren't I?"

"Just a bit. But don't worry, pregnant women always get a free pass about such things. In fact, you could probably get away with a lot more than you already do. I know I would." At Emma's suggestion, Jean chuckled, before Ororo, seeing that Emma was nearly ready, excused herself and Emma turned to glare at Hela. "And you. Is there any reason why you haven't yet changed into your dress? I know the house-elves got your sizes right."

"I don't wear white," Hela declared. "With my skin tone, it makes me look like a wraith. I have told you this time and time again."

"And I have told you that you don't have a choice. You will stick out like a, a black rose in a bed of white, and not in a good way either! You need to wear it, or else just not take part in the wedding," Emma threatened.

Hela huffed, waving at Emma's dress. "As if anyone is looking at the bridesmaids during a wedding. You will not get your way on this Emma Frost, leave it be. You might be stubborn as the day is long, but you cannot browbeat me."

"Want to bet?!" Emma hissed. "I didn't even want this wedding in the first place, and now you, who helped push for it, is going to wreck my color scheme?"

Jean shook her head, taking a step back. "Oh, don't mind me, I'll just wait to clean up the blood afterward." Neither arguing woman even acknowledged her, and she chuckled, moving over to sit in a chair with a sigh. This looked like it was going to be a long one.

OOOOOOO

Back with Harry and the others looked up as there was a knock from the doorway. Harry called out "Come in." Then he realized a man would've just barged in, and looked around at everyone, before adding, "We're all decent."

At that addition, the door opened and Sage came in. She was not dressed for the wedding. She had been offered a spot among the wedding-goers. While unsung in many ways, Sage had become one of the most important parts of Harry's growing power base not just with Magical Minds but with everything else, the EDF and the Empire he was slowly building. Which still needs a name darn it.

But she had refused. Weddings apparently were not her scene. "Not unless you went full Goth," she'd joked at the time, before allowing a thin smile on her umber-painted lips. "Although I might be interested in seeing Hela get married. I've researched some of what I can of old Norwegian style weddings, and that sounds like it might be interesting."

So Harry was a little surprised to see her, and by the wry quirk of her mouth – the most expressive part of her face given she always wore ruby-tinted sunglasses almost like Scott's that doubled as projector screens, it wasn't entirely good news that brought her here. Especially since I still have two days of vacation after today. Emma had insisted on adding another day to their vacation, so they could have their honeymoon and a day to recover.

Harry was kind of insulted that she thought he'd need an entire day to do so and had said so. Emma however simply laughed. Her eyes had become half-lidded, and she had played with her bottom lip in such a way that Harry had been unable to look away. "Challenge accepted."

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important Harry," Sage answered his unsaid question before he could voice it. "There are three things I wanted to bring to your attention before you actually get back to work and are then inundated by other things. Because I think once you hear, they will shape your workload for a while, and I want you to be thinking about that now before you officially go are back on the clock."

Harry rolled his eyes, but nodded, and sat down in one of the nearby plush chairs, while the others all made themselves comfortable, with Steve and Ben making no move to set their beers down. In turn, Harry made no move to ask any of them to leave. If this was about something they wanted to be kept secret, Sage wouldn't have even mentioned it after seeing how many people were in the room.

"Lay it on me," he said expansively. Harry was in a very good mood and refused to let this sudden intrusion of business-related stuff before it's time get to him.

Sage smiled, and slid into the chair across from him, crossing her legs as she leaned back comfortably. She then twitched her fingers, and a bit of light disappeared from one of her sunglasses' lenses, indicating she had just turned them off and was no longer concentrating on who knew how many things via those computer display glasses of hers. "First, I think it's time for you to get more involved in the lawmaking aspect of the Babylonian Empire."

"It's named now Harry asked, while the other one man in the room mouth the name.

"You're taking too long. It's a working name anyway. I would suggest though you figure out a new name quickly before it becomes like so many other temporary things: permanent in all but name."

"Good cause I don't like all the connotations of that name. And what do you mean I need to be involved?"

"Well for one thing, the lawyers are spending more time arguing about the minutiae of the wording of this or that law. They need to be smacked upside the head, and they won't listen to me or Carol. And for another, they are putting far too many laws on the books. Especially laws occur that are made to curtail the power of the individual in charge, i.e. you," Sage replied dryly.

Harry growled, leaning back. "All right, that's a good point." Perhaps if his empire wasn't going to be built on the premise that humanity would be at war for much of its continued existence, the idea of limiting the individual in charge's power would be a good idea. As it was, no.

"You're openly calling it an Empire now," Steve interjected, setting his beer down.

"You have the Emperor, me, who has basically created this Empire through his own work and hands, if in a far different manner than Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan," Harry tapped his chest. "And we will have several different, very diverse and far-flung holdings, countries eventually, all with an overarching connection in the form of a few bare laws and the defense of the whole. Eventually, we'll have multiple societies, ethnicities, etc. Many of whom will have little to do with one another but will still be beholden to me for the creation of their various colonies and to the EDF for defense. And in no way do I want to let the various colonies make their own space defense forces. I'm trying to cut down on the various divisions among humanity, not add to them. So, empire."

Steve winced. A good American, he much preferred democracy, but he reminded himself that Harry was right. The mutant question was basically dying out the world over as the violent pro or anti factions were hammered under by the powers that be. The Middle East was still a major question mark, and Russia had only just begun to meet its obligations in that area for the medical supplies it wanted from Magical Minds. But so far, Harry was still the biggest player in the game in terms of employing, training and helping mutants. That wasn't going to change anytime soon, as far as Steve could tell, not with the head start Harry had on recruitment and education side of things.

That left the space-based threats. And there again, Harry was the only name in the game for a simple reason:

stepped up to the bedplate about it Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. The countries of the world had basically been doing the equivalent of sticking their heads into the sand and going 'La la la it's not real' since the moment that the Fantastic Four adventures had proved that aliens were out there and very dangerous. They had barely begun to provide funding for SWORD, the space-based version of SHIELD, and that had never gotten off the ground because the various countries just couldn't trust one another to run things.

"Are you sure you need to build on the idea of becoming an empire instead of a nation?" Ben asked, crossing his massive craggy arms. "I mean, with magical transportation, I would say that regardless of how far apart they are everything can be tied together really easily."

"Yes, transportation between them is instantaneous thanks to magic, but even so, few people are going to transfer from one place to another for a while. I've talked to hundreds of workers up in Fortress Mars, and their families all decided to live with them rather than I the Savage Land. But I have hundreds of others that want to live in the Savage Land, hidden and protected and able to contribute from there. The laws and ordinances have to be different. And that's not even considering how many offers of requests to create different colonies I've been getting."

"That was my second point," Sage said interjecting quickly before Harry could explain that the bemused group of men, none of whom had heard about that point just yet bar Steve, and he'd only heard about the Americans wanting to build their own base on Mars. The only one who didn't look at all surprised by that aspect was Piotr, who had already heard about it.

"We've been getting more and more requests to talk about colonization since the Eurasian War ended. Religious groups for the most part, who want to set up a colony where they can, for various reasons, be left alone to see to their own affairs."

Harry grumbled, shaking his head. "This isn't a charity. It can't be, I don't have the resources for that." He knew his voice was almost a whine as he said that, but it was true dammit. Even with the time chamber turning out about four hundred repair droids every other week, he was still nowhere near where he wanted to be when it came to his industrial capacity. The training for the human portion of the space industry was also becoming a real bottleneck, both on the military side of things and the engineering side. There were way more people signing up for the various levels of training/retraining than were coming out of it. That was one area magic couldn't help, unfortunately.

"I think the thorniest request along those lines comes from a group of Buddhist Tibetans. At first, they were requesting our help, to gain independence but after we shot down the first few people who brought that up, there have shifted to helping perform a mass migration to a prepared colony."

"I thought the majority of Tibetans were happy enough with Chinese rule," Harry asked quizzically. "I haven't made a study of it but…"

"Not quite," Sage's voice was dust-dry as she interrupted him while Ben coughed into it one large fist and Steve and Piotr just looked on in confusion. Like Harry, they were pretty ignorant on this topic. "The Dalai Lama is a major divisive figure in absentia pushing for more local autonomy and protection of the existing ethnicity, and the Buddhists are not happy to be under the aggressively anti-religious Chinese. And there are dozens of others. Some who represent interesting groups, groups that may be able to contribute a lot in the future, including prospectors who just want a ship and access to space to a South American thinktank that has some interesting ideas I think we should have Reed look at about actually creating and bio-forming as they put it, colonies. I think we need to look over their applications carefully Harry. I realize the cost now would be higher than any immediate return but in the long run, I think some of these groups could contribute a lot."

Harry stroked his beard, thinking. "Okay, I can see where that would be an issue, however, again, we're running right into the same thing I don't have any colonies to give them. Fortress Mars…" he said holding up a hand when Sage made to object, "Is just that. A fortress first and foremost. Military bases only with the people there being military personnel and their dependents. I'm not going to quibble about that.

Piotr held up a hand. "How long do you think it'll be before you are able to create colonies?" He hadn't followed anything on the space side of things. The former farmer knew his strengths, and that wasn't one of them.

Harry paused thinking. "…I would say it would depend on what these groups mean by a colony. If they want a hollowed-out asteroid to call their own, I can provide that within a few weeks. The construction droids will finish hollowing out the last Ravenspires, soon enough, while most of the fiddly bits aren't even finished on the first and second carrier fortresses. The welding and engineering teams have started on the second one, and the first is near to completion, but…" he shrugged. "So yes, we could provide the bare minimum for say, a certain gratuity off the bat if that's what they want. But I won't be responsible for the first buffoon who thinks that they'll just be handed a finished, completely set up colony. They must be willing to put in the work to finish things, and it won't be safe or easy."

Steve barked a laugh. "Luckily Harry, I think that message should be among the easiest to get across."

"You'd think so wouldn't you," Harry laughed in turn, although there was more of a sharp edge to his bark of laughter than actual humor. Then he looked at Sage shrewdly. "I've noticed you haven't mentioned anything about pro-mutant or anti-mutant stuff."

"I have not," she said with a smirk. "The reason for that is simple enough: because there haven't been any issues. Oh, there is a lot of bad feelings on either side of things down in Genosha but we're on top of that. Thunderbird and Morph have been freaking godsends there if for different reasons, along with the US aid that's been coming through. Frankly, without people on both sides instigating things, the extremists are becoming more and more isolated the world over now. Heck, even that one group we were monitoring thanks to how violent they are, the Purifiers have been taking hits, several of their recruiting offices were raided recently and their leader is now on America's Most Wanted."

The smirk shifted into a real smile at Harry and then she did something that surprised him: she removed her data-display glasses locking eyes with Harry earnestly, her eyes a deep, almost liquid black. "A few years ago I would've never seen this coming, I thought the battle between mutant and non-mutant would dominate my entire life. Now, barring a significant setback, and I don't see one coming, mutant equality under the law at the very least if not socially is going to be a reality through most of the world. I won't say mutants with physical deformities won't be ostracized bullied or any such stupidity, fat and ugly people are routinely bullied after all. But it won't be on the societal level and hate groups are now on the outside looking in. Non-powered humans and mutants can maybe, just maybe start to live together without fear."

Hearing that from Sage, who was routinely a pessimist on such things, Harry smiled and leaned back, happy for an entirely different reason than before. One aspect of his self-appointed mission in this world looked to be well on its way to completion. The second, well the second was probably going to take the rest of his life, but it was certainly a good sign of things to come. "And your third point?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"The Russian government wants to talk to you. They sent a representative to Magical Minds, somehow, I don't know how they got him to the UK without anyone realizing it, but they did. They want to purchase hover technology from us and wish to talk about further business dealings."

"Purchase?" Harry said frowning quizzically. "Are you sure about that wording?"

"Yes," Sage said with a smile. "I caught that too."

"I don't get it," Ben asked while the other two men looked just as confused. "What are you talking about?"

"If the Russians wanted to, they could already have gotten design schematics or possibly even a complete sample of our hover technology given how much it's been used in the ambulances and so forth since the Eurasian War. It is not like our medicine where they simply can't reproduce it. It might be tough for them to reproduce it on their own, but they could do it. If they are actually asking, that means they want something else on top of it. And are willing to pay for whatever it is too. And you say one of the representatives is willing to just wait on my convenience?"

"Yes, that was significant to me as well," Sage said dryly once more. "Especially since is it Professor Moran Kirov of the Duma."

"Ah, next time lead with that," Harry breathed, remembering the mild-mannered man in glasses who had basically taken over the Russian delegation in the peace talks on High Note through intellectual legerdemain. "Okay, I'll bite. Set up a meeting for the first day I'll officially be back on the clock. Make it early, eight or seven, something like that. Tell him I'll be bringing some other people along with me though. Piotr are you up for this? I'd like an interpreter on the social level to make certain I'm understanding everything he's asking and how he's doing it."

Piotr frowned, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "While I appreciate the vote of confidence tovarisch, I believe that I am not the best person for this. While I am Russian, I was a peasant. I do not have a strong enough grasp of Russian society as a whole and know next to nothing about our politics from the inside of the beast. Would Father Garnoff do instead? You know he has been approaching you to ask if you would fund a mission of his back into Russia."

That had been the case for a while, but since the Eurasian War ended, Garnoff had changed his requests from Harry aiding him in a secret mission into Russia to restart his Underground Railroad, to an open mission to preach cooperation and unity. Being reminded of that, and realizing the rightness of the idea, Harry grinned, looking over at Steve. "See, this is why I always listen to Piotr. There is most decidedly a brain in that big lug of his."

Piotr chuckled, as did Steve, nodding his head to the big man while Ben slapped Piotr on the shoulder lightly.

"You're right," Harry went on. "This might be a perfect opportunity to kill two Shi'ar with one stone." He didn't elaborate on what he meant by that though, saying instead, "I'll talk to blind faith after the wedding, get him used to the idea before we go to work. Anything else?"

"Two more minor points I wanted to give you a heads up on because you haven't been answering your mail during the past few days. First, King William is going to be stepping down formally Mid-December. He has requested your presence and Ororo's at the coronation ceremony for his son."

Harry's head reared back and he stared at her in shock. "I knew it was coming, but… okay. I can understand."

Sage shrugged. "I predict he'll still be a special advisor to the crown for a while, but yes, he'll be stepping down."

"Actually I don't think he will be. Sage looked at Harry quizzically, and Harry shrugged. "If anyone has earned the right to just set his burden down and walk away, William has. Three World Wars now, the whole Mutant Question, helping to oversee the breaking up of the British Empire as peacefully as he could he's been through it all. And frankly, I don't know if he's got many more years left in him at all, let alone in the driver's seat. No, he'll cut himself off entirely, devote himself to his grandchildren and possibly his memoirs. And more power to him."

While Steve nodded firmly, almost wistfully and the others simply nodded Sage frowned then shrugged. "You know him better than I do obviously."

"I do indeed," Harry said, smiling wryly. "He's been an excellent king and an excellent man which is sometimes far harder, for far too long. I think it's time he removes one of those hats."

"My last point is that we've been getting queries from China, the United States, and now Russia, about releasing some of our technology on the spaceship front. But I doubt you've changed your opinion on that."

"No I haven't," Harry said very firmly. "There are way too many problems with that, starting with the fact that they don't actually have the capacity to build ships yet. None of them have been able to figure out a way to get into space that doesn't rely on my largess and again I don't want to reinforce the existing powers that be. This isn't the Americans wanting their own base on Fortress Mars, that was a good and done deal, which both sides benefited from, them more than me admittedly, but still. This isn't even about the fact they think they could do a better job than me. It is once more about the whole one man shouldn't have all that power thing again. No. Just no, I am not releasing any of that technology to anyone."

Steve frowned. "While I would prefer to stand up for Uncle Sam and say your stance doesn't have much merit, considering the fact that the secret work on revamping the Iowa classes hasn't even been finished yet to they could work as planetary defenses fortresses, I'd have to say you're right. Still, handing over some of the ships might be a good idea Just training vessels strip out their weapons, get people used to everything."

At this point, Jean's voice came into all of their minds as one, a gentle poke at the back of their skulls, though pointed for all its gentleness. "That's enough of that Harry. Today is Emma's day, and you do not want to think about what she would say if she learned that you were thinking about business before seeing her coming down the aisle."

Harry winced, then laughed responding down the telepathic connection with a sending full of wordless affection and love for Jean, Emma, and the others. Then with that most important message delivered, Harry went on, amusement plain in his mental voice. "You know, for someone who was so against the idea of marriage, she seems to have gotten caught up in this whole hullabaloo in the past few days."

"Of course she has, silly man," Jean replied, her own mental tone loving yet exasperated at the same time. "It's part of the joys of being a woman."

"What, changing of the drop of a hat?"

The telepathic poke this time was as gentle, and Harry winced as Jean's voice came back in a much firmer mental tone. "No Harry, taking joy in being wedded to her love. Or one of them anyway." Despite the droll tone of the last few words, Harry could feel the true depth of emotion behind them.

At those words Harry just nodded, send back another wordless wave of affection, and stood up, using magic to pull twist his tie into place, then staring at the nearby mirror. He tried to comb his hair once more, having done so before Sage had entered, and yet again it was messy once more. Darn it. His hair seemed to fight his efforts and even magically, he couldn't make any headway. Messy it is then, he thought, then squared his shoulders, and looked around at the other men. "Gentlemen, I have been told that it is about time for us to get ready. And it would be very unbecoming if my bride reached the altar before I was there to wait for her."

Ben laughed, clapping them on the shoulder. 'Heh true that." Steve also smiled, and set down his beer, hopping to his feet as Piotr did the same.

Once they reached the altar, Piotr fell in beside Harry as best man, and the other two slid out to the side, as they had been told to do so by the wedding planner, in this case, Ororo who was also acting as the priestess. The queenly African woman was dressed in a white sari, which wound around her body and then up her chest over her shoulder, leaving one shoulder bare while covering her other arm down to her forearm in white cloth. The necklace and Panja ring Harry had made her gleamed against her chocolate skin, and she had decided to wear a tiara of burnished gold to hold back her hair. She was a vision of beauty to Harry's eyes, and he wondered how Emma was going to top it.

She smiled at them, then leaned forward and kissed Harry on the cheek, a stark departure from the normal way a priest or even a priestess should greet the groom when he arrived at the altar, but one no one here even blinked at. "Prepare to be mesmerized," she quipped, before taking her place at the altar.

At those words, the wedding march played in the background and he turned to look, and it took all of Harry's self-control not to gape.

Emma's wedding dress was somewhat simple in design. It was a white off-the-shoulder dress, made of silk, lace and ripples and designs that Harry had no idea how to describe. It hugged her body tightly at the waist, while somehow doing the same to her chest without becoming sexual while being simply gorgeous. The hem of her dress flowed behind her held off the ground by Melody and Illyana, both of whom were grinning at the duty in white dresses of their own. She'd done something to her hair that made it bounce on her slightly tanned shoulders in loose ringlets, shining in the sun. She wore the jewelry Harry had created for her along with an emerald and diamond necklace that looked like something a queen would have worn during the Middle Ages.

To say that Harry was indeed mesmerized was putting it mildly.

OOOOOOO

At the same time Emma was walking down the aisle a ship came out of hyperspace, well out into the hyperspace bubble of the solar system. This was deliberate. The hyperspace maps of this area of space that the Shi'ar Empire had access to were not very good, and under those circumstances, some caution was necessary.

Or at least, for most of those on board it would be necessary, the captain thought to himself, looking over at Gladiator as he stood at the back of the bridge, his arms crossed. Gladiator wouldn't have been injured by anything they could've run into in hyperspace. Indeed, the only reason why he had bothered with taking a ship at all was distance. Gladiator could cross the distance around the solar system as fast as a Shi'ar could cross a medium-sized garden, but there was a vast amount of difference between that and crossing between star systems. Especially from one portion of the Galactic Arm to the other which was the case here. For that, you needed hyperspace travel.

Especially when considering the distance we've come, the captain mentally groused, shaking his head. Damn it, our holds were full of reactor mass, and I honestly can't say if we have enough to get back. Not at the same speed we went out anyway. When calculating hyperspace speeds, the faster you went and the farther you were jumping both effected the amount of fuel you used. For a ship their size on a trip like this, two weeks in four long hyperspace jumps followed by twelve smaller jumps, they'd burned through the equivalent of an entire year's worth of patrol missions. I wonder if these primitives have any we can repurpose. Doubtful I suppose, according to what reports we have the humans haven't even escaped their gravity well yet.

He was about to say something to Gladiator to tell them that they had finally arrived, when several of his sensor specialists hissed in shock and began to jabber at one another in quiet tones, rechecking and checking their systems. "What is it?" he growled instead, striding over to them.

Gladiator followed, one dark purple eyebrow raised in surprise at the sudden frenetic activity. "Have the Kree or the skulls moved in already? That would make my job slightly harder."

"We have multiple ships out there, what looks like a mid-sized flotilla that is currently diving into the outer edge of that gas giant. We're getting readings of power signatures from several different points around the solar system, not just from the third planet, the one called Earth. And there's something…"

A second later more data appeared, and the man scowled. "Captain, we have the earth here, blazing with all the energy of a pre-space industrial society, but then we have this. This is the fourth planet from the sun, and it is blazing with almost as much energy as the Earth is. Though that could be because of the fact it no longer seems to have much atmosphere to diffuse the energy signals. There are other signatures scattered around, but we can't make out much more detail for them at this range."

Gladiator shrugged. "The humans seem to have spread into space then?"

"Maybe, but the reading I got off that one ship before it ducked behind the planet, it looked almost Kree."

"Regardless, our mission does not change. If the humans want our help in forcing the Kree out, then perhaps it will make my job simply easier."

The ship moved through the solar system until it was just passing the orbit of the outermost planets, two of them, one of which had an orbit which dipped into and out of the Oort cloud, at the outer edge of the system. However, as they passed the second planet, a nasty little ball of nothing, they were hailed. A ship came into view at the far edge of their weapons-grade sensor suite and sent out a pulse of tachyon based communications.

"It's on a Kree frequency, but it doesn't have their encryption and come with a translation key. Isolating and activating it now," said the communications specialist quickly. He reached up underneath his helmet to scratch at his feathers for a moment frowning as his computer worked on the words, translating it. "Attention incoming vessel. You have entered Terran space. Please state your intentions, or you will be fired upon."

OOOOOOO

Aboard the bridge of the cruiser Valiant, Captain Josiah Drake, originally of American descent and one of the first batch of officers to come through the EDF's training regime was not exactly happy with his orders. Yes, the ship that had popped out of hyperspace was a design they'd never seen before, so they shouldn't fire on it right off the bat, that was obvious. But he would much rather have preferred to make this approach backed up by as many Ravens as they had on hand. Instead, the Ravens were being held on the other side of the Teleportation Gates ready to be sent into the closest gate, but not yet on the field of battle.

That left his ship out here like this. Is this what it feels to be one of those birds miners take into the mine to see if there's any danger? It isn't a nice feeling at all. Still, he had his orders. "Send the first contact package again, and our request that they cease acceleration.

OOOOOOO

Gladiator and the captain exchanged looks, and then the captain guffawed, while Gladiator simply shook his head. "Such hubris, from a race that has only barely gotten out of its own gravity well? Foolish."

"Could it have something to do with how they turned aside Galactus?" the captain asked, sobering somewhat.

"Doubtful, that was apparently done by a team of four super-powered individuals. I do not believe they could have their powers to all this. Ignore them," Gladiator ordered. I will address these humans once we are in orbit over their planet."

"They may fire on us," cautioned the captain.

"And if they do I will destroy them," Gladiator said simply. "I believe it is time that these humans realized how small they are in the large, large universe." The Shi'ar all around him nodded and grinned at that, slamming fists to chests as they shouted "Majestor Rex!"

OOOOOOO

As he waited for his Admiral to make a decision on what to do next, Drake examined the ship ahead of him through his scanners, frowning faintly. It really did not look like anything they'd seen so far. For one thing, from what his sensors could tell the incoming ship was slim, streamlined with a central cylindrical body. Going from his light refraction scanners it was painted silver of all things, instead of black or gray. It looked almost like a Romulan bird of prey from Star Trek, but not quite. The wings were tented upwards rather than downwards, the head was very much more obviously shaped into a beak, and all of its weapons seems to be mounted in that beak and around it, a few on the neck, but that was all.

His sensor specialists seem to think there were a few more hidden under panels on the wings, but at best they would be secondary defensive weapons. Shield blisters here and there along its back, but that was all.

The ship also moved like lightning though. It had already crossed more than half of the outer system, faster than anything the Kree or the Badoon had shown.

As the ship continued forward ignoring his message and actually quickly letting his ship behind despite his helmsman's best efforts to cut back and into the system. But that wasn't his main concern at the moment. "Communications?"

"Captain, I know they received the package, translation software and all. But they are not responding," That worthy replied formally.

So not only are they deliberately not talking to us, but they are also ignoring my ship given the fact they even were able to get here, their senses have to be just as good as the Kree's. And they just kept on going towards where the simulacrum of Earth was, several days ahead of where earth really was hidden under the magical spells of the boss and the other magicals. Drake didn't pretend to understand how they'd been able to do that, but he knew they had, as he'd seen the results. Even shotgun-style attacks like the one the Badoon had launched could only hit Earth very lightly at the edge of the attack, which would've been dangerous enough, if not for the more active defenses.

No, Drake wasn't worried about Earth just yet. He was worried about what this ship might entail. It wasn't a large ship, it wasn't firing on him, it was just ignoring him. Was it a scout ship coming in to get readings and then send them off somehow? If so, they'd soon realize that wasn't going to happen.

