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.

21. That's a Wrap Ladies and Gentlemen!

I don't own Harry Potter or marvel. I'm merely using the main character from one, and trying to bloody organize his inclusion into the other. Would it have killed the various Marvel authors to figure out some way to have their disparate stories not screw one another up?

One guest reviewer, ELC, whose review I deleted along with four asking me to put Sue Storm in the pairing (no, Harry does not condone cheating) was irritated that I had Ororo have a magical core, so irritated he has decided to no longer read this story. I will reiterate, that this is canon fact – Ororo did have magical potential, and she did come from a line of sorceress queens before her mother fell in love and decided to leave that life behind to move to the Bronx 0_o;.

There was another reviewer who pointed out a lot of mistakes in the chapter. Since this was all his review Had, I went back and corrected them, then removed the review, so thank you for that.

I would like to thank Kathryn518 for her work as a beta and for pointing out a large problem in this chapter that I hadn't realized, and then corrected. Hall it the human side of things I suppose, since the problems were so varied that can cover it I guess.

However, again neither of us are as good as seeing smaller errors as jessolt, so I have no doubt that again there will be grammatical/word issues. He finished looking at the last chapter a few weeks ago, and i will be updating that chapter either today or tomorrow.

I would also like to thank Bayakugan789 for being my go to guy for combat/business related ideas, and Kathryn again for her help in the rivalry between Paige and Amara, which you will see on display in this chapter. I would also like to thank souvikkundu0017, who answered some questions I had about Hinduism and India. Not really important in this chapter, it will become much more so in the next.

A warning for those of you with a lot of Marvel knowledge. I have changed a lot of the background of Mojoverse, making it more realistic, rather than psychedelic, and something in the solid plain of existence rather than temporally or whatever it was disconnected from everything else. The Spineless Ones were not driven insane, their just lazy, egotistical assholes thanks to their high technology.

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Chapter 21 That's a Wrap, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Lance Alvers stared through the reinforced glass wall separating the girl that had been brought in by Agent Danvers. The machines that were now the only things keeping her alive beeped incessantly, yet couldn't break Lance out of his morbid thoughts.

That could've been me, if they had found me after I split from the Brotherhood. If Xavier hadn't somehow kept the high school as a no go zone, or if Potter hadn't taught me so much about thinking ahead, if Mystique hadn't shown me how to hide… and it was another mutant that did this, someone who, according to the reports, thinks like Magneto does, that mutants should be on top of the pile. But they're willing to do this to one of their followers… The world ain't as black and white as I liked ta think allthose months ago.

The young man snorted, but there was no humor in the sound. Lance had taken a long, hard look at the world, not just in America but beyond, and saw a lot of problems, far more than just the 'Mutant Question', though that was beginning to grab a lot of headlines. Still, I can't lie to myself anymore that we mutants are all on the side of the angels. Magneto's methods might've been questionable, but he wasn't willing to sacrifice one of his followers like this. Least, I don't think he would willingly.

"The docs say she might wake up eventually, but the damage to her chest means she'll never be able to live without that artificial pump. Her heart's gone, blown apart." Clint turned slightly to see Agent Danvers and Clint standing beside him, not having their approach. Clint cocked an eyebrow at Lance. "If you've got any idea who's behind this, you'd tell us right?"

Lance shrugged. "I told you all I knew. These guys dress the same as the ones we tangled with in Bayville, the ones who were hunting me. Maybe their recruitment team was busy somewhere else, because they sure as hell didn't try to go for the soft sell with me."

His eyes narrowed as he looked at Danvers. "Trust me, if I knew anything I thought could help us find whoever is behind this, I'd tell you. I want these bastards as much as you do."

Carol looked at him searchingly for a moment, then nodded, changing the subject slightly. "I think Potter and his crew let us take her too easily, I think they also knew who is behind it." That was just a gut feeling on her part, but Carol had learned to trust her gut on such things. "Any idea why they wouldn't share it with us?"

Scratching at his chin, which he had only recently begun to have to shave, Lance frowned in thought before answering. He still wasn't going to tell them anything he knew about Potters plans, very little really, or his powers, but a bit about how he thought wouldn't hurt, especially since Potter and SHIELD seemed to be on somewhat amicable terms right now.

"I think Potter's got a major problem with working with government types, he mentioned a time or two problems he had in that area in the past. It could be he doesn't trust you to deal with the problem like he thinks it should be dealt with, or it could be he just didn't want you to think he was pointing you at whoever is behind this, make you all do the legwork yourselves. Not certain, Potter's a deep one, so if he didn't come out and tell you his suspicions there was a reason for it."

Carol nodded thoughtfully. "Could be, and he could be right too. I just hope when Potter does move against whoever is behind these Hellions, that he doesn't make more enemies."

The two men shrugged their shoulders at that and, after a moment, Carol sighed faintly before leaving observation room. She had paperwork to do, she always had paperwork to do, one of many reasons why she was thinking of going to work for Mr. Potter when he moved into space as he said he would.

Clint and Lance followed her out silently, until they came to the room assigned to Hawkeye when he was on the helicarrier. When the door closed, Clint looked at the teen he had taken under his wing, one eyebrow raised. "Well, have you decided to sign up?"

Two weeks back he had offered to sponsor Avalanche to be a SHIELD agent. Lance could enter it despite being only sixteen thanks to his powers, a double standard true, but one with a solid reason behind it. Fury desperately wanted to get some mutant representation into SHIELD, but hadn't had much luck save for Lance. He could become a junior agent under Clint if he passed through the training program. But that would preclude him going back to high school this coming year.

"Yeah I have. I… you were right, there's more to the world, more going wrong, than just the 'Mutant Question'. If I can use my powers to help SHIELD solve some of those problems, while also being a representative for what mutants can do for the rest of the world, I'll do it. But before that, I have to go back to Bayville first."

OOOOOOO

Looking up from her book, Kitty waved her arm in the air to grab her boyfriend's attention as he entered the mom-and-pop pizza place on the outskirts of Bayville they had specified for this meeting, before looking back down at the textbook for her coming year's math class. Kitty had only a month and a bit to go before the summer ended, so she had to really push it now if she wanted her plan to work. She had even cut into the time she spent at Hogwarts working for Harry to concentrate on this, since, in the long run, this would help her to start working with him full time sooner.

"Hey Kitty, how're you doing?" Lance asked, as he sat down across from her. "You up to eating your share of a full pizza or do you want something else?"

"Typical teen male, first thing you ask about is food." Kitty laughed. "Sure, a full pizza is fine, anything we don't eat I can take home to Kurt. You know how he puts it away. Makes me sort of jealous really."

Lance nodded and they ordered a large pizza with the works, with fries on the side. After they returned to their booth they made small talk until the food arrived. As the meal was ending, Lance asked. "Er, so, what's been going on with you?"

That was one of those questions that often led the two of them to awkward silences these days. Kitty wasn't about to share anything about what she was doing for Harry with Lance, despite their relationship. And Lance in turn couldn't tell her much about the things he had seen since taking up with Clint Barton. At the moment however, that was sort of the way Lance wanted their conversation to go.

Kitty frowned a little then shrugged. "Well, don't tell anyone, my parents don't even know yet, but I'm studying hard to see if I can skip a grade and graduate this coming year. I want to work with Mr. Wizard fulltime as soon as I can. I can't tell you much, but the things he's to me working on, they are really amazing, and a lot of fun too!"

Lance smiled rather wanly. "Heh, if there's anyone who can pull that off, it would be you." His smile went away quickly and he gulped before going on. "Um, I won't be returning to Bayville, which is part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Listen, I, I'm not good at feelings or anything. I've really enjoyed going out with you, but, well, lately, we've only been able to see one another once every few days, at best for a hour or so each time. Mostly we've just been talking on the phone and even there its only for a short time. And that's not counting our, well, our loyalties I guess. It's not as bad as it would've been if I stayed with the Brotherhood, but its still there, between us you know? I, what I'm saying is that it's been fun, but I think we should, we should break up."

To his surprise, and faint disappointment, Kitty surprisingly took this in stride. She calmly finished her bite of pizza and nodded. "I've thought along the same lines a few times myself honestly. I like you Lance, I really do, but I don't love you or anything like that, and I don't think you feel that toward me either. I've had a lot of fun being with you, I can't argue with any of your other points, so yeah..."

Lance nodded in relief, grateful she wasn't going to go all weepy on him. That would have been out of character, but hell, this was the first time he had to break up with a girl, so he had no idea how she would react. Because, you know, Kitty was his first girlfriend. "Yeah, that's true. So, still friends?"

"Definitely!" Kitty laughed. "It's always nice to have friends in high places, Mr. wannabe-secret-agent!" She frowned a little. "Have you given any thought do what you'll do if you ever have to face the X-men or Mr. Wizard in an official capacity, shall we say?"

"I have, and I think it'll depend on what the hell's going on at the time." Lance shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "I'm really not happy with the idea, but I can't say it'll never happen, just that I hope it won't."

"Gotcha. Oh for the days of moral certainty!" Kitty laughed again, though there was grim edge to it that was distinctly out of character for her. "These days, it always seems to be the ones who are certain of themselves that are making problems."

Lance nodded wordless agreement to that. At unspoken agreement the conversation steered away from dangerous topics for a time. They left together, with Lance walking Kitty ack to the mansion. Even if they were no longer a couple it seemed the right thing to do.

As they walked out the pizza joint, Kitty almost banged into a middle-aged man wearing a hat who was almost albino he was so white, a stark contrast to what could be seen of his black hair. "Your pardon young lady," he murmured, moving out of her way, brushing slightly against Lance for a moment when he moved away from Kitty. Kitty smiled back at him, waving one hand to indicate it had been her fault as well, and the two teens went on their way.

Behind them, the middle-aged man frowned. The girl's mind was protected by barriers, though I could not tell where they came from with that faint probe. They were powerful, but certainly not native to her mind, so my information on Miss Pryde's powers are accurate at least.

Kitty hadn't yet figured out a permanent way to protect her mind, but the defenses Jean put around it every day were nothing to sneeze at. Eventually she would be learning occlumency as the first stage of her magical education, but that was a few weeks in the future. Until then, Jean's barriers would have to do, as they had on this occasion.

Still, the other youth was open at least. I think I will follow him when he leaves the area around the mansion, discreetly of course. Young Alvers has some interesting information about this SHIELD agency in his head that could prove important in the future. Pity though, neither youth knew anything about my true reason for coming here. Hmm… so I am left with the choice of either drawing Jean Grey out in some fashion, or staking out the other X-men to see if they know where she and this Guardian are based.

I need to find out as much as I can about him, what I've been able to glean is enough to tell me that much. It might prove to be wise to obtain a sample of his DNA as well. Even if I go with my second option where it comes to Summers and Grey, it would be wise to know if I need to be on the watch for another, possibly better option.

OOOOOOO

True to his word, Reed called the day after the meeting at the Baxter Building, informing Harry that the first of the scientist's space-based detection equipment was ready to be installed and that he was anxious to see this orbital laboratory Harry had promised him. Harry responded that he would be there in an hour. Hanging up the phone, Harry sent messages via Patronus to Jean and Ororo elsewhere in the castle.

In the library, Ororo came out of the meditation she had been in communing with Gaia. Holding one hand out, she watched a small magic shield flicker into being around her hand for a moment before smiling and standing up, the spell flying apart. Her studies were going incredibly quickly, thanks in part to the fact that in the mental world, time flowed as Gaia willed it. While only a few hours passed in the real world for every session, in actuality each session lasted a full day, start to finish. Even so it would be several weeks before Ororo was ready to use her magical abilities in combat. But Harry's initial impression of her power level was proving accurate; Ororo would be a very powerful sorceress indeed.

In the room assigned to Dani, Jean frowned, looking from where the Patronus had just galloped off to Dani. After a moment's reflection she sighed. This was important, not only to their cause but to her in person, her dream was to go into outer space after all, and it still hadn't gone away despite all the things she had done out there with Harry. She wanted to go to other planets, other solar systems, to explore!

Looking at the younger girl Jean shook her head. "I have to go, which means we have a choice. You've made some progress in learning to control your powers, but after only a day of it, I don't think you can pull it back under control if it surges again. So, you can come with me and learn a bit more about our operation, or you can stay here and keep reading that book on organizing your mind. But if you stay here, that door stays shut! If ask for food or anything aloud, a house-elf will hear you. But you might run into the kids outside, and if that happens." Jean shrugged.

Dani nodded, and said simply. "I'd like to stay here please. Even after only using it for a day, this book is really helping. I enjoyed the meditation skills that my grandfather taught me to help, but this is on a whole other level."

"Yep it is, I'm just glad that the most basic level of occlumency carries over to non-magical's." Jean replied, briefly patting the younger girl on the shoulder before leaving Dani in her room and heading to the main Hall where she found Ororo and Harry speaking quietly about the latter's lessons.

The other-dimensional wizard was still of two minds about the fact that Ororo was taking lessons from Gaia rather than him, but he couldn't argue with the results so far. It just seemed odd to him that Gaia, one of the most aloof goddesses at least judging by history and mythology, would go out of her way to aid them. There was something she wasn't telling them, some threat she could see down the road. Harry privately wondered if it had anything to do with the beings Death had called Celestials, or some other cosmic threat. He also trusted Ororo's opinion, and if she trusted Gaia, that was enough for him. It just irritated him not to be teaching her himself.

The trio swiftly teleported out, never seeing Amara and Paige coming up from the basement. They both were smiling, but there didn't seem to be much humor in them, a sign of the odd tension between the two teenage girls. Nikolai and Piotr had both felt it, though did not understand where it was coming from, and had opted to head out to the lake to swim rather than get their afternoon lessons done as the two girls were doing.

This tension wasn't new, it had begun the moment Amara had moved into the castle, and was created by many things. Paige resented the fact that Amara was ahead of her in several areas of their training, more particularly in nearly every aspect of their combat training. She didn't like the fact she was older, and had already been promised she could join the still unnamed team because of that, while Paige still had to convince her mother to let her. And Paige hated the fact that Amara was so exotically attractive making her feel like the common image of a small town hick.

Amara didn't like the fact that Paige was picking up how to best regulate her powers so much faster than she was. Amara was having trouble controlling her powers, she couldn't get the power of her attacks down to a less than total destruction level, and had been ordered not to use it outside the RoR, which allowed Paige to flaunt her powers a little around the castle. She resented the fact Paige was so outgoing, able to make friends so much more easily than Amara, who was only truly friends with Jean and Piotr. And she hated that Paige was blond haired and busty, making her feel unattractive and mannish in comparison.