"Sir," his communications specialist barked. "Admiral Powers has ordered the Hyperspace Trap activated and is going to be sending in a few Ravens to help out along with two of the frigates working through their trials in Saturn's rings. We are to assume the incoming ship is hostile if they do not immediately start to communicate with us or open fire upon the frigates."

"Relay my understanding of our orders please coms," Drake replied, grateful for the clear cut orders. At least he wouldn't be left out to dry if things went wrong. Which he was very afraid might happen. Something about this situation was making his hair stand on end, a feeling of unease that did not decrease even as the trap activated and the ravens came through the Teleportation Rings.

On the bridge of the Shi'ar ship, this was immediately apparent to the sensor specialist. "Sir! Massive gravitic signature just… By the Majestor!"

"Calm down and give me a proper report you sna'grataah (unfertilized egg)," The captain snarled, looking over at what one of the sensor specialists, appalled at the lack of decorum.

"Gravitic spike," the man repeated. "It just popped up like, like a second star had just appeared in the system and reached out for us personally. It seems to be creating a cone of space where any attempt to jump to hyperspace impossible. We can't hyper out or even send out a drone!"

Scowling, Gladiator asked, "Where is it coming from? This is an act of war!"

Technically it actually wasn't, not even by the Shi'ar Empire's extremely lax rules, but the captain wasn't about to say that. After all, these were primitives. Whatever their level of technology, they were still primitives. They were not an Empire they were not a power that should be taken seriously. They were simply a single system polity, apparently one with delusions of grandeur. They would have to be taught the error of their ways.

The Shi'ar Empire did not have the phrase 'the nail who stands out gets hammered down'. But it was certainly a term of phrase that the Shi'ar would understand.

"Extrapolating the energy wave, it is originating from the fourth planet, the one with the energy signature which nears that of Earth's."

"Twist our heading towards the fourth planet then…"

"New ships incoming! Where the hell they come from!?" The sensor specialist suddenly shouted, interrupting the Praetor of the Imperial Guard and not noticing, so great was his surprise. Three dozen small ships had just appeared out of nowhere over one of the outer gas giants and were moving towards them from the port side. They were gaining on their ship, moving faster than them, something that shocked the captain tremendously.

Their size made Gladiator dismiss them, though the captain did not, and was now suddenly looking very worried. Then two more ships came out from within the ring of the largest gas giant, moving to intercept them, having hidden within so well they hadn't noticed them, occupied as they were by the fourteen plus ships moving around the blue-tinted gas giant. Both were of Kree design and were frigates rather than the light cruiser which had been dogging their trail, but even so that was certainly an escalation. And they had to respond appropriately.

Gladiator' s teeth appeared as he snarled, shaking his head. "Prepare to launch me. I will destroy those ships."

"My Lord, are you certain?" The captain asked.

Gladiator looked at him in surprise, and the captain shrugged. "I understand why you think this is an act of war, and I fully understand and agree with the fact that these people need to be put in their place. But, shouldn't we at least reply to their hails before doing so?"

"No," Gladiator said, and the captain shrugged. He'd given his objection, now whatever happened was on Gladiator's head, which was precisely why he'd spoken up in the first place. He didn't honestly believe that these humans had any right to defend themselves against the Shi'ar people. What kind of quixotic universe was it where the weak felt they could demand attention from the strong without consequences?

Within moments, Gladiator was in the hangar bay, the hatch behind him sliding shut. Vacuum opened ahead of him, and he flew out, accelerating to near light speed within seconds of leaving the ship. Two seconds after that, he had crossed the intervening distance between himself, and the first ship that had made itself known to their sensors.

Captain Drake had barely an instant to see on the scanners that the thing shooting at them faster than even a gauss round was sort of human-shaped before it slammed into his ship's shields and through them without even slowing before it crashed into his ship's nose. An instant later, decompression occurred, and the emergency runic arrays on his and most of his crew's emergency teleportation devices activated, teleporting them straight into the holding center on Fortress Mars.

"Well fuck me!" he shouted, as he appeared there, pulling off his helmet and shouting, "Someone get me a headcount!"

It turned out, that he had lost two hundred and thirty men and women in that first attack. They had been struck through the head or heart by debris from the ship as Gladiator cored right through it from head to tail. The rest of his crew of nine hundred had escaped.

However, the individuals on the two frigates that Gladiator turned his attention to in the next few seconds were not nearly as lucky. They'd reacted, twisting away from him, opening fire as several of the Ravens also took him under fire with their graviton beams but he simply flew through them slamming into and through them in turn. One he took through the middle, the other at an angle from above.

By that point, most of the Ravens had scattered and after only catching five of them Gladiator was satisfied he had gotten his message across, and he stopped in his slaughter, smirking slightly and then turning his attention towards the distant Earth. "Captain, pull back to the outer system," Gladiator ordered as the remaining Kree warships twisted and flew away from him. "I think they have gotten the idea. Now to deliver my demand."

With that, he flew towards the earth.

OOOOOOO

The wedding ceremony was small and had been kept deliberately so at Emma's orders. Ororo had given a brief speech full of the word love and then Emma and Harry had both been asked the penultimate question. Harry was just about to say, "I do", or words to that effect - he in fact it had about a paragraph ready and waiting to go - when Big E stood up from where he had been sitting in the audience. He had asked to watch the proceedings as he had yet to see a wedding and had seemed to enjoy it as a new example of human interaction, but now he spoke up in a very loud, commanding voice.

"Your pardon. This is not an objection to your being wedded Harry and Emma, however, I believe that the rest of the galaxy is not willing to give you time to enjoy your nuptials. Pinoptes has an unidentified ship in the system. Hostilities have begun and the ship has just launched a human-shaped Super soldier of some kind. We have lost Valiant, the Dauntless, Incorruptible and ten Ravens that had been sent out to support him. The rest of the ready fleet is scrambling backward away from this unknown superpowered fighter, but he has ignored them, and is turning towards Decoy Earth."

"How many dead?" Harry asked, turning away from Emma with manifest reluctance, while she looked as if she was torn between shock, rising horror at the fact that their people were dying while she was walking down the aisle, and rising anger at both those facts.

"No confirmed kills among the Ravens. The emergency teleportation activated in time. Portions of the crew of each of the two frigates and the light cruiser have also survived," E said, his robotic voice sounding furious, the AI's ability to emote startling no one among this select company. "We have confirmed missing among the crew of all three ships, more than half in the case of the Incorruptible."

"And he's going for Decoy Earth?" Hela asked sharply. "This is not a magic-user we're dealing with, then."

"Negative, he is indeed apparently going for the Decoy Earth. So too was the ship before Fortress Mars activated the hyperspace trap."

"And when they did?" Harry asked while the wedding-goers were looking on in shock.

"It immediately rerouted to Fortress Mars but didn't take any overt action until the ravens showed up on their radar from the Teleportation Gate, coupled with several of the other ships moving to intercept them. At that point the human-sized being they launched attacked, and hostilities commenced."

"Hostilities commenced? I think you need to broaden your nomenclature E," Harry said with a sigh as he mentally went through a list of the people he'd want to send where. "And why was I not warned about an unknown ship in-system?"

E shrugged. "Admiral Powers and General Murphy knew you were being married at the moment Harry, so they didn't want to interrupt for a false alarm. Pinoptes relayed to me a report the instant shit hit the fan. Your orders?"

"Better," Harry said with a nod. "And as for my orders…" He looked at Emma apologetically. "Sorry about this love, but I think duty calls."

Emma nodded coldly, her hands clenching and unclenching, but that was the only sign of her rising wrath. "Jean and I will be standing by, in case this enemy is one that is somehow shielded against your magic, but not mental attacks. But Potter," she mock-growled, allowing a faint smile on her face as she leaned up to wrap her arms around his neck. "I will demand my honeymoon dammit!" It was rare for any of Harry's three lovers to get him all to themselves of a night, and she had been looking forward to it.

Harry chuckled at that but nodded and kissed her hard but lovingly on the lips. Then he pulled back, winked at Ororo, and intoned formally, "Since it does need to be said, I do, a thousand times I do."

"Oh right, erm, me too. I do," Emma stammered, having forgotten where precisely in the ceremony they had been interrupted such was her anger.

"In that case. I pronounce you man and wife. Now, let's go save the planet." Ororo said clapping her hands once even as she rose into the air.

Mary Jane leaned over to Wyatt. The two of them sat on the groom's side of the aisle and had been invited to 'stop by if you wanted', which MJ had grabbed at with both hands. "is it just me, or does it kind of shock you at how blasé she just sounded when she said 'save the planet'?"

"It's a half shocking and half very uplifting," Wyatt replied, shaking his hand and standing up slowly. He doubted he would be called in on this one. "After all, you perform at any job better once you have experience."

"This is going to be a space battle," Harry said as he led the way towards the castle, flying now with Ororo beside him with Piotr dragged along below him via a spell. "Piotr, did you test that jetpack we made you?"

"I did tovarisch, and I am more than willing to see if it will allow me to have enough mobility in space to help."

"Good." He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that Jean had not followed them. She was with Emma, the two of them walking towards the castle. Thank God that's not one argument I won't have today.

"Oh don't worry, I've learned my lesson," Jean said, having sensed that mental thought down their telepathic link. "It's a wrench, but I can't be out there with you until the twins are born."

"Thank you love I'm sorry it has to be that way, but it does."

By the time Harry and Jean were finished talking, Ororo, Hela, and Harry along with Piotr and the Thing were within the environs of the castle. From there they entered the gate room, teleporting to Babylon, and from there, Piotr put on the jet pack while they were joined by the Johnny Storm. Of the Fantastic Four, he was the only one who could participate in a pure space battle with any ease, although he had also brought along a jet pack for the Thing created by Reed Richards. It was a little bulkier than the one Piotr was wearing and was more powerful but not as durable because it wasn't made Orichalcum like the one Harry and Jean had created for Piotr.

Harry took a brief moment to dress into his Crysis Suit, then enchanted "Magia Erebea," shunting five percent or so of his magic into strengthening his body and strength. After all, this being had just torn through capital ships so it was obviously powerful.

Then, the group of Custodes zoomed out into the distance from Earth, towards where Harry and Ororo, could see the Decoy Earth, like a heat haze in the distance.

"Are we going to try and talk to this shit?" The Thing grunted. He'd been enjoying the ceremony and had been looking forward to a great feed, and to have been interrupted by news of people dying in space was harsh as hell.

"Once more. After that, I don't care what the fuck he's here for, this person killed my people. And he has to pay for it," Harry replied grimly. None of his fellows had any objections to that, not even Johnny.

OOOOOOO

Gladiator frowned, as he looked around him. His physical senses weren't as immensely powerful as physical prowess. He couldn't see for light-years or even beyond a single small planet's horizon. But even so, he could tell there was something strange going on here. This earth he was racing towards didn't have anything in orbit, but he could see some orbital works out in the distance, some kind of small satellites or something of that nature, obviously defensive installations, although nowhere near the number he would have expected if the humans had spread to a second planetary body in their system. The placement is also strange. Why would they put those defensive satellites out there, rather than around their actual planet? Is there something I can't see in the distance? Or is there something else going on here?

Still, Gladiator set that aside, as he came closer to the planet. Then when he punched through what should have been the outer atmosphere, he halted instantly. Because that hadn't felt like any outer atmosphere he'd ever felt. It had felt more like running into a tiny electrical current or something, not the physical atmosphere of the planet. Scowling, he looked around him, and then down as the image of the Earth he'd been going towards disappeared. "By the Majestor, what in the world… how… some kind of cloaking technology? But on a planetary level? How is…"

Then he was attacked from one side, a blast of plasma-like flame impacting his side as someone shouted, "Flame on asshole!" their voice coming to him despite their being in space.

The heat blast slammed into Gladiator, but it was nothing to what he had dealt with before and he laughed at the sight of the humanoid encased in fire. "I have delved through the heat of a busy nebula! Do you think your pitiful flames will…"

That was as far as he got before a sword appeared out of nowhere, and a woman strode forward as he dodged under it, where it would have sliced across his forehead. It actually cut some of his hairs off, which was surprising in and of itself, but his hair had always been the least durable aspect of him, and he raised a hand trying to grab the blade, twisting it to the side. The blade did not cut his skin and he smiled, but the woman pulled it out of his grip and swung in again, faster than any of the Imperial Guard could have moved.

Yet Gladiator was faster still, and he smacked the blade to the side, a kick crashing out into the human woman tossing her backward gasping. He was about to follow up once more when he was once more blasted in the side by some kind of energy beam. This time he actually felt some pain, but not a lot and he turned, growling.

In front of him was another human, wearing a matte black uniform, which would have made him almost invisible in space to most save for the flame of the Human Torch, with silver highlights at the shoulder and joints. His face was covered too by a mask, and his visor gleamed with a dark green light. It gave him an overall dangerous appearance, but if the human thought that Gladiator was going to be intimidated he was sorely mistaken.

Three more people appeared to either side of this main target. Two were large as Gladiator, one encased in a silvery metal while the other seemed to be made of orange stone. But if they relied on strength alone, they were no threat to Gladiator. The fourth man was slimmer, and with a strangely less emotional face and seemed to have skin made of a different kind of metal than the larger metal-clad warrior. Unlike the other two, he seemed to move under his own power and wasn't as physically imposing, so Gladiator didn't know what to expect from him.

At the same time Gladiator was staring them down, Harry was looking at him. The purple-skinned alien floated in space easily under his own power with no helmet or anything else in sight. He was wider and taller than Colossus, his heavily muscled form held within a dark red uniform and red cloak that looked like something out of the comic books. His hair was also purple if another shade of it and was done up in a tall mohawk.

"My name is Guardian," Harry said his voice almost sepulchral from under his mask, as he stared at the purple mohawk individual in front of him. "You have attacked my people in what amounts to an act of war. I'm giving you one final chance to back down before we start using lethal force. And before you ask, no, neither Hela's sword nor the Human Torch's attack equates to lethal force. That was about as close to a hello is she is liable to give you at the moment. The Torch, well he's just as fiery as his body is at the moment, so doesn't seem to have gotten the memo about my wanting to try to talk once more."

Hela scoffed, but it was true enough. Johnny gave Guardian the finger while keeping his eyes on Gladiator.

Harry was not surprised when the creature hovering in front of him simply laughed and pointed at the Human Torch. "I am here to talk to him and those who work with him. Allow me to do so, and this conflict can end with your simply being subjugated by the Empire. Keep this up, and I will simply kill you all, and then goes in search of Mr. Fantastic, I speak for the Shi'ar Empire, and I will not be dissuaded, or threatened."

"Nor even attempt to speak to us as an equal?" Hela growled, her lips twisting into a snarl as her eyes narrowed behind her half-mask. "You speak as a conqueror Sir, yet do not think that we will go quietly into that dim night."

The purple-skinned alien shrugged. "I am Gladiator, Praetor of the Imperial Guard. I am the Majestor's steel fist. If you fight me, you'll simply die tired."

"Let's find out," Harry said coldly, no longer in any mood to banter words with this man.

With that, the battle was properly joined, and Harry launched a massive blast of power, the siege breaking spell to start off with. "Fragor unda fortitudine!"

Gladiator took the magical blast on his chest thinking it was simply an expression of kinetic energy, and in the main it was, only to find himself being tossed backward through space, feeling pain for the second time in that fight. He was surprised by that, but whatever attack that had been hadn't been able to get through his basic durability all that much, and he laughed wildly before flying forward.

He was fast, faster than Colossus of the Thing could move, and as he closed with them, it was only the fact they had trained together occasionally and that both were trained in hand to hand that allowed them to block his first few blows. Even so, Gladiator pushed them away from their fellows a bit then decided to do so deliberately as the others started to attack him with various energy attacks from all sides. Grabbing their fists, Gladiator carried them back even as he traded blows with them, putting entire lightyears between himself and the others, pushing them out and away from the Decoy Earth.

Once he was satisfied the others couldn't interfere fast enough Gladiator stopped holding back, using all his hand to hand skill to get through the paired defenses of the two super-strong humans. They were only able to block the first few blows, while Gladiator dodged and ducked under fire from the one with the cape and the other two, including the one who had given his name as Guardian. Then one blow connected, and Colossus gasped in shock as he was hurled backward despite his jetpack's best efforts to keep him in one place, the metal of his Juggernaut armor having saved him from significant injury. But to the shock of all, it buckled slightly under the blow.

Gladiator blinked in shock at that, then took a blow to the head form the Thing. "How's about some of your own medicine bastard!" But the blow barely caused Gladiator any pain and he grabbed the Thing's arm to hold him still as he hammered two quick blows into the rock-shaped monstrosity. The Thing, not wearing any armor to add to his durability, grunted in agony, each blow reminding him of his fights with the Hulk, they were so powerful.

The Thing was saved by Hela and the Human Torch and Harry arriving, having left Storm behind slightly, the weather witch unable to fly as fast through space as the three of them. Hela struck first, her spells barely formed magical power, roiling black and purple spears that shut towards the alien.

Gladiator grunted, as those energy attacks actually hurt, one of them actually burning off portions of his uniform and a portion of skin before dissipating. The attacks of the other cloak wearing one were not even an issue. "You are not the only one who has energy attacks!" With that, his eyes blazed with energy and he shot out a beam of power from his eyes that was near white it was so hot.

Hela gasped but raised a magical shield that absorbed the energy, holding it as Gladiator continued his assault until Harry launched his own attack. "Drill of Light!"

Thousands, literally more drills of lightning, cutting and light-based magic than any of the fighters could easily count lashed out towards Gladiator. He first thought to just take the attack, not having yet learned to be wary of Guardian's energy attacks. He learned it now when he raised a hand to bat aside one of the drills only to lose a finger to the buzzing spinning mass of magic. Then he started to dodge, wincing in pain even as his healing factor went to work, slowly re-growing the shredded finger. What energy is that human using that is so, so malleable? That is the fifth attack he's used, and each has been different in form and function.

This brought him towards Hela who backed away, lashing out with her own spell, a sound-based spell, following up on Harry's vibration type spell. "GRAAA!" the spell essentially flashed out a thin beam of power that was supposed to encase Gladiator's head. But he dodged it somehow, and the spell only hit one ear rather than spreading over his head to both. It still worked, however, causing the noise of a massive explosion to go off inside that ear.

As she had expected, Gladiator did have enhanced hearing as he did strength and speed. HE howled in real agony lashing out with a breath attack to one side towards Harry before aiming another heat blast towards Hela. "Damn you both that hurt!"

Hela once more shielded herself, While Harry simply dodged to one side, the breath attack visible like a cone of cold in space. Okay, so my first spell didn't matter much although my Drill of Light did get through his durability. The Torch has been hitting him all along with his flame attacks and they haven't done anything. But this guy's strength is just too much, we need to pare things down. "Torch, Storm, get The Thing and Colossus out of here! E, retreat until your nanites can create something bigger that might be able to hurt him." E was even slower than Storm and had yet to catch up to them but better safe than sorry. "Hela and I will hold him!"

"You'll deal with me!? What hubris human!" Gladiator roared pushing his pain to one side, even as his healing factor went to work on his ruptured eardrum. He flung himself forward even faster than before, crossing the distance to Harry.

Oh shit! Harry shunted a bit more of his magical power into his Magia Erebea and met the attack head-on using hands and feet to block Gladiator's furious assault. With his speed and strength so enhanced he was able to keep up with the purple-skinned humanoid which shocked the attacker so much he didn't think to use his eye or breath attacks at first. Indeed, it shocked even Harry. With only about fifteen percent of his magic rerouted to empower his physical abilities, he was keeping up with this monstrous alien. And it was becoming easier as time went on as harry analyzed Gladiator's combat style. Damn, how much stronger has my core become!? I'd estimate this guy is at least on the Hulk's level, if not Thanos in terms of brute strength.

When Gladiator used his eye beams, Harry dodged, then hammered out a punch that broke through his enemy's defenses to smash into his face. Gladiator bounced back though kicking out and catching Harry in the thigh then jabbing out hard with an elbow that smashed Harry in the solar plexus, but which didn't double him over thanks to his armor and durability.

During this Gladiator was beginning to feel astonished. This human was matching his strength and speed and seemed to be getting used to Gladiator's style as the battle went on. How?! How is this possible!? I thought his power was energy manipulation of some type.

Hela foolishly tried to close, thinking Harry unable to concentrate enough to cast a spell, which was the case, although he was in no danger of being overwhelmed. She stabbed her blade down towards the top of Gladiator's head, adding her magic to the blade's edge.

Feeling it coming Gladiator jerked to one side, breaking away from Harry with a kick that got through his defenses to slam into his thigh, nearly breaking the bone. But Hela's sword thrust from above still sliced into his and along his pectoral, blood spurting out into space in little drops that flew away even as his regeneration went to work. "GAH, how did a mere primitive sword do that!?" Gladiator howled even as his hand flashed forward faster than Hela could dodge.

He tugged Hela in close and a jab to the side of her head nearly laid her out, shattering her jaw and nearly breaking her mask as she was flung away. Hela was not one of the more physically powerful Asgardians, whereas Gladiator could have stood toe to toe with Thor or perhaps even Odin in pure physical power. That power was based on confidence. Not faith, but confidence in himself and his cause. As long as Gladiator believed himself invincible, believed himself fighting for a cause he believed in, that was precisely what he was.

However, that confidence was starting to take a bit of a battering because his durability had never been tested before like this. Not in all his centuries of life. This was proven an instant later as when he tried to finish off Hela, Harry launched a lighting attack right in his face from where he had been flung a second ago. "Latinium Malleus!"

The green and gold lightning hammer appeared from his outstretched hand flashing forward faster than Gladiator could dodge and was soon joined by the returned Storm who lashed out with her own fury eager to make her mark in the battle. One hand lashed out with a concentrated blast of solar wind that she shaped into a spear of cutting power, while the other blasted out a magical attack of her own, a coruscating beam of blue and pink energy. And to Gladiator's frank astonishment he felt it, indeed he screamed in pain, hurling the black-clad human away from him as he reeled away, twitching spasmodically. How, how!? That first was simple lightning no matter that it was voice-activated for some reason. How was it able to get through my durability!? And the attacks of the other one, how did it get through my durability!?

He tried to shake that off as Harry righted himself and came back in. Now, however, Harry had seen the pattern and smiled. I don't think this bastard has the magical resistance Thanos had! He's been dodging and moving so fast we haven't really been able to hit him with a powerful pure magical spell all that often, and when we tag him with one though he feels it. Element attacks don't work so well, but pure magic will.

With that thought, a plan emerged instantly. "Jean, Emma, I'm going to give you an opening, let's see what we can do on the mental plane. If you can distract him for just a brief moment in turn, then we can take him down."

"Hela, mentis!" He shouted.

Mentis was the Latin word for Mental, and Hela knew it. Still reeling from the punch that she'd taken, she gathered her energies, shooting out a spell wordlessly while Storm dodged a blow from Gladiator ducking down and flying away from him.

The spell hit, and Gladiator grunted, as he could feel some of his mental defenses slowly start to erode. I have to end this quickly, before whatever attack that is gets through. Gladiator new his mental defenses were not as strong as he could wish. One the mental plane there was a limit to how strong he could make them, as his people were psychically blank.

But that brief second of weakness was enough for Emma and Jean to launch their dual attack. Jean provided the raw, monstrous power, her telekinetic and telepathic power having actually grown since she'd become pregnant as if being a bearer of new life had given her a greater connection to the Phoenix Force had buoyed her powers even as her control was shot to hell. Emma provided the skill. She took that energy from her lover and crafted it into a scalpel that jabbed deep into Gladiator's mind.

He howled aloud, backing away from the physical fight as he threw Harry and Hela away, grabbing at his head with one hand as he ground his teeth down and tried to concentrate, to throw them out of his mind. But splitting his attention like that had caused his belief to waiver, and magic had already proven to be able to get through his physical durability somewhat.

Now Harry broke out a powerful cutting spell, one he had come up with recently based on Snape's Dark Cutting spell but taken to an entirely different level. "Serratus Aspera Speculum Milia (Jagged Glass Thousand Cuts)!" the spell shot out in a single pulse of brown and glowing black energy before exploding, each piece lashing across Gladiator's face and chest opening up hundreds of cuts.

Surprisingly the pain of that allowed him to thrust out the telepathic assault, using the pain to shore up his telepathic defenses. But, it also shook him, and Harry grinned, as Hela lashed out with another barely form battering ram of magic from one side. He dodged most of it, returning a blast of his heat ray that caused her to scream and fall back clutching her chest, but again the attack battered into his side, and his dodging opened him up for another spell from Storm. This spell took the form of a flash of white and yellow energy barely shaped in the form of a spear.

Caught out of position, all Gladiator could do to block this attack was to use his heat ray to intercept it. This worked and he tried to take the initiative back by launching himself forward toward Storm who was a distance away from the others. Yet even as he closed with her with his hands outstretched as if to grasp her neck, Harry struck. "Diosca Gearradh Trom!" A spinning, swirling blaze of cutting magic flashed out, one of the spells which had been able to wound the mad Titan months back.

Only, Gladiator had no inbuilt magical resistance.

The attack flashed in from the side, impacting Gladiator's outstretched arms at the wrist and cut through both wrists like a hot knife through butter, sending Gladiator's hands drifting away through space. Gladiator gaped, as his forward momentum took him forward and his hands, cauterized wrists first, smacked into his chest before tumbling away. He stumbled flipping end over end as he gaped at them.

Harry used a simple "Accio hands!" to grab them, pulling them away from Gladiator until they were rotating around him in a macabre dance, somewhat astonished at how easy that had been and how little of his strength had ebbed with that spell. "Well, that was rather anticlimactic. What was that about being completely invulnerable?"

Gladiator gaped at him, then down at his stumps and began to babble "I… I…" If the spell hadn't cauterized the wounds even as it made them, Gladiator would well have bled out.

As it was, the last thing he saw was a blast of furious red energy coming for his head, as Storm used a massively overpowered Stupefy spell on the back of his head, it was a very low-level spell, and watching Harry was honestly surprised it worked, even with the guy's mental fortitude broken. But it worked, and Gladiator fell blessedly unconscious.

With that done, Harry moved over to Hela, watching Ororo heal her face and chest. "Are you all right sister?"

"I am much better now that I have seen what price our Seidr Man here extracted from that buffoon for attacking me so. He was most puissant in a physical sense," she mused, touching her face gingerly, then taking Ororo's hand in hers and bringing it up to her now healed lips to kiss.

Ororo chuckled at that, then looked over at the alien. "Agreed. He tossed off my nonmagical attacks like they were nothing! Even my most powerful, condensed solar wind or lightning assault barely caused him to blink."

"Whereas magical attacks did get through, vaguely at first then more as the battle went on. Strange. But he's been dealt with for now." Harry reached over, tenderly touching Hela's cheek as she smiled at him before he shook himself and looked over to where Johnny and the others were coming towards them. "Strap some magical shackles to him, loves. I have to contact Admiral Powers."

While Hela and Ororo were conjuring magical bindings around the prisoner and making certain his hands weren't regenerating as most of his earlier hands had Harry reached through Jean and Emma to the admiral. "Powers, we've dealt with the superpowered aspect of this threat. I want that ship intact, and most of its crew alive to answer questions. Beyond that, it's your show."

OOOOOOO

The captain of the Shi'ar Empire Pinion scowled, crossing his arms in his command chair as he continued to dance his ship this way and that around the various attempts being made to encircle him. About as soon as Gladiator had been too far away to get back here fast enough to interfere, several more ships had appeared out of the gas giant's rings, along with one more out past the blue-colored gas giant. Four frigates and five more cruisers. The ship out past the blue giant was a battlecruiser for the Majestor's sake!

Luckily it wasn't moving very quickly, and seemed more to want to block any attempt to get out system, but still… These must be Kree! An odd assortment of ships, but all of them are of Kree design. Although, there are those smaller ships. Could they be starfighters? If so, this planet might have something more than this Fantastic Four group for us to appropriate.

His ship had been playing tag with the humans for a while now going on 10 minutes now, and it was a stalemate. For now. Unfortunately, the captain had fought against other empires before. He knew how this story went. If I had a few more ships with me, Hells, if I had at least two other ships, a full strike-wing of cruisers, I could make them beg for forgiveness, Kree or human. But as it is, dammit! "Helm hard turn thirty degrees down, fifteen degrees sunward then one hundred and twenty degrees out-system from the new heading. Then, a three-second burst, twisted around to ninety degrees. Full power for two minutes afterward, let's see if we can get clear of that one cruiser's firing lines."

"Sir, there's something wrong here," his second in command sent from his own position at the weapons controls. "Why are they trying so hard to get into our blind spots? They're not even trying to shoot at us most the time, just line up that perfect shot. That's completely against Kree doctrine and even common tactical sense for space combat."

"I don't know why," the captain admitted. "Your thoughts?"

His second-in-command frowned, then shook his head. "I don't…I think perhaps they could be trying to capture us?" he hazarded as if he didn't quite believe what he was saying.

"With Gladiator here? Do you think they that stupid?"

"They might not know Gladiator, he might be forced to make some examples before the humans are brought to heel."

"As he did already," the captain muttered, shaking his head. He still was not happy about the fact that they hadn't answered the hail before Gladiator attacked. He fully understood and supported Gladiator's position, but he would have preferred to at least try a little bit harder to not force the humans into a corner or bearing their bellies so obviously. Better to use honey when dealing with a beast, rather than just stick after all. Keep the stick there, obviously, else the animal might get ideas. But to use just the stick was…

Shaking that thought off, he barked out further orders, and his ship stood up on its tail, twisting in a spiral heading up from their former course so that the fire from one of the cruisers around went past below them. Some of the beams still struck, but the ship rode through them with ease,

His first officer gasped, suddenly realizing what was bothering him. "That's just it Sir. That should have been enough. But it wasn't. Why? What race would keep fighting if they saw Gladiator destroy a portion of their fleet without taking injury?"

At that point, something new was re-added to the combat spear. "Sir, incoming fighters. By the royal line, where did they come from!?" The fighters had seemingly come out of nowhere. There hadn't even been any flash of energy or anything to signify a hyperspace jump if such small vessels could produce such in the first place.

Unlike the Badoon, the Shi'ar Empire knew what fighters were. They didn't see them as offensive weapons though, simply because they couldn't miniaturize their offensive weapons to the point where a single starfighter could use them. But these were not real starfighters as the Shi'ar Empire understood the term. Ravens were the PT boats of space as Harry had put it. But still, despite the fact that they didn't really understand what they were dealing with, they knew those little ships could be dangerous. "Bring us about! Target those…"

"Sir! One of the cruisers is behind us!" the ship had put on a sudden burst of speed, shedding its previously ungainly movement.

At that, the captain realized his mistake. The shock of those fighters having appeared on the scene had grabbed his attention and he had concentrated his ship's movement on evading the new threat, forgetting the old. That, coupled with the crew of that vessel suddenly finding a new level of skill and the enemy ship had been able to

Shots slammed into his ship's shields over their engines which began to flicker, but he rode through it, twisting around his ship this way and that. But, then more of those little ships appeared, and then they began to fire.

Blue beams of energy flashed out in long core skating beams, slamming into his shields, with more force than even the weapons on the cruisers had. "What in the world!? Get me a reading on…"

Once more one of his crew interrupted the captain with a report. "Shields are down!"

Before the captain could order anything the ship was already diving away, trying desperately to protect its aft section, while the first officers lined up another shot on one of the other enemy cruisers with their own guns. That shot went home, but that cruiser didn't seem to feel it at first. The scanners showed the real tale though. Shi'ar ships had more weapons pointed in a single firing arc than Kree ships, and they could overwhelm their enemy's shielding given time. That ship's shields had been hammered nearly back to the hull. Another shot and they would fail completely.

Before they could take that shot there was a sound almost like that of a welding torch multiplied a hundredfold, and the lights went out. The emergency lights quickly came on, but the gravity was still out, and as he floated in his chair, hung there by his safety harness, he shook his head. "Those fools!"

"Sir, engines are down, we are spinning out of control through space, and our secondary generators have also been hit. They have us dead to rights. I really don't think they are fools. If anything we are fools for walking into their trap," his first said, his voice high and strained.

The captain nodded. "Exactly. they've killed members of our race! Do you think Gladiator is going to stand for that?"

"Sir, that's just it," a new voice interjected causing both officers to turn to the communications officer. He had actually been attempting to get his attention for the last several minutes but with the battle going on neither officer had heard him.

"What is it?" the captain asked calmly. The worst after all had already occurred. His ship was helpless in the water, and would no doubt be boarded or destroyed. he idly wondered which, as he looked at his communications specialist.

"Sir, we, we have lost all contact with Gladiator. Even the wrist-com monitoring his vitals isn't sending out any more data!" the man said, fear on his face

At that, the captain's façade of self-control cracked, and his eyes widened in shock and growing fear as he realized that the worst was far worse than he had ever realized it could be. Gl, Gladiator beaten? And, and my own ship a veritable prisoner already. These humans are no primitives! What in the darkest night have we stumbled into here?

OOOOOOO

On Harry's orders, several of the purloined cruisers used their tractor beams to grab at the tumbling Shi'ar vessel. Once it was level, the frigates moved in, destroying the weapons nacelles at the front of the vessel and then the few scattered defensive lasers that were stuck here and there on the rest of the ship. Once that was done, shuttles roared out from the surrounding cruisers. They had been waiting for this for a while, and Sam was not the only trooper to shout out about damn time?

Now, now Marine," Steve said. Russia should practice a little bit of patience.

Yeah, whatever army, just because you're used to sitting on your ass for days doing nothing doesn't mean we are," said one of the Marines nearby, only to blanch as he realized who he'd said it to before Steve let loose a belly laugh.

As he did so though, he took in the marines and their battle rattle. Most of the marines on this mission were from the first batch of first world countries troops that had gone through at least some of the training to prepare them for boarding actions and defensive combat in space. Steve and Sam had worked with several of them, and Hawkeye had also been training with them for a few weeks at his request, though Hawkeye had only officially signed up to join the EDF after the Eurasian War had ended.

The EDF, not the Custodes Mundi. Hawkeye had made it very clear he didn't want to be involved in the superhero world twenty-four seven any longer. He was fine with training up the troops, but not fighting superpowered threats, not with his wife wanting him home more often and his little girl entering the third grade any longer. But unlike his previous employer, Harry was perfectly happy to have him in the training role rather than out in the field.

The battle rattle showed their training and the environment they were going to be entering soon. Their boots were massive, metal monstrosities that went all the way up to just below their knees. They combined Ghigau's hover skate technology with heavy magnets that could be activated either by specific foot movements, or verbal commands via the communicators set into the marine's helmets. The helmets the marines wore were equally large, heavy things that clamped down on their chest plates. Those chest plates were a work in progress at this point, designed to look like Kevlar body armor covered by a partial exoskeleton, heavily built up around the neck to take the weight of the helmet.

Underneath all that the marines wore dark grey camo gear, a few bits of metal armor around their thighs and stomachs, and their weapons. And like the rest of their gear, those guns were high tech, plasma rifles for the most part. No gauss rifles here, not in a boarding action. Nor were there any heavier weapons among the marines. The only exception of that rule was Cyclops. Steve had also seconded Nightcrawler, Uzume (Carol) and Coyote (Wyatt) into this attack along with Falcon. Beyond that, he wanted this to be a test of the training and equipment of the marines. They had to see if their armor would work against the infantry weapons of their enemies after all.

"All right troops," he shouted as he stood up, bending his knees slightly as there was a loud buzzer sounding throughout the shuttle. "We all know our parts. First, Forward!"

"Up!" Sam shouted along with a fireteam of marines.

"Left!" shouted two more fire teams.

"Right," was next with two more.

"spread and cover," came next, with Uzume leading Coyote in joining it. Cyclops and Nightcrawler were on a separate shuttle.

"Good. Remember, this is a hostile environment, keep your helmets on at all times, watch you're assigned areas, everyone six is, and let's do this!"

"Hell yeah," Sam muttered, twitching his hands which were suddenly holding twin machine guns. Or rather they looked like handheld machine guns. But most machine guns didn't fire high-powered plasma bursts, rather than bullets.

There was a jarring impact, and Steve road it like a surfer would a wave, then, the far side of the shuttle burst open, the charges on either side of the drill that had punctured the side of the unknown ship doing their work. Instead of simple explosives though the bombs let out a glue-like substance that covered the ragged edges of the hole, allowing the area to keep its internal pressure, such as it was.

The two shuttles had targeted what looked like a hangar bay where they could spread out a little, so long, that is once they dealt with the defenders. And as everyone had expected the defenders were there in force of course. They had even brought up some metallic bollards to use as a defensive position. But more aliens were still getting into position when the attack began.

Steve didn't let them have that time. He didn't even try to shout for them to surrender. Instead, he simply barreled forward, taking the enemy's fire on his shield then ducked to one side, heaving shield forward int a defender's face then catching it on the rebound to guard another marine who had raced out after him. At the same time Scott blasted out from the other shield and Falcon flashed into the hair of the hanger bay, barking orders as he laid down covering fire. The marines with him targeted the two panels on the surface of the roof that were opening as they boarded the enemy vessel. They exploded, and the marines shifted targets.

The effect of Falcon and Cyclops's attack was a study in contrasts, Steve reflected as he dodged and danced around the defensive fire. The plasma from Sam's gun burned through body armor, point-blank shots, well-aimed fire. Scott wasn't nearly good as at aiming is that, but he didn't need to. His bolt hit in a wave, hurling aside the defenders and shattering the protective bollards they had erected. This meant the defenders were completely unprotected from the incoming marines' fire. Only one bollard near the back of the hangar bay was still upright. "Spread out, lay down a covering fire!"

The marines with Sam and behind the initial three groups did so forcing the remaining defenders I the hanger bay to duck and run for what little cover there was. At the same time, Cyclops aimed at the entrance to the rest of the ship, blasting the doors off their hinges into the faces of several dozen aliens who had been racing to aid their fellows.

Steve used Cyclops' beam as cover, racing along one side of it, then as it cut out leaped forward over the remaining defensive position into the middle of the four defenders. They reacted quickly, all of them twisting their wrists which caused an odd, double-bladed claw to appear.

He took a blow to one shield, then grimacing at the weight of it. These guys were a lot stronger than they appeared. But the man on the other end of the odd wrist daggers looked shocked he hadn't pushed Steve off balance, and Steve's kick took him in the knee. That man fell, groaning in agony and holding his knee. A blow from his shield knocked him out, and Steve tuned into another lunging blow from another alien, twisting around it, catching that alien in the side of the neck with his shield before hopping into the air and kicking out to either side smashing the last two out into the rest of the hanger. Strong, but they can't take a hit, can they? I swear I heard bones breaking there.

Behind him, the last of the defenders were all down, although two of the marines had also been hit. Their emergency portkey arrays though had worked and they were gone, back to Fortress Mars for healing. A few others were wincing and touching at bits of their armor, while, Cyclops was wringing out his leg, having taken a blow from something there.

"Orders," Steve called out. "Cyclops and teams two and three to the engine room. All take teams one and four to the bridge. Nightcrawler, Coyote, Uzume, spread out and cause havoc."

But at that point, the battle was nearly over. For one thing, there weren't nearly as many aliens as they had expected on a ship this size. For another, they had apparently bet on stopping the attackers with that first defensive line, without realizing that left them vulnerable afterward. Attackers ran into small groups of defenders, which slowed them down, especially around the engines, but only twice more did the aliens attempted to put up a truly organized defense.

Once came in the form of a large band who had gathered together in the armory. Nightcrawler found them almost five minutes into the assault though and called in his fellow teleporters. The three of them harried and harassed the aliens until Scott was able to get some of his troops into position from the nearby engine room. The engines were completely slagged, and after Scott was able to destroy some of the controls, this ship wasn't going to be flying again without some serious rebuilt time.

The defenders had put up a pretty decent position here, despite the fact that the teleporters were popping in and out everywhere, including into the armory behind them, but when the Marines rolled into view and Scott began to fire at them from all long-range, they were done for. They went down swinging, but after Cyclops once more shattered their defensive position, the teleporters got behind them, and they were caught in a crossfire that tore them to pieces. "Captain, this is Cyclops, the engine room is dead, the armory is secure, and we have ten unconscious aliens as prisoners too."

Steve and his group, pushing towards the bridge, ran into the second example of a prepared defense. This came in the form of a large security area, about the size of a classroom with the aliens at the end of it protected by metal walls that had come out from the edge and floor of the room, coupled with several automated gun blisters set into the roof.

With the marines providing what covering fire they could, Steve drove forward covering the distance faster than the defenders could track, then once more leaped over the defensive shield. He was among the defenders who had crowded the position too much, a common mistake by troops lacking experience. He slammed his shield into faces, sides or joint, battering men and women aside, listening once again to the telltale crack of bones, although he was still battered in turn by a few blows from his enemies. They were extremely strong for their size, but their bladed weapons couldn't penetrate his bodysuit and their entire style seemed to revolve around those weapons.

"Guns are down, go Falcon go!" shouted one of the marines as he blasted the last automated gun to pieces. "Don't let that blasted Army have all the fun."

"Semper fi!" Sam followed quickly, using his jet pack to cross the distance. He was then in with the defenders, switching out his plasma guns for trench knives. They didn't prove as effective as Steve's shield or punches had. He couldn't seem to penetrate their armor material. "What the fuck!?"

Then he punched out hard and heard a crack even though the knuckles on his trench knives didn't penetrate the alien's armor. "What the Flipping fuck!?" He growled as he ducked underneath a blow that would've taken his head off. Another blow landed on his shoulder, and spun him around, grimacing in pain.

An instant later there was a *bamf* of displaced air and Nightcrawler was there. His blades, made of Orichalcum, rather than metal proved able to cut through the enemy's body armor, and he lopped off hands and feet as he went, killing few, but wounding everyone around him.

One alien tried to grab up a gun from the floor and turn on Steve, but Steve dodged. But all of the defenders had turned on the enemies among them, which meant the marines were able to race forward. They fired into the melee from the other side of the defensive walls, and the last of the defenders went down.

"And that, I believe is that," Steve muttered, he looked at the door the actual really separating the rest of the ship from the bridge. "I don't suppose anyone brought blasting powder?" Steve didn't want the teleporters to pop to the other side of the hatch alone, just in case.

"We brought something better, Sir. Me," Cyclops said with a grin as he led his men forward from behind them. A few moments later, it was all over.

About an hour later the ship was brought into orbit over Fortress Mars and the boarding team headed down to rest and debrief. Harry was there, waiting for them in the main hanger. "Hello all, I see you're in a good mood so I'm assuming our casualties were quite low in the assault?" He asked, his tone light, but his eyes and face serious. After the battle with Gladiator he wasn't certain what they were dealing with here, so was worried his men might have gone into a meat grinder.

"Light!? We didn't take a single damn man! Said Sam, gleefully. "Holy shit boss man! You have got to start spreading those emergency teleportation arrays around. Swear to god you will become the patron saint of fighting men everywhere."

"We lost five men in the first few firefights breaking out of the hangar bay," Steve replied more professionally. "All five of them teleported away. We lost two more men among my team after that, both in the initial seconds of the battle to get to the bridge. Scott?"

Scott pulled off his mask, quickly putting his glasses on before he nodded to Steve. "Only one in mine. These aliens seemed to have the playbook right at first, but they lacked the willpower and manpower to fight for the ship from end to end."

"They were strong though," Steve added, shaking his head. "Stronger than they looked. But very fragile."

Harry shrugged. "Those are the kind of questions our doctors will have to answer.. Regardless gentlemen," he said clapping his hands. "Well done. I am going to go down to join Ororo to see to those injured."

Sam joined Steve in saluting, although he was completely serious, whereas Steve did it just to annoy Harry who he knew didn't like it. "I was serious boss, spread those teleportation arrays around, you wouldn't be able to sign troops up fast enough."

"UNderstood Sam, and I might in order to recruit the men for the force I'm going to have you, and a few of my other friends and acquaintances put together soon." Sam cocked his head quizzically, and Harry chuckled. "Let's just say that as a jump specialist you are going to be uniquely suited for it. But that's for later. Right now, get a shower, we need to figure out what the hell was behind this attack, and how we're dealing with it first."

OOOOOOO

Hours later, while the experts began to go over the ship, their prisoners and the dead, Harry and his allies and a few of his advisors met with Una and Mar'vel. As spokesmen of the pale-skinned Kree who had become a contributing citizen of Latveria when given the opportunity, Harry hoped the two of them could give them some information about this lot. "I know that this Gladiator said he represented the Shi'ar Empire, and we have a bit of information about them from captured Kree computers, their position and the border they share with the Kree and a general idea of the nature of their government. But is there anything else you can tell us? For instance, who is Gladiator? With the kind of power, he wielded, I would assume he's a very big deal."

"A very big deal he says," Mar'vel muttered one hand covering his face as he rubbed at his eyes while Una chuckled somewhat uncomfortably beside him in the loveseat across from Harry and the others. The meeting was happening in High Note, with Pinoptes listening in, but for the moment it was an informal powwow instead of an interrogation. "One of the most powerful beings in the known universe, and you not only take him captive, but disarmed him in a very literal sense, and you just ask if he's a big deal."

"This being spoke of the Imperial Guard," Doom intoned, leaning forward from his own chair. Since the end of the Eurasian War, Doom had devoted himself to his internal issues, bringing to bear his genius and energy to bettering the industry and infrastructure of what was now being called Greater Latveria. The fact some of his former neighbors were making noises about his annexed territories was immaterial at present. "What exactly is he and what exactly is the Imperial Guard? And why do you speak of it in such awe? Surely you Kree have a similar group?"

"We do," Mar'vel said, waving his hand back and forth. "Super soldiers, super troopers, individuals with greater power than normal like Ronan. But the Imperial Guard are far greater in number. And they…"

"They act as… well I've been studying your history, and they are sort of praetorian guard," Una took over quickly as her husband seems to fumble for words. But they're not a pampered elite as that group seems to have always become in human history. They are a real elite troop chosen from thousands of subjugated species, chosen for their dedication, or rather indoctrination, to the Imperial cause."

"Indoctrination?"

I use that word deliberately, because of Gladiator. He is sort of a very dark legend in the universe."

The professional nurse glanced over at her husband who nodded and took up the tail. Gladiator is from a race called the Strontians. They are as you no doubt discovered, extremely powerful. And I say Gladiator is a dark legend with feeling. Because Gladiator helped to kill his entire race."

For a moment there was silence, and when it was broken, it was Paris Lourdes who spoke up. While Harry was uncertain of the reality of their relationship still, Dr. Doom had asked her to be brought in on this meeting and the later, more formal one. He had agreed since she had proven to be not only an incredibly good businesswoman and media mogul but a decent reporter in her own right. Her coverage of the peace talks had not spared anyone, including Harry and Doom, and had been lauded as one of the most impressive pieces of journalism in recent history.

Now faced with Mar'vel's stark announcement that aspect of the woman came out even as the rest of the woman retreated in sheer horror. "What do you mean he killed his entire race? How is such a thing possible? Why did he do it? And what is your source for all this information?"

"My source originally came from a report done by the Kree Intelligence Service. They kept a dossier on all of our possible enemies, and Gladiator has been around for several hundred years. He has a regeneration factor, you might have seen it in your fight with him?" Mar'vel waited for Harry to nod before continuing. "Because of that, he ages extremely slowly. And the event I speak of happened so long ago it stopped being a secret and started to become history, and so was spread beyond the intelligence service."

Paris frowned, but eventually nodded, understanding how that could come to pass easily enough. After all, time routinely changed things from secrets to common knowledge in human history. She didn't like having so little information not go on for such an extreme accusation and said so, but fell silent then, gesturing Mar'vel to continue.

"More than a hundred years ago the young Gladiator was part of the first batch of inductees into the Shi'ar military on his planet. Generally speaking, the Strontians were not happy about being part of the Shi'ar Empire. But, Gladiator was so thoroughly enamored of the Shi'ar Empire and the Majestor himself at the time that when told his people were thinking of rebelling, the Majestor sent Gladiator personally to deal with it. He did so, facing his own people, who themselves should have been powerful enough to stop him. For some reason, he was stronger than them and eventually brought the rebellion to a halt by killing their leaders. The planet was then utterly destroyed, along with the rest of his race as they had backed the rebellion." Mar'vel glanced at Paris. "The Kree sent in a deep insertion ship to try to make contact with the Strontians. All they found of their homeworld was debris."

Harry winced, and patting his chest and nodding thoughtfully. "He was certainly strong enough I think to do that kind of thing, I'd imagine."

"Too right," Ben Grimm muttered. He wasn't there so much because he had anything to contribute, he was there to learn more about the guy who'd come within a few inches of beating him to death. "He threw me and Piotr around like we were lightweights. If not for the rest of ya, he coulda…" he shook his head falling silent. Piotr too had trouble dealing with how little help he'd been during the battle, but hadn't taken it as hard as Ben. He had retreated to be with his girlfriends and friends.

"After the planet was shattered, the story goes that Gladiator hunted down each and every one of his species and wiped them out. That we're not certain about. There are some rumors that he allowed one female to live, but that's just a rumor. What isn't a rumor is that Gladiator follows the orders of the Majestor, come what may, so you can see why he was a dark legend."

"He isn't any such thing now," Harry said, his voice an alloy of rage and disgust. The very idea of someone turning on their own people like that was horrible. That someone could be so callous as to order it was perhaps worse. "Let's set Gladiator and the Imperial Guard aside. The IP I think are just soldiers, good soldiers, but simple enough to understand. What can you tell me about the Shi'ar Empire as a whole than you haven't already?"

"And what do the Kree people feel about them?" Ororo asked from where she sat to his right side.

"I was never stationed along our border with the Shi'ar Empire. As for what we feel about them, we didn't have much interaction with them, no trade or dialogue but it was mostly a peaceful border. I can tell you rumors, but if you're looking for specifics, I don't have many."

"The emperor goes by the name of Majestor, two daughters, or is that sisters? There are lots and lots of conquered planets, weak individually, but very technologically advanced. Way too far away from Earth to be a real threat, they can operate out here, but only in small groups and with a lot of preparation since the Kree and Skrull are so close," Harry counted off the points on his fingers. "We can get more details on that from their ship's computers and our prisoners. So rumors are good enough for now."

"There is one rumor that we can share," Una said quietly. "Um, this is another case of formerly important information that has since become simple common knowledge. The Shi'ar people are predators, and one of the rumors about them is that they actually literally ate an entire species to death."