Paige stretched languidly, thrusting out her chest as she rubbed at her back. "Well I'm heading off for a shower, training always bothers my back for some reason, though of course you wouldn't know anything about that would you, Amara? I suppose you're off to study or something equally exciting?"

"Unfortunately unlike you I like to exercise my mind, it isn't just that I need to learn how to speak and write English without the translation spell helping me. Still, it's nice to see that you know to put your best assets forward, you could have a lovely career ahead of you. After all, even if your mother doesn't let you on the team, you can still practice being a stripper er, I mean practice your powers with us." Amara smiled faux sweetly at Paige.

The Kentucky native scowled angrily, seeing only too clearly the connection there. Her powers weren't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing, and more than once she had transformed back to her human skin to find she hadn't brought her costume with her. Thankfully Ororo had foreseen that possibility and always ordered the boys out first after a session to give her some privacy. "At least I've got a body worth showing off, and can control my powers outside the RoR. Unlike certain natural disasters just waiting to go off."

That wiped Amara's smile off her face and she glared at Paige. "I didn't need my geothermal powers to beat you in that last spar, now did I? Or perhaps you'd like to become acquainted with the stone floor rather than the mats of the training arena?"

Paige might have taken her up on that challenge if they hadn't been interrupted by the sound of someone chuckling. They both turned a glare in the direction of the sound to see Sir Dennis having come in from outside, where he had been enjoying his daily walk around the lake. "Oh don't mind me ladies, its been positively ages since I've seen a good catfight."

The two girls glared at him, then at one another before as one turning away with a huff. Behind them Dennis smirked, looking back over his shoulder. "You can come out now you two."

Nikolai and Piotr both stepped out of the entranceway, looking a little sheepish. "How did you do that sir?" Nikolai asked. "Those two looked ready to rip each other's eyes out."

"Ahh, never underestimate the vanity of the female mind. Ladies will ever so politely rip strips off one another with words and even physically, but if they are caught in the act in the latter's case, they will almost always back down. Silly really, but there you are."

The two younger men looked thoughtful and he smiled. "Simply interrupt their arguments by saying how much you look forward to it, or how interesting it is, and they won't be able to handle being on display." With that, Dennis continued on his way, chuckling all the while, yet also shaking his head. It really had been a long time since he'd seen a good catfight after all.

OOOOOOO

Harry and his ladies teleported into the room Reed had set aside for teleportation arrivals in the FF's suites in the Baxter Building. They found Reed waiting for them, so Harry asked a question he had been wondering about. "Out of curiosity, what exactly would happen if we teleported into one of the other rooms here?"

Reed smirked a little. "I believe the description 'bouncy ball' would be appropriate. There are certain types of energy… you see, what magic users or even other types of teleportation does when you teleport is you create a sort of hyper cavitation wave front through the atmosphere in front of you. It isn't actually visible like one would be in the physical sense, but there is a sort of energy wave there, which my devices can detect and bounce away. The more power in the initial teleport, the further you bounce. I'm working on a way to capture the resultant bounce in a separate, specially prepared pocket dimension, one like the one you had in your luggage I believe, along with a number of other surprises for individuals who warrant it."

The two of them continued to talk about the intersection of science and magic for a few fascinating moments as they walked through Reed's various labs to meet up with the other member of the Fantastic family. All of them were ready to go. Jean and Ororo took a few moments to say hello to Madame Harkness and Franklin, who would not be coming with them. Given his erratic powers, Reed had decided that he didn't want him anywhere near an environment like space.

"Before we go," Harry said after they all said hello and Jean and Ororo were fussing over the toddler. "There is something you all need to hear: Harry Potter owns the asteroid base called High Note." Ben cocked a rocky eyebrow, and Harry chuckled. "Part of the most powerful security spell on High Note stops people from even realizing it is there at all. Unlike notice me not wards, people can't even sense a place they can't see, if that makes any sense. It's an extremely disconcerting feeling being in a place that all your senses are telling you doesn't exist."

Reed looked a little green at the very thought, while the others simply nodded. With that done, Harry motioned them to gather round, joining hands. "Everybody ready? I will warn you that this is a disconcerting experience."

When they appeared in the apparition room up in the asteroid however, none of the foursome showed any sign of discomfort, which was surprising to Harry, but he decided it was because they had been subjected to so many other types of teleportation that their bodies had become used to it. "Welcome to High Note." Harry said, smiling in welcome and waving around.

The teleportation room in the asteroid was set beside the hanger bay, which was at this point unused, but Harry had plans there. For the moment however, this first room didn't really show anything truly amazing.

Reed looked around closely and nodded. "This seems to be some kind of rocky formation, are we in an asteroid of some kind?"

"We are indeed, come on, I'll show you all the observation room first, then we'll see where I want to set your personal lab, you can set it up however you like it's simply a blank room at the moment. Though I'll warn all of you that there are some rooms in here that I don't want anyone to enter except for me, they are simply too dangerous."

"And myself." Ororo interjected smiling a little faintly, while taking his hand in hers. Harry nodded equably, squeezing her hand back while she leaned her shoulder against his for a moment. Harry was still not used to the fact that she was going to be… was… a witch, and could very well learn to use Fiendfyre eventually. He was in no tearing hurry to teach her that however, but Ororo could already probably help him in using the runic arrays in the room set aside for creating Orihalcum scales once the smelting process was over.

The Fantastic Four's reaction to the observation lounge was everything Harry could hope for. They stopped and stared in awe at the vista outside the windows that covered three of the four walls, as well as a bit of the ceiling and floor. "Amazing, Harry." Reed said slowly, moving forward to touch the glass and look through it out into the stars. "Truly amazing."

Harry smiled and nodded as well, while Jean simply went over to join Reed in staring out into space. Ororo however was staring down at Earth, thinking how beautiful it was, how amazing this little marble in space where they all had evolved truly was.

Johnny, Ben and Susan moved from one side of the room to the other, lost in wonder like they had been three years ago when they went into space with Reed on that doomed mission. Despite all their adventures since, moments like this still had the power to take their breath away.

After a while however Reed came back to himself and nodded. "Let's go see that laboratory Harry, and then you can show us where we're not supposed to go, as well as where you want me to set up some kind of teleportation device for us. If I am allowed access to this place, I would prefer not to have to rely on you for my transportation."

"The room we appeared in is the one place on this rock that allows teleportation, though I would like your help to put in scientific methods of defense just in case. I'm confident in my magical defenses to stop anyone, but I would feel better if there were also scientific methods in place if science comes up with a method magic doesn't recognize."

The two of them walked off, delving into a discussion on energy and wave forms while Ororo conducted remaining trio on a tour of the rest of the asteroid, showing them the hydroponics area with the house-elves working inside though, she didn't allow any of them inside. None of them had the protective gear on after all, and would have been subjected to the time dilation.

Susan liked the master bedroom that looked out over the little jungle. She laughed quietly but warmly at how Ororo described Harry and Melody when she spotted the little bedroom area down in the jungle, shaking her head internally at the innate humanity Harry showed at times. Johnny and Ben liked the jungle too, but Johnny and Jean liked the hanger bay more since it allowed them to fly around. Johnny alas could not use his powers in space, at least not without scientific or magical aid. Their game of tag in the hanger bay however was a lot of fun.

With Ben's help, Reed and Harry headed back down to the Baxter Building to grab several hundred pounds worth of devices, including what looked like the world's most bizarre, not to mention largest, piece of new age sculpture. Reed assured Harry however that it was a gravitonic differential array. There was another device that had what seemed like dozens of tiny radar dishes spread out over dozens of small bands of metal bracers, connected by large spools of wire one to another. This, Reed said, was his warp energy target array. With these two sensors, they would be able to detect any ship coming out of warp or any new space-borne objector object that seemed to be moving under someone's control.

"These will cover everything that the asteroid can see from here, so it isn't precisely the 360° defense we want." Reed cautioned, speaking into a radio. He was currently standing in the observation room, watching a screen while Johnny, Jean, and Harry put the outer sections of the arrays in place along the asteroid's stone surface. "To get a full defense in place you'll need to have several emitters set equidistant around the earth, but this is a start at least."

"Truly." Harry said. "But given the amount of input these devices bring in, and the sheer diversity of it, we might also need to figure out how to read it. The information you described to me nearly went over my head Reed, and that was only your description not an actual read out."

"Correct, but that would take a lot of time to write up. And this isn't an exact science, for this kind of thing a computer like Tony Stark's Jarvis would be best, a limited function AI that can make intuitive connections between disparate data points."

"I knew that thing wasn't bloody AI the moment I heard about it!" Harry crowed.

"Oh yes, I've seen a bit of the coding, it was impressive to say the least. Say what you will about Tony's personality, his skill in programming is superlative." The phrase 'not as good as I am' hovered in the air for a moment unspoken and Harry chuckled. Reed however went on more seriously. "But writing up something like that would take me months of devoted work. While I am a very good programmer, I am not a fast one."

Harry hummed thoughtfully, and the subject turned back to their current task. While the work continued apace, Harry wondered at the problem at the back of his mind, thinking how he could come up with a limited AI program like that, determining that he might have to set up a meeting soon between his Weatherby persona and Stark, or barring that Pepper Potts. She seemed to be the stabilizing force in that company right now.

Soon enough they had the device sending in its readings. When the workers came back inside, Reed explained what it did in broad terms. "While there is a certain amount of background gravitational changes occurring to the solar system at all times, they are minute, and can eventually be filtered out. Think of space as a rubber sheet, with the sun a massive bowling ball weighing it down. On the slope that the sun has created each planet is positioned, set in its orbit and creating its own tiny differential to the gravitational well of the system. This device measures changes in the area that the Earth and the moon create, thus with this and the energy detection array we will be able to spot if someone warps in or out in that sphere."

"What if it's an FTL drive?" Harry asked.

"I did say these were only two of many scanning devices I'd figured out Harry. Furthermore, from what we know of them the Skrull and the Kree basically use the same ship drives, both of which are warp-based rather than FTL. FTL would have its own issues of course. The energy detection array would be able to find the splash of any ship dropping in or out of warp in that area, and FTL would show up on the gravitonic array."

Harry nodded, and the two of them moved on to discuss what other devices sensors would be added to their growing array up here, while Reed installed the program that would run the two arrays. "A light refraction system would take over long, to get any useful information back to us." Reed said as he finished. "But it would be the most certain. Regardless of any kind of cloak or anything else, a ship would be discernible by what it is occluding behind it."

"Sure enough, though eventually we might want to think about something like that, a vast sort of mine field of devices perhaps?"

"A crude concept, and given the sheer size of the solar system impracticable, but it might be the only approach that actually works, unless we come up with a power source many times that of even an advanced arc reactor." Reed frowned as he noticed how the computers of the asteroid, which were rather advanced, were having trouble with his program. Something to watch out for in the future, he thought, then changed the subject. "On another topic, I decided to prioritize finding this missing friend of yours over analyzing that blood sample. Luckily my computers were able to do most of that work by themselves while I was busy finishing the construction of this scanning equipment, and I have already pinpointed where she was taken. As I thought, it was a dimensional portal, but at the same time it had a spacial component..."

Reed stopped speaking as he felt a stir in the air of the observation room. He turned to see Harry still working setting up a new screen on the wall to display the array's information, but there was tenseness, a crackling sort of readiness about the younger man that hadn't been there before.

Despite the way they had been acting, Harry, Jean and Ororo were very worried about Betsy. While Harry wasn't close to her or anything like that, he did feel guilty about what might be happening to her given his promise to aid Betsy in regaining her eyesight. That didn't even consider the way Ororo and Jean were taking it. Despite the fact that they were all keeping busy with various projects, the fate of Betsy had been at the back of their minds.

Harry was also not used to running into problems that he couldn't solve. Having to hand this one off to Reed, despite his trust in Mr. Richards, had irked him tremendously. Still, Harry let out a deep calming breath. Read watched in fascination as the tension left Harry's body, but there was a sense of readiness about the younger man that Reed equated to some of the martial artists he had known his life. "And have you discovered where this portal went?"

"I have, I've also sent through a small probe to tell us more about the other side. I should have some more for you tomorrow."

Harry's eyes narrowed a little. While he was all for rushing in quickly, knowledge, particularly in combat situations, could be the difference between life and death. That will also allow me to create some of the things for our battle Kitty and Jean came up with last night. One or two anyway, but still that'll have to do. Who knows what could happen to Betsy if we waste any more time than we have to. "That will have to do then." Harry said. "Thank you again for this Reed."

"After all you have done to aid my family and I, it was the least we could do. In fact, I speak for all four of us when I volunteer our services if necessary to get your friend back."

Humming thoughtfully Harry finished connecting the screen to the computer output. "Thank you for that, we'll see what you come up with tomorrow. I think that's done, now, let's see if this works."

Harry called Jean in and the three of them eagerly looked at the display, which at this moment was only a single screen set into the side of the observation room, under which the main server for the asteroid's computer resided. Harry had plans to set up a full-scale radar room later, but it wasn't high on their priorities at present.

Much like the actual installing process for the program, it took a while for the computers of the asteroid to process the information coming in and then display it, but after a moment a globe of the area around the asteroid appeared showed up. Slowly that globe began to expand as the radar brought in more and more information. "Fascinating." Reed murmured once the moon showed up, along with several highlights of information which he looked at avidly. "So it does show up after all, good to know just in case."

"In case what?" Harry asked quickly, looking over at him.

"Not my secrets to share and I'm afraid." Reed shook his head, smiling very slightly. "I might not be in favor of their isolationist policy, but they are allies of a sort so I won't betray that secret."

Harry snorted as did Jean standing next to him, having heard enough information there to understand who Reed was actually talking about. "I see," Harry murmured in a droll tone. "How far out will this go again?"

"With the power we've been able to divert to it from the rest of the asteroid…" Reed frowned calculating in his head something that would take most people several hours and a computer to work out. "I would say roughly another two moon orbits worth. In that sphere it will be real-time information, in fact the slowest part of this will be the system interpreting and updating rather than the sensor actually seeing the information. But the further out it goes the more time displacement there will be, so we will need to figure out something else, as we've already discussed."

"That will depend upon what kind of defense we can put in place. Close, distant, automated, lots of questions to still be answered." Jean said. "Personally, I would like to have your energy array set up for distance. I can't imagine that anything coming out of warp or even FTL wouldn't create a splash no matter where in the system the pop out."

"While your terminology isn't the most accurate, there is nothing wrong with that thought process." Reed said shaking his head as the scanned stopped pretty much where he had expected it to. "Unfortunately that system is the most energy intensive of the two we have now."

"This system, would any of the aliens you've run into have the equipment to be able to detect if they were being scanned with it, regardless of their inability to detect from where?" Harry asked.

"Your certain that this, what did you call it, fidelity spell will hold up?"

"Oh yes!" Harry laughed quietly. "They couldn't even look in the correct direction or even think about how they can't without my okay. The Fidelius spell is one of the most intrinsically powerful and adaptable spells that I know of. That doesn't even consider the number of other defensive spells on this place. There's no chance of anyone finding High Note unless I let them."

"Really? Then in answer to your question, possibly, I don't have as good a handle on the Kree and Skrull technology as I could want. I haven't had the opportunity to study any of their equipment."

"Ooooh…" Jean murmured rubbing her hands. "What I wouldn't give to do that!"

Reed chuckled a little in amusement at her enthusiasm, though he wasn't as much in favor of reverse engineering. He preferred to pave his own way, but he understood the importance of reverse engineering to their current endeavors. "That's about all we can see with this I believe. The system will continue to paint what will be the base line for the next few hours."

Harry nodded. "Will you and the others join us for an early dinner? We can talk about setting up times to bring up any of the other equipment you need for this, as well as the laboratory I'll be setting up here for you. I would prefer to put in the tech based anti-teleportation defenses first before letting you put in your own system there."

Mr. Fantastic nodded, both at that being a good idea and in favor of an early dinner, and the three of them left find the others.

OOOOOOO

At the same time Reed and Harry were working on their projects up in High Note, other scientists were pouring over the data from scanners that were already in place, though these scanners, much though a certain blonde agent would have preferred, did not have anything to do with space. These scanners and these scientists both worked for SHIELD, and the fact that two of the scientists were running around like chickens with their heads cut off did not please the third who was calm and collected. He simply moved over and hit a special scramjet button, which linked him immediately to director Fury while at the same time, locking out any other outgoing radio signal. "Sir it looks as if we've got another rift opening up. Same general location is the last ones."

In his office Fury frowned thoughtfully, but not in any great surprise. Given the report on Thor's attitude, he had expected the hammer wielder would be back. Checking on a map his frown deepened, cross-referencing that with a list of agents he would trust to be able to handle himself if this wasn't Thor. None of them were near enough to get there unless the individual coming through simply waited around, which probably wouldn't happen.

"Good job doctor, notify me if anything else occurs." Nick said then flipped to another channel, contacting the men on duty at the communication station of the bridge. "Contact the agents we have watching subject Foster and Dr Selvig. Tell them to be on the lookout for the alien Thor. Then get in touch with Hawkeye. Tell him I might have a job for him and his protégé sometime soon."

Luckily Hawkeye had been spending more time with Lance training him up of late, thanks to not having any real target for his abilities at present. There were several issues on the horizon that Hawkeye would be perfect to handle but Clint wasn't diplomatic enough, and was known in black circles too much to be a good spy really, so was going through a lull mission-wise at present.

Unfortunately for the scientists, that wasn't the last disruption to their day.

OOOOOOO

Balder frowned as he left his liege's throne room, shaking his head at his half-brother Thor's headstrong attitude. Hah, in that at least he and Loki are the same, though neither would enjoy the comparison! Still, my orders are, at least on the surface, simple. Find this new power rising on Midgard, discern its purpose and goals, and if it was a threat to Asgard. If it was not a threat, he was to introduce himself as an emissary of Odin Borson and Asgard, to hopefully gain them a new ally.

He tapped the hilt of his sword thoughtfully. Mayhaps the best way to go about this would be to have the Rainbow Bridge set me down near the land where this power has been the most active, and attempt to find him from there. Surely the nobles of that realm will know who or what this new power is, if they are not connected to it themselves. And if I am to be an emissary, I must present myself as such.

Balder might be one of the more diplomatic individuals in Asgard, but that wasn't really saying much. Still, with Harry and his people at least, being straightforward and honest would be the way to go, even if at the moment Balder didn't know it.

He soon came to the Rainbow Bridge and its guardian, the ever watchful Heimdall. Without even turning from his vigil the man said. "I know why you have come, and why you are going. Yet I cannot pinpoint this power rising, something is hiding him from my sight."

Balder laughed quietly. It was sort of a running joke with all Asgard that the All-Seeing Eyes of Heimdall were not exactly all seeing beyond the borders of their realm. There were many things that could block his sight, distance being the easiest of course. "If you can put me within two days travel by foot of the land where this force has been in action the most, that will be all I ask of you."

Frowning thoughtfully, Heimdall turned slightly to look at Balder out of the corner of his eye. Like all Asgard, he held Balder in high esteem, and knew he would perform this task to the best of his abilities, but Heimdall knew Balder didn't have much knowledge of the world of men as it was today. "I can put you down near one of the cities of the humans where his power has been shown, a place on Briton, the isle where the Celts and Saxons fought each other and our worshippers, when we had such. I'll try to put you down where no one will see your arrival, but after that you will be on your own."

Heimdall had seen some of the fight in London at the time, but had not thought much about it seeing it as two mere mortal magic users fighting one another. Most Asgardians were scornful of those who used magic with the exception of those who used their own runic language to construct powerful weapons and armor. It was one of the reasons Loki never truly fit in, though his own attitude and ambition did not help. And it was only Odin who had connected that fight with what he later felt, the near death of an Elder God, and the true death of Mephisto.

"That will have to do." Balder shrugged. "Thank you my friend."

"One thing more you should know. Lord Odin has asked Queen Karnilla's apprentice, the Enchantress, to go to Earth to find Thor and make him return. And, if she believes it necessary, he has granted her leave to… remove the object of his affection. Though thou did not hear that last bit from me. She has already left, through her own magical means."

Balder blanched slightly, looking around wildly in case speaking of her caused Karnilla to suddenly appear. Karnilla's infatuation for him was as well-known as it was mildly disturbing. It isn't as if Karnilla were ugly, he thought now, while Heimdall let lose a crack of laughter at his friend's moment of panic. But she is nearly old enough to be my mother. I know that it truly should not matter, as long lived as we Asgardians are, but I prefer less… worldly women. Even in his own head Balder tried to be diplomatic when talking about a woman whose magic was nearly on par with Odin, in scope if not in raw power.

After a moment he recovered enough to respond to the rest of what Heimdall had said. "Our Lord is ruthless, but has a point. A match with a mortal woman, it can never end well for either, even putting aside the fact that Thor's enemies would be quick to strike at him through her. Dalliance is one thing, but more, nay. Though I cannot condone the idea of removing her, it is best to nip their relationship in the bud. Still, if that it all, I will be off now. My thanks Heimdall."

The two men clasped hands, and a moment later the Rainbow Bridge appeared, heading out into it what looked like nothingness for a moment. Rechecking his blade and his horned helmet and armor Balder sighed then stepped forward. Moments later, between one step and the next he found himself in an entirely different place. Where before Balder had been standing on a bridge over nothingness with the city of Asgard looming behind him, Balder now found himself in a forest surrounded by trees.

He sighed rubbing at the left horn of his helmet for a moment. "Methinks I should've asked Heimdall which direction from mine starting point this city where this magic battle occurred was. Ahh well…" Balder sighed, looking around and randomly chose a direction heading off through the woods.

OOOOOOO

"Sir, we might have had another one, only this time… going by the longitude and latitude it looks as if it happened somewhere in the United Kingdom." It had taken the team of scientists several hours to figure that out actually.

Fury groaned, rubbing his eye patch furiously wondering what the hell was going on. On the other hand, he thought to himself with a sudden smirk as an idea came to him. This one at least I don't have jurisdiction over! If the lot in the UK is happy with keeping SHIELD at arm's length and not giving us access to their territory to deal with such things, then they can deal with this on their own.

That this would be another test for Potter possibly occurred to him, but that was simply an added bonus. The UK Intelligence Budget Committee had decided to not keep trying to get a voice on SHIELD's oversight committee, which in a way was bad, since that left only Canada and America still paying for SHIELD, and none of the other first tier powers in the world were even close to joining up.

The Brits were willing to work with SHIELD agents, but not to fund them. Nor were they willing to turn over to SHIELD the jurisdiction to deal with the sort of issues SHIELD was built to face in their nation, not until SHIELD stopped dealing with a lot of other crap first. Fury was worried about it, and what it could mean for the future but right now, he had other fish to fry.

With that in mind, he turned back, marking down on a map of the world. He and his senior analysts working on this, filling the map with red, yellow and green markers to mark where possible terrorist or criminal activity tied into what they were now calling the Big Three occurred. Nick was trying to find a pattern, or some kind of central node, anything that he could use to find where AIM, the Red Skull, or this HYDRA group was operating from. In comparison to that, Thor and the issues he caused would be flashier, but in Nick's opinion the terrorist groups were far more important.

OOOOOOO

Jean smiled as she dodged around the gaggle of youngsters racing down the hallway, exchanging good morning hugs with Melody and Illyana, who had joined her friend in handing such out at every opportunity. The gaggle now included the two youngest Guthrie children, Jeb and Joelle. Both of them were preteens, aged eleven and ten respectively. They got along well with the other pe-teens, and had dealt with suddenly leaving home remarkably well. Their mother, Lucinda, had confided in Ms. Brown that they were only two of seven youngsters in their small town, which had been bleeding people since before she married as the coal mine dried up.

Illyana was in the lead as always. She was certainly the leader of the bunch, a little princess in truth despite her rustic upbringing. She was an imperious little thing at times, which amused Jean greatly. The blonde girl seemed in some fashion to be emulating Ororo, who certainly could come off like that at first glance. That Illyana was also intelligent, and seemed to love learning and playing with equal ferocity helped.

The redhead nodded to Ms. Brown when she saw the teacher, who was running to keep up with the kids smirking all the while. "What's on the agenda today?"

"Today we're going on a nature walk. Melody is going to show us what she's found in the area, and then they're going to pair off and write up stories set in the woods. I want to get the non-English kids used to writing in English, and fiction writing is an excellent way to do that."

"Make sense." Jean nodded. "Sorry we're going to be busy all day, or I'd love to go with you. I actually haven't explored the woods around here much myself. Still, the house-elves will respond to any calls for help."

"To say you've been busy would be an understatement my dear. What little I know about what you lot and Mr. Potter and the others are up to tells me that. It wouldn't surprise me that you all are working 22 hour days, how any of you three in particular get any sleep is beyond me."

"Something like that anyway." Jean replied drolly shaking her head. Harry had never come to bed the night before, having stayed up all night to work on finishing up the armor for the team. Both Jean and Ororo understood the necessity, but they could have wished he would have told them about it first. Still, we can't argue with the results anyway.

She found Harry in the entrance hall, having just finished hugging Melody goodbye. He smiled at her as she came down the steps after the hurrying Ms. Brown who barely nodded in Harry's direction before rushing outside after the kids. "We might wish to think of getting her some help soon."

"I don't think so." Jean replied smiling as she saw Ororo walking up from the basement area. Ororo smiled back, looping her arms around Jean and Harry's waist as the trio took a precious moment alone together. "At the moment she and Ororo have the older teens set up with their own learning packets, and Ms. Brown is handling the youngsters well enough. Outside of lessons, the house-elves handle a lot of the daily work that comes up, and if we take any of the work away from them we might have a mutiny on our hands. Ororo told me they are ecstatic over the enlarged workload."

That was an understatement really, Harry thought, smiling as he removed one arm around Ororo to pat the banister of the staircase almost like it was a pet. The house-elves, indeed, the entire castle, though Jean lacked the ability to tell, was jubilant to have so many children to take care of. Nearly to an elf house-elves loved children and taking care of them was one of their major joys, even those who specialized in other work.

And Hogwarts had been steeped in magic for its entire existence, and it knew, somewhere down in its stone bones, that it was meant to be a school. Even if the students were not magical, this was the purpose it had been built to fulfill, and it loved Harry and the others for bringing in so many children for it to care for. The castle was in no way sentient, but there was an awareness there that filled the air with happiness.

Harry was brought back to the here and now when Jean asked. "Are we going over to Reed's right away?"

"In just a moment." Harry nodded. "We've got about twenty minutes before the time he said he wanted to meet us, but I want to go and grab Captain Britain first. Since this is about his sister he should probably hear all the information Mr. Fantastic was able to glean with his inter-dimensional probes."

"There is something truly wrong about the way you just said probes." Ororo murmured as she came up to stand with him. "Do you want to meet us there? While I like Brian, he does owe allegiance to the UK's government. We might be allies with them at present, but that doesn't equate to them knowing everything we're up to."

"That's a good idea, but please remember to call ahead." Harry said emphatically. "I really don't think we want to, as Reed put it the other day, find out what happens when you 'bounce'. I truly doubt it would be as survivable as it was when I tried to apparate into Hogwarts the first time. You set that up, then call the rest of the team together, and I'll meet you there."

Given that this was about his sister Capt. Britain was ready within minutes, dressed in the suit that gave him his power and ready to go. Fifteen minutes after he left the castle, Harry teleported them directly from his house to the Baxter Building, finding the others from Hogwarts having popped in on their heels thanks to Cory, who popped out just as quickly, looking rather uncomfortable.

Reed and the others were all there to welcome them, and looked quizzically at the newcomers particularly Vanguard. The shield on his back looked familiar to both men, though neither had actually seen it in person. Harry noticed the looks, and smirked. "All right, introductions all around. Considering that we're probably going to fight together at some point in the future even if we don't do so on this current adventure, I think it is smart for all of us to know one another's abilities."

The more experienced adventurers laughed, since it was almost certain that this would be the case. This was especially true since both Harry and Reed were determined to remain allies with one another. Even if Harry wasn't about to tell Reed about his dealings with Dr. Doom. "This is Captain Britain, given his attire I really don't think we need to comment on anything more there." Harry smirked.

"I say again, I didn't pick this uniform." Brian murmured in the tones of long suffering, looking down at himself.

"It is rather distinctive." Susan murmured shaking her head with a laugh.

"The two Russians are Vanguard and Colossus, Colossus is the one all in steel at present." Ben nodded to Colossus who nodded back, recognizing the fact they were their team's strongmen, then looked at Vanguard, wondering what kind of story was behind him having the Red Guardian's shield.

"Welcome one and all. Please, follow me." Reed said. "I'll show you where I've set up for a presentational this. I will say, that I don't like being rushed like this though I can understand the necessity, but I am afraid the information I have gleaned may point to the need to wait and gather more."

"I Thank you for your help sir." Brian murmured, though he was looking slightly more worried thanks to the second part of that statement.