Again this drew silence from everyone, and Harry shook his head. "That just sounds a little too unbelievable. We are talking about a sentient race by your tone right? I can't believe that someone being indoctrinated to the point they turn on their fellows, that is something we've seen in human history if not to that level. But cannibalism? Eating a sentient?" Here Harry shuddered. "That, that is…"

"Gladiator will know the truth as well those prisoners," Emma said coldly. She, Harry could sense through his mental link to Jean, who was not there, was more willing to believe the worst than Harry was, while Paris, Steve and the others, bar Doom, seemed to think this was another exaggeration. "Regardless, none of this is as important as the elephant in the room: what the hell is he here for?"

"That we will have to find out from our prisoners. Emma, could you contact Betsy or Charles. Better to make it Betsy. I want at least two telepaths involved in the mental interrogation of Gladiator and given her condition Jean isn't my first choice for this. And when you probe his mind, don't be gentle." When he felt the need, Harry could be as cold and as ruthless as Emma or Doom. And given the trouble they'd had with him, there was no way he was going to let Gladiator go. "Mess up that mind man's mind, break his will, shatter his self-esteem so much that he will never regain it. Anyone that can nearly kill Benjamin Piotr and Hela is too dangerous to let live, regardless of his lack of resistance to magic."

"That I can do," Emma said coldly. She had not liked feeling Hela or Ororo's pain through the link she and Jean had been maintaining at the time with them all. And, though she still had problems showing it, Emma also cared for both women deeply, even Hela.

"Good. I'll join you after I give Carol and the others going over the ship a few requests. Let's set up a meeting tomorrow to go over what my people have learned. Um…" Harry frowned, scratching at his lightning bolt scar. "Let's put off a full press statement until we know why the Shi'ar were here. If that's alright with you Ms. Lourdes?"

Paris frowned but nodded. "I'd recommend having a neutral reporter, preferably a group of them, involved in the more formal briefing tomorrow. It would be a good way to start getting more media coverage on the EDF, which you desperately need. I'd also recommend getting some more world leaders involved. I know they don't have any power to impact space-based operations, but they do need to start being brought in on meetings like this one. Not so much to give thier opinions, but so they can then inform the world at large about their own take of what is going on."

That caused Harry's frown to deepen, but he couldn't argue with her logic. "So long as those reporters are warned that we will watch anything they right closely and won't allow it to be slanted one way or another. Facts only. I'll stick MJ in charge of choosing who, and you can be there as well Ms. Lourdes." Paris nodded indicating she was fine with that, and the meeting quickly broke up.

OOOOOOO

Harry took most of that day to bind Gladiator magically in a more permanent fashion. Hela was a tremendous help there, having had to do the same thing to a very young Garm at one point when she had first bound the dread wolf to her service. At the same time, Emma and Betsy worked on, as Betsy put it, "Cocking up the purple shite's mind somethin' fierce."

This was extremely difficult. While not a telepath, Gladiator was as mentally tough as anyone Emma had ever dealt with bar Dr. Doom and Reed Richards, both of whom had developed a nonmagical version of Occlumency that gave them a high level of mental defense on top of their technological defenses. But between them, they were able to do so. By the end of the day the two telepaths had been able to not only find out what he was here for, but that yes, Gladiator had killed his entire race while younger. And did not regret that fact at all. The man was indoctrinated to such a degree Emma was utterly disgusted and said so. Beyond that, they pulled a lot of information from his mind, though no major, imperial type secrets. It was evident to Emma that the man had been kept away from politics to an extreme degree, though he was seemingly trusted as anyone could be by the successive emperors.

However, after that, the two of them retired to Camelot to be with his family. While what Emma had discovered was important, they could wait for the work on the ship to be finished before addressing it. Given the distances involved, there was nothing they could do right away anyway.

After spending an hour with Ororo, Jean, and Hela, Harry and Emma had a very romantic dinner out on the top of the library tower, the area heated by spells, and waited on by Cory, who had dressed the part of a butler in technicolor, complete with that silly towel that butlers always wore on their arms when they served things. The towel was itself a mélange of blue, yellow and white. The suit, white, red, green, yellow and with a pink undershirt. Harry thought the little guy looked a little ridiculous but wasn't about to say anything considering how proud of the outfit he seemed.

Jean, Ororo, and Hela spent their time elsewhere. This hadn't been the plan. The plan had been to let Harry and Emma have that night in bed together, but to spend dinner as a group. But with the interruption of the wedding, the girls had somehow communicated with one another, without any words being spoken as far as Harry could tell, that Emma deserved a little more personal time with Harry. Jean and Ororo had decided to spend time with the kids, while Hela had decided to get Betsy properly drunk after her time in Gladiator's head, which had not been a nice place to be.

"How did you all decide on that by the way?" Harry asked looking over at Emma. He had set the dinner up, but the lack of other girl ladies around them was still a surprise.

"Please Harry, if I told you how women communicated nonverbally, I would have to kill you. One of the purposes behind doing so is to keep men ignorant after all," Emma laughed.

Her laughter petering outs, she nuzzled into Harry's shoulder, sighing contentedly as she looked out over the winter landscape around Camelot. Save for a few parts here and there, such as around the botanical gardens and a little portion of the lake, which were magically heated, the rest was a frozen landscape of ice and snow. And it was gorgeous. Just like their wedding had been before being interrupted. "It really is a magical landscape isn't it," she mused.

Harry chuckled. "Sure, so long as you have forming charms."

"That is what I meant. Magic is what you make of it after all," The two exchanged a laugh, and when Emma opened her mouth, Harry held up a fork with some fish on it to her face obligingly, watching as she somehow ate the piece of fish in a sensual manner, licking her lips and flicking her tongue out underneath the piece of meat, before pulling it off the fork with her teeth. "And is that a secret too?" he asked, shaking his head.

She just chuckled, leaning back and taking a sip of her apple cider, there being no wine at the meal. Emma and Harry had both mostly stayed true to their promise to not drink once Jean got pregnant to show solidarity. But it didn't matter. Despite the lack of drink, it had been a most romantic night, and the air between them was almost supercharged, as Emma turned to Harry and said softly, "Take me to bed, my husband."

"And here you didn't particularly care about all that before," Harry teased even as he stood up, before crouching slightly to stare into Emma's eyes.

"That was before. Now, sharing that connection with you, knowing that I will soon share it with the others, that has become important to me." Emma reached forward, twinning her arms around Harry's neck and pulling it forward to kiss him. "Take me to bed Harry," she said again, her tone now one of command rather than sultry request.

Harry laughed, and put his arms under her, lifting her up easily from the sofa they had been sitting in. He then walked down to the staircase into the castle proper and then along the corridor from the library tower towards their quarters. "And why didn't you just teleport us?"

"Tradition," Harry said with another low, almost rumbling laugh that sent pleasant tingles up and down Emma's already aroused body. "Isn't the husband supposed to carry the bride over the threshold?"

"Hmm, and I think it is also a tradition that they are kissing as they do…" Emma replied, leaning up and kissing him. The kiss soon became ardent, and it was all Harry could do to concentrate on a spell that opened the doors ahead of them, one after another as he made his way up the circular staircase to their room.

There they found that someone, Ororo most likely, had prepared the room. There were candles in several places to provide light rather than their normal lamps. A bit of incense had also been lit, giving the room a scent of elderflowers and violets. The blinds had been replaced by a light velvet blind that made the lighting far more red-tinted, something that caused Emma to gasp in delight. The regular sheets had also been replaced with pure white silk.

Emma looked around, and murmured, "Remind me to do something nice for Ororo later. This is… well, this setup is out of one of my fantasies frankly."

Placing her on her feet, Harry moved over to the bedside quizzically, picking up a few small circular containers of something, bring them to his nose and sniffing. "Massage oils," he murmured setting one down, then when smelling didn't work on the second, poking his finger into it. "Lube? Why in the world's would we need that?"

"We certainly haven't yet," Emma replied with a laugh behind him. "And I'm certainly not going to be so adventuresome as to let you into the one area where we haven't already played."

"Good, I would be a little put off by that…" Harry said, before turning around and gulping. "Blessed be…"

Emma had pulled her dress off her shoulders faster than Harry had thought possible, and was now shimmying out of it, twisting her hips this way and that as if swaying to unheard music. When she felt Harry's eyes on her, she looked up, and smiled, running her hands from her hips all the way up her side, then up into her hair, as she cocked her head to one side then back down her front where she unlatched her bra, it was one of the ones where it was done up at the front, tossing it to one side.

Harry had seen Emma naked, more often than any other person in the world, save perhaps Jean, since the two of them routinely took showers together in the mornings. And yet, Emma felt a thrill go through her as watched as he licked his lips, and moved towards her, but she took a single step back, stepping out of her dress, and dancing around, before pushing him towards the bed, making him sit down at the edge. "Ah, ah, ah. Not just yet."

She slowly shimmied out of the dress she'd been wearing to dinner, a thin-strapped slinky number that had been tight around her waist, stomach and hips. This revealed the garter belts and panties she was wearing, which seemed made of silk and frills in equal measure. She then moved over to stand directly in front of Harry, reaching her hands forward to run her fingers through his wild hair. "Help me with my panties?" she asked, her voice low and sultry.

Lemon Start:

Harry nodded slightly, then, smirking leaned forward and instead of using his hand or rather just his hands, he bit at the front of the panties, getting them between his teeth and slowly pulling them down, licking at the exposed skin until the small tiny tuft of hair

Unlike Ororo or Jean, Emma waxed, and Harry nuzzled into her crotch right above her pussy lips, his tongue flicking out. Emma's quim was already moist, and he let his tongue flick around and then down either side of her lower lips. In reply Emma's fingers wove through Harry's hair, as she began to moan, humping against his head.

Then she squeaked as Harry's hands gripped her rear hard, squeezing just to the edge of pain, before lifting her up, and somehow twisting them around before gently, so very gently, laying her down on the bed. During this movement Harry didn't stop his ministrations of her salivating pussy, his tongue first flicking up and down again before diving inside of her deep as he could go, before licking back out, his fingers tracing up and down her thighs, below her to her rear, squeezing, then up again.

Emma moaned and moaned again, but, when Harry began to use his fingers to trace her pussy, she reached down and tugged at his hair. He looked up from his joyous work one eyebrow corking, and she shook her head. "This is supposed to be a night for both of us love", Emma moaned throatily, "and you are far too dressed."

Harry obliged by hopping off the bed, but when he was about to use magic to remove his clothing, Emma shook her head, pushing yourself up the bed to prop herself against the headrest, her eyes smoldering. "Slowly. Give me a show, lover. We have the rest of the night after all."

Harry smiled, then as he began to unbutton his shirt, began to mutter, "I'm too sexy for my shirt… too sexy for my shirt…"

"I can do without the commentary, thanks!" Emma laughed, shaking her head. "No matter how truthful it might be."

Harry shrugged and continued, but no longer made a show of it, winking Emma. "You can't have it both ways love."

She rolled her eyes but still took in his form as he removed his clothing, then, as he was pulling down his boxers Harry looked down for a brief second to step out of them. When he looked up he found Emma at the side of the bed. She reached forward, taking his shaft in one of her hands and moving her hand up and down it, marveling at how hard it was. She never got tired of that, or of the fact that Harry was already standing at attention, despite her not having done anything just yet. Now, Emma did do something pulling Harry towards her, her mouth opening.

She took his shaft into her mouth, a few inches at first, slathering it with her tongue, before pulling back, kissing down its length on both sides and then underneath, tracing the curve of Harry's staff, feeling his balls under one hand, as Harry began to grunt. Then, she slowly pulled back again and gestured him forward onto the bed.

Before Harry had finished getting on the bed, Emma was on him, pulling him down and kissing him hard on the lips pulling him down on top of her, she squirmed then until Harry was underneath her, and she was grinding on him, her wet quim sliding up and down his shaft.

Harry let her control the kiss for a time but then slowly, inexorably started to take control of the kiss. His tongue flicked around and under Emma's tongue in first his mouth, then hers as he sat up, one hand going down her back and to her rear, where he squeezed. His other hand though was soon busy with her breasts between their bodies. Emma didn't have as much up top as Ororo or Jean since her pregnancy had entered its second stage, but her nipples were just as sensitive as either of them. And Harry knew precisely how to touch her, flicking, rubbing, then tugging just hard enough to cause Emma to hiss into the kiss.

Eventually, Emma had to break away to breathe. As she did so Harry did not let up his attack. Instead, he brought his mouth down her collarbone elicited a moan from Emma, who was very responsive there. He didn't stop there as Emma rather blearily though he might. He then leaned down to her left nipple and began to suck and nibble on it.

Deciding she'd regained her breath enough and never a passive lover, Emma lifted her now completely drenched pussy then, reaching down, slid herself down onto Harry's shaft. She let loose a whimper as she did, always enjoying that feeling, and after all the foreplay Emma was close to the edge right now.

That journey ended when Harry decided to cheat a bit. With his mouth still around one of Emma's nipples, he began to use his Parseltongue ability. All he hissed was her name, "Emma, Emma," over and over, but even so the vibrations his tongue and mouth created did it's work, as always.

Emma screamed, her orgasm abruptly washing over her with a thunderous fury that caused her to arch her spine as her eyelids fluttered closed. She then slumped against Harry, and he chuckled, twisting them around so that he was on top. "Darn you, Harry!" She murmured, slowly regaining her senses. "That was unfair!"

"All's fair in love and war, wife of mine," Harry murmured into her skin, before biting at her neck.

He continued to do so for a time as Emma recovered, leaving a series of marks. For some primal reason, he wanted to leave a mark on this amazing woman now more than ever. Then when she began to hump up back into him, his hands moved from where they had been on either side of her face down her body, grasping her breasts firmly for a second, his fingers playing with her nipples once more. He spent a few seconds there, moving in and out of Emma with excruciating slowness. Then he moved his hands down to her hips. There he began to hold her side as he sped up his strokes.

Emma lifted her hips up, humping back into Harry trying to make him speed up. Both of them were once more lost in this oldest of dances until it reached its inevitable conclusion. Emma was moaning almost continuously now, as Harry grunted twisting his hips this way and that to add even more stimuli. Emma replied to this by biting and licking at Harry's ear and neck in places she knew he was sensitive, including his ear. But while that was pushing Harry toward her own peak, Emma's was once more looming.

Soon enough Emma gave out an orgasmic cry, raising her legs to lock them around Harry, her insides undulating and gripping him all the harder. Harry had a brief second to thank Cory for reminding him of the contraceptive spell before dinner, then he came with a grunt, spilling his deep inside of her.

He then collapsed to the side of Emma, rolling so that she was on top a moment, rather than buried under his weight as before. She murmured appreciation of this, nuzzled into the side of his head, taking her own turn now to mark territory by sucking at his neck. She frowned after a few minutes, unable to actually leave a mark, and murmured to herself, "Right, his durability has shot through the roof since that whole draining the Dire Wraith thing, even when he isn't trying."

Pouting, she then gasped as she felt Harry shift within her, hardening again after softening for a few minutes.

She then moved lifted herself up so that she was in the cowgirl position, her hands splayed on Harry's tone chest. "I think now it's my turn to do the work" she murmured, lifting her hips up and then down again.

Harry chuckled, shaking his head as he raised his hands to play with both her breasts, smiling in simple delight as she cooed at his ministrations. "I think you and I have very different definitions of the word 'work'…"

End Lemon

OOOOOOO

Harry and Emma were woken up the next morning by the kids, the lock on the door once more having been removed either by Illyana, or Hela. Hela did occasionally help the youngsters in their pranks and believed that not only was it fun, but that pranks could teach Illyana more about magic and when or when not to use it.

The kids shrieked and shouted as they barged into the headmaster's quarters, their battle cries "Wake up, wake up!" or "Get them!"

Emma was not a morning person and one bloodshot eye opened glaring at the far wall with all the power of a thousand suns as she gathered her power to melt the little brats' brains. Sensing this Harry quickly cast a few spells, halting their momentum in the air, then tossing them gently back towards their fellows as he conjured up balloons filled with paint. He hopped out of bed, kissed Emma on the forehead and then left her there, to chivvy the kids out. He spent breakfast with the kids as he had every morning since the break it begun. He didn't want to stop that routine just yet, having sort of neglected his teaching duties to Illyana for several weeks before their break.

Reconnecting with her and with the other children even Melody to a lesser extent although Melody had never really allowed anything to truly get in the way of her at least seeing Harry every day, had been fun. Further, Illyana's training it was a true delight to Harry. Her magical control was coming on in leaps and bounds, the age-old adage of 'if you make it fun they will learn', came into stark relief in terms of magic. Even Illyana's mental control and abilities were coming along quite nicely in Harry's opinion. And on a more personal level, not only was teaching something that he shared with Ororo but to have this bit of normality before he had to concentrate on what else he had to do, was a fantastic idea.

However, that time could not last, and he had far too many things to see to. First Harry had to deal with his meeting with Kirov in Magical minds headquarters.

As Harry had expected, he found Kirov already there, waiting in one of the waiting rooms to be left in by Harry's secretary. The young woman who had replaced Mary Jane at that more menial task let in the man, and Harry waved him into his seat. "Sit down Minister Kirov, would you like some coffee, drink?" When the man declined, sitting across from Harry and steeping his fingers, staring at Harry through his wire-rimmed glasses, Harry nodded. "Right to business then. What is so important that you decided to come here personally, and then wait around?

The man looks to one side at the older gentleman wearing a priest's cassock, when I broke working. Harry smiled thinly, and said, "Ah, yes. You haven't been introduced yet. This is Father Garnoff. A countryman of yours even if he hasn't been living in Russia for more than half a year now."

"Blind Faith? That was your codename I believe when you were running the Mutant Underground Railroad?" Kirov asked, searching the man's face for what Harry didn't know, before turning back to Harry. "And why is he part of this discussion? I am presuming of course that you have a greater purpose for his presence other than throwing me off balance?"

"Is it even possible to throw you off balance?" Harry quipped. "And yes, he does have a purpose here. If this conversation is going to go where I believe it is."

For a moment, Kirov was silent, staring at the two men, tapping his index fingers together. "Very well. I wish, Russia, that is the Russian government wishes to purchase your hover technology plans. We wish to purchase technology. I fully understand why you are dead set against the propagation of space-based military technology and industry, I endorse it too. The last thing humanity needs to do is to bring our divisions out into space with us. But the fact of the matter is, that hover technology could mean a tremendous deal to my people. You might not realize this, but Russia still has a lot of infrastructure issues, our roads are not the best, where we have them, and where we don't…" He shrugged. "When that spell of winter and snapped your troops pushed saw what happens when the floods come."

"There is more to you and your desire for the hover technology from that Harry said, his tone deadpanned. Explain."

Despite the peremptory note Harry's voice, Kirov was happy. He hadn't been shot down right away. That meant there was room to deal here. Even if he did have to replace all his cards on the table. He been told by his fellows not to do that, but Kirov had frankly been prepared to ignore those directions from the start. "Various. Military aspects. While we agreed to the force reduction, reluctant of course, that has caused further issues. The fact of the matter is that our military just isn't mobile enough to cover the territory we need to cover with smaller numbers. Hover technology could go some way to correcting that weakness. And if we have it, we won't be getting so much blowback from the fact that we are downsizing our military the first place"

Harry glanced at Garnoff, who slowly nodded. "The military is a bulwark of the state it is true, but it is also a symbol of our strength and unity of purpose as Russians. There would be a lot of grumbling about our downside is as was agreed, and I've seen some of that in the news of late. I believe him there. Although, but I've also noticed in the news is a severe lack of any discussion on pro-mutant protection under the laws and demands for a social change on that score."

" Such things take time, you cannot expect miracles," Kirov said shaking his head. "We have begun the two create those laws, but after creating them, they must be ratified and then enforced. All of which would take time."

"Not as much time if you reached out to the church," Garnoff riposted. "You have not done so. The church needs to make a decision on this point, choose a direction, and take a leading role in changing the Russian populace his outlook on mutantkind. They are not we are not demons, or throwbacks or any such thing!" Garnoff shouted some, slamming his hand down on the desk, his palm making cracking noise as he did. "We are humans just like you."

"I agree Kirov said calmly, his professorial air not taking the least bit of hits from the other man's sudden bluster. "I also fully believe that mutants could contribute to society as a whole. However, as you said the church needs to take that stance as well, and despite what you might think, we have made overtures towards them, a united front on this point could go a long way to starting the ball rolling on changing our society. But we have not gotten a response."

Garnoff stood seeming to loom over the sitting Duma representative. He wasn't actually all that tall, but he could exude a sternness that was somewhat intimidating on the drop of a hat. "Then they must be in like kind. I must return, and I must spread my message of equality. With government aid."

Looking back at Harry, Kirov cocked his head. "And is that to be your price for the hover technology?"

"Not quite. Your aid in funding Garnoff's mission in Russia, assigning him protection, and all that is my price to continue allowing your wounded military personnel access to my medical technology and potions. You haven't done enough on this score yet to pay for that, which was as part of our initial agreement if you recall."

Kirov seemed to still for a moment, but Harry went on. "However, don't let it be said that I am entirely unmoved by the fact that societies change slowly. I will not sell you hover technology. However, I will fully fund and pay for factories to be created in Russia to build it. At positions of your choice. I will then sell the products of those factories to Russia. 75% will go to the military, 25% to go to the civilian sector, at 90% of the cost. How fast those factories go into production will depend on how fast they are created in the first place. I'll warn you though, that all have no safety regulations bent on the actual construction of the factories. And it will take a few months for those factories to be built. If there has been no progress on the social side made by that point, this deal is off."

That, Kirov thought was an excellent deal, and was, in essence, the kind of deal that he had thought he would be able to make. Garnoff being here was a wrench works, and the demand on that score was going to take quite a bit of smooth-talking, and various porters to get through, but it could be done.

Harry wasn't done, however. "Furthermore, after those factories are complete, and if started to churn out hover technology for you all, I will go one step further if you have already met your end of the bargain in terms of societal change and downsizing of the military. I will provide anti-air weaponry, nothing too dangerous, of course, but the kind of things that can defend large swaths of land from aerial attacks and can be mobile at the same time."

At that, Kirov's eyes widened. With the complete and utter demolishing of most of their Air Force, Russia was far too vulnerable to air attack, and it would remain that way for years given the destruction of most of their surplus weaponry as well and the demands of the allies after the war had ended. That kind of weapon system would go a long way to offset that weakness. "That I can agree to right away," Kirov said eagerly, leaning forward. "I will even offer my own carrots. We have finished demolishing much of the logistical structure of the Super Soldier program. The survivors of the current program will be ready in a few days' time to be transferred to the earth defense force, led by Sputnik. There are only a few of those survivors of course. Kirov's voice turned into a sort of verbal grimace. You and your Custodes did quite a number on after all."

Harry made no move to apologize for that and smiled. "In that case, I think we have a deal. However, I have to ask, are you free later today?" When Kirov nodded cautiously, Harry smiled grimly. In that case, would you be willing to join a little briefing that I'm going to be running? We had another incident in space recently."

Those words caused Kirov to grimace. "We didn't see anything of that nature." The fact that most of the earth's governments had no way of really detecting anything of what was going on in outer space beyond telescopes, which could barely cover a fraction of the space around earth, was a sore point with him and with many other politicians the world over. Their scanners were okay, but they just weren't powerful enough and there just weren't enough of them. Damn all penny counters anyway.

"I didn't think you have," Harry said solicitously, before shaking his head. "It was quite an incident although it ended rather abruptly thanks to Custodes Mundi intervention. You'll learn more at the meeting."

Kirov nodded, and stood up. It was almost out the door when Garnoff called out to him. "I will be ready to head to Russia with you tomorrow morning, please don't try to leave without me."

The Duma representative snorted, and then went on his way happy that his mission had been accomplished even if it hadn't gone quite as well as he had hoped.

Harry spent a brief hour talking to Sage about the meeting, about everything else I was going on in terms of magical minds, getting caught up there, and then talking to Mary Jane about the public side of things before heading to New York via the teleportation arrays, then driving down from the mansion to one of Emma's former property is what she gave to Harry in order for him to turn it into the front of his Magical Minds business in America. The building wasn't ready to be used in that capacity just yet, but that was all right, it would serve as a meeting place for who all Harry was there to see. And it served as a way to separate Charles from the rest of Harry's business.

About forty-five minutes later, Paris arrived looking a little annoyed. She smiled at Harry, then gestured out to the parking. The reporters you recommended I find should be arriving shortly. All warn you though, that a lot of them aren't my own personal choices. I have no doubt a few of them will be very good indeed but a few are not actual reporters, but newscasters, and one of them… Well one of them is just a pellock to use a British euphemism. One attempted to be condescending to me. It should be interesting to see how you deal with him. Although I wouldn't recommend tossing out his entire party."

Harry shrugged, making no promises, and conjured up a chair for her, to one side. The two of them went over the profiles of the various reporters, and then had time to go over the agreement that Harry would be forcing them all to sign to be part of this discussion before the reporters began to arrive. When they did, Harry reached out through Jean, asking her to pass on to Emma that he would like her help in this. Having had a leisurely morning of it, Emma was perfectly willing to ride Harry's mind for a little bit.

Eventually, all the reporters were shown it, and Harry smiled at them all. "Greetings gentlemen, my name is Harry Potter, as you have no doubt been told by the lady sitting next to me. I have met and worked with Ms. Lourdes on several projects before this, and I trust her acumen when it comes to who can be trusted to report the news without giving it any particular slant. Note I said any particular slant. I want the truth to be reported, not just the truth that would paint me in the most positive light. However, due to the nature of the event, you will be taking part in there are a few rules that you all have to agree to."

One of the reporters was a rather older man, a little too old frankly to be a beat any kind, he had a cigar unlit in one hand, and a crew cut, which showed his hair growing gray in streaks. And when he spoke, he did so in a brusque, almost condescending tone. "And what is this event? Why are you so eager to have reporters on hand? It's not going to just be another press conference, I can tell you that right off. Not with all this."

Harry didn't reply to the tone at all, responding calmly. "Recently, a third alien race made itself known to us. It attacked EDF ships and would have attacked the earth is planning in that direction. You all are going to observe a briefing on this matter. As to why we are doing it this way, President Northton and others have told me that they wish to see more coverage in terms of the EDF in the news. This is an experiment to see if such a thing is possible."

"Harry, that's not a reporter. That's the editor-in-chief for the daily planet, J. Jonah Jameson. He's a jackass in many ways, and if you think he's not going to put a slant on whatever gets reported in his paper you should think again. That man doesn't know the meaning of the word honest reporting. Anything that goes over his desk will be changed, especially something like this if he sees it personally," Emma warned it despite the seriousness of the words, there was almost a giggle in her mental voice.

"Do you think I should kick him out then? And why do you sound as if her laughing?" Harry sent back even as he began to go through his spiel about what the reporters would be allowed and not allowed to do. They would be allowed to take any video recording material they want, so long as they only powered it up during the briefing. They would be able to ask questions before the breathing began, but not dirt. They would be given all the information currently available to Harry after the meeting broke up, but those would be copies, digital copies that could not be changed or added to anyway. "And if you play your cards right, you may gain access for yourselves and for your newspapers to further EDF based storylines."

A question interrupted Emma's reply, as one of the reporters held up a finger. I understand the long-term ramifications you can deal out if we don't as you put it report the truth. But how exactly are you going to keep assignments, and what's to stop us from trying to ask our questions during the briefing? As part and parcel of reporting!"

"I will be silencing you magically," Harry said bluntly. "You're there as observers. Nothing more. If you think you have a pertinent question that is on topic, you are free to write it down, and we can answer it after the briefing is over. But not only might will my own high command be there, but representatives of various nations will be, and it is they who will be asking questions."

The first response caused all of the reporters to shout objections, but as Harry went on, some of those objections went away. Many of them didn't however, with the older man leading the charge shouting out that this was all a conspiracy of the powers that be, that the EDF didn't actually exist and that anything they were being told in such circumstances would probably not even be able to stand up to real questions. That all of it was going to be staged. Harry blinked, then turned to Paris incredulously at that, his head cocked in a pose of pure confusion. "Is he for real?"

"Alas yes, Jameson has never been able to see the difference between his own view of the world and reality," Paris snarked.

Shaking his head, Harry turned back but was interrupted by an hour finally replying to his last question. "Don't kick them both out! That other young man with him, I think that's Spiderman."

"How can you tell?" Harry asked confused.

He didn't have nearly as good a memory for voices as Emma did, which she commented on now. "Besides, I'd be horrified if I forgot to the voice of a voyeur. That was rather a memorable meeting, if you recall."

With that in mind, Harry changed what he was going to say. "Mr. Jamieson, if you wish to leave, you may do so. This agreement is nonnegotiable, we have too much going on for you and your questions to slow this briefing down any further than the questions from various governemen representatives will. And if you really think that the EDF is some kind of sham, perhaps I should be looking to getting you some professional help."

His tone conveyed what kind of professional help he thought the older man needed, and Jameson reared up angrily, but Paris shouted him down. "Enough Jonah! I allowed you to try to pass yourself off as a reporter because I had hoped that you would comport yourself as a professional. This is not the venue for you to spout your ridiculous theories, crackpot concepts, and paranoid delusions. If you wish to become involved in this, to stick your toe into what eventually could be access to the EDF, you will exceed two Mr. Potter's demands as I have, and as all of you will have to."

Jameson scowled, then without a word stalked off, pointing one finger at Peter as he left. "You better get some damn good pictures! And take some damn good notes, will see if your EDF can really stand up to some honest questioning in the future."

Walking out like that meant that Jameson was not subject to the agreement that the others would have to sign and he knew it. A few of the other reporters knew this too and seemed to be thinking about joining him, but only two of them went so far as to do so. Peter Parker, as the man's name tag read, made no move to follow his boss, simply sighing and rubbing his face with both hands.

Paris smirked at the younger man as they all were handed pens and papers to sign the magically binding contracts, which resembled the contracts that Harry had previously used to bind military representatives and so forth to secrecy before he came out into the open with the Custodes and the EDF. "I have tried to hire you away from him, you have only yourself to blame Mr. Parker."

"You also wanted me to move to Florida Ms. Loudes. And I told you I can't move away from my Aunt May," Peter said with a sigh.

After everyone had signed the agreement, Harry teleported them all up to High Note, where he had them all wait in the gardens allowed to take pictures of everything they could want to in those two areas. A few did so, awed by the picture of the earth above them, the exterior of the gardens not having been changed back after Harry had spelled it to resemble glass before the peace conference.

However, Harry had a little mystery he wanted to solve. Using a subtle Notice-Me-Not, Harry separated Peter from his fellows. Before the young man could realize what was going on, Harry was beside him and they were far enough away from the other reporters not to be overheard. "So Spiderman, is this what you do with your spare time?"

To his credit Peter didn't even blink. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Pull the other one kid," Harry said with a laugh, pushing at Peter's shoulder before repeating Emma's words and takign credit for her memory. "Our meeting was kind of eventful and I have a decent memory for voices. Or are you telling me you can't remember the night where…"

"Right fine," Peter said, blushing and looking away. He stood there like the socially awkward teen he looked.

Harry smiled, giving his shoulder a light squeeze before releasing him. "I'm not going to tell anyone, I'm just wondering why you're a reporter. Surely you should be in college right?"

"Just starting actually, and well, I couldn't hold down a regular job because of the whole Spiderman thing, I can make my own hours as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, and I can even use it to my advantage, to get pictures of myself in action." Peter frowned. "You know, saying that aloud makes it sound a lot more egotistical than it should be."

"So being Spiderman doesn't pay? Harry chuckled. "Tell me, your powers. Super-strength, spider-like abilities? Do they include those web-shooters of yours? And I know you have several different varieties of webbing."

"Well, I'm sort of following a chemistry angle in school, and well, yeah I made it myself," Peter stammered. "It's not all that impressive."

"It could be, or it could be a sign of much better things. But you need a side job? Would it surprise you to know that I pay the Custodes Mundi? They might've been brought to my side by their belief in my cause, or causes rather," he added with a faint laugh, "and stay because they believe in my methods. But they are definitely also being paid for it."

Despite his social awkwardness, there was nothing wrong with Peter's brain. Far from it, in point of fact. "Are you offering me a job?" He asked incredulously.

"Perhaps in time. For now, I would be willing to fund your continued hero-work. After that, who knows. I wouldn't want to pull you out of New York though. For some odd reason, that city seems to be a hotbed of super-powered criminality. You have your own group of villains, don't you?"

"Not so many any longer after they attempted to take Emma Frost of the Frost conglomerate hostage a few months back," Peter replied dryly. "Her security force dealt with most of them permanently. And then there was the bombing that killed Kingpin. I'm still wondering who was behind that since none of his competitors have stepped up to the plate to take over his businesses but I've got no leads, and neither do the police."

Danielle does good work, Harry reflected, his face giving nothing away. He sensed somehow, without Emma or Jean's help, that Peter was even more of a Boy Scout then Steve. Steve knew that there came a time when you had to take lives, and he didn't hesitate in the doing. Peter though, he was still very much the young, somewhat innocent man his years and face suggested. "Regardless I think having a more solidified line of contact would be good for both of us."

"… I'll think about it," Peter said with a shrug. "I gotta admit, working with Jameson is beginning to grate on my nerves. He's gotten a hell of a lot worse since the EDF came out. There's something personal there, but I don't know the man well enough to speculate on what. But I won't make any decision rashly."

"Good for you," Harry applauded, before gesturing with his head back over to the rest of the reporters. "Now come on, let's get you all set up."

The briefing occurred in the same conference room Harry had used during the initial start of their offense in the Eurasian War, although now it was filled with what Harry wanted to call the Terran Space Council along with the reporters instead of just his own men and women. Not that most of them have any actual power to impact events in space but still the thought is there. The raised levels were still there, but chairs had been replaced by plush chairs each individual having their own chair.

With the raised rows everyone could see the front of the room where Emma, in her Diamond persona, and the others were standing at the moment. This included Dum Dum Duggan, who had been brought in by Sir Dennis to add to Harry's still-unnamed espionage service. He had worked closely with Carol and E on the computer side of things while Reed and his friend Andrew Lefton had led the examination of the dead and the living prisoners.

Jean was lounging next to Harry curled up into his side, one hand resting on her stomach as was routine these days. She seemed to have gotten over her jitters about becoming a mother, but Harry had heard something about her not being happy how she would look in the wedding dress that they were trying out for her. When he inquired about that at breakfast that morning and told her she'd look lovely in a paper bag it had backfired, so Harry had backed off rapidly. The mood swing had passed by this point though, which Harry was thankful for, and he let one hand rest on the back of her neck, fingers working through her hair.

Ororo sat Harry's other side, her eyes closed as she listened. There was a frown there, but like Jean and Harry, Emma had already told her the bare bones of what she and Betsy had found in Galactus' mind. But unlike Emma, she knew Harry was going to do something about that information that had little to do with anything but his people saving thing. On the back of her chair, Hedwig sat for some reason tugging contentedly at Harry's hair.

Dr. Doom sat to one side, with the president of America, pulled from some kind of low-key meeting that he had been actually quite ecstatic to get out of, and one of his own the advisors, a middle-aged man with an impressive scar on one hand who stood like an ex-military man on the other hand. Harry hadn't been introduced to him, but Harry had basically told Samuel to bring someone he trusted, so Harry, with the help of the security array over the teleportation doorways, would trust that the man knew what he was doing.

William was not there, but Duncan was, his arms crossed as he looked down at the front of the room from behind Harry with General Demontebanks sitting next to him. Reed, Scott, Steve, and Ben were also all there, along with Amora, and Danielle up. Behind them sat Peter Parker, Paris and the others.

Once everyone was sitting comfortably and the reporters appropriately silenced via his magic, the meeting began quickly enough with a small bombshell from Emma. One that had everyone who knew about the attack staring at her in shock and chagrin.

"What do you mean they were here to ask for our help?" Ben said shaking his head. "I know Gladiator said something about being here to talk to the big brain here," he waved at Reed beside him. "But that was if that is how they ask for help, then…"

"Then this Majestor needs to go back to school and learn some manners," Ororo quipped.

"Indeed, I have dealt with arrogant souls literally for times uncounted, and Gladiator's would fit in quite well with those who are sent to that most special part of Niflheim reserved for those who died due to their arrogance."

"Heh, won't start shit, won't be shit," Sam murmured to Steve, his Bronx brogue in full display, causing Steve to chuckle in turn.

"*Sigh*. It seems as if some of us here are not dealing with the complete playbook. Before we get to what they need our, or rather the Fantastic Four's help with, can someone explain to me what the Shi'ar Empire is?" President Northton said, shaking his head. He was still somewhat getting up to speed on all this space-based stuff. Thankfully judging from the nods of a few of the others in the room, those who were here in an attempt by Harry to be open about what went on in space, he wasn't the only one who didn't know anything about the Shi'ar. "I am fully up to speed on the Kree and the Skrull, I even read what you all passed on about the Badoon, but the Shi'ar is new to me."

Duggan laughed, fighting back the urge to salute his former Commander-in-chief. "Heh, you weren't the only one. I spent the last week basically buried in reports about everything going on in space and behind the scenes. But before we continue, I have to say thank you to Mr. Richards for helping us decrypt the files on these computers. While their technology isn't all that far advanced in comparison to the bits of Kree and Skrull tech that I have seen, their programming is actually quite incredibly advanced."

Harry held up a hand, looking over at Reed who spoke up in response. "There were a few interesting programming fillips that they have come up with, but nothing that we could not overcome easily enough security-wise. Their programming is highly advanced with some indications pointing to many of their computers coming close to limited AI status. But their physical computer technology is quite crude in comparison to what we have been able to come up with. That could be deliberate, to keep that same level of responsiveness without allowing for the growth of an actual AI that could then evolve beyond its programming."

Harry nodded slowly, and then looked over at Duggan again. "Continue."

"The Shi'ar Empire is an empire in truth, far more so than the Kree or the Skrull. Both of those call themselves empires, but the Kree really isn't an empire as we understand the term, they're more of a military dictatorship. The Skrull might have a royal family, but all the power resides in the Sector Governors and ruling magnates. But the Shi'ar Empire rules over more than two hundred other space-faring races that they have conquered. After conquest, the Shi'ar Empire's society basically takes over what the running of the planets they've conquered, while slowly eroding the existing social structures through simply being more organized and just plain more efficient. Within a few generations, there's little to nothing left of the original societies. I honestly can't figure what to compare it to in human history, except possibly the Sassanid Empire perhaps"

Duggan once more took over. "And when we say the Shi'ar are an Empire, we mean it. There is the Majestor, and then there is his house and court. They are the final arbiters, the power in the Empire. Everything goes through them, and I mean everything. Sector governors, planetary officials, as far down as planetary-scale decisions everything goes through them."

Conquered races aren't allowed to build their own spaceships for two hundred years of the equivalent so that there is no one alive who has any personal idea of what it is like to be born without the Shi'ar being over them. Any sign of rebellion is crushed entirely, up to and including orbital bombardments. They're actually quite proud of it, that's why we know about all this. The captain was quite happy to tell me all about such activities, saying that we would be facing that soon enough, if we did not release them immediately."

"Which we won't be," Harry said coldly. "If Gladiator is any location, they have nothing that can stop magic, and we didn't let them get any word out, correct?"

When Admiral Powers nodded at that, Duggan began to input a series of controls, and a moment later, a massive hologram appeared in front of them all. It was the same planet intergalactic map which Harry and his fellows were used to seeing at first, then a few seconds later it grew again, showing the Shi'ar Empire. It was not nearly as densely developed as the Kree, but it was much larger than the Kree, if not quite as large as the Skrull and several sectors were massively developed in comparison to the rest. "Those are the Shi'ar themselves. They apparently spread out quite quickly, after achieving their first spaceflight and their planets are so massively industrialized, I had to look up a science fiction term for what they are: Ecumenopolis."

"I know that one, planets on which cities have completely taken over the surface," Harry explained for the non-sci-fi fans. Ororo shuddered next to him, looking almost ill at the very idea, and Harry could sympathize while Hedwig precked at their back.

"Right. But as you can see, their empire's nowhere near us. Any moves in this area of space have to be on a small scale, or with ships prepared to operate well beyond their normal limits. And frankly, there's no reason they should try. No, Gladiator and the crew of the Pinion, that's the name of their ship, were sent well and hell into the boonies from the Shi'ar's perspective."

Dum Dum paused, then looked over to the group of scientists who had performed autopsies of the dead. This was a new group of doctors that Carol and Reed had rounded up for the purpose. "At this point, I think it might be a good idea to turn the presentation over to the doctors here because they found out some things that were kind of startling.

The spokesman for this group, whom Carol had hired in Harry's name, was named Dr. Rupert Frankholme. He came from Austria and had been recommended by the former Air Force officer because she'd met him a few times in the past. He was an excellent surgeon and forensics doctor, although he had, in Carol's words, the social graces of a walnut. "Erm, um, w, well that is…" The man began to stammer feeling all their eyes on him.

But when one of his fellows switched the hologram to one of the Shi'ar prisoners standing against a bulkhead he straightened his shoulders and then began again. Now there was no awe or fear in his tone, only aloof professionalism. "Thanks to the number of bodies we were supplied with and the ability to also question the living, we were able to find out quite a few interesting things from the side of evolution and science.

despite how alike to humans they actually look, the Shi'ar people are not in point of fact birds, as the derogatory name for them the Kree told us about months back imply. Or rather they are not warm-blooded birds. They are cold-blooded, which is quite odd considering the physiology, but it isn't something we haven't run into before with the dissections of the Badoon bodies we recovered, so it is clearly possible."

"Dissections?" President Northton asked quietly.

"There were a lot of dead bodies after that last attack," Harry murmured back. "I wanted to find out some things about them. I wanted a report like this is the time, but it took Carol and I a while to put the various scientists together, and then the scientists themselves began to dither and argue rather than just tell us their findings. Carol and Reed had to sit on them rather hard to get them to prepare for this meeting at all on such short notice."

He nodded to the doctor to continue, and he did, looking a little huffy at the interruption. "At any rate, they have other things in common with winged dinosaurs. For one thing, they lay eggs, which is altogether interesting, considering everything else is much more mammalian, up to and including the mammary glands and their species being sexually active year-round as humans are."

Rupert frowned, or rather scowled, his whole face wrinkling up in a look of confusion. "However, despite the fact they are the oldest space faring race we have yet come in contact with, there has not been the level of evolutionary drift that we might have suspected, changes to their basic genetics and bodies as we might have thought. For one thing, their bodies are still built to allow for flight with hollow bones and other similar signs, despite the fact they no longer seem to routinely grow feathers anywhere save on their heads. They would normally have less physical strength than a human but given their level of scientific knowledge they seem to have overcome that."

"Yes, I'd say so. Most of the crew we tangled with were stronger than most humans, even most soldiers. I'd have said they were physically as strong as Kree, although they couldn't take as much damage. Maybe this hollow bone thing is why," Steve interjected.

"More than likely yes," Rupert replied. "However, the most interesting thing about the Shi'ar is in their brain and what that means on the mental and social level. At this point, I will turn this over to Dr. Ajira Sing."

Ajira, a middle-aged woman from Kerala in India with five doctorates in various medical and social fields, stepped forward. She had been on Harry's science staff for a long while after his first round of recruitment on the whole 'wizard longevity question. She had however changed jobs soon after Mar'vel and Una was captured and had since examined the Kree, Badoon and now Shi'ar prisoners. And when she spoke, her voice was soothing after Rupert's loud, high-pitched tone. "Thank you, Rupert. And as for what we found, I believe that comparison is needed."

With a few taps on the podium's controls an image popped up to one side, and she pointed to it. "This is the human brain. I've labeled all the disparate parts, in order to better help you understand the various areas we are most interested in. And this is the Shi'ar brain." A second round of button-pushing caused a second image to appear. Both images moved off the flatscreen on the wall and became 3-D like the previous galactic map. "Instantly several important facts popped out to us, so important we had to question the prisoners quite closely, something I must thank Diamond and Professor Xavier for their help with."

Xavier wasn't there. He had essentially taken over Emma's job of dealing with Bruce Banner a few weeks back, a move Harry hadn't been informed of but had agreed to after the fact. He met with Bruce at least once every two days and had gotten the man to the point where he was able to at least acknowledge the fact the Hulk wasn't a monster that could be removed from his body and leave him whole. He had also basically helped Bruce put his mind in order so that he was no longer in danger of becoming schizophrenic.

"I can tell bits are missing but I have no idea about their importance," Ororo said, tapping her lips thoughtfully.

"There is no pons segment to the brain, here." Ajira paused as if waiting for shocked exclamations, but she only got two hisses of indrawn breath from Reed and the rather terrifying man in armor.

"That's… are you saying they are all like that?" Dr. Doom said finally leaning forward, almost glaring through his mask at the brain surgeon. "An entire race without a pons segment of the brain. And, if that brain's map is accurate their parietal lobe is odd too."

Ajira gulped but replied gamely. "W, we examined every one of the dead, and then we asked the prisoners about it with Diamond and Professor X's help. This is accurate. Indeed, it isn't a new thing. As Rupert said the Shi'ar have remarkably not changed very much on the evolutionary level since achieving a high level of technology. This is something they have had as far back as they remember."

"Alright, what is the pons segment of the brain used for? I take it is something important?" Kirov asked.

"The pons region of the brain interprets the unconscious nerve signals that an individual's mind creates when asleep. Essentially, the pons is the area of the brain that allows us to have dreams."

"Okay, I can see why that would be important on the psychological level, isn't it through dreams that we, like, process the day or whatever?" Ben asked.

"Something of the sort, yes. Without dreams, humans do not learn or cannot retain as much knowledge of a day's passing as they would otherwise. However, that is but a minor point. Without dreams, without the pawns portion of the mind, they have no imagination. They have no art. Indeed, they find imagination and art as signs of insanity. Individuals who confess to dreams are often euthanized the moment they are discovered. Several of the prisoners I talked to knew stories on that score, although none had met anyone who had been part of such a drama." Ajira shook her head. "It's incredible."

"You're telling me," Harry breathed, somewhat reeling by the implications. "How, I mean, how can they have science without imagination?"

"I don't know. The Shi'ar have a larger occipital lobe. Their cognitive ability for languages, form and pattern recognition is incredible. But they do not dream. They do not create art, they might, and I hesitate here because this goes into the realm of possibilities, but they might be able to recognize art. But I honestly cannot tell you whether or not that is indeed the case," Ajira explained with a shrug.

She paused to let all that sink in, then went on. "I would say in terms of social interaction they will be smart, extremely so. Very good at languages as I said, very good hitting it off with other people, at acting out roles. But they will also have the ability to be very cruel."

"Could you please explain that," Jean said, frowning as she looked at the two images. "I might be a telepath, but I've never made that much of a study of the physical aspects of the brain. I don't see a connection between their ability to be cruel to the rest you've explained."

"Once more this topic ties into how their brains are designed: their mentality is that of herd-based predators. Highly social predators, but still predators, on every level, socially, personally, and in terms of diet. The Shi'ar are as a race believe that every other race in their empire exists to serve them in whatever way they desire. That is the lens through which they see the world."

"Una and Mar'vel passed on a rumor that the Shi'ar had essentially committed genocide by eating another sentient race into nonexistence. With what you found out of their brains and in questioning them, is that something you could see them doing?" Harry asked slowly, knowing this was going to be a bombshell.

"Excuse me!?" Samuel Northton said, sharply, looking over at Harry. The rest of the room had either fallen silent in shock or were also shouting questions, including the members of the Fifth Estate at the back. Luckily they'd all been silenced before this.

But even so, it was several minutes before Harry could demand silence once more. "It is just a rumor, I am just wondering if there is evidence that the Shi'ar are so impulsive and lacking in empathy as to do so."

"Erm, actually yes," Ajira said, after looking around at the others. "More than one wondered if we would taste good, and another mentioned a race called the Mephitisoids and wondering if humans would go the same way."

Dum Dum spoke up in support while the rest of the room muttered in shock, whispering about space cannibals. "That part we think was just an attempt to intimidate us. The Shi'ar don't routinely eat other races. But it did happen once in their history, and they aren't exactly secretive about it. The Mephitisoids had a very advanced, extremely pacifistic culture, and the Shi'ar conquered them early on in their own spacefaring history. Then over a thousand years or so, they somehow did…start to eat the entire race. The computer on the ship had a blurb about it, but other than saying they were intensely tasty to the Shi'ar palate didn't tell us anymore on how that occurred. But it is definite that it did."

"Mary mother of God," the president muttered, raising one suddenly shaky hand to his face. "Are there any aliens out there that we could possibly make allies of? Could we possibly even treat with these Shi'ar and assume they would honor any deal we'd make?"

That's just it," Harry said with a laugh that was about as cold as a glacier turning in his chair to glare almost at Northton, the silent Kirov and the other world governemnt representatives. "We're not equals. We're nowhere near close. It will be centuries before we're equal in industrial capacity and millennia before we're equal in the size of our population. Which presupposes that they'll actually allow us to get to that size. Now do you see why I have been so hard on the mutant supremacy/anti-mutant factions? When you come right down to it, there are enemies out there that are far, far too dangerous for us to continue to stand against divided."

"A house divided cannot stand," Northton quoted, then smiled thinly. "All right, you've made your point Harry. But I'd still like an answer to my question from your experts. Are these Shi'ar a species we could possibly make deals with, and expect them to be honored, even if they do not see us as their equals?"

All of them looked at one another, whispering hastily as a rather fearsome argument sprang up. "Well… that depends," one of the ones standing by Rupert quibbled, and Harry leaned forward, staring at the man hard while Reed shook his head, and Doom growled.

Even the president laughed. "Gentlemen, we're not interested in depends. We want your honest opinions, yes or no will these Shi'ar honor a deal they make with a lesser power?"

"No," one man, a Chinese said finally while the others seemed to firm up their opinion nodding or shaking their heads. "Most of us are of the opinion that they won't. We don't have access to their history, but from what we've learned so far, from what we discern while watching or questioning the prisoners, they would not see us as equals even if they need something from us. We can possibly scare them, threaten the Emperor himself perhaps. But our best defense is the fact we dealt with Gladiator and our distance from their Empire."

"How important is Gladiator? How did the crew of that ship react to our defeating him?" Hela asked.

"At first they didn't believe it," Diamond said, speaking up for the first time since the doctors had begun their presentations. "But when he didn't immediately come to their rescue they began to believe, and at that point, their bravado shifted from 'Gladiator will see you all dead' to 'the Empire will not forgive this'. They are in deep shock at it I think, with only a few able to see past the immediate implications."

"Would you be able to guess how this Emperor of theirs will react when word reaches him?"

"That would depend, I think, on everything else going on at the time. Specifically, the original reason why they were sent to Earth," Diamond drawled, in a get on with it kind of tone.

Nodding thoughtfully, Harry looked around at his allies and his people. "I think that's enough background. Unless anyone has specific questions?"