One of the labs had been set up as a conference room, and they all pulled up chairs at the table while Reed moved to the front of the room. Then he assumed a stance that was almost like a male equivalent of professor McGonagall. The effect was so bizarre that despite the seriousness of the task at hand Harry had to bite his lip to keep from laughing aloud.

Thankfully Reed didn't know that Harry was currently picturing him in a male equivalent of his former professor's stern schoolmarm outfit. Once everyone was in seat, he began, his word's grabbing the wizard's attention swiftly. "Before I cover the information I have gleaned about the target world, I would like to first go over some things I have discovered through other means. Firstly, I would not have been able to find the correct world for this, if not for several factors."

"This was not in fact the first time this other world, which at present is called Mojoworld, has opened up a portal to our own. Once I had a reading on them, the residual energies of the numerous portals allowed me to better triangulate its position." Of course Reed was dumbing down what he had actually accomplished quite a bit there, triangulation really stopped working when you were talking about both inter-dimensional as well as interstellar distances.

"Then I ran into further problems when attempting to send my probes…" he paused as Ben and Johnny both laughed and Harry sat with a seemingly innocent smile on his face while the girls, even his own wife, smirked. Even Captain Britain was holding back a smile.

"My drones rather," he said glaring at Ben and Johnny with a note of censure in his voice. "This world is actually quite advanced, on the main more advanced than our own, though not up to the level of my own equipment." That had been a near run thing, which rather irritated the super genius, but he had been able to overcome the problem and figure out a way to hide his drones appropriately after having lost four of them in a row.

What his drones did was cloak themselves not just from sight but from any kind of detection by creating a temporal dislocation field around them. It was as if they were moving in an entirely different time, a second ahead or behind real time, which allowed them to see out and record what they could see or take in under his directions, without anything outside that field actually be able to discern them in turn. It was based off Kang's time travelling technology, though Reed had to work at it for several hours to get it right.

"How advanced exactly?" Harry said sitting forward now, all business. Reed smiled as he could feel the intensity of the younger man's appraisal. It was times like this that reminded him that there was a very deadly leader and warrior underneath Harry's normal laid-back attitude. "Wait a moment and we'll get to that Harry."

He paused, frowning and then looking them all in the eyes one after another while behind him a large number of equations disappeared from the screen, replaced with nothing for the moment. "There is a theory that states that the more technology is available the less the physical abilities of individuals in that society will come to matter. Call it the couch potato theory, and I use that terminology with feeling in this case. What we have here is a race that is utterly composed of couch potatoes."

Behind him a picture popped up showing what looked like a bulbous almost leechlike creature, with extremely spindly arms with very long fingers, but a body that seemed to almost be blob-like in nature. There were no legs to be seen, and the thing was moving around on some kind of hover bed.

"That's basically all they do, sit in these things and have all their wants and desires catered to by their admittedly vast technological base. They literally watch TV 24 hours a day, eat, sleep in these beds. Part of that is because they do not seem to have evolved spines, but the majority seems to simply be the preference of their race."

Reed digressed at this point for nearly an, going into the evolutionary problems a race would face without a spine, explaining that he felt this was where all of their technology had begun, as well as what it meant for their society. "Their attention span however, seems atrociously low, like a teenager on some kind hallucinogenic drug, so TV is the center of their lives."

"I'm not going to like this am I?" Captain Britain murmured shaking his head. "What exactly are these shows they watch?"

"Anything and everything, just like in our world except that the majority of TV programs use slave actors." Reed answered grimly. At the word 'slave' everyone sat forward now, glaring at the image. Reed obligingly changed the image to show several humans acting out parts in what looked like some kind of Roman era war drama. "One of my drones got close enough to a cremation site on the outskirts of what appears to be the only real city on the planet, and it took several samples from one of the dead before it was cremated. The lack of genetic drift points the majority of these humanoids being genetically grown and engineered to perform in these shows for their creators."

He spent the next hour going over how exactly he had determined the fact most of the humans shown were genetically created, though most of it went over his listeners' heads.

"From what I can discern using my drones, this race determines who leads it through viewer ratings. One individual has led the planet for the last 30+ of our years, because he uses their technology to send out troops to kidnap actors and bring them back to act out in different shows, the most prominent of which is a sort of gladiatorial arena. I'm very much afraid Captain that this is what has happened to your sister."

Captain Britain's hands clenched so hard on his armrests the plastic and metal began to crack under the pressure. "I see…" Across from him Jean's fingers curled into claws, and a haze of telekinetic power began to form around them, while Ororo's eyes began to change to the opaque white they were when she called upon her power.

Harry however kept his mind on business despite his own anger at the idea. "Were your drones able to get any images of this leader?"

"Quite a lot yes." Reed replied drolly shaking his head. "He does the majority of the infomercials for his programs himself, and he always introduces the next program of the gladiatorial arena as well as running some kind of talk show with himself as the host on a daily basis."

Reed toggled the picture again, showing another 'couch potato'. This one was larger and seemingly fatter than all the others, but had much more powerfully built arms to go with it. There was actual muscle on them and his fingers were just as long and dexterous seeming as the others of his race. But instead of a hover craft lifting him up he used what looked like some kind of metal walker with large spider legs. He also had a smattering of what looked like circuitry built into his face. Some kind of wiring was also embedded in the back of his head going down his back into the walker.

"He goes by the name Mojo, and other than his control of their planet and the technology that gives him, I can't discern anything more about his fighting ability from what my drones have been able to discern. We can however discern that he is at least intelligent and somewhat organized considering that there has not been a viable slave rebellion, despite the obvious physical disparity between the slaves and the slavers in this case."

"A chip embedded in the brains to prevent such thoughts from entering their heads, or exploding when they do?" Harry mused, his eyes hard.

"I… I would have to assume something like that until proven otherwise, yes." Reed shook his head sadly. "I think given enough time I could come up with a way to block any such mechanical type of switch, but not if it is something in their very genetics. I cannot say with one hundred percent certainty that a genetically created being wouldn't have something that would stop them from rebelling, or an advanced biological kill switch of some kind." He described several types of said he could think of, as well as ways to possibly fight against them, but all of them would take time to prepare, and if they got it wrong, the results would be disastrous.

Jean frowned while everyone else around her, scowled angrily, but she was wondering something. "These actors, are they just humans?"

"I have noted six other alien species, most of which I am not familiar with on the planet, so I would say that is a no. Humans do however appear to be the majority."

Captain Britain however had his mind on the task at hand. "Could this kind of control chip that you and Harry both agree they are probably using already be in my sister?"

"Possibly." Reed answered shaking his head. "But as I said, such things can be blocked, give me a few days and I'll come up with something to cover the entire city. Other methods would be more difficult to block of course."

Harry nodded. "That'll give me time to finish the battle rattle for my team, as well as a suit for Wyatt if he's serious about joining up."

"A few more days with my sister in this world?" Brian said it calmly, but there was nothing calm about his eyes as he glared at Mr. Fantastic and Potter in turn. Jean and Ororo both reached out to place a hand on his own where they lay on the table and he breathed in deeply then nodded, showing he was in control once more.

"If you could give me a physical description of her, I'll have one of my drones watching her twenty-four-seven." Reed answered shaking his head. "But this is the kind of environment we can't go in blindly, trust me, I speak from painful experience. What if Mojo realized we were after your sister and used her as a hostage? Worse yet, what if he decided to use all the slaves as a hostage thinking our shared heritage with the humans among them would stop us from doing anything? I also haven't been able to discern anything about his forces one way or the other yet beyond the fact they rely heavily on robotics. I think it's also obvious that a few of the slaves at least follow him willingly, including one woman with six arms that appears at Mojo's side at times."

"There's another question here." Ororo answered shaking her head, causing everyone else to turn to her. "If we simply go in and rescue Betsy, what's to stop this Mojo person from continuing to steal away others?"

Harry squeezed his weather goddess' hand under the table smiling at her insight. "Storm's right, we must solve the problem not just its symptom. That would mean heading in and freeing the slaves at the very least, and removing any of the 'couch potatoes' ability to bring in more at a minimum."

Captain Britain frowned but eventually was forced to nod acquiescence to that idea. "I will agree to that, especially considering this Mojo may or may not try to take my sister away again. After all we do not know what attracted him to Betsy in the first place."

"True." Harry murmured shaking his head, then began to count on his fingers. "So basically this mission to rescue Betsy now has three goals. One, remove Mojo from power in any way possible so long as its permanent. Two, change the balance of power, do away with the slavery aspect of this world at the very least, the degree of which will be possible is to be determined. After all, if the slaves don't have any knowledge of how to govern themselves without this system of ratings based popularity, we'll need to figure out a way to teach them that. We also need to know more about why they haven't rebelled yet."

And, I need to think of how to arm them too. After all, there's no way that the couch potatoes are stupid enough to let their slaves have access to anything like weapons, and I bet they have something like attack droids beyond the humans and others who serve Mojo willingly. Hmm… it might be time to talk to Ms. Potts, on many levels.

"And three, make damn certain that these people can't come back again, smashing anything that can be used to create the technology to jump dimensions. Were you able to find any other targets for us?"

"Not a lot," Reed admitted. "As I said, give me more time then I might have some more information for you all." With that the meeting broke up, with the group from the UK leaving with heavy hearts.

OOOOOOO

"Sarah, is there some kind of festival or something going on near here?" A bobby asked his partner from where they had stopped to talk to a few workers who were busy repairing the damage from the terrorist attack some months back. Most of the damage had been repaired, but the roads had been low priority in comparison to the major buildings.

His partner, an older woman with a no nonsense attitude turned at her younger partner's question. "Why do you… good grief, that is the best costume I've seen in my entire life, a true barbarian Viking to the life, even if those horns on his helmet seem a little too long to be practicable. I don't know of any reenactment festival or anything, but that's not saying much in London you know? Still, I suppose we better stop and make sure that sword is plastic or something."

Ten yards further down the street was the sight that had prompted her partner's question. A tall man strode through the crowds of the city, which parted around him. On his head the man wore a massive horned helmet, while his body was clothed in what seemed to be a tabard and chain mail. At his side was what looked like a real sword, but as the crowds shifted the bobbies could see that the hilt of it was wrapped in red cloth ribbons of some kind.

Even with that however, and despite the large amount of leeway re-enactors got for moving around the city (anything to bolster commerce and this kind of thing worked) the bobbies had to make sure the sword was rubber or blunt at worst. As they strode up behind the man, who was at least seven and a half feet tall, the younger bobby, whose name was Timothy, frowned suddenly. "You don't suppose he's one of those costume hero types do you?"

Ahead of them, Balder frowned at the looks from the locals he was getting. It had taken him hours to get to the outskirts of this massive city, and more to get through them given the fact rough bravos had come out of nearly every alleyway to attempt to waylay him. Thankfully more than a third had thought better of it upon looking at him more closely, but he had still been forced to chastise several, including many who wielded the 'guns' that seemed to be in vogue here on Midgard.

Looking behind him Balder noticed two of the guardsmen of this odd city moving towards him. He had hoped to avoid attracting attention from the local authorities until he knew more about who or what he was searching for, but it appeared as if his looks were against him there. That and the fact that I have none of the local currency to buy new apparel, not that many of the locals seem to come in my size, he thought sardonically. This whole emissary mission is not going as smoothly as I could wish. Well, perhaps they'll be able to point me in the direction of this rising power.

He turned, smiling in welcome and holding his hands away from his blade. "Good eve, my friends…"

OOOOOOO

Ms. Brown's nature-walk had taken the children close to the edge of the area of the forest that was covered by the defensive wards of the castle. When they did, a house-elf had appeared in front of them warning them away. After thanking the little creature, they turned away, with Melody leading the way back through the woods on a diagonal down some new paths, pointing out various things to them as she did so with a happy smile on her face.

Melody had truly blossomed over the past few days with children her own age around her that did not look down on her for her looks or odd way of speaking/thinking. Illyana especially had become close to her, they were now certainly what was coming to be called BFFs. Now Ms. Brown smiled, watching the girl who would have been a special needs child in nearly any educational system leading the way with ease.

A growling noise deeper into the woods startled Ms. Brown out of her thoughts and she looked around wildly. "It's coming from over there." said Sergei, pointing the way unerringly thanks to his echolocation based powers.

Without any warning Melody turned and ran off in the direction Sergei was pointing. She was hearing some odd music coming from that direction. Illyana followed quickly, not about to let her friend find an adventure without her, despite Ms. Brown's shouted remonstrance.

OOOOOOO

Rahne Sinclair's thoughts were rather confused at present, not that this was anything new when in her werewolf form. Ever since she had begun to be able to change her form, once a month she would be forced into it come hell or high water. Most of that time, her human consciousness would be subsumed by her wolf instincts, only coming back gradually. Unlike in the movies though it had nothing to do with the movement of the moon, but her own menstrual cycle, something she was eternally embarrassed about.

Usually at times like this thoughts such as Och, I hope nae one sees me when I transform, and Ugh, what did I eat last night, Ahh hope it wasn't skunk, and the ever thankful, Thank god Ahh 'aven't run inta any of those furry lovers agin! That was one particular episode she never wanted to go through again, even if at the time it had started out as somewhat amusing. That was right up there with going back to the church where she had been raised. She never wanted to go back there, ever again!

Right now however, those were not the thoughts uppermost in her mind. No, what she was most worried about was two things. One was the child standing in front of her, looking for all the world like some kind of Fae come to life out of the forest around her, regardless of the two black children who were looking at her rather incredulously, gasping for air as if they had sprinted behind the girl. Ahh felt something odd niggling at mah senses late last night, but… did I enter the Fae-lands somehow? The thought was not a pleasant one. Whatever children's books said, if you looked at the original tales of fairies and elves you would find they were not the friendliest of creatures.

The next thing that worried her was the large snowy owl that was currently perched on her head, with one of her claws poised right over one of Rahne's eyeballs while the other dug into the fur on the back of Rahne's head to keep her stable. As fast as Rahne considered herself in her wolf form, there was no way she could dislodge the bird before she lost her eye. That was bad, considering she didn't know if her healing ability would be up to the task of regenerating it.

She thought about trying to throw the owl off somehow, but just as she thought that the owl leaned over, and Rahne found herself quailing under it's stern glare, even letting out a little whimper, her tail folding up between her legs. For a bird that was probably only about a tenth her wolf body's weight, if that, the snowy owl had the most intimidating stare Rahne had ever seen in man or beast.

Behind the girl appeared several others appeared running to catch up to her, including one other girl with long blond hair, and two black children. The others however caught Rahne's attention more. The boy with lizard scales, the boy with blank spaces where his eyes should be and overlarge ears, and the girl's whose long brown hair had suddenly transformed into hundreds of tiny blades upon sighting Rahne, all of them were obviously mutants. What are three mutant bairns doin' all together in the deep woods?

"Hello Ms. Rahne, how do you do?" The girl in the lead spoke up waving at her with a smile on her face, though it faded slightly as she looked at the wolf. "Oh, some of your songs are so sad, I'm sorry you had to go through all that, but don't worry, you're safe here. My father has made sure of that." The word father was said with a mix of pride and affection, and the chld's beaming smile widened noticeably when she said it. "Hedwig, you can let Ms. Rahne go, she doesn't want to hurt us, do you?"

The mention of songs, which Fae always liked in the stories, and a father making the land safe, didn't really make Rahne any calmer but the snowy owl, whose name appeared to be Hedwig, precked irritably, then flew off to land on the shoulder of the blond haired girl who had arrived after the first three. But from there she turned to glare at Rahne, making her understand without words or gesture that any aggressive action would result in eyeballs being gouged out.

The blond girl cooed at the avian, stroking her plumage gently. "Thank you Hedwig, you're so brave and strong, as well as kind for worrying about us like that. I think that deserves a few more bacon slices later."

The owl hooted complacently as her eyes partly closed in pleasure, but that golden hunter's gaze never wavered from Rahne.

Rahne's attention flicked beyond the gaggle of bairns when she saw a human woman coming out of the surrounding wood behind them, gasping as if she had been sprinting. "M, Melody, don't run off like that! That goes for the rest of you too!" She glared around at all the children, all of whom, save for the Fae girl Melody, nodded rapidly in agreement, quailing under her glare. The woman turned her school marm stare on the wolf and barked out. "Well, are you some kind of magic creature, or a mutant or what?"

Rahne hurriedly scratched at the ground, trying to make an 'M' in the loam there.

The teacher saw this and nodded. "Alright, though I wonder how you got through the defenses around here, I suppose that is a question that wiser heads should answer. I'm Ms. Brown, and you are on what is currently being called Hogwarts property." Rahne couldn't suppress a very human sort of snort, which caused Ms. Brown to smile. "Yes, it is a rather silly name, that is under review at the moment. Still, it's a school and boarding house essentially for mutants. Can you change back, or are you stuck in this form?" That didn't seem unusual to Ms. Brown, considering the way Piotr could change forms.

Rahne whined a little looking pointedly at the boys, and the teacher understood. "Ah, clothing is an issue huh? Well, we can't have that." She looked around, asking the air, "Could I have a house-elf do something for me please?"

A tiny being popped out of the air to stand in front of the teacher. The children immediately noticed that this house-elf looked a little different from most of the ones they had seen so far. For one thing, instead of the small but otherwise normal clothing the other elves wore (not having decided on a uniform for themselves yet as Harry had asked) this one wore camo gear, complete with a makeshift gilly suit. His eyes were also squinting, but they were locked on Rahne rather than looking at Ms. Brown. And there was also the fact he was scowling, his fingers twitching.

His voice, when he spoke was also deeper, more gravely than any but the oldest male house-elves. "I's be Guffy miss. Do you want me to get rid of the nasty intruder? I's sorry, but Missy Hedwig beats me to it."

Hedwig turned her glare on the odd house-elf who flinched under her stare, and began to mumble an apology. If Harry had met this house-elf one on one, he would have been struck by how much like a mix of Moody and Mundungus Fletcher the elf seemed at that moment. Moody's watchful paranoia, coupled with a bit of the cowardly attitude of Mundungus. Of course that cowardice was only toward Hedwig, so any of the other house-elves simply put it down as common sense.

Ms. Brown merely blinked a little then shook it off as a house-elf thing. Even with barely a week of being around them, she could tell the little creatures were odd. "Could you bring out some of my clothing for our guest, then I think we all need to head back to the castle."

Shortly thereafter, Rahne was once more in her normal human body, scratching at her short red hair, but grateful for the clothing. "Thank ye missus, when Ah change Ah cannae be always removin' me clothin' first. Its… been a nervous few months since this first 'appened ta me, ya ken. Er, Ah'm Rahne Sinclair."

"I can ken that yes." Fay replied drolly. "Still, you've come to the right place Rahne Sinclair, this school is open to all, especially those who need a helping hand. Come now children, I think we should head back to the castle with our new friend, you can all introduce yourselves on the way."

With Jesse and Christopher, who both thought the idea of turning into an animal to be the coolest idea ever, taking her hands, Rahne had no choice but to move through the woods surrounded by the rest of the bairns. As they all introduced themselves and began to describe their powers, Rahne found herself smiling. Maybe, just this once, her lack of control over her powers had been a good thing.

OOOOOOO

After he dropped off Brian back at the Braddock Manor, Harry and the others came back apparating into the entrance hall of the castle. They arrived at the same time the youngsters came back from the forest, and were quickly informed of the young woman waiting outside with Ms. Brown. At the tale his daughter told Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise, the only sign of his extreme shock at anyone being able to enter the warded zone around the castle at all.

Naturally however, she wouldn't be able to enter the castle, since its defenses didn't allow anyone inside without his permission or that of his ladies. Harry smiled, lifting Melody up onto his shoudlers, smiling at the gurgle of laughter she let out at that, while he reached over and took Christopher and Jesse's hands. "Well, let's go and meet this new firend of your shall we?"

With the other team members following, with Illyana on her brother Piotr's shoulders, Harry went outside. Standing beside Rahne was a rail thin girl of medium height with a fuzz of red hair on her head, and a wary, watchful gaze about her. That wariness was more in keeping with the desire to flee than anything else however, so for the moment, Harry ignored it. "My daughter here says your name is Rahne Sinclair correct? And you turn into a wolf of some kind?"

Upon seeing the master of the castle for the first time, it was all Rahne could do to keep her wolf instincts at bay enough to stop from falling to the ground and rolling over to bare her belly. Something of this man's manner, even with a bairn on his shoulders playing with his hair and both hands holding those of two others, that screamed to her wolf senses of authority. She gulped, then nodded rapidly. "Er, aye lord, er sir, um, I can turn into a wolf, or um, a werewolf at need, but um, I can't control it once a month."

Harry froze for a moment at the word 'werewolf', but the feel of his daughter hugging his head from her position on his shoulders brought him out of his dark, angry memories. He turned his head to smile up at her, and she smiled back while he took on of her hands and kissed the back of it gently.

His voice was nonetheless dry and probing when he spoke. "I trust you don't feel an urge to bite anyone to spread your lycanthropy? Or use it as an excuse to run away from any responsibility, Harry carefully did not say. And it's just Mister Potter, if you must give me an honorific at all. No lord am I."

"Er, no, um, I don't think I can spread my mutation to others, it be mutation not magic, mil-Mister Potter." Whatever he said, Rahne knew a lord when she saw one, but neither would she argue about what the lord in question wanted to be called.

"But then whats up with the monthly loss of control?" Harry asked quizzically.

Rahne blushed hotly, looking away in embarrassment. "Um, it seems ta be connected ta another monthly issue, ya ken?"

Harry blinked but thankfully Ororo leaned over and whispered in his ear what that might mean. He nodded then, looking far more sympathetic, and welcomed her inside the castle, allowing her to pass the final war array.

After the explanation of Rahne's powers Harry took thirty minutes that evening to rework some of the wards to block any kind of shape changers that were not based around magic. He had thought that the current setup would have stopped such, but not if their minds also changed to beasts, which was a slightly more difficult distinction to work into the defensive array.

That evening, he met with Father Garnoff, Ms. Brown, and Dr. Druid before having family night. Despite his ongoing worries about Betsy, neither he nor his ladies were going to allow it to effect their interaction with the others, most particularly the children. This evening, Piotr and his sister were going to be indoctrinated into the wonderful world of Disney by watching the Aristocats, a movie Melody had picked out for them all. Even Nikolai and Laynia, who Jean had invited into the family gathering, were looking forward to it.

Right now however, Harry had something else on his mind. He had caught something in Rahne's body language, a stiffness whose reason he could not discern but was afraid he could guess at when she was around Father Garnoff. "So, what do you all think of young Rahne?"

"She's intelligent, well lettered and read despite her atrocious accent, English isn't her first language. Seems extremely shy, but whether that has anything to do with her mutant powers or her general nature I don't know yet." Ms. Brown shrugged. "I'll know more once we test her to see her educational level, or contact this orphanage she mentioned having lived at."

"Do not do that." Father Garnoff said grimly. Since he could speak English, the translation spell on the castle didn't affect him, which allowed his accent, which was now very noticeable, to be heard. "I believe that young girl has been abused, not sexually perhaps, but she has at least been beaten." He shook his head grimly, one hand touching the stark white collar of his cassock, while his other hand clenched at his side. "Furthermore, I think it was by a man of the cloth. You did not see her face when she first caught sight of me. There was fear there, a lot of fear and anger, and maybe even hate until she got a good glimpse of my face. It was the garb of a priest that caused the reaction, not me personally."

"I was afraid that was the case, though I didn't see the connection to your priest's garb, Alexi." Harry groaned, internally wondering if he could sneak off tonight to… visit this orphanage Rahne had mentioned. "So what can we do for her?"

"Be there, talk to her, convince her I personally am no threat, though I will keep my distance until she comes to me." Garnoff shrugged.

Dr. Druid spoke up now. "Given her mutant power's ability to heal herself, I couldn't find any signs of physical abuse, though her shyness could be a sign of it. I would recommend integrating her slowly into the classes with the other teen's but also to warn Illyich away from her. I doubt she's his type, but still." He smiled wanly, the news of the girl having been abused having taken much of the amusement of the 'tomcats' attitude away. "But we should still be watchful."

"Alright." Harry sighed sadly. While he had been a victim of physical abuse, and had seen the aftermath of sexual abuse in the wake of numerous Death Eater attacks, he lacked the knowledge on how best to deal with another victim of abuse like this. "I'll contact Charles, see if he can recommend anything else, but for now, let's just provide what aid we can, without being too intrusive, and be here when she's ready to open up."

In the end, Charles did not have any more suggestions for them above and beyond what they were already doing, but this did not stop them from making Rahne feel as at home as they could.

OOOOOOO

Logan stood in civilian garb, leaning against his hog as it guzzled down gas right outside of Dawson, a city near the border between Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada. He'd tracked his daughter's movements to here, after the trail had come back from sea on the other side of the continent, but he had lost it here. This had forced him to call upon an old friend for help, despite the danger even using a public phone could call down on him from the powers that be.

At first, he had been tempted to try and figure out where she came from first. With all the holes in his memory from what Weapon X did to him, there was no way to tell if he had ever had a legitimate child after all. But that had proven to be a dead end, and so he had turned to tracking her and her partner. Luckily the pairing was so striking that people remembered them, and people were always willing to answer question posed by the man buying the beer.

"Yah know, me old mate, there are easier ways to commit suicide then y'er tryin' to pass through Canadian territory." At the sound of the heavy accent, Logan turned, a smile on his face as the speaker strode around from the other side of the pump. The speaker was a dwarf, whose squat body was heavy with muscle, yet for all that the man moved lightly on his feet, like the best martial artists or gymnasts could. His face, which was split by a wide grin at the moment, was bearded, and his eyes, deep-set into his face, were bright with humor. "You didn't exactly leave much in the way of bridges still intact when ya ran off with the bald one."

"Sometimes a man finds a cause worth fighting for Puck." Logan held out his hand, his own smile widening into a grin as the other man shook it. "Damn, but it's good to see yer short ass. Always nice to be around someone smaller than me."

"Hah, and that doesn't happen all that often I know! Still." Puck's voice and face became much more sober as he went on. "Why in the names of the saints did you chance crossing Canada? Weapon X may be defunct, but there are still agents that have a grudge against you with a lot of power in the government, and that doesn't consider our mutual friends. Hudson still calls you a traitor ya know. If not for the fact he's busy doing something or other down in Ontario I have no doubt he'd come after you."

"Christopher thinks only as far as Canadian interests, and prefers to play the government lapdog than be his own man." Logan growled one hand clenching. "I'm not sorry I left, and I wouldn't have come back to Canada at all if it weren't important." He scowled, memories both mood and bad surfacing in his pockmarked memory.

Puck, who had been born Eugene Judd in 1919 and owed his longevity and short stature to a misadventure of his adventurous youth, looked up at his old friend. Oldest, actually, when you got down to it. They had met during World War 2, when Puck was working with the French resistance, and Logan for the Canadian intelligence. They had lost track of one another dozens of times most particularly after weapon X got its claws in Wolverine, but had always been friends whenever they met up. Thus Puck could tell something was working at his old friend. "Personal or professional reasons mon ami?"

"Personal. I… I might have a daughter Puck." Logan had become convinced before he left this was the case. What little the cameras could tell them of the assault on the mansion showed this girl moved just like he did, had the same kind of claws, even looked like him a bit in the eyes and facial structure. "I got to find her, need to know where she came from. And… and she might've taken up with Magneto. I can't let that stand. What would you do in my place?"

The dwarf's eyes had widened at the news of Logan having a child. Still, he understood where the other man was coming from. And as a friend, he couldn't turn aside. "Well then, it's a good thing my visa is up to date, yes? So let us see what we can do to pick up her trail."

OOOOOOO

Despite Rahne's unexpected arrival, life continued apace in the castle. Outside of class hers was a shy personality, but Rahne got on well enough with all the other girls and the teen boys, and in particular Dani for some reason on Dani's very infrequent sojourns out of the confines of her room. Rahne also easily slipped into the class structure, and was actually at the appropriate educational level in comparison to her age, something that made it much easier for Ms. Brown to prepare some lessons for her. When asked about whether she wanted to go to a regular high school however, Rahne had to think about it, unlike Laynia, who had already decided she wanted to go to Bayville.

Being around other mutants was calming, but Laynia was unwilling to join the team or use her powers except in self-defense, she wanted as much of a regular life as she could get. Rahne on the other hand, was uncertain what normal was, and didn't know how she would deal with being around large amounts of people again, especially people she would have to hide her mutation from.

With the rescue of Betsy once more on hold until Reed could supply them with more information on Mojoworld, while Ororo went back to her lessons with Gaia, and Jean spent time with Dani, Harry spent the majority of the next two days finishing the magical defenses for his company's headquarters. This alas pushed other projects and even his time with his family on the back burner, but after talking about it with Emma and Ororo, Harry had decided it was important to get his company up and running quickly.