There were several who did, Carol foremost among them as she hadn't heard about the whole not dreaming thing. She was followed by Dr. Doom, leaned forward arrogantly, glaring almost through his mask at Duggan as he asked a few specific questions about what he had been able to figure out of the Shi'ar Empire's military, the numbers of its citizens who were not Shi'ar, and so forth.

Harry listened intently, glancing occasionally at Doom, one eyebrow rising as he wondered where the not-so-good Dr. was going with all this. He had an idea but… No. I'm not going to go there just yet. If that's his plan, well, more power to him I suppose. Although I wouldn't have thought he'd leave Latveria behind.

When the questions began to peter off, Harry looked back at Diamond and Duggan. "All right, I think at this point we can get on to the meat of the matter. Why was the Shi'ar Empire going to demand our aid a la Black Ships demanding the Japanese open their ports?"

Diamond twitched her eyes over to where Ben and Reed sat. Ben was enjoying a beer with Steve, while the doctor was talking quietly to Ben's girlfriend, still trying to explain some of the historical examples that had been used earlier. He didn't look to be having much luck there, but he looked up as Duggan said a single word. "Galactus."

Ben coughed on his beer, setting it aside as Reed gasped, staring in shock at this spy while more than one of the representatives cursed in shock. Indeed everyone, even Peter and the rest of the media people showed disbelief at the use of that name.

All save for Steve, Thundra, and Amora. The three of them looked at one another then everyone else's faces then Steve raised a hand. "It looks as if we're kind of out of the loop here, but who is Galactus? And why did his name, make all of your faces go pale?" All except Harry and his ladies at least. But they must have known about this beforehand.

"Galactus is what I would term a Super-being, a creature whose very existence is several dimensional levels beyond our own,", Reed said, his tone calm even if his words were not. "Physically he is a massive being, his body almost the size of the moon, and for whatever reason, he has a most horrible eating habit which led us into conflict with him and with his herald, the Silver Surfer."

"What do you mean a 'most horrible eating habit'? And why did that sent a shiver down my spine when you said it?" Thundra asked.

"Because it was meant to Thundra baby," Ben said touching his forehead with one craggy hand. "Are we sure? I mean are we sure about this? They need help against that, that…"

Words seemed to fail him, and Reed took up the tale. He explained that Galactus ate planets, sucking them dry of life, killing the individuals on the planet, as well as the trees, animals, even the tectonic energy. Anything that could be termed life or necessary to create it fed Galactus, leaving behind a husk that inevitably shattered. "He creates this device you see, which transfers the energy to him. It takes a while but once it's in place, there's nothing that can stop it."

"But there are a few ways to deal with him right?" Harry asked. "One is to make a deal with him, right?"

"Not exactly," Reed muttered, "I forget that you actually weren't here for that episode Harry. You only have my own files to go on."

"Yeah, your files say that you beat him off, somehow. Made an agreement that meant he would never return to earth. So how did you do it, and do you think we can pass it on to the Shi'ar?" Harry asked. "I doubt that would be enough now, not after we captured Gladiator and their ship, but it's a thought."

Reed twitched, looking around them, and Harry rolled his eyes. "A simpler question, was it something you created, or something you stole off him?"

Seeing Mr. Fantastic looking still a little leery, Harry made a decision. "Right. I think at this point we've talked about everything we want the general public to know at this point. The rest is going to be how we deal with this, and that means it's time for the ladies and gentlemen of the Fifth estate to leave. Along with the representatives of the Earth-based powers that be."

He overrode the shouted objections, gesturing and opening the doors into the conference room with a spell. "Everyone out. Miss Lourdes, please corral your fellow newsies, Mr. President, if you please? At this point, none of you can really contribute to the ongoing discussion. We will make a formal announcement of our plans to deal with this issue but at this point, if Reed doesn't want to share, I am afraid he's the expert and I will bow to his decision." He then paused, looking inquisitive, "Unless any of you are willing to have the information we will be discussing locked into your mind afterward magically?"

There were some flinches at that, although Harry was amused to note that Peter looked as if he wanted to take Harry up on his offer for a moment. Despite that all of them left willingly. Northton and the others actually looked relieved, happy someone else was taking the burden of what to do about this thorny issue off their shoulders. It took a bit longer to make certain they all returned to their respective countries than to convince them to leave in the first place. And most of this was taken up by a brief conversation Harry had with President Northton.

"By the way, I think we've found a scientist that you might want to hire. His name's Forge." The older man paused, sending a smirk at Harry's surprised, then thoughtful expression. "I understand that you've been wanting to hire him for a while now?" At Harry's nod, he handed over a folder his aide handed to him in turn. "I'll have him dropped off at Professor Xavier's mansion shall I?"

Harry could only nod again at that. But he replied with his own comment. "If you or anyone from your government wants to observe, the funeral for the dead EDF personnel is going to be tomorrow afternoon in Fortress Mars."

"We will be there," Northton replied with a nod.

Returning from this side mission, Harry glanced at Reed and then around at the rest of the room. "Well?"

"Five bugs, three from the reporters, one of which was actually quite advanced, not something you could buy on the street. I might wish to follow up on that when this present issue has run its course," Reed replied. "The other two were from our illustrious politicians, although from where I found them perhaps the advisors instead of the leaders. Regardless I also asked Pinoptes to activate the room's Faraday Cage just in case."

Get in line Reed, Harry thought, intrigued at the thought of what the friendly neighborhood Spider-boy was going to eventually choose to do. setting that to the side, he looked at Reed. "And now that we are alone…" he trailed off leadingly.

Reed sent a look to Doom, who had not moved since the exodus of the unwanted observers had begun, but after hesitating for a brief second began to speak. "…The being known as Galactus travels in kind of ship which itself is a marvel of technology, existing on several dimensional planes at one time. We snuck aboard the ship during the construction phase when he creates the device he needs to use to take in energy from his current victim and found a device. A device called the Ultimate Nullifier. With it, we were able to basically threaten Galactus to retreat."

"But the agreement was that he would leave earth alone so long as we did not use the Nullifier on him. If we try to threaten him with it again, he might find that agreement is null and void. For another…" Reed winced, once more looking over at Doom, glumly anticipating the response to his next statement, "I have no idea what it does."

Doom's incredulous laughter burst out, hollow-sounding, but he was leaning back and slapping one hand down on his metal-clad thigh as he laughed. "Reed Richards, genius extraordinaire, doesn't know what something does? And this happened several years ago too!"

Fighting the urge to enlarge his fist and try to crush Doom like a tin can, Reed began to pace at the front of the room as he explained. "The device is about as large as my hand. It has no internal energy source that can be detected, no internal machinery as far as I can tell at all, bar the one button on its surface. It is metallic in origin, or so it looks, but no amount of x-rays or any kind of sensor that I have tried to use tells me anything at all. The surface is completely impenetrable to my scanners and I have tried every single scanner I could devise on it, including some I created after investigating the Negative Zone. Furthermore, if it is a device that even Galactus would fear, how am I supposed to have tested it to find out its effects?"

Evidently this was something of a sore point for him. Which was causing Doom, and Harry admittedly no end of amusement.

"Toss it into the Negative Zone attached to a timed control device," Doom shot back.

"And how would I find it again? What would the effect of it be? Creation of a black hole? Not powerful enough. A solar flare? Galactus would survive it. I have no idea what it does, but testing to destruction was clearly not something I could do, as anyone with an IQ of ninety should be able to tell…"

"Gentlemen," Harry said, magnifying his voice just slightly enough to get their attention having twitched slightly at the black hole creation comment. "While watching the two of you have one of your pissing contests is always amusing, let's move on. Where is Galactus now, did they know?"

"They did, and that's part of the problem from their respective," Dum Dum said. He worked the controls on the podium again, and the hologram began to change as he very slowly inputted of series of commands into the control grid he'd been given. Several of the planets in the Shi'ar Empire disappeared, replaced by black marks. Others glowed red, and a concentric circle moving towards the capital city, deep into Shi'ar territory.

"And correct if I'm wrong, but all those planets are well-populated?" Hela asked.

"Heavily populated," Dum Dum said, with Emma nodding her head.

She then pointed to one in particular. "Just as the Pinion jumped entirely out of the Empire, they received word that this planet had gone silent. Several of the crewmen have family there. The numbers on that planet alone is twelve point seven billion Shi'ar."

That number caused everyone there to gasped in horror save Dr. Doom, who leaned forward, crossing his hands in front of his masked face. "And so? I have several questions. First and foremost, what is in it for us to accede to their demand that we help them against Galactus?"

"They asked for the Fantastic Four," Reed said looking over to Emma who once more nodded, and Reed shrugged his shoulders. "In that case, I think it rather falls to me to make that decision doesn't it?"

"It would if I did not know that this one," Doom said, pointing to Harry, "was not also thinking about it. You are, are you not? You're thinking of leaving our Earth, to help this empire, which is a clear and present danger to Earth. This is so illogical, so impractical, that I cannot even believe it. But you have done illogical and impractical things before, you're 'saving people thing' you call it."

Harry looked back at Doom, then very slowly, raised a single finger while using his other hand to play with Jean's hair, calming her down. Ororo, on the other hand, was just glaring at Doom, knowing that in many ways Doom had gotten his mother back from the dead (or close enough) because of Harry's heroism. "That was one question." He then raised a second finger. "What was your next one?"

Doom snorted, then looked over at Charles and Dum Dum. "This Imperial Guard. Mar'vel said it was a formidable group, full of various super powered individuals. What are they doing at this point in time? Is the Shi'ar Empire willing to defend itself, or was their first inclination to find sacrificial pawns which may or may not have been able to help them?"

"Dr. Doom's got a point," Emma said with a sigh, moving over to flop against a chair left empty by Hela, her posture now relaxed but her eyes grim as she gazed at Harry. "And even if they are fighting for themselves, even if you're only going on as an advisory role or something Harry, I don't think you personally can be part of this mission. Too much is riding on you with the moment."

"And we don't want you to die damnit!" Jean sent. This was a sentiment that Emma agreed with wholeheartedly. They'd had portions of this argument several times throughout the day, but now with everything that had been shared during the meeting it had come back to them.

"I know loves, but think about it, there are more reasons than one that we need to fight Galactus for the Shi'ar. And before you ask, yes, my people saving thing has been activated by all this. Whatever else, the common man on the streets in the Shi'ar empire don't deserve to die because their leaders have forgotten everything but shotgun diplomacy."

As the two telepaths sent him the mental equivalent of scowls, Harry addressed Emma's spoken points. "Not as much as you think. The Earth Defense Force is clicking along nicely, the training centers are all up and running for now. The logistical aspects too could be better, but that will always be the case, and I've done enough on that end for it to keep running without me around for a time."

He held up a hand when Ororo made to speak. And then looked over at Dr. Doom, then back to Ororo. "Were you finished, Dr.?" He asked politely.

Again Doom snorted, then looked over to Reed Richards. "If we are so terrified of using the Ultimate Nullifier what does that leave us? Have you figured out any other way of fighting this being?"

Reed sighed. "I have found several different means of possibly combating him, but I don't know if any of them will work. None are the kind of thing you'd be able to test after all," he repeated the same point he'd made about the Ultimate Nullifier.

Harry waited a moment to see if Dr. Doom had more questions then looked over to Emma and the others. "Well, are they fighting him?"

"Apparently, whole fleets of been destroyed, the Imperial Guard lost their equivalent of three regiments. Their third and fourth in command are both dead, their second-in-command, the one who leads them with when Gladiator is away on a mission like this is badly injured."

"Worry about all that does not excuse his attempts to attack us," Hela growled. "His actions were well beyond the pale."

"I agree. Gladiator showed us the real face of this Shi'ar Empire. Which means," Ororo said twitching her eyes over to Dr. Doom. "You're not thinking strategically."

Doom stared back, then ever so slightly, and nodded his head. "I see. You are correct," he growled, biting the words off. "I had not considered that aspect."

The others all looked confused except for Ororo, and Harry.

Ororo explained. "Gladiator's their main champion. If they sent him out here on what amounted to a wild goat goose chase not only does that mean that they know that they don't have much of a chance against Galactus without the Fantastic Four's device, and they know where he went. If he never returns, then will they keep trying to send bad money down the drain against Galactus, or come here in force to see what happened? Earth could possibly see off a full Imperial battle group, but I don't know how many actual humans would be left alive on Earth when we were done do any of you?"

"So were damned if we do and damned if we don't," Sam muttered, cursing. This time however his Harlem accident wasn't showing up, and he nodded over to Steve then back to Harry. "What's the play, boss?"

"Well first, I have something else that I think we've overlooked. All of those scanners and sensors you used, when was the last time you tried to scan it?"

"Several months before my son was born. I haven't made any breakthrough in sensors since then for various reasons. Why?"

Harry smirked. "Did it ever occur to a task Madame Harkness about your Ultimate Nullifier?"

Reed was a very, very bright man, and he got it almost immediately. "You think it's a magical device?"

Harry nodded. "Of course, there's the whole idea of any sufficiently advanced science is indiscernible for magic, but, I have the feeling that it is just pure magic. And if it is, Hela, Ororo and I might be able to figure something out about it, either by draining it, or using our magical senses to probe it."

"So you are determined to go then? I still find that illogical. There is a lot riding on you right now Harry Potter?" Doom growled. Which was about as close to saying he was worried about his ally than he would ever get.

"True. Which is why I won't be leaving right away. We will take four days to tool up, for me to examine this Ultimate Nullifier, for Reed to share everything he's figured out, or attempted to create that can possibly take on Galactus, and for us to put it into production. Furthermore, I will choose a team. It will not be the full Custodes Mundi. Against this enemy, striking power and survivability is more important than anything else, and I'm sorry to stay Steve, with there's really not much you or Sam or even Piotr can do against this kind of enemy. Although with that said, I will be taking Emma with me. A telepath can be useful for this mission on multiple levels."

"What about me?" Amora said, thrusting her head forward pugnaciously. "If this thing eats planets, I bet I could give it one hell of a case of indigestion."

"That's a point," Harry said with a nod.

"And me too," Danielle said, "If Galactus has got a brain, maybe I can somehow figure out a way to bring out his nightmares."

"I will make the decisions of who to go and who's to stay later after consulting with Reed, but I am making one decision right now. Carol, Sage, and Steve will form a triumvirate of our high command for as long as I'm gone. The EDF, the lawyers, Magical Minds and Custodes, everyone will obey their orders as they would me," Harry intoned, looking at Jean then Steve. "I'm sorry Jean, but with your pregnancy, I don't want to pile more work on your shoulders."

"DAMN IT!" Jean growled, thumping her hand into his side in annoyance. 'I should be going with you, I'm your second biggest gun and Galactus is on an order of magnitude beyond anything we've faced. Even that purple-skinned freak you fought on Mars isn't as strong."

Resentment and anger flared in her mind and down their link, but Harry met it with simple love and regret, putting his arms around the redhead and pulling her into his lap. The anger faded instantly under his touch, while the resentment remained. However it didn't leak out toward the two young, forming minds within her, she kept it under control. She was now willing to admit that she had it within her to become a mother, to bring life into the world. It was just that the timing could have been far, far better because every time they turned around there seemed to be a new crisis on the horizon. Darn you Phoenix Force, if I could find it I would wring your fiery neck!

"I know my love," Harry whispered into her hair. "I know. But there's nothing we can do about it. No matter what kind of protection I can offer you, there's a limit to what magic could do. Especially against Galactus, even if he himself is vulnerable to it." Using magic on pregnant women beyond a certain level was not a good idea. Harry had asked Steve about that at one point, and he and Hela both agreed, there was a limit to how much magic could be used on Jean at this point without effecting her children in unusual and unpredictable ways. "I won't take risks with our children like that, or you."

Jean sniffled, cursing the impact her pregnancy had on her emotions even as she reined in her thoughts, feeling Ororo's hand on her back, moving in circles there while Emma took a page from Harry's book and send a telepathic burst of affection and love her way. Even Hela, who was not a fan of public displays of affection, reached over to grasp a shoulder having no other means to convey her support.

Steve and most of the others looked away, while Captain America grimaced. He didn't honestly have a problem with his being part of the Triumvirate, but he didn't think it would really work out that way. Rather each of the named individuals would probably just concentrate on their own areas of expertise. While most things were at the stage they could just keep working, there were some things that Harry, Emma, Ororo, and Hela had to see to personally. Still, we can handle it for a while at least. With Sage around anyway.

When Jean seemed to recover from her momentary loss of control, Doom spoke up as if the previous emotional moment hadn't happened."What of the empire? They are sure to become our enemies in time, especially with how we dealt with their messenger." Not acknowledging this moment of weakness was actually his way of showing respect for those involved, but he still received quite a few glares from those who didn't realize that.

Harry though, who Doom felt at times had a somewhat disturbing understanding of his, Doom's, foibles, smirked. "We'll be dealing with a problem that they aren't able to and will be bringing along our heaviest hitters, and people who can get away quickly too. We'll show them that we're not to be trifled with, and with Earth so far beyond their borders, I don't think they'll bother with us after that. Of course, I'm not going to just take on Galactus for them. Their leaving us alone is part of the price for that."

"And Gladiator?"

Harry's smile turned wintry. "He attacked humans, killed more than five hundred EDF personnel and threatened Earth itself. He will not be returning to the Shi'ar with us. Not all of him anyway."

That caused Doom to laugh once more, while the others there, even Steve, simply nodded understanding. Soon after, the rest of the meeting broke up, with Steve and Reed leading the way out of the room, followed by Doom, who was still chuckling at Harry's little quip.

Sensing somehow that Jean was still out of sorts, Emma kissed Harry on the lips then stood up to follow the others out of the conference room. Hela paused for a moment staring between the departing Emma and the others, then leaned over Jean. At first, the redhead thought Hela was going to kiss her, which would have surprised her as Hela wasn't all that affectionate towards her or Emma outside of hugs. But instead, she placed her mouth by the redhead's ear and said quietly, "Do not let your concerns for Harry blind you to the fact this choice is part and parcel of what made us all fall for him in the first place."

Jean pouted but nodded at that, then smiled as Ororo kissed her cheek gently before following the others out the door.

That left Harry and Jean alone in the meeting room. Harry sat down again, next to her, putting his arms around her, whispering "There's a chance love that Galactus will have the same lack of magical resistance as Gladiator did. If that's the case, this could be a much more even fight for me than it would be for anyone else."

"You don't believe that," Jean groused, even as she let herself lean against him, a small, infinitely soft smile appearing on her face as she felt Harry's hand rest on her rounded stomach gently. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, first thing, I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to cross the Titan divide," Harry said grimly.

She looked at him quizzically, then nodded, remembering. "Ah yes, getting across that whole power line thing without becoming a god." She frowned thinking. "Though I wonder why I haven't slammed into that line?"

"Probably because your physical body actually isn't all that durable unless you're consciously reinforcing it. And your soul is still that of a normal human," Harry said gently. "You can telekinetically slow down everything in your vicinity to the point where you can survive being hit, but it's your mind that is a super-evolved beast of destruction, not your soul or body." He huffed as Jean's elbow hit him in the stomach while she let loose a giggle. "And despite all the power inside you, you retain a connection to the Phoenix Force as it's avatar,which keeps you both grounded as a human and empowers you at the same time. In my case, it's my magical core, which is a spiritual part of my soul and body, that needs to either change or evolve somehow."

"Hmm…" At that point, Jean had an idea. It was a barely formed one, but it might help her overcome her current issues if she could figure out a way to do it. For now, though another thought took center stage. "You know who you should also be taking with you? If magic is going to be our ace in the hole?"

"Dr. Strange," Harry agreed with a nod. "I had already thought about actually. I think that would be a good idea. He's finally started to act as a member of our community, these past few weeks."

"Good. You just remember Harry Potter that at this point, no matter what you might think, you really are not expendable! You are not replaceable, and you are not going to die on me! If you think Hela Ororo and I could keep this going use seriously have another think coming! We could probably keep the mutant rights we could even keep the various projects going, but all of it tied together? Hammering the rest of the world into a single unified force to face the threats out there? We don't have the clout to do that, not without you. And by God as my witness Harry, our children will know their father! Is that understood?"

Knowing words couldn't convey the depth of his emotion just then, Harry simply held Jean against him for a time, letting her feel the emotions, the love, understanding and everything else in his mind, a wordless promise that yes, he would be coming back. He would continue his work. And their unborn children would have a father. Come hell or high water, whatever the future puts in front of us, we will face it together, we five.

The moment was simply too emotional to last, and eventually, the two of them pulled away from one another. Trying to move on and ignore the fact that her shot-to-hell self-control once more meant that she was crying, Jean asked, "So, what do we do now?"

Harry smiled wanly, then shrugged his shoulders. "We prepare."

OOOOOOO

Ironically enough as the humans were debating about the merits of one alien race to another, one of them was in the process of being conquered. War had come upon their capital taking them all unawares. An armada twice the size of the defending fleet lead by a single ship the size of a gas giant roared through, heading for the planet. Smaller ships spread out, engaging the defensive forces. At the same time, a massive gravitic device activated, meaning no ships could leave to bring back reinforcements. The locals were on their own, and it was not enough.

Within an hour the last defending ship died, as one of the attacker's monstrous spaceships slammed into it. A gargantuan vessel, it just plowed through the only half as massive Skrull flagship, pushing into orbit over the Skrull's homeworld of Tarnax 4.

An instant later, the troop transports following it through the shattered defenses slammed into the atmosphere, heading down. Several of them were hit by defensive fire as they came, but the shields on them held, even against the massive planetary base defense fortresses.

But, perhaps all of that could've been seen as a sideshow. For the main attack came on the palace. A portal appeared there and at the head of a massive army of Chitauri, Thanos appeared.

The conclave of potentates that ruled the Skrull had retreated to a small bunker at the onset of the battle but had not tried to spread out or move further, trusting in their fleets. That trust had proven false, and now they flinched away in shock, as the entire left wing of their bunker was destroyed, and the mad Titan strode through the rubble over the bodies of some of their fellows who had been on that side of the bunker.

He looked around, one purple eyebrow rising as he stroked his chin with his hand. All of them could see the horrible wounds that covered him and his face, the burn marks covering most of his body, the missing arm, which had been amputated just below the shoulder. And yet, here he was, larger than life, staring at them with those intelligent, penetrating eyes. Thanos, the Mad Titan, one of the powers of the galaxy, who needed no army, who was so far above them he could be likened to a god. Twice before the Skrull had dealt with Thanos, both times appeasing him with technology and services. Now, now he had come to them for an altogether different purpose.

"Is it not customary for the conquered to kneel?" He intoned in that deep almost sepulchral voice. "Kneel or die is the phrase I believe."

The potentates were no one's fools. They didn't even look at one another, they just knew how this had to go. Hard, or soft, that was going to be it. With Tarnax 4 in his hands, Thanos had his throat on the Empire and had several Grand Fleets worth of troops in this single system besides. No, there was no way to fight this, not from their capital anyway. The Grand Governors might protest things, but against Thanos, any rebellion from them would no doubt see them dead in short order.

And as one, the potentates decided they would rather live. Without any further instructions or discussion, they all went down on one knee, bowing their heads. "T, the Empire is yours, Lord Thanos," one of them stammered. "Glory to the Conqueror."

Thanos smiled. And at that moment, it was the most horrifying thing any of the Skrull in that room had ever seen. Once more, the potentates, normally an arguing, argumentative and highly divisive lot, shared a single thought: And woe to the conquered.

OOOOOOO

The funeral for the dead EDF troopers held in Fortress Mars was barely over before Harry had decided on the team that would be going with him. First were the easiest choices: Reed was coming, along with Johnny, Ben Grimm, and Thundra. Thundra insisted on being included, wanting to go into battle alongside her lover again. From the Custodes, Harry was taking Ororo, Hela, Emma, Nikolai, and Amora. He wanted Emma along for when he was dealing with the Shi'ar. Nikolai's powers might be of use against either Galactus – a low probability – or his herald. Amora's powers thought could be a nasty shock for Galactus if they caught him mid-feed.

After some discussion and thinking hard about it, He decided to not take Dani along. During a planning session at the lunch table, Reed informed them that Galactus, their main target on this mission if not their only one, would be immune to her empathic psionic powers, whereas he agreed that Amora's powers might interrupt the 'transmutation energy flow'.

Dani was pissed about it but didn't argue. Piotr did when told he would be remaining behind, But Harry didn't want to take the entire Custodes with him, and Piotr reluctantly agreed to stay behind. Harry had also hoped to convince Ororo to stay behind, but she would have none of it, despite the low probability that her mutant powers would have any effect on Galactus. She argued back there was her magic to consider, and her powers would work just fine on Galactus' herald and the Shi'ar if they proved hostile. Harry attempted to then argue that she should stay and be his spokesman, but she shot that down to with, "At the moment there is no large scale project or doings that I could act as spokesperson for. No, I am going Harry and that is final."

To replace the large Russian and to give Ben some aid in the hand to hand area, Harry co-opted Warpath from the X-men. He also decided to take Alex Summers, taking the younger Summers brother off of his older brother's hands, much to the relief of Scott. Harry felt maybe some more personal instruction from him and Ororo would get the young Summers over his issues with being under Scott's command and Lorna having moved on from their relationship when they were Hellions.

"I also convinced Dr. Strange to come with us. Actually, convincing didn't take all that long. Between the two of us, we should be able to come up with spells that can work on Galactus, even if he has an inbuilt magical resistance like Thanos had. Oh, and Hedwig will be coming with us too," Harry said with a small smile for his familiar.

He, Ororo, and Hedwig had come over to the Baxter Building that afternoon for another meeting this time about the Ultimate Nullifier. They found all four members of the FF in residence along with Thundra. Susan was a little farther along than Jean in her pregnancy, and despite, or perhaps because it was her second time had been having an even worse time of it. If not for the house-elf Sara, who Ororo had asked to look after the FF, the whole team might well have been quite frayed at the edges. That, and very mild calming potions from Madame Harkness.

Now though Susan sat between her husband and her brother, blinking in surprise. "Why? I mean, Hedwig's a lovely bird, very intelligent, but what could she possibly do which others couldn't? And, well, why is Hedwig even interested in coming along in the first place?"

Ororo smiled, reaching out to gently ruffle Hedwig's chest feathers. "She seems to have taken it poorly that the Shi'ar people are evolved from birds."

"As for what she could do to help, well, I think a demonstration is in order," Harry said with a grin. "You have teleportation blocks up here right?"

"Correct, scientific energy shields I have devised to block both scientific, temporal, and magical means of instant teleportation into the Baxter Building. You know that you had to teleport into a specific room because of it this very day, and you've helped me test them before," Reed said, his brow furrowed. "Why?"

Harry smiled, and then, Hedwig disappeared. She reappeared an instant later, flying down to land on Ororo's shoulder, butting her head against the silver-haired woman's.

As read looked back at him in shock, Harry smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "Hedwig's ability to teleport is unique. Even I don't understand how she does it, despite spending several months a few years back trying to figure it out. Even Dr. Strange has issues stopping Hedwig from going where she wants to go."

"Ah… well, so long as she does not use this power for evil, I suppose I can make an exception in my no teleporting policy. In any event, I believe we should move on to brass tacks. If you tw, er, three," Reed corrected himself, glancing at Hedwig, "will come with us, we can show you where I keep the Ultimate Nullifier."

The scientist seemed nervous, and Harry fought back a smile. It was evident that the idea of the Ultimate Nullifier being magical had done nothing to alter Reed's fear of the device. If anything it had heightened it.

Reed led the way not into his laboratory as Harry and Ororo had suspected, but to his and Susan's bedroom. It was a two-story room that had apparently been redesigned in some ways to be more comfortable for Susan. The dressers and bookshelves Harry somewhat remembered seeing were gone, replaced by a large ergonomic chair with controls to allow the user to change its shape to be more comfortable or help the woman out of the chair. The second story looked to have been filled with plants and a wall removed to allow for a large window. The bed too was larger and seemed to be made of two distinct sides.

In among all this was a single bedside table that, while it seemed to fit in with the rest, also stood out to Harry's eyes because it was bolted to the floor. All of the FF moved toward it, and as Ororo and Harry watched, Reed stretched his hand down underneath it, his hand flattening and squishing out underneath the table, palm uppermost. "It's a palm reader, but it's made for someone who can stretch as I can. Each layer of security is like that, designed so that only one of us could get past it. On top of that, there's a series of verbal questions after the first four security checkpoints."

Harry watched as the top of the table popped up in two places, its movement so seamless that it looked almost as if the metal molded itself upwards. Susan then took her turn, placing her finger into a thumbprint reader, while using her power to create a thin blade of an invisible shield, sinking it into a hole and then corkscrewing it around to push a tiny, unseen button. "Mine is thumbprint and invisibility powered. If someone tries to push that little button with anything in the visible spectrum, the trap activates."

"What would've happened if someone tried to and failed?" Ororo asked.

"This room is connected to the negative zone's portal, which if it goes haywire, creates what amounts to a localized antimatter explosion."

Reed caught Harry's shocked look and he shrugged his shoulders. "I take my security seriously. I doubt even someone like you would be able to survive that."

Not without some lead-up time anyway, Harry thought, shaking his head. Oh, Harry suspected that after his most recent power-up he wouldn't need much in the way of time to prepare, a rather startling thought for a young man who still could all too easily remember being defenseless and weak. But he would still need that time if he wanted to walk away from or contain such an attack. Hmm… I wonder how I would do that? A pocket dimension like a space expansion to suck in the antimatter somehow? Or just focus on becoming durable enough to survive it. Again somehow Harry knew he could do so, he just wasn't sure why he was so certain.

Johnny followed, cutting his finger and letting a DNA sample flow into a small analyzer when another segment of the almost innocuous bedside table popped open. Then he had to create a flame under a heat sensor at precisely the right degree in under ten seconds. Johnny was sweating by the time he pulled back, grumbling and shaking his head. "I hate that thing."

The Thing snorted. His was easy. He just had to stick his craggy thumb into another reader on the side of the now almost entirely unfolded table, then answer a few questions. These were about their pasts, simple things from their childhood or earliest adventures that no one beyond the FF could have known.

Finally, a panel popped open on the side of the deformed bedside table, and Reed reached in, pulling up a small device. The main portion of the device was a little larger than Reed's palm in his normal size. It had a thin, barely an inch wide, and had three bits coming out of it. One was at the top forward corner of the device and was curved, tapering to a thin scoop-like top. Halfway along the main body's top was a small switch of some kind. At the front of the device, or at least pointing away from reed's wrist, was the third bit. It looked like a tiny joystick almost.

Reed put the device on the top of the table and all for the Fantastic Four looked at it, then up at Harry, their faces all showing apprehension, a whole lot of fear. All four of them all too easily remembered the adventure with Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Harry conjured chairs for them all bar Susan, who moved over to her ergonomic chair while Harry kept staring at the device, bringing one hand up to his eyes to create the Mage Sight spell on his eyes as Ororo began to do the same. "By the way, you never mentioned what happened to the Silver Surfer."

"I noticed that too," Ororo said. "You said you had convinced him to aid you but…"

Reed winced. Galactus was quite cruel to the Silver Surfer. He realized that the Silver Surfer loved two things, one, traveling the space lanes, and two, interacting with people. Interacting with people was something new, which he had developed thanks to…" Reed looked over at Ben.

"Thanks to Alicia," Ben said some supplying the word easily. He and Alicia had broken up amicably after all. Even so, he did gloss over his own reaction not the events at the time, not wanting to admit he'd been furiously jealous of the attention the Silver Surfer paid Alicia, or how she didn't seem to understand why he and the Surfer were fighting. "They met and talked, and she somehow got through the silver-skinned ass."

"To repay his betrayal, Galactus used some kind of device to change the energy he had given the Silver Surfer to change him into his herald. Now the Silver Surfer can't come close to any spatial body that is larger than himself, without the energy he gives off at a constant basis causing a chain reaction in the atoms of that spatial body, akin to simply creating a vast super-nuclear explosion."

"Ouch. That is cruel. It makes the punishment fit the crime, but it is still quite cruel."

Leaning over the device, Harry examined it with his Mage Sight which indeed glowed to his sight, bright and pulsing with energy, a LOT of energy. "Well, it is magical. Very much so. And it works on… I want to say God tier magic too." Gingerly Harry raised his hands, looking over at Ororo who nodded and began to create a magical sphere around them.

At the same time, Harry began to use a spell that could let him see the various levels of magic on the thing like separate layers in a cake. After second, the spell took, and the intrinsic magic of the thing appeared. With two fingers he spread them out like he would a hard light screen in order to see the smaller details of a runic script. Which worked very well here, because the magic within the device was based off runes too.

He said so aloud then went on. "It's in a language that I've never seen before, but even so, I can make out what at least two of the Runes do." He set it down, frowning. "This bit here," he said pointing to nothing as far as the four Fantastic Four members were concerned. "That looks as if it's something to do with the soul. Or at least the rune seems to bear some resemblance to the main soul rune from Norse, Egyptian and Latin runic languages. I've always found it fascinating that that particular rune is so alike one language to another."

"Strangely enough, it reminds me of something that lady Gaia showed me when I was learning her magics," Ororo murmured back, still staring at the revealed array. "That bit there…" she pointed to one dull brown glowing rune, that was I the center of a tiny spiderweb of black and intensely glowing blue runes. "It, is that an equivalency rune?"

"An 'if this, then that' kind of thing," Harry supplied for Reed. "Think of it as magical programming code. And… yeah, it is. Hmm... Not quite connected right off the bat to the soul portion, but it's there."

"So it is magical," Reed said, quietly breathing a sigh of relief. "That thing frustrated me for months, before…" He blushed, and Susan smirked. It wasn't a salacious smirk, and it wasn't anything large, but conveyed a certain sort of smugness that caused Ororo to break out into giggles and hold out her hand for a low five to the other woman.

The man looked amused at Reed's expense before Harry shook his head staring down at the device. "Yes well, setting that aside it is most decidedly magical. In fact, I think it's the most magical device I've ever seen." Fuck me if the thing doesn't seem to contain more power than all of the crystals we've found from Cytorrak's pantheon. It could even be as powerful as that crystal I drained from the shapeshifters. I could drain it, but it would certainly not only push me across the line into divinity it would probably toss me over that line with all the power of a trebuchet. There would no coming back, I couldn't, I don't know if I could even dispel the magic fast enough.

Harry frowned, shaking his head. "I don't think I'm even going to take this along," he said abruptly, gesturing to the device "From what we can tell this thing works on souls and equivalency. What it is equivalent to, what that could possibly mean, I have no idea. I don't doubt this device will destroy its target, but the cost... I just don't know. It could be life force. In which case we could kill Galactus and possibly denude entire solar systems of life at the same time. Including all of us. I just can't tell."

"We should examine the magic of it in bits and pieces to figure it out but I think Reed, that we will have to be very careful, lest we run into the same trouble you had: unable to test to see what it can do for fear of the very same thing," Harry muttered.

"Let us copy the images onto paper, and then you can lock it away once more," Ororo ordered. To say she was leery of the device was putting it mildly. The two magic users got to work on that, copying each rune onto a single paper, vowing to ask Hela and Gaia about them later. Hela hadn't come with them, busy with her own duties as Goddess of Niflheim, but perhaps the two goddesses could at least give them a starting point.

When they were done, Harry turned to Reed. "Well, with that avenue of exploration shut down for now, what else have you thought up to deal with Galactus?"

It would turn out later that Gaia and Hela could not help when it came to the magic in the Ultimate Nullifier. Hela didn't recognize any more than Harry and Ororo had already. She only said the whole thing was "Touched with my Lady Death's power, not blood magic but sacrifice, willing and unwilling. I cannot tell more about the actual enchantment then that."

Gaia was even less helpful. The instant she saw the various runes laid out randomly in the runic testing room in Camelot, she got into a shouting match with Harry, telling him he needed to destroy them without telling him why. Gaia clammed up about what they did or could ever do, going so far as to disappear, ignoring Ororo's calls for the next three days.

However, that didn't mean that work on preparing for this mission stopped. Far from it in fact.

Later that same day, Harry convened a meeting between his runic experts: Hela, Kitty, Ororo, and Dr. Druid. He'd asked if Dr. strange wanted to be involved but when the project was explained Strange had negated the idea, saying "I have no special knowledge of runes as you use them, nor enchantments that can do what you wish. There could be in enchantment though, that could be twisted to this purpose, or rather turned on its head."

Strange smiled a wintry little smile. "Most of the time individuals are looking to become gods, not remain human after obtaining that level of power. Still, I will search for that. And as for your request… yes, Harry, I will accompany you on this mission against the World Eater. If nothing else, it will be fascinating to see you go all out in terms of power rather than relying simply on your versatility."

Harry had left Steve to it, knowing also there was the simple fact that Steve just wasn't much of a people person. Dealing with a live-in girlfriend and apprentice was pushing it already.

After gathering his magic fellows, Harry smiled as Kitty plopped into the sofa next to Ororo, leaning her head up against the other woman's shoulder for a moment, as Ororo chuckled, and hugged the girl. Harry raised an eyebrow, and she shook her head, before gently pushing Kitty to the floor so that Harry could slip sidle into the sofa next to her instead.

"Oh, I see how it is," Kitty huffed, but there was laughter in her eyes as she sat up, leaning against the front of the sofa between the two lovers as she peered up at Harry expectantly. "What have you got for us today Teach?"

Harry smiled at her irrepressible manner, and then looked over at Hela as she entered. Hela sat across from him in a chair next to Dr. Druid and he began. He explained his meeting with Gaia, something that Ororo and Hela of course already knew about, first-hand for the one secondhand for the other. But it was a tail that Kitty and Dr. Druid hadn't yet been told.

"So I have come to the conclusion that there needs to be some kind of, of way to shift myself from simply a human being which I am now, to the level I need to become in order to get stronger. Dr. strange is looking into enchantment, long-term spellcraft that could possibly funnel the magic into a certain 'shape' which would let me continue to imbue my body and reserves with power but not irrevocably shift my soul or mind into the that of a new magical God. But I'm wondering if there's some kind of runic array we could create, that could do the same thing. That could aid in the shift from human, to Titan without me losing any ability with the actual magic."

"…That's a tall order Teach. Um, are you thinking that we'll be able to do this by the time you want to leave to face off against Galactus?" Kitty asked hesitantly, wondering if her runes teacher and boss had gone crazy.

"No," Harry said with a sigh. "No, I know that we don't have enough time for that unless… well. There's the time chamber, and we might be using it for another project soon enough. "But I wanted this started even before we learned of Galactus. I think, given what we've learned, that with the team we can put in the field and all the preparations Reed has been making just in case Galactus appeared again, we can face him. But, who's to say that he'll be the strongest enemy we'll face? Who's to say that there won't be a time when we'll need that power."

"The Mad Titan is still out there, still alive," Hela said shaking her head. "And still much enamored with My lady, Death."

"What?" Dr. Druid asked. He was a reticent, somewhat standoffish man at the best of times, but he spoke up now, puzzled. "Are you implying that he is a mass murderer? That would seem redundant to me."

Hela's green-painted lips twisted under her mask, and Dr. Druid had to look away with a faint blush. One of the reasons why he was even more reticent than normal around Hela, was the fact that he found her immensely attractive, and in no way wanted to imply anything in that direction through word or deed. "I mean that he is literally enamored with death. My Mistress told me, in her own fashion, that he has tried to woo her in the past."

"I don't suppose you could ask her for any more hints then Gaia gave?" Kitty asked. She was uncertain about the actual relationship between Death (and wasn't that a scary concept, Death being a person) and Hela. But surely if Hela was close to the lady in question then it could be possible.

That uncertainty was why Hela didn't bite her head off. "No, I cannot. Death might be as you would term it, all-powerful and all-knowing, but she cannot act on her own without doing so in payment for some task, done un-looked for. To do so would break the great rules that guide all things. Indeed, even the Phoenix Force is limited to how it can act if to a far lesser extent due to its ability to choose Avatars."

"Makes sense," Harry said with a grim nod. "And I wouldn't want the answer to be simple anyway." He looked over at Ororo. "I got the distinct impression that Gaia basically challenged us to find a means through this little trial on our own."

"That was my impression looking back on it. It was subtle, but she gave us just enough cheese for us to try to get out of the trap as it were."

Hela frowned, cocking her head. "Are you sure?"

Harry shrugged, waving one hand. "I'll show you the actual memory of the meeting between us, I think she let the whole mad Titan thing fall very deliberately but I'll treasure your opinion. For now, let's see what we can figure out."

While Hela was surprising herself by blushing at the idea of her opinion being treasured, Kitty conjured up a piece of paper with nary a blink, setting it down on the ground, as she began to write out ideas. "To my mind, we need to examine four different areas here. First, we need a power source. That Crystal we still have, is it still powered?"

When Harry nodded she checked that topic off. "We also need to do some experiments," she intoned linking that to the next word. "From there, I think the idea would be to create physical and energy siphons so that when you next come close to that line, the power you're taking in won't go right to your soul but your physical form first instead of your body being effected only by blowback or whatever the term should be."

"I disagree," Dr. Druid said instantly. "We need to work on the mental aspect. In terms of protection, siphoning off power from his magical reserve right away is important but directly in protecting the mind and emotions from being changed."

"That seems to be more an enchantment than something we could create a runic array to do," Hela said instantly.

Ororo shook her head. "No. Recall that Harry created this necklace for me," she explained, touching the device. She had never, not one day since Harry had given it to her, taken it off. She touched it now, her fingers running through it as she looked at her lover, her husband in all but law with affection in her eyes. "Something like this, only reversed, a defense against anything trying to change him on the emotional level rather than connecting to something on that same level."

Harry nodded. "That was my thinking too, but I also agree with Kitty, something that can siphon the energy I take in, from directly entering my soul to instead empowering my body is a must."

Kitty switched up her list. She'd had the mental thing as the fourth, but really all of them were just as important as one another so the numbers given were not really important. "Are we talking runes inscribed into your body? I know you did that with the flight array, but wouldn't this interfere with that?"

"I may have to actually move that array entirely if we do this, but considering that Hela can fly, if not as gracefully as Ororo," he teased winking at the Asgardian goddess, "I don't see that big a deal there."

"Loathe as I am to admit it, but our Seidr Man is right," Hela said, scowling and wrinkling her nose at Harry's mention of the fact that she wasn't as graceful a flyer as the other woman. "And I would've thought you would have learned by this point Harry Potter that comparing one woman to another is never a smart idea."

Harry laughed, and his eyes practically smoldered as he kissed Ororo's check while still gazing with smoldering eyes at Hela. "When comparing diamonds to rubies my dear, do either truly suffer in the comparison?"

"Smooth," Kitty laughed clapping her hands as both women blushed, and the discussion continued.

By the time dinner rolled around, all four of them were certain of what they had to do, what the enchantment portion of it had to do, and how long it would take. How long it would take would be of a very, very damn long time, but it was doable, at least on the surface. Experiments were going to be tough to do, but even so, knowing it was doable was half the battle. And later on, Hela agreed that lady Gaia had indeed dropped that Mad Titan comment, very, very deliberately.

However, Kitty's initial idea of how long this would take was very much born out. They had barely an outline of what would be needed, let alone a solid plan or the start of the runic arrays. And there was no way in hell that they would be able to do this by the time Harry and the others left, not even in the time chambers. There was simply too much design work to be done before getting to the testing phase, let alone creating a final product Harry would be willing to bet his humanity on. They would have to rely on the rest of their preparations to deal with Galactus.

Later that evening Harry and Hela had a much less fun meeting with the lawyers and lawmakers Harry had ordered to create the laws and regulations for his new country. Even though they had finally gotten it into their heads the fact that magic not only existed but basically did away with the need to have defense lawyers and so forth to a very large degree, they still hadn't quite grasped the idea that this was going to be in Empire.

Yes, there would be elections. Yes, many of those elections would retain high office. But Harry wanted to retain his position as Emperor of course and wasn't willing to let them make the budding Empire into a constitutional monarchy. Those would limit his ability to get things done too much. And Harry's refusal to budge on this point was a major issue for the lawyers for various reasons. Still, they were in his employ and eventually bowed to the inevitable instead of making Harry fire the whole lot of them.

He also had to once more walk them through the various ways magic could make their lives easier and then inform them that no, one law would not fit all. Safety laws, gun laws, and other such laws would need to be different from one colony to another. Fortress Mars had stringent laws on personal weapons. The Savage Land only cared about if the individual using them was the one who bought it and could do so well. Housing laws, land ownership, and business grants were another issue, but Harry, with the help of Emma and Hela worked through it all until the lawyers were once more back on track.

"Although, it would really be a help at this point if you could finally choose a name for this Empire you're building," one man mused, recovering some of his humor from the verbal beatdown Harry had to do in order to make the lawyers understand where their limits lay.

The next day, Harry was back to work on preparing for the mission against Galactus. This first came in the form of another meeting, this time in the X-mansion.

"Hello Forge," Harry said to the Native American man who walked through the doorway to the Xavier mansion, holding out his hand to the man. "You do prefer to go by that name right?"

"That's right," the other man replied, smiling thinly at Harry. "I understand I have you to thank for getting me out of that agreement with the Beltway bandit company that I was working for? You'll note even now I am not telling you its name." He smiled, showing quite a lot of teeth. "It was amazing how they began to pull their hair out though a few months ago. We were ordered to basically tried to figure out a way to get into space without you knowing about it, and every time I told them it couldn't be done or asked them why the hair-pulling was multiplied tenfold. It honestly became a farce near the end, when the scanning ability of your AI somehow leaked to us."

Harry had allowed that information to leak to the American government in the hopes that it would stop programs like what Forge had been working for. He hadn't considered though that most of those programs would be occurring in the civilian sector rather than government-run laboratories. So it had taken a while for it to filter down to Forge and the people who were holding him in contract hell. "Well, you're free now to work with us if you want, and I take your very presence here to indicate you do?"

"That's correct." The other man's smile morphed from a toothy one to a much more honest smile as Harry began to lead him not to sit back down with Charles who had been waiting for Harry but to an open area behind the sofa. "I want to work on spaceships, even warships at this point. I have so many ideas I've been working on, but none of them would've worked because we couldn't get out of the gravity well without a lot more resources then they were willing to allocate to me. I hope you don't expect miracles on shoestring budgets."

The fact that Forge actually had performed miracles on that budget wasn't said. It might be true that the last few projects that Forge had been working on for the company who had somehow garnered his services had never gotten off the ground, but he did perform miracles in various ways. A series of underwater laboratories, fully designed in automated, with all the bells and whistles anyone could ever want both defensively, and structurally. An entire infrastructure for several Native American reservations, which Harry felt was the way Forge had actually been convinced to work with that company in the first place. How that company had such connections to the reservations was still a minor mystery to Harry, wonder that the Native Americans already working for Harry had no idea of either. But they did, and Forge had done tremendous work for them.

Of course, it wasn't his design ability that Harry was interested in at the moment. That would come later. No, Harry needed speed right now, and for that, Forge's technopathy would be a godsend.

In answer to Forge's question Harry simply laughed. "Trust me, the budget is never going to be an issue. Resources and manpower might be, but not for the immediate future. Now, a first question: do you have motion sickness?"

"Wait, what?" Forge asked before Harry gripped his wrist. The next second, the world around them disappeared, replaced by a long hall with a series of rock arches. That was about all Forge could see before he began to collapse to his knees.

Harry caught him, and held him still for a moment, letting Forge get over his initial reaction to the teleportation. "Sorry, being teleported takes people like that sometimes."

"Next time, warned me," forge growled trying to pull away from Harry only to find that his feet were not quite obeying him yet.

"That wouldn't work, if you tense your stomach, or try to prepare yourself mentally, it actually makes it worse we've found," Harry replied with a sigh. "But look at it this way, using the runic doorways is a lot simpler. With them, you simply stepped from one place to another."

He didn't say it aloud but going through teleportation like that was actually more of a rite of passage than any actually necessary thing at this point. There was a runic doorway in the X-mansion after all. But everyone had to go through teleportation at least once, in Harry's opinion. And at least I use the port keys instead of Apparating him.

Forge still grumbled, but after a few seconds got his feet under him.

Harry led the way through the doors, to the one marked Fortress Mars, and then activated it, by tapping the correct rune, the view of several other arches disappeared, to be replaced by a large receiving area on the other side, complete with chairs and tables. There were a few people there already, but only one of whom Forge recognized. Reed Richards stretched out on one chair, and when that man stretched, he put his whole body into it. The others were two women, one a little closer to middle-aged than the other with blonde hair to the younger woman's green, talking quietly to one another a bit away from Mr. Fantastic.

They all looked up when the door activated, and Harry gestured forge through. Hesitatingly a moment, the mustachioed man stepped forward through the curtain of magical energies out the other side. He didn't even stumble as he came through and turned, staring at the thing for a moment on the other side until Harry coughed, and he hastily moved out of the way. Harry then came through afterward and looked around quizzically. "Kitty?"

"Wait a sec I'm here!" Came a voice, and Harry turned to see Kitty running pell-mell through the runic archway behind him. He caught her as she stumbled, intercepting her before she could slam into both himself and Forge. "Sorry," she said breathlessly, "lunch with the parents went long." She turned, waving hello to Forge, then skipped over to Carol and Lorna, hugging both of them in welcome. She hadn't seen both women for a few days, both Lorna and Carol for their own reasons preferring to be in space most the time.

Not to Harry's surprise, both older women returned the younger girl's hug, smiling happily at seeing her. Kitty was basically everyone's friend at this point, although she was still closer to Ororo than anyone else. And amusingly enough, it wasn't just Kitty, but her parents seemed to have the same kind of friendly atmosphere to them that just made everyone want to be around them. Her parents had quickly become the den parents for the entire school, despite the school growing tremendously in size. It was always heartwarming to see kids who had lost their parents or had been kicked out of their original families due to the rotations opening up to the two non-powered Prydes.

By this point, Forge had turned his attention to the far door, and Reed was talking to the man quietly, explaining where they were, and about Fortress Mars in a very broad manner. Read to didn't realize what he'd been asked to participate in here, but he would learn soon enough. Harry moved over to the girls, offering Kitty a hand. "Shall we?" The time chamber was as much Kitty's baby anyone's, after all.

Kitty grinned, and linked arms with Harry, leading the way through the fortress. As they once Harry fielded a lot of questions from Forge of course, which he answered, even as base personnel came by going moving around the base on their own missions, stopping to salute him when they saw him. Harry didn't bother to reply to them, simply nodding his head, getting weary her and weary air with every salute. He was not a fan of such punctilio at the best of times, and Harry knew that Steve and Carol had convinced the base personnel to do this to him occasionally just to get under his skin.