The use of a hearthstone let him do this much more easily, but it was still a lot of work. Not hard at this point Harry had more power than he knew what to do with, but time consuming to carve out the runes and place the ward stones around the property.

The construction on the building itself was well on its way to completion. The house-elf in charge, whose name was Hessy, said that it was only the wiring, heating and other fiddly bits that were slowing it down. Hessy, the first seemingly overweight house-elf Harry had ever seen, and his team had no knowledge of modern methods in that area, and it was a learning experience from the get go, but one Harry had seen coming, and had planned for ever since he began to rewire Hogwarts. It was also costing more than Harry had expected, but nowhere near enough to worry about.

Still, Hessy was certain they would be able to finish up what they could in another two days. Harry would however have to get a crew of human workers to go over everything however. But with the work mostly already done, Harry could bring in a large enough company to do that in a day.

Vetting them too would only take a few minutes, since every doorway in the building had a runic array designed much like the trust me, trust me not array. Much like the array Harry had been using to vet possible workers, it had a crystal set into it, this time right above the mantle of the door. It glow red if anyone passed through the doorway that had duplicitous reasons to be there.

Despite this ongoing work, Harry was able to spend time exercising with the teams in the morning. On the third day after their meeting with the Fantastic Four, Harry and the other 'senior members' became aware of the rivalry growing between Magma and Paige. "Um…" he began hesitantly after the training session ended, looking down the corridor where are the younger two girls had just disappeared. "What exactly sparked bad blood between those two? I'll admit that I've been busy with all my own projects and haven't, you know, taken much time to get to know them out side of the team exercises, but it's come at me out of the blue."

Jean and Ororo laughed quietly shaking their heads. "It's nothing unusual Harry, if anything the opposite is true. In any group there is a sort of hierarchy. Teenage girls and boys in particular are extremely hierarchical in nature, and the two of them are simply uncertain where they stand in relation to one another." Ororo said.

"It is further compounded by the fact they are both semi-interested in Piotr." Jean added, shaking her head with a faint smile.

That at least Harry had noticed, and was concerned about whether or not that rivalry for Piotr's attention would spoil their ability to work together. He said as much, but Jean shook her head. "Neither of them are too serious about it I don't think. In fact I predict Paige's interest will switch over to Vanguard at some point. Amara might be somewhat more interested in him, given their connection as artists but that's about it."

"Wait, if this is all about establishing a hierarchy among the girls, why aren't the two of you involved? Or Kitty or Rahne, or, come to think of it, Laynia?"

"Rahne is too new and too shy to be a danger to either of them, she's a follower by nature. Kitty isn't on the team nor does she actually live here, and the same goes for Laynia vis a vi the team. Watch out for when Dani starts to train with the rest of us, I predict she'll have to run the gauntlet too. And as for Jean and myself, our places in the hierarchy are already established." Ororo replied laughing quietly. "We're at the top. As Jean said, the two of them are just trying to find where they are in relation to one another, that's all."

"I feel as if I'm missing something here." He muttered but shrugged his shoulders before motioning Shiang Chi over to them from where he had been talking quietly to Nikolai. "Not important right now I guess. Listen, with us unable to take action against Betsy's kidnappers I was hoping to get the team some real life experience in a semi-controlled environment. I'd also like to see what our current equipment can do in the field. With the number of us on the team, if we run into the same sort of magical defenses as had been it at the previous sites, we should be able to roll over Selene's last cache easily."

"I have meetings the rest of the day, including meeting with Emma to hammer out our initial PR stance, our marketing blitz is ready to go thankfully, the men we hired to do that have performed admirably I think. Tomorrow though is free. So do you think Paige and Amara are ready to join the rest of us?"

Shiang Chi shrugged. "In terms of training, they are where they should be after only a week, take that how you will. Paige is taking to boxing and kickboxing in particular very well, though I doubt that her balance will ever be the equal of Piotr's, despite training her in Penckat Silat. Magma has all the balance of a premier swordswoman however, and he has taken to the armed and unarmed training like a duck to water. There is no physical reason that they both could not join you on this little escapade, since I assume you would be along to aid them if they got into trouble."

Ororo frowned thoughtfully then gestured for Jean to speak. "I'm afraid I haven't spent much time with either girl's socially, so their ability to work together is a mystery to me. I've spent most of my free time with Emma in the evenings, as well as helping Ms. Brown with the teenagers. In fact, I have a meeting with Charles this afternoon local time to discuss Laynia transferring over to Bayville High."

Jean shrugged. "Amara's fiery, no pun intended. She's eager to prove herself, eager to make her mark and has performed admirably in all the exercises I've seen. She's also a team player."

She paused a moment to let Harry nod before going on. "Paige however could be a problem. She is just as eager to prove herself, but also reckless, and hasn't gotten over the typical teenage delusion that she's immortal just yet. Her powers however are very good from a defensive perspective, and Paige hasn't shown any sign of ignoring orders during our team exercises. But has her mother even given the okay for her to join us?"

They all looked at one another and shook their heads. Harry had been so busy with his other projects he hadn't even talked to the woman outside of preparing to send Sam to Bayville, plus paying for Sam's education and talking to the two of them about what he would have to do to gain a scholarship.

"In that case Paige has to get her mother's okay before anything else happens." Harry said firmly. "I'll speak to Paige over lunch later. But on the subject of battle rattle, I'm almost finished modifying my sniper rifle to take advantage of Kitty's suggestions, and a few other things too. So does that mean we should contact Wyatt to join us on this expedition?"

Wyatt had stopped by the other day, having called ahead for transportation, and he and Shiang Chi had gotten on splendidly. He was already a black belt in judo and kendo, as well as a boxer. His body control was simply phenomenal, and he was a slightly better shot than Nikolai.

"I'd like him to train with the team for a few days before we throw him out into the wild." Harry replied rather drolly. "I'm a firm believer in training to know one another's strengths before having to work with one another in the field. And with that ladies, gentlemen, I have to end this impromptu planning session. I have previous engagements down in London." He kissed Ororo and Jean tenderly, then left, popping almost immediately to the empty car lot in London they had been using for such.

OOOOOOO

It had taken quite a while for Balder to convince the odd guardsmen of this city to allow him to speak to someone in charge, and he had to give up his blade to do it. Still, since one of the magics on the blade would allow him to summon it from anywhere nearby, and it had spells on it that would keep anyone else form using it, that wasn't so much of a wrench as it would have been for most Asgardians.

After proving that he was indeed an Asgardian through various feats of strength and knowledge, Balder had been handed over to Jack Harper. Learning however that he would have to wait for Guardian, which was the name the wizard who was the most likely person to be this rising power he was here to see, to contact the government in turn was irritating. Still, his accommodations were pleasant enough. He looked up from his book, a history text covering the Thirty Years War, as his door opened.

For all his weight Jack moved lightly on his feet, making nary a sound on the wooden floor of the well-appointed guest room that was set aside for those individuals MI5 took in who they had to treat as actual guests for various reasons. He smiled, seeing the book in Balder's large, heavily calloused hands. The man had turned out to be a bit of a scholar, which had astonished Jack when he found out about it.

And, despite his natural and trained paranoia Jack had found himself liking Balder. He was genuine in a way very few men Jack had met were, he cared not at all for lying or dissembling. "I see you've found my collection of history books, it is one of my vices I will admit. My other main vice hardly needs to be stated." Jack laughed, patting his stomach.

Balder laughed as well, standing up politely as the other man came in. Whatever else came of this trip, Balder had begun to see what Thor saw in these mortals. They were an intensely… alive bunch, always inquisitive, always striving. Their history since Asgard had last had ties with them was fascinating, their progress since astonishing. Indeed, if they but had a single government to speak truly for all, Balder might well have pushed for an alliance between all of Midgard and Asgard. "Do not let it get you down my friend, so long as you can wield a pen as well as you do you may never need to wield any other weapon. Is something going on? You normally don't stop by until dinner time."

"We have a sighting downtown of Guardian in his civilian guise. He's openly rented out a meeting room in one of the hotels downtown, and is meeting there with several worthies." The fact we've been able to find out about it means it probably has to do with his businesses rather than his extralegal activities, but I doubt that will matter in any event for this. "I'm going to arrange a meeting between you if I can, but you have to realize that myself or someone else will need to sit in?"

"Of course, having the neutral party on whose land the meeting takes place as witness is the norm in any event. I don't suppose I could convince you to let me have my arms and armor back?" Balder asked, putting the book back after placing a bookmark in it. The book was excellent, covering the tactics, strategies and weaponry used during the Thirty Years War, and Balder was greatly enjoying it.

"Afraid not bucko, not the done thing around here to go armed like that. Sorry." Jack smirked. "Besides, my seamstress has greatly enjoyed preparing some formal dress for you. It would be a pity to waste her efforts don't you think?" Balder smirked slightly, remembering the young woman's blushing attempts to fit him. Those were the kinds of women he liked, the ones who weren't so worldly but mature enough to know what they wanted and were eager for new experiences.

Jack laughed again before motioning the much larger man to follow him.

OOOOOOO

Harry walked into the Marriot London Park Lane where he had booked a small meeting room for today's dealings, chosen because Emma and his Personnel Director had recommended it. The small-scale meeting room he had chosen was small, done in wood for the most part, with none of the modern touch to the furniture that was in vogue now. It was dominated by a table that could comfortably sit four people, two to a side.

At the moment it was further dominated by Emma's presence, who came to her feet with a bland 'for public consumption' smile on her face. Next to her, her lawyer and chief accountant stood up as well, holding a folder in one hand. "Mr. Potter. How are you today? I trust you are ready to finalize the agreements we've discussed over the phone?"

Emma was publicly in the UK for several reasons, which had forced her to take her private jet out rather than the runic doorway, which was still working. One was to check up on the London Branch of the Hellfire Club. This was the main one from the perspective of any of her enemies in the New York branch, and one none of them had a problem with, since they had their own contacts there to keep an eye on her. Both Kings also knew that at present there was no one of sufficient power in the London Branch to be any threat. They thought she was using the need to meet and finalize legally the agreements that had already been made between Harry and Emma to cover her looking for said, but knew that would fail.

For the first twenty minutes of the meeting, the presence of Emma's two underlings there made both of them simply act as if they were business partners who didn't know very much about one another. Emma seemingly took the lead in discussions, which is what her men expected, but the end result was the same as they had agreed about weeks ago.

Magical Minds would use Frost Pharmaceutical's distribution network in the United Kingdom and in Europe for its potions until the end of this year, by which time Harry would have his own distribution network in place. Five percent of the profits MM took in would exchange hands. This money Emma would turn to adding to her family's already formidable intelligence apparatus, which Harry and his spymaster could access. Emma would also set up a way to get high tech medical and scientific gear to Harry.

After everything had been signed and dated, Emma ordered the men out, after pulling out a bottle of champagne to show that they were going to take a few minutes to celebrate.

The moment he was out the door and the door closed she sighed and looked at Harry sharply who nodded, waggling his fingers. "No listening devices or anything, and if there was, I sent out a magic pulse the moment I got here that would've fried them in any event, and I just covered us with a mufilatio, a spell that make it impossible for anyone else to listen in on us."

"Oh thank goodness," Emma muttered sitting down next to him and pulling him into a hug. The more she was around people who she didn't have to wear a mask for, the worse it felt putting it back on, especially when they were around like just now. "While I have mostly cleared out my father's supporters among the higher-ups, I haven't gotten down to the regular pencil pusher level just yet. A lot of the older ones seem to be of the opinion that women should stay home and cook or some such stupidity." She murmured into his shoulder, refusing to back away for a moment.

Harry merely held her, for several minutes then watched as Emma shook herself, and moved back. Standing up she poured some of the champagne, just for the look of the thing, before turning back to Harry, one eyebrow quirked. "You mentioned a few nights ago that you had decided to move Sebastian Shaw up on your list of priorities. This is the first time I've seen you in person since then however, so perhaps you could tell me what brought that on?"

Harry filled her in on the X-men's encounter with the Hellions, watching Emma's frown deepen with every sentence. "I don't like that." she muttered when he finished. "I don't like the fact Shaw was willing to cut his losses like that. I don't like the fact he had that many regular troops to call upon for what was really just a recruitment drive. My agents and my cybernetic spies have found what amounts to a private army working for the Hellfire Club, but there would be repercussions if that amount of troops disappeared, and there hasn't been such an uproar from that I've seen, which means Shaw has forces like that on call of his own. Damn it, where has he been hiding it? I thought I knew all the monetary resources Shaw could call on."

"Jean was unable to find anything on the cyborg body we absconded with that could give us a target alas, and from what you've just said I assume you haven't been able to either?" Emma shook her head and Harry shrugged. "In any event, we've got another problem that is more important right at this moment. I believe Jean mentioned a friend of ours named Betsy that went missing, we found where she is, but going after her is going to prove problematic, and we're waiting for more information to be available for going, after that, we can move on Shaw if we can."

"That's a good idea on many fronts." Emma replied. "Primarily because Shaw is getting ready to move against Pierce soon. He and I have been working together to find all the possible bolt holes Pierce could use, both financial and physical, and we're almost ready to fill them in. I imagine he'll use these Hellions of his in the actual attack, which should happen sometime in the next two weeks. We're putting together a profile of Pierce's movements, so we can catch him as well as this group he's put together, he calls them his reapers."

"From what I can gather from my spies, these reapers are cybernetically altered humans, many levels above and beyond what the cyborg soldiers you called the bruisers could claim, though I've not been able to find anything beyond that, and even that little bit was more because of chance and the fact my cybernetic worms are better than his defenses. Or were for just that brief moment where an email sent form one of his company's computer's to another mentioned 'Augmentation Zeta being completed on subject reaper seven'. My spies gave me enough information to decide these reapers are cyborgs thanks to the place the e-mail came from, but I was forced to remove them before they could be discovered."

"I'm not sure who to root for there." Harry murmured then laughed quietly. "I don't suppose Shaw will personally be involved in that battle? If he is, we can simply find out where it will take place, then take both factions out once they've weakened one another."

"That would indeed be magnificent." Emma said smiling happily at that image, but shook her head. "I don't think it's possible however. For one thing, while he's been preparing to move against Pierce, Shaw is also the counter-balancing point against Edward Buckman's influence in the Hellfire Club. If they didn't have each other to concentrate on, either king might become more aware of my own plans and machinations."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "When do you think I should make my debut in the London Hellfire Club? I was thinking of after I get the PHPRA's official go ahead to sell to the civilian sector."

"That will work excellently actually. Indeed, I think you'll be invited in, rather than you going to them." Emma smiled thinly. "I've already primed the club members for that." The London Branch members were still in disarray from what had occurred with Selene, and no one had stepped forward to take command of the club or its resources.