Eventually, the group was within the environs of the time chamber. There, Harry conjured up a few chairs and a table for them in the corner, while agreed and Forge were gaping at the giant robot construction facility. It had grown over time as Lorna, Wanda, and the droids themselves worked on it, five percent of the continuing output of the facility on continual expansion. It was coming to a point where Harry would have to shut it down in order to go around and reinforce the exterior in order to stop it from caving in.

When everyone was seated, Harry spoke. "All right, as you can see we are in the industrial heart of the ongoing efforts to create a true space-based industry. That work is going to be put on hold however, for what all of you and myself will be working on. Before we begin, realize that we are in a time chamber. Time in this room goes much slower than in the rest of the galaxy around us. Because of that, a day outside equals around a week in here. Not exactly, but close."

Forge made to speak up, but Reed stopped him. He shook his head at his fellow scientist, and forge boggle, before raising his hands as if to say all right fine, 'I won't try to disprove the madman statement'. He also noticed that both Lorna Carol and Kitty all looked as if they'd heard this before.

Instead, all three of them were worried about what else Harry had said. "What do you mean that work is going to stop? What project are you going to have us working on, Boss?" Lorna asked.

"I mean that all of the droids that were scheduled to finish construction and chamber in the next five days will instead be remaining within the chamber. Because what we are going to be doing, is designing the ship. The first spaceship designed by humanity to go beyond our star system. And you two," Harry went on, looking pointedly at Forge and Reed, "will be doing much of the design work. However, not all of it. This ship is going to incorporate both technology and magic. Technology for the engines, internal power, the scanners. The weapons. Magic for defense, and for various other things." He smirked suddenly. "Such as space expansion charms, lots of them."

For that first day and a half, work was quite slow on the actual design phase of the ship, with Harry and Kitty fielding a lot of questions from Forge, as Lorna and Carol and Reed got time to work. Read already had a few designs for various systems that he would like to see placed on the ship but had not gone full hog and begun to design a capital ship. Then again, the ship Harry wanted them to create wasn't honestly a capital ship. It was more a courier vessel, fast, agile, with little in the way of weapons. Instead, it would be the people aboard who would be the weapons.

Three days in that time chamber had been enough for Forge to fully understand what Harry had meant when he said that magic would be able to see to the defense and to see examples of the space expansion charms. With that, the technopathy-using mutant got to work alongside Mr. Fantastic. The two of them had several arguments, while Harry and Kitty, with the occasional help of Ororo stopping by for what was for her every other meal, and was for them something different, got to work on creating the giant teleportation ring. After all, once the ship was built they'd have to get it out of the cavernous space.

From there, Kitty and Harry began to work on what would become the outer shell of the ship. Stone, heavy, massive slabs of granite, which wouldn't have looked out of place sticking out of a mountain face on earth. These were then molded together via magic, before being allowed to rest in their new formations. With that done, the two of them went to work on putting the runes on the interior, where those slabs would connect to the metal framework already being built to one side.

In this, Forge proved exactly why Harry had wanted the Technopathy mutant working for him. He was able to use his abilities to manipulate electronics and metalwork to speed up the work on the ship to an insane degree. Because of Forge and the initial designs of the engines from Reed and Harry's magic, after what amounted to only three weeks of in chamber time - long enough for Lorna Kitty Carol and the others to be going a little stir crazy and for everyone but Harry to feel as if their minds were being strained or scratched from the inside.

The ship at first wasn't actually all that much to look at. On the outside, it was about the size of a World War II destroyer, although the shape was nothing like one. It was a wide, tapered spear-point with the tip of the spear-point spreading out further to look almost like fangs. Those were the only two weapons the ship had, powerful Maser cannons much like the secondary weapons on Fortress Mars, or like the primary weapons on a Doom Bringer or World Breaker. Whatever they hit would know that it had been smacked, but they were almost secondary.

At the back of the ship were two engine pods, completely separate engines. Both of them were the same type, hyperspace engines, but whereas a normal hyperspace engine would need a bit of run-up time to power itself back into hyperspace, this way, the ship could smoothly switch from one to another, speeding up its travel time through hyperspace immensely. Those hyperspace engines were also far more efficient fuel wise than any of the Kree designs they'd seen, although not quite up to the standard the Shi'ar ship had. Yet given the distance they would have to travel it would eat refined hydrogen fuel like no one's business.

But that like in other areas, was where magic came in. Because the inside of that ship was a good deal larger than the outside. A good deal. As in every single compartment within that ship had been magically enlarged. Not only was the tanks for the ship larger on the inside than they were on the outside, but everyone going on this mission would have their own room, or thereabouts anyway, there was a huge area for exercising. A large cafeteria, complete with a massive storage facility of its own, scanners that would not have been out of place on a capital ship, and many other things.

Defensively too, the ship had been magically enhanced to an incredible degree. The outer stone of the ship had runic script etched into it in thousands of different places, toughening the outer shell of the ship to an incredible degree. On the inside, those runic arrays could be further enhanced by Harry, via a central command center, where he could pour his own magic into them. There were a few other surprises within as well, things that even for Harry were kind of experimental on the magical side of things, but he and Kitty, and Hedwig, who's teleportation was a part of it, believed that they would work. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to see if they worked on this mission, but if they did they need a few surprises, they were there.

In other words, while the ship didn't have the offensive punch to really get into any fights, it had both the speed and the durability to get away from anything. It had the capacity to bring the troops to the Shi'ar Empire in relative comfort, and then get them home again. Quickly. That was all that Harry cared about. Forge's histrionics on how inefficient it was in several ways failed to get through to his happiness at finally being able to leave the dilation chamber behind.

Not that he was alone in that. The three girls, all were ecstatic to finally be leak able to leave, despite the fact that Harry had basically created a very decent little living quarters for them right there in the chamber. Read too was anxious to leave. Being in a time chamber like this was just hard on the psyche of those involved, even magic users, if to a lesser extent. Indeed the only one who wasn't was Forge and that was because his perfectionist side was pushing out the 'itching in the brain' feeling. But he was dragged along by the others into the ship, which then flew through the teleportation ring, appearing out of the teleportation ring in orbit over Earth.

Luckily Harry had called ahead, so Pinoptes did not have the technological equivalent of a heart attack at their sudden appearance. A few ravens on maneuvers nearby hadn't gotten the memo and literally flinched away from the ship for a few seconds before their IFF signature came through. "And with that gentlemen, ladies I think that we can call the first ship of humanity a success. "Unless of course, you two think we should test out the hyperspace engines?"

As the three women glared at them, read hastily shook his head and forge rolled his eyes. "No, they will work as advertised no fear."

With that done, Harry docked with High Note and officially told his five fellow designers that they were now on a two-day vacation. Forge would report to Carol and Fortress Mars at the end of those two days to start working for them in whatever capacity he and Carol thought best. Kitty, Harry knew was going to make a beeline for her parents down Camelot. Lorna would probably find Steve or perhaps Polaris, one of the two. Carol was no doubt going to find the nearest wine bottle, and curl up somewhere with a romance book, her preferred method of relaxation.

Harry went in search of his ladies. And during the search, he would quickly become shocked at what he found. Because he and his group were to the only ones who had been busy during the 4 ½ days real-time Harry spent in the time chamber…

OOOOOOO

With Harry busy in the time chamber, that left Hela, Emma, and Ororo to keep things moving elsewhere.

Outside of her educational reforms/construction of said, Ororo acted as spokesman for the EDF and for Harry's various businesses in conjunction with Mary Jane. The two of them worked closely together to combat and then utterly eviscerate the negative news that the Daily Bugle and a few other news agencies attempted to put out, painting the EDF is the aggressor, or attempting to poke holes at the very idea that there were aliens out there.

It was an incredibly easy task it had to be admitted. Despite what people like Jameson might have thought, the public was not stupid, and everyone knew it by this point that there were aliens out there and they hadn't yet met a friendly one. Or at least, not as a race just yet.

Emma handled the business side of things, although, by this point, Magical Minds and its subsidiaries ran like clockwork. She didn't have to do anything for them, whereas she did still have to be hands-on for her own businesses. Given the fact that she was still dealing with a few managerial level people who had been working for her father before her, that was going to go on for a little while yet. She also oversaw a few more construction teams heading into the Savage land to help build up the infrastructure there.

The highlight of this was when Emma and Hela helped open up the first true paved road from the Citadel into the lands of the Savage land primitives with She-ra and Logan. Wolverine had officially joined her tribe at this point along with his daughter, who he was oddly enough, getting along quite well with now. And with her former partner too, although in her case, their relationship was not that of a father and daughter.

And even Hela was somewhat not only with her duties as goddess of Niflheim but with the military side of things and as she put it "continuing to stand over those foolish law-givers with a whip in hand to make certain that they are not making more work for everyone involved." Although as much as she complained about it, that aspect really wasn't taking up much for timing longer. Harry's personality and sheer charisma had done its work again in interacting with them. There was still a lot of annoyance on the part of the lawyers who came from America and Canada in that he had completely vetoed any laws that would limit his own powers outside of judicial actions, but they were getting over it.

This left Jean to her own devices and at times alone entirely. It wasn't deliberate, it was very much simply a product of everyone else being busy. But more often than not, Jean was on her own for at least the mornings and afternoons of the five days Harry spent in the time chamber. She could still feel their connection through that odd shift in time, but with his own time sped up so much, they couldn't actually communicate down it. It was still enough to keep her telepathic powers at bay, for which she was immensely thankful, but it wasn't exactly good to seek out comfort. At night Ororo and Emma were there and were both godsends, even Emma overcoming her dislike of the pregnant form to hug and generally cuddle with Jean.

But this wasn't enough. This wasn't enough for a very simple reason: once more, Harry the love of her life, Emma Ororo, and even Hela, all of whom she loved more dearly than she had ever and expected to love anyone, we're going into danger without her. She couldn't resent her pregnancy, not any longer. Indeed, she took a quiet joy most days, when she wasn't consumed by worry for her lovers. But this was a danger that was far beyond anything ever faced before. Harry might've downplayed it, but they really only had three weapons to use against someone on Galactus' level. Harry, Dr. strange, thanks to their magic, and Reed Richards's brain thanks to the amount of time that had passed since Galactus had attacked Earth.

Jean's thoughts turned on this point throughout those five days: the idea that they needed her now more than ever. Against any other enemy, and Jean knew that Hela's abilities and strengths could have made up for much of her own absence. Against someone on this level... the Asgardian goddess was immensely strong but not physically. Magically she was decent enough, but even she admitted she wasn't as strong magically as Strange or Harry.

But for all her hormonal imbalance due to her pregnancy, she was very much someone who when faced with a problem, got to grips with it instead of simply whined about it. As such, she decided to reach out to the Phoenix. She didn't honestly know if the creature could help, but she thought it might. If not to somehow help protect herself, then to maybe allow Jean to pass off some of her powers to one of the others? The how of the Phoenix helping was sort of modeled in her mind, the fact was, that Jean hadn't actually talked to the Pheonix Force since that one time after finding out she was pregnant. She could feel its presence occasionally in her mind but hadn't reached out to turn.

She did so now. On the third day of Harry's being inside the time chamber, Jean ordered Pinoptes to remove the construction droids from the latest hollowed out asteroid, which had been tugged into Earth's orbit. There she floated in the center of the opened area, taking up a vague lotus position, or as much as her body could form at the moment, as she closed her eyes, her powers flaring intermittently out around her, breathing in slowly and easily through the helmet that she was wearing. With her self-controls so badly degraded, Jean wasn't willing to take any chances that her powers would cut out and she would suddenly find herself without air.

How long she meditated, concentrating on creating a single bit of flame in front of her, calling out to the Phoenix Force, she didn't know. At first, she couldn't really detect any progress, but she felt the meditation calming her. Over time her worries and annoyances and the various pains of her body slowly faded away, until she was simply a floating piece of soul staring into the flame. Then as she still meditated the flame rose up and consumed her.

The crackling of the flames was much louder suddenly, and Jean opened her eyes. Or rather felt she opened her eyes. When she did, Jean knew that she was no longer in her actual physical body, rather her mental projection was somewhere else. It was rather easy to do into action to make considering everything around her was FIRE.

This wasn't like any kind of normal fire, nor was it like that of a sun. All the colors of a rainbow, everywhere at once. Jean knew instinctively that here, that was very far indeed, but it would still not be far enough to see the end of this plane of flame. And she also knew that every flame she saw represented more than just a bit of an ever-living fire. A soul, a life, a world, a star system, the death of them, the life of them, the rebirth. Ever renewing, ever-changing, ever-shifting with the times changing from one to another, but always there. Always growing. Each of the various pieces of varicolored flame represented all of that.

it was glorious. It was terrifying. It was awe-inspiring and so vast and larger than she was that a part of Jean wanted to curl up and just try to block out the image of how small she really was in the great scheme of things. But she didn't. The soul of Jean when you got right down to it was not one that would be cowed like that. So she simply took in the view, her jade green eyes flashing with the light.

"I see you are over your snit now?" She heard before soft, velvet wings enveloped her from behind. Jean turned and found herself face to face with the Phoenix Force once more. Only this time, the Phoenix Force had decided not to appear as a giant fiery bird. Instead, she looked like a Swan made an, or perhaps a harpy, Jean wasn't as well read on fantasy monsters as she wasn't science-fiction. She had wings instead of arms, and claws instead of legs, but her face and body were that of a woman, although of course everything was still made of flame.

"I suppose I am," Jean murmured, turning her eyes down to her stomach and patting it gently. "I don't…" she paused. "I am looking forward now to becoming a mother, but the whole birth process…"

"You're not the first woman in existence to bemoan that particular fact. Nor will you be the last," the harpy or swan woman replied, stepping around Jean so that they were facing one another. Her face and eyes were lit up with the latest seeing Jean, and Jean couldn't stop a smile appearing on her own face and the two of them simply looked at one another, before the Phoenix shook her head. "But you are not here just to get in touch with me as it were. Even you Jean Grey would not willingly try to force your soul into a higher plane of existence just to apologize to me for your intemperate comments."

Jean raised an eyebrow, and the Phoenix laughed. "If it would even occur to you to do so in the first place," she added gaily. "Oh Jean, do you have any concept of how few people, even among my past Avatars, would try to take me to task? Would even talk back to me? Still, say your piece. I find myself curious as to why you are here."

Realizing this was her cue, Jean quickly outlined what was going on, starting from the appearance of the new aliens in their system, then Gladiator, before going on to describe why they had come, and Harry's decision to help the Shi'ar against Galactus. She saw the Phoenix Force twitch at that name, but that was nothing in comparison to her reaction to the idea of Harry draining the Ultimate Nullifier. For the first time in their association, Jean could almost detect shock and fear on the Phoenix Force's face, and then relief when she heard that Harry had decided not to drain the device.

She was tempted to call the Phoenix Force out on it, but of course, the Phoenix sensed her thoughts and cut them off with a shake of her head. "No, I will not answer any questions about that device, where it came from or anything similar. I will not, because I cannot. Do you understand?"

Jean paused, then slowly nodded. She knew that the Phoenix Force, like Death, was a force of the galaxy. A sentient force, but still a part of the galaxy and a necessary part of how it ran, and as such there were rules that she had to follow had to obey in order for everything to keep running smoothly.

Before she could speak the Phoenix Force stepped backward, a smile on her face now. "Still, it is good to know that Harry realized the dangers and that, much like when he was faced with ascending to godhood, which many of us who dwell above and beyond the normal plane of existence have felt, his basic humanity held him back. Praise be. The last thing the universe needs is another God of magic especially one without a pre-existing portfolio."

"So you are here to request some means with which to help Harry and your other lovers on this dangerous mission," the Phoenix said going on quickly before Jean could question that comment. "Normally, I would be constrained by the rules as to how much help I could be, beyond making you my avatar in the first place. After all, the reason why I have Avatars is to let them act in my stead if need be already. But in this, I believe there is a loophole, old business that you can help me to clear up."

Jean made an interrogative noise, and the Phoenix turned to the side, making no gesture or move that Jean could see. But suddenly there appeared a picture there, an image of a still life photograph. It showed a massive fist holding in its hand a sword of equally immense proportions. It looked something like a claymore, it's blade even wider than that, oddly reminding Jean of a sword she'd seen in an RPG game once.

"Eons ago, when the Shi'ar were just starting to spread out from their homeworld, I found an avatar among them, their second royal prince, a young man named Rook'shir." The Phoenix Force sighed. "That was my first and only time choosing a male avatar because it failed miserably. He went mad within a few months, and began to siphon off my power, to manipulate me." Again the Phoenix Force paused, looking at Jean. "You must understand, I don't choose my avatars to simply act in the real world on my behalf that is in fact only a secondary purpose given how few times I actually give them orders to act. I choose Avatars because as the embodiment of life and rebirth, I need to have a connection to the material plane, I need to know what it is to be alive, to have those emotions feelings, yearnings."

For some reason, when the Phoenix Force said the last word Jean blushed, twisting her head away as the Phoenix cackled. "Exactly! I need to feel those, so that I do not become an unfeeling force of destruction, forgetting the aspect of rebirth that is part of my very being." The Phoenix sobered abruptly, shaking her head. "But Rook'shir, his connection to me began to corrupt. He took pleasure and joy in pain, in death, and having my power in the first place. He was eventually overcome, but Rook'shir left behind this blade. Which he was able to imbue with much of his own fragment of my power before his death."

"It's still out there isn't it?" Jean asked as the penny dropped. "Among the Shi'ar?"

"Exactly. Worse, I have sensed its reactivation. The power of that fragment of my strength was locked within the blade, and then could not be unlocked for eons, but someone has not only picked it up but has figured out a way to activate that power. Not entirely, they're not able to use my power all the time, but even so, it is disturbing. I'm getting flashes of... call them dark desires. The need to destroy, a joy in taking life. It is distressing."

The image to one side enlarged, and Jean gasped. "That is, that's Galactus' Herald! The Shi'ar call him something the executioner I think."

"Indeed?" The Phoenix Force was surprised by this news, and very worried. another first and one that did not fill Jean with joy, to say the least. "I could tell that he was using my blades somewhere within the Empire, but to have them actually be connected to Galactus? That is disturbing, beyond disturbing. A being with both my own power and that of Galactus running through think? Such a being is a danger to all life, perhaps in the long run even more so than Galactus. For all of his destructive properties, Galactus has never enjoyed causing pain, and he routinely allows his Herald to lead him away from civilized worlds or to even not find worlds for long stretches of time. But this Executioner, he enjoys what he does and with my power as well as Galactus he will be all too good at it."

"Okay, I understand why you would be able to figure out a loophole, that would let you help us more than you otherwise can, but how are you going to help us," Jean asked, frowning. "You just said you were not able to act in the material plane without an avatar so…"

"Ah, but I do have an avatar. You. And, this issue that is keeping you from acting in my stead in this, was also caused by me. Ergo I can also affect you and your body, and the two lives growing within you to a certain degree." With those words, the harpy suddenly disappeared, replaced by the original phoenix, its eyes flashing like twin novae.

Suddenly Jean gasped, then gasped again, as the Phoenix Force's power lashed out at her from every angle at once. The flame of the Phoenix Force within her burst like a damn suddenly, enveloping her entire person, and in Jean's mental projection does all almost, she could still retain her form but it was more ghostlike than solid now, and she watched in shock as the two smaller flames within her, which she knew represented her unborn children were slowly removed from the greater flame of her own body.

She could feel her body's sudden emptiness, and then her body reforming being reshaped back to how it was before her pregnancy, as her two twins appeared there, as they had looked in the last ultrasound. "I will keep these two here, both their souls and their bodies. Have no fear. They will remain separate, inviolate, protected in a pocket dimension that none but I can reach." The Phoenix Force had shifted instantly back to its harpy form and now her expression shifted to one of wry sadness. "I'm afraid however that you will experience quite a lot of pain when your mental projection as you put it returns to your body. A lot of pain. And the reverse will also be true when you have finished this task and I place them within you once more."

"I think I'd deal with that kind of pain with a cheerful grin on my face rather than going through this whole gestation thing," Jean quipped, as she felt her mental projection once more solidifying after the operation was accomplished. She held back a sudden tremor then and asked the question that she knew Harry would demand an answer to. "Will this affect the babies?"

"No. The Phoenix Force replied easily. I can see your concerns, and with magic, Harry's concerns are fully justified. Using magic on the body of a pregnant woman, especially as far along as you are, would've been dangerous. Magic has odd effects on unformed minds and bodies. But you are my avatar and I am the power of death and rebirth. Babies like this are my purview in a way, or close enough. My power will not affect them unduly, never fear. Even if this is the first time I've tried this I knew it would succeed. Again, because you are my avatar, the first to ever become so pregnant during your time in such."

There was a fierce possessiveness and delight in the Phoenix Force's words and face as she gazed at Jean. And she realized suddenly the Phoenix Force had been enjoying her pregnancy even more than Jean had after getting over her initial annoyance with it.

"Yes," the Phoenix Force said, reading her mind easily here in her realm. "I am the force of death and rebirth, but you are the first of my avatars to ever give me the feeling of being part of birthing new life. Delight is too small a term. Amazing too docile hell. Fantastic comes closer but is still not enough."

The Phoenix Force laughed gaily, and Jean found herself grinning along with it until the Phoenix Force slowly sobered shaking her head. As she winced. Jean could see something in the distance change, some flames being snuffed out, and not replaced. "But my price is as I said to find that blade. Destroy it, I care not how. But it must be removed from your plane of existence. That is my price for this act, and I will read in place your children within you when you are done agreed?"

A part of Jean was tempted to ask if she could just keep them until it was time to give birth, but she knew it would work that way. No, this was for Jean's cross to bear even if she hadn't made a conscious choice to become a mother. The Phoenix Force wouldn't agree to it, and Jean knew it. "I agree," she said formally.

"Then go with my blessing my avatar," the Phoenix Force intoned before wincing visibly. "And remember what I said about your body being in pain please."

An instant later, the field of flames disappeared from around jeans mental avatar and she found herself back in her body, where she discovered that the Phoenix Force had not understated things at all. She screamed aloud in her helmet, before starting to grind her teeth instead as every bone and bit of her ached. It was as if she had gone through the entire pregnant process, and then several months of getting back into shape all the agony that would have entailed squashed into an instant a very painful instant.

Later, Jean would realize that she breathed in pain there in the center of the hollowed-out asteroids with none to hear her agony for about an hour before she could finally get out the words to ask Cory to pop her to High Note. The little house-elf appeared, stared at her in distress, and instantly whisked her into the master suite in High Note, where he plied her with both food, and pain-relieving potions while wildly asking what it happened, but Jean couldn't really answer for a time, too busy both eating to relieve the agony of suddenly all that energy being expended, and the pain medications.

Ororo Hela and Emma instantly heard about what was going on and canceled whatever they were doing to check in on her, becoming shocked at the changes, although Hela when everything was explained to her, once Jean could speak without mumbling her words, understood. "Deals like that always have a hidden caveat. Although in this case it wasn't hidden at all, the Phoenix Force actually told you what to expect, but it is still a price to be paid."

However, thanks to Ororo's healing spells, Jean was actually soon on her feet, gleefully putting her body through her paces again despite the ongoing pain of doing so. "After all, I won't have this for long, so I might as well enjoy it now."

By the time Harry and their new ship exited the time chamber Jean was completely healed and ready to go. This was the site Harry's saw when he arrived in High Note, Jean flying towards him down a corridor, were splendid in her Phoenix uniform, without any sight of her pregnancy. "Hey babe," she said with a laugh as she wrapped herself around him, feeling his arms first simply flopping there in stone just don't shock before going around him. "Guess what? It turns out that the Phoenix Force is a little more flexible than we ever thought she might be in what she can do to help me get through this pregnancy thing…"

"Don't get me wrong my love," he whispered lovingly as the two of them cuddled in bed that final night before they were due to leave. "I thought you were gorgeous even when you are pregnant, but I know it wore on you quite a bit."

"I know Harry, and I don't well I've been saying this a lot lately, but I don't regret being pregnant longer. But I do regret the limitations put on me. This way at least, for this one mission, those limitations are gone. And of course, she said rolling on top of him, her legs on either side of Harry feeling his hardened length against her there are other considerations too aren't there?"

Harry laughed, pulling her into a kiss as he murmured down there telepathic link "I love you, Jean."

She replied in like kind, and the night passed as it should between lovers.

However, with Jean once more able to take part in missions, a few changes were made to the team. Emma decided to stay behind. She would join the initial triumvirate, of Sage Carol and Steve, and keeping everything running in the solar system. Anything she could do telepathically Jean could do, even if she was a little rusty, and of them all, only Hela had a better grasp of all of the different projects and goings-on. Well, her and Sage, but Sage was already part of the triumvirate, which now became a Rule of Four.

Jean also convinced Harry to bring along Betsy, who she felt with her own limited to telepath he and telekinetic powers, could be useful against the Shi'ar. Hela agreed with this, and every then decided to expand that aspect of the mission. He would bring along Morph and Natasha, who had recently agreed to work with them thanks to Steve and Dum Dum's recommendations, in order to handle any espionage activities they needed to handle against the Shi'ar. He did not decide to bring along mystique, as she was still in grieving for her old friend Irene. And Harry had no wish to disturb her.

Despite all these changes, the ship, christened the Long Voyager, was fully stocked prepared for its journey on time. After a final round of farewells, the team boarded the new ship, ready as they could be to face their greatest test yet.

End Chapter

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My thoughts and prayers go out to first responders, health caregivers and everyone else who are on the front line of this COVID crud going on. Hope you enjoyed this chapter despite it not being nearly as polished as I would have liked, and as always please leave a review.