Emma couldn't just let that be, and had swept through it like a juggernaut, shaping and changing it to her satisfaction. Several deals for her corporations UK and European branches had come out of it, but Harry would be able to tie up even more.

"Once you have money coming in, it will skyrocket you into the position of at least a bishop right off the bat. Once you branch out you'll become a king soon enough." She frowned a little. "The only thing that concerns me there is Emma Steed's holdings. They are still being administered by the crown, for some reason. They've had a lot of time to decide how to distribute them, but haven't. I don't think the government is doing a bad job running them, but its odd."

That caused Harry to frown for a moment then he shrugged and changed the subject to what they were going to be talking about during the unveiling of his company's headquarters. News had already begun to filter about major deals in the offing for some new miracle 'drugs' on the medical side. The government's PR people had subtly hinted that Magical Minds was responsible for the goods that had saved so many lives of the Gurkhas involved in the terrorist attack on London. This, along with the news that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency had already stated they would allowing sale to the civilian sector after merely another month's study had heightened interest in Harry's company.

That discussion went on for some time, with Emma grilling Harry sharply on what he was going to let out at the speech when the building opened as well as what he was going to keep hidden, and the fact that he wasn't going to come out as pro-mutant just yet. That would wait until the efficacy of his potions had been improving in the military market for all to see, and he began to sell them to the civilian market began. That would allow him to use the support garnered from that for his own purposes.

Even after they finished hammering that out however, there was one thing still bothering Emma. "I'm still of two minds about you coming clean about magic being the source of your potions. I know I suggested it, but it really could bite us on the ass if we don't get at least two of the four major religions on our side."

"I have it on good authority that the Dalai Lama won't care one way or the other, so going by the numbers that's number five taken care of." Harry said smiling faintly. "Apparently certain Buddhist sects has known about magic for millennia now, and the former Sorcerer Supreme was a personal friend of the current Dalai Lama. I'm not even going to try to get Islam on my side, that's just not going to happen in the main. Some groups I could be open to business with though."

Harry had taken a long hard look at religion in this world and had decided that the teachings of Islam, at least as practiced by the majority of Muslims, was something he really did not want to touch. The number of terrorist groups associated with Islamic belief was simply appalling. And while the majority of Muslims were not terrorists, they weren't exactly going out of their way to denounce said terrorists either, which was just as bad in his opinion, reminding him too much of the magical world's idea of simply ignoring the problem because it didn't affect them personally.

"I've looked at the Pope." Emma shook her head, worried. "I honestly… I don't think we can get him on our side. While he has tried to reach out to other religions, Jon Paul is considered a conservative in terms of doctrine, and magic, like it or not, is seen as something from Satan in the Christian religion." She didn't mention the popes position on abortion or contraception, since while Emma found them personally repugnant they did not matter in this conversation. "I have no idea about his position on the mutant issue, since the catholic church has been very careful about keeping silent on that issue."

Harry frowned thoughtfully, tapping his fingers on the table. "There's no single person I can talk to try to get Hinduism on his side, but from what I can remember, they have a place for magic built into 'sanatana dharma'. Despite what most people think, Hinduism is more about intellectual and philosophical points of view than about Belief, so it is somewhat more flexible, and far more diverse than other major religions."

Padma and Parvati had both been Hindus, though neither had made any big deal about it. Harry had talked about it with them both at one point, and he had been astonished by the sheer breadth of differing sects that was encompassed by the term Hinduism. But that conversation had been many years ago, and he hadn't had time to devote to researching India or its major belief system in this world, so he was racking his brain for details. "The text from… Athar something, covers medicine and black and white magic. So we should be fine there."

"And despite what a lot of people think, Jews, despite having their own nation, really are not one of the most numerous religions. So long as we don't threaten them, I don't think they will have an issue with us. Christians though could be a problem. How likely is it that the pope will take a stance against me when my magic use comes out?"

"I don't know. I think he would personally wait and see what you say and what your potions do before making a ruling. But if he does make a ruling ex cathedra, that will be disastrous in many ways."

"All right, we need to get a handle on that aspect before I come clean with my own magical abilities and the fact that my medicines are actually potions. We also need to know the church's stance on mutants."

"There we might be better off, the church position has always been that all human life is sacred. So long as they don't see mutants as a sub species we should be good." Emma broke in.

"Well that's nice and all, but I'd like to know for certain." Harry mused for a moment then looked at her with his head cocked to one side. "Tell me, how far can you detect a single mind in a city?"

"A mile or so depending on various factors. If you're asking me what I think you're asking me, I can do that yes." Emma laughed quietly. I would love to see Rome, it is one of the most magnificent cities in the world. We could make a day trip of it." She went on more hesitantly, watching Harry carefully. "And if Jon Paul's opinion isn't to our liking, I could… modify it…"

"No." Harry replied firmly, but he smiled at her. "Understand me Emma, while I didn't have an issue with you doing such things to protect yourself, or even trolling for information in other people's minds, there is a vast difference between that and manipulating the mind of someone who hasn't proven to be a threat. It's the slippery slope you know, if you can moralize such a thing now, it will become easier overtime, and that is a dangerous road to go down. Trust me, I've been there too, and seen where always assuming you know the best leads to."

Emma smiled and nodded. "I didn't think it was a good idea myself, but I wanted to see your reaction to it. Oh, by the way, I haven't made any progress in getting Sandman released. I'm being blocked by some very odd costumers. But my other plan to bring in the girl I mentioned, the one whose chosen moniker is Firestar, has worked out well. Angelica, that is her real name, will be moving into my mansion a week from now. Her parents were stalling things, but I was able to get them to agree eventually, full medical and some other incentives were enough to break them down. Could we set up a time for you to stop by and analyze her powers?"

"Not a problem. I'll have to wait until Magical Minds officially opens then see about my schedule but other than that, I don't see why not." Harry replied, nodding his head.

Emma smiled. "Excellent. In that case, I think we're done, since you have another meeting soon. I'll see you all tomorrow evening for dinner?"

"Yep." Harry said sitting up and leaning over to her to kiss Emma gently on the cheek pulling away before she could turn her head to capture Harry's lips with her own. She pouted outrageously at him, and he merely chuckled and shook his head. "My next business meeting here is in about…" he glanced at the wall clock. "Ten minutes, so I don't want lipstick on my mouth, sorry. I'll see you tomorrow evening, it'll be Ororo's turn to cook again, and she's very good."

Emma smiled eagerly, as they both stood up pulled him into a hug, letting one hand drop down to his rear to squeeze it lightly before pulling away with a laugh heading out the door. Harry shook his head with a chuckle as he watched her go, his eyes sliding to Emma's own rear for a moment as she walked off with a swish in her step. He then sat down with a sigh to await his next meeting.

Elsewhere Ororo was just showing up for her one meeting for the day.

OOOOOOO

Cyclops looked up as he was leading the team down to the black jet as Ororo and someone else, a teenage girl with long wavy blond hair and dark black eyes, popped in with the aid of one of the house-elves. "Hello Ororo." he said calmly, rolling his chair over to shake her hand. "Is this is Laynia? Vanguard mentioned her."

Laynia sized up the young man before her smiling slightly until she flicked her eyes over to where Rouge was standing close by and saw the possessive way she was standing. Pity, I wish to try this dating thing, but the pool of available boys is sadly lacking. Piotr wasn't exactly her type, a little too muscular for her tastes, nor did the other teen boys interest her. And of course before that, having any kind of relationship with any of the soldiers on the base would've been a massive issue.

Beside her Ororo hadn't noticed the younger woman's glances, simply smiling at Cyclops, who had come so far since his days as a rather arrogant and entitled stiff-necked young man. "Yes she is, I made an appointment with Charles to talk about letting her stay with you today, as well as helping him finally okay his search for a language teacher."

Charles wheeled up then and smiled at them all. "I would've liked Scott to be part of that conversation as well, but unfortunately he and the team are heading out on a mission right now. There is a young mutant down in South Carolina him that has just activated his powers. Alas they are not of the variety that would be able to aid him in defending himself and a local hate group is about to move in on his location. Their hate and anger was easy to feel through Cerebro despite the effect of drunkenness on their mental faculties."

"Then what are you waiting around here for?" Ororo asked archly waving her hands at the team who grinned at her before racing off down towards the black jet.

Even Kurt, despite still working through his issues with what had occurred on their last issue, was eager to aid a fellow mutant like this. The young Germanic born teleporter had been having nightmares of the battle against the pirates in the China sea, but it wasn't what he found that was disturbing his sleep, he could have lived with that. Such horror should haunt you after all.

No, what bothered him was the fact his dreams were dominated by the actual battle, only his feelings during these dreams were very different from what he had felt at the time. Instead of feeling horror and grim determination, he felt only anger and a rising enjoyment of the slaughter. That bothered him, it bothered him deeply. There was a difference between doing what you had to in the name of justice, and enjoying such butchery for its own sake, and the idea he had secretly enjoyed it was deeply disturbing to the fun loving youth. Kurt had talked about it to Father Garnoff, but it hadn't helped him as much as he had hoped.

As soon as the team was gone Ororo turned to Charles asking solicitously. "Has that young woman who you rescued recovered?"

"Ms. Xian is still trapped in her own mind I'm afraid." Charles shook his head. "I led her psyche back to her mind, but it is up to her to actually come out of it. If I go in now, I could do more damage than good, but if she doesn't come out of it on her own within the next few days, I'll be forced to anyway. Despite our keeping her body alive via medical means, there is only so long the human body can go without truly having a mind in charge of it. Her mother however has woken up, and has agreed to work here as a cook and general house servant."

In point of fact the woman, Can Tho Manh, was incredibly grateful for the rescue, knowing that the initial assault on her child and her could have only been the beginning of a life of servitude and degradation, if the pirates didn't simply kill them out of hand. With the aid of Clare, who had taken over as Kitty's primary house-elf, she handled anything that needed doing around the house.

After spending a few minutes talking to Laynia, Charles set her up in one of the solar to work on a few tests to get into Bayville. Once completed, they would be easily able to place Laynia there as a senior.

After that, Ororo met the woman who had been brought in to replace her as foreign language teacher. "She is not as accomplished in languages as she is in the sciences." Charles said. "But she can double as a doctor for us as well as a science teacher, which I think we can both agree is a excellent idea." Ororo nodded and he went on. "She has majors in medicine, biology and computers. Kitty has evidenced a desire to head into computer programming, did you know that?"

"Among other things yes." Ororo said with a smile. She hadn't yet broken the news to Kitty about her magical power, since Kitty's birthday was coming up in a few weeks, which would allow them all to sit down with her parents and explain everything to all three at once, which would go nicely with the gift that Harry was preparing, a runic doorway to her parent's home.

That method of transportation had now been proven conclusively thanks to the doorway at Emma's mansion. So long as one end of the doorway was in a magical area, two runic doorways could draw power from one another. This also opened up a lot of tactical opportunities as Harry put it, which he was eager to get to in the future.

Ororo shrugged. "In all honesty Charles, Scott and the others already have enough linguistic ability to get by in most of the world, even if you don't go with them on their missions. I will be available if any of them wish to continue their language education, and I hope some choose to do so, but a better idea would be to have the new students you're going to bring in next month rotate with the others to learn a new language before moving onto the next. For example I think Kitty could easily teach Vietnamese, and needless to say Kurt could teach German. Scott could do French for certain, and I think they could work together to teach Chinese."

"That's actually a very good idea!" Charles said enthusiastically. "Thank you for that, I don't suppose they could use the lessons you initially used?"

"I could modify them easily enough for one-on-one instruction yes." Ororo nodded as they continued into the sitting area, where the teacher was already waiting for them.

The new teacher was a middle aged woman around Charles' age, with brown hair down to her neck and brown eyes, wearing a conservative skirt, with a rolling suitcase next to her on the sofa and some papers in her hand. She was watching the TV when they came in, a news program reporting the apparent suicide of a woman in France, some kind of industrialist who was big in the train business.

Charles smiled slightly waving one hand at the woman. "Ororo, this is Moira McTaggart, an old friend of mine."

OOOOOOO

After a rather lonely and very quick lunch Harry was once more back in the meeting room he had booked for the day, with two of his three meetings of the day under his belt. The second had moved with glacial slowness in comparison to the meeting with Emma, but had been very informative nonetheless. The publicity department was now good to go, and the first few advertisements for Magical Minds were ready to coincide with the Drug Administration's acceptance of it, so sales to the civilian sector would begin immediately. They were actually already ready to declare his potions safe to use, but they had to wait until the official trial period assigned initially was over.

He stood up as two men entered the room. One was a tallish man dressed in a tweed sweater of all things, with a pipe stuck in his teeth and one of those beret hats (which Harry thought looked idiotic) on his head over ginger hair. Strangely enough however he made the sweater work for him, though the pipe was a bit much in Harry's opinion.

The man next to him however did not even try to appear casual. He was dressed in a suit, much like the one Harry was wearing except his was transfigured. He also moved like an old-time soldier who had never gotten used to civilian life, marching in and reaching out with a strong hand to grip Harry's hand. "Harry Potter, or do you go by Mr. Guardian?"

For business, I am Mr. Potter, for extralegal activities I'll go by Guardian." Harry said simply, unsurprised that the man had heard about his real name or his new call sign. "You would be the Director General of Interpol?"

"David Tedrow at your service." The man said nodding formally. "You know Sean Cassidy of course, one of your people apparently tried to recruit him several weeks back?"

"We did, but only if he was willing to leave his former job. I take it you have decided to use him as your liaison with us, or minder or whatever the term you wish to use?" Harry gestured both men into seats and was not surprised to see the director general sitting up as if he was trying to stand at attention despite sitting down. The man had a reputation of being rigid like that in his personal dealing. But despite being a-by-the-books character knew when to throw the book out to get things done.

"Yes, so long as we understand one another and your objectives for this group you're putting together. Pro-mutant rights are all well and good, but not when they take away the rights of the normal individual."

"That's the last thing I want." Harry replied honestly. "I want humans and mutants to stand together united. I think we've got a lot of other problems coming our way, not just homegrown either."

When both of them looked at him quizzically he shrugged. "I'm a friend of the Fantastic Four. You're free to put that in my file if you want, but please don't bruit it about just yet, at least not in connection to my Mr. Potter name. And the number of alien species they've run into that could be a threat to humanity is not pleasant to imagine."

Both her eyes widened at that, then almost visibly they put it aside. After all, the Fantastic Four had proven themselves able to handle such threats before, and it was certainly out of Interpol's remit. "In that case," Sean said. "I'll be happy to work with you Mr. Potter, I'll be free to move into wherever you all are based in a few more days, as soon as I finish up one or two more case files."

Harry nodded but cautioned that Banshee would have to pass a certain few tests of his teamwork ability and hand-to-hand skills as well as trustworthiness before Harry allowed him to be on the team in an actual combat situation. Banshee simply nodded, since that was much the same as he would have to face if he was to join any of the strike units Interpol had.

After that the Inspector General and Harry got down to brass tacks in terms of his potions and information sharing. Harry went through his sales pitch for the Big Four as he was calling them, with David offering an almost laughable price to begin with. Then he allowed himself to be talked up to the price which was where Harry had sold to Britain.

Harry kept on forcing his price upwards, until finally they reached the price the other two delegates had finally decided on for much the same amount. This was a good price, Harry felt, since part of the deal would be Interpol letting them access some of their intelligence apparatus after they took possession of the first shipment of potions.

It was about two-thirds what Harry would sell his potions for in the future. Harry estimated the price for British sales would actually go down, once he started to buy things in bulk from the industrial side of things, especially when the 'most favored nation' status William had oh so casually tossed out came into effect. But the rest of his sales would certainly not reflect that.

After that they signed some paperwork, which Harry read very carefully indeed, then both of them signed it, each of them taking a copy.

Harry once more shook hands with both men as the meeting broke up. "Pleasure doing business with you both, and I hope to talk to you further when you're ready to start training with us Banshee. Here is my number, call when you're ready to go, and I'll provide transportation."

Banshee nodded and pocketed the card, and left with his boss quickly afterwards.

Harry sighed and allowed himself to collapse back into his chair for a moment shaking his head. It was nearly seven o'clock now local time and he had put in one hell of the day, and he had one more discussion he wanted to have today. Gods I hate all this business stuff, I know it's important, both in the long and short term, but I long for the day I can leave meetings and stuff like that to other people and simply putter around with Jean and Kitty, only occasionally looking over their shoulders.

Glancing at the clock he saw he had an hour to kill before having to make his way to California for his next meeting, which had thankfully been rather easy to set up. He looked up however as the door to the meeting room opened, one hand readying a spell just in case at the sudden intrusion. He paused however as he recognized the somewhat obese elderly gentlemen who entered, hands outstretched in token of peace. "Pax, Mr. Potter. I believe we were rather quickly introduced after that horrible set to with the terrorist Selene?"

"MI5 director right? Sorry, I can't remember your name." Harry relaxed marginally, head cocked to one side. "To what do I owe this intrusion?"

"Quite all right lad. The name's Jack Harper, and I am here acting as a sort of go between, though not the normal sort." The older man's lips quirked as he shook his head. "I wouldn't normally be doing this in person, but given your status and the nature of the individual involved, I felt it best to handle this myself. You see, we think you might be the individual this person is looking for, and seeing as he was searching for you on British soil, we were forced to step in."

Harry's eyebrows went up in surprise then his eyes narrowed. "Exactly who is this individual?"

Without answering Jack turned to the door behind him. "You can come in now."

At those words a large man, possibly the same height as Colossus in his armored form, came through the door, dressed in a very nicely tailored suit, though that wasn't what Harry concentrated on. What he concentrated on was the size of the man's shoulders, the way he stood lightly on his feet. There was also a sense of power in the man, not magic, this was a purely physical sort of power. Harry also took in the intelligent and watchful eyes, which at present were crinkled with humor, which matched the wry twist to the other man's mouth.

That last actually caused Harry to relax again, and he smirked back at the man as Jack intoned, his own sense of the absurd evident in his tone. "Mr. Potter, be known to Balder, emissary of Odin Borson, king of the Asgardians."

For his part, Balder was slightly in awe of the human in front of him. The sight of Asgardians could see much more than human senses could discern, and the sheer presence of the man in front of him was amazing. It was like standing in front of Odin when he was feasting, the knowledge that, right below the boisterous surface, there was a volcano of power, leashed yet ready to be released. Balder could tell much of it was magical in nature, but not all of it, and the magic in question was tied to his body, immutable from the human's physical form.

At the name Asgardians, Harry suddenly knew the reason behind an old mystery he had been wondering about: the lack of Norse runes in this world. If the Asgardians here were real rather than an esoteric group of wizards, that makes sense, though how real and in what way remains to be seen. It never occurred to him to doubt the man was something more than human, the physical power of the man told him that at least. Nor could he think of any reason why someone would go to the trouble of using such a lie to get close to him, even if they could fool Jack Harper into bedeviling it. But what the hell does their king want from me? Harry racked his brain, trying to remember all he could of Norse Mythology, and coming up nearly empty.

Still, he decided to go with formal yet polite for now."Be welcome, Balder of Asgard. Though, I am at a loss as to what you want with me. I confess to having a lot of questions about Asgard, but at present I don't have time to ask them all. Can I ask instead what you wanted to meet with me about? Or, given the fact Jack introduced you as an emissary, what your king wants with me?"

"Odin-father sees much from Asgard, Mr. Potter, and he has seen your power rising, primarily in conjunction with the weakening of an Elder God and death of a Demon Lord. Great feats, not just of strength but of heart." Balder replied as he took the seat across from Harry. "He has sent me to find out what I can of you, your origins in particular, and whether your goals long term may aid or hinder Asgard."

Harry frowned, trying again remember all he could about Norse mythology, but all he could come up with was a memory of Neville of all people talking about Valkyries who came to take the spirits of the brave away. He could not remember why, but he thought that in most of the myths Norse gods were more like their worshippers, and didn't tend to lord over them like other pantheons did. Still best to be certain. "Can I ask in turn what Asgard's position in regards to Earth is?"

"Neutrality, rather patronizing neutrality it must be said." Balder replied bluntly, shooting an apologetic glance at Jack, who had taken another chair and were watching both of them closely. "That is an unfortunate holdover from the time when we had more to do with the lives on those who worshipped us here on Midgard, before we retreated to our own lands like most of the other pantheons when Christianity began to spread."

"From what I have seen since my arrival however, humans have come a long way, in many ways much farther than we ourselves. Certainly your technology is beyond what we can do save with runic arrays. Though individually you are still weak in comparison to even the least Asgardian. To put it simply, we have no plans to have much of anything to do with Earth as a whole, not until Earth has a single unified government, and even then, a distant sort of alliance would be the best outcome on our side"

"I see. So no wishes to return to power or convert all of humanity to your worship?" Harry asked, keeping his tone bland but his eyes were alert and watchful, searching for any deceit in the otherworldly persona before him.

Balder shook his head, looking mildly disgusted by the idea. The average Asgardian received no power at all from worship, and for most, save Loki perhaps, being worshipped was seen as a chore. Oh, the Valkyries had once been mortal, and they Hela and Odin both still had something to do with the few worshippers that were still around, but it had been a long time since anyone else had much to do with such.

"In that case, I will tell you about my origins so long as you reciprocate about your own people. But in regards to my long term goals, I don't think you have enough local knowledge to understand most of them. I will say however that my long term goals will benefit all of humanity, nor am I interested in conquest or anything like that." Harry said, leaning back and looking at the clock worriedly. It never paid to keep a lady waiting after all.

Balder frowned but nodded, and Harry went on to summarize his time in his home dimension, causing Badler's eyes to widen when he heard about the prophecy and its outcome. All of Asgard knew of the power of prophecy, yet to meet a Fate-Touched was still surprising.

During his recitation Harry's eyes twitched to Jack who was taking it all in without surprise. It appeared as if William had shared something of his origins with his most loyal people, which Harry was ambivalent about. He trusted William's judgment to a degree, and it was a done deal in any event, but he didn't trust all the people they trusted so to speak. Still, in the main he felt it was out of his control for now, and any attempt to redress that would only make it worse in the long run.

After he finished, Balder asked a few questions, mainly about Dumbledore and his actions, as well as how the Voldemort person had survived, which Harry answered in a roundabout way. The tightening of Balder's face however told him he had understood the thrust of what Harry was saying.

"I think you have led a most eventful life Mr. Potter. Even for an Asgardian of the royal house that would be true. And your actions, and the fact I can sense no lie in what you have said, tells me much about your character. It behooves me to reciprocate."

Balder did so for a time, after which Harry was glancing at the clock with far more concern. Still, it opened up several questions about the Asgardians, and their histories, as well as this 'Ragnarock' that he seemed to remember, something about a disaster that wiped them all out, though even that Harry wasn't certain about.

Still, right now he had more important things on his schedule than satisfying his curiosity, or even adding to his magical knowledge. "That is fascinating Balder, and I would be interested in setting up some sort of information exchange, you mentioned runic arrays, and I am a master in using several runic languages so a give or take there would be interesting. Anything formal however would have to wait for another time. I have an appointment I have to get to in ten minutes, so we have to cut this short here."

"I understand, and indeed you have already satisfied the initial instructions I was given by Odin-father. I will need to return to him to see if he would be amenable to anything formal. I think trade relations would be possible, indeed I could see us using you as a bridge between us and the rest of humanity. I in particular will be sad to leave the books and histories I have been reading the past few days behind." Balder sighed dramatically causing Harry and Jack to chuckle.

Jack's eyes glittered at the idea of what he and his could get from the Asgardians. No weapons possibly, but new metallurgy techniques, new knowledge, or even just raw goods would be excellent, and cheap for the price perhaps. Harry saw this, and smirked, knowing what the man was thinking, but also knowing as go-between, he would be the one controlling that trade.

That was for another time however, and he stood up, causing both of the other men to stand as well. "In that case, I need to check out at the front desk, and hurry to my next appointment. I look forward to talking to you again Balder, regardless of what your kind decides." He actually meant it too. Balder was intelligent, affable, and likable.

They shook hands, and Harry hurried out to his next meeting. In his rush, Harry never noticed a small calico cat that had been watching the meeting room doorway from the doorway to another room. Nor did Balder or Jack see anything out of place when they too left the Marriot. A moment later, the cat ambled out of the hotel's service entrance, then disappeared with a pop.

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere, another was looking on, cursing herself for having missed an opportunity to introduce herself to Harry. Hela leaned back from her scrying pool irritably. It wouldn't have been ideal with Balder there, his opinion of me is like most Asgardians, but still, it would have been the best chance to meet Harry out from under those massive, and rather scary even I have to say, wards of his castle. Thank the fates that my Lady did not give me some kind of hard time frame for presenting her gift to Harry.

She frowned again, then looked at the faces of those inside the castle, something niggling at her senses. She paused her pool as an image of a young Native American girl appeared, sitting in the lotus position as she meditated. Something about the girl called to her, and she began to smile. "Danielle Moonstar, hmmm?"

OOOOOOO

Harry arrived as quickly as he could at the small café that his next appointment had decided to use as a meeting point, covered in his George Frederick Weatherby magical disguise. Thankfully, she too was running late. They actually almost ran into one another as they stopped right next to the small gate separating the outside portion of the café from the street. Harry smiled faintly, bowing from the waist getting into the 'George persona'. "And here I was all prepared to give you my most profound apologies for being late Ms. Potts. How are you doing?"

Shaking her head, Pepper smiled at the younger man's urbane air. "I'm well Mr. Weatherby. And please, call me Pepper. I was thankful to get out of the office, but your message was rather vague on what you wanted to meet me about."

"In that, case, please call me George. Shall we sit down first, I believe I promised you lunch." Seeing Pepper's slight frown even as she entered the café, Harry laughed quietly. "Don't worry, I am not trying to flirt with you or anything of that nature. Believe me, my girlfriend wouldn't like that at all, she would come down on me like an angry goddess."

Pepper smiled at that, and the two moved through the café interior, ordering up some food before heading back outside carrying their food. Harry chose an empty table that was hidden from view of the passerby and had only a few places where people could even get a view of their lips moving. After that, he hit the table and chair set with a mild notice-me not, which would impact everyone trying to listen in on them.

The two of them exchanged small talk as they ate, mostly Harry asking questions about Stark Enterprises, including several of the products the company was preparing to sell in the near future. After they were finished eating however, Pepper became more serious. "Alright, now that, what was that term I heard once, we've fed and watered, what exactly did you want to meet with me about?"

"Two things really, the first is, I wanted to ask your opinion on Tony Stark's mental stability. Whatever I said in front of Obadiah, I think that he is the most important piece in the SE puzzle. It's his mind and his research that powers it to a large degree. And this whole Iron Man business is rather… strange, I suppose is the only word that covers all the angles there." Harry began, finishing the last of his grapes.

Pepper winced. She really didn't like the fact Tony was risking himself all the time with his Iron Man antics, nor did she like the rumblings she was hearing from congress about pushing for the Iron Man suit to be handed over to the government. It didn't have the backers such a move would need to go against the Stark lobbyists, but it was worrisome that her boss wasn't taking it seriously.

Still, Tony was her boss and her friend. "I think Tony is doing much better. I don't honestly like the fact that he is risking his life so often, but it seems to be therapeutic. He feels that he can do better with the Iron Man suit than anyone else, and certainly isn't willing to trust anyone else with that power. It's also in some fashion penance for all the lives Stark Enterprise weapons have taken in the past."

"Hmmm… I still think he should see a psychologist, even if he is getting over his PTSD, he could always regress." Harry murmured. Pepper winced again, but didn't gainsay that. "I also have to say that the cat is jolly well out of the back in terms of other suits. I don't suppose you know about my past profession?"

That made Pepper snort. "British SAS, someone major in their anti-terrorist division is our guess, we've found your name and that's it, even our own contacts in the intelligence community couldn't find out more."

"Indeed. Suffice to say that once you are in, retirement is only for a given value. In any event, I've seen reports of dozens of governments the world over trying to create their own, Tony's and Dr. Doom's suit have seemingly begun a trend. There were actually two working versions spotted in Russia, but they have since been… disposed of." Harry smiled thinly.

"I… I see." Pepper said, looking even more wary. "Is that what you wanted to say, to pass on through me to Tony that there are other armor types out there?"

"No actually, that was just a bonus. As I said, I have various connections, including ones that deal with out of the ordinary things. I speak for a group that handles things that SHIELD is supposed to deal with, yet lacks the manpower or the drive to do so. There was an incident recently, and a British citizen was kidnapped. I won't tell you her identity, but let us just say that her abduction has otherworldly origins. To rescue her, and to make certain that there are no more such incidents, I have been tasked to find certain resources."

Pepper frowned. She could tell where this was going. "I'm afraid SE no longer keeps stockpiles of weapons on hand, nor would I be willing to sell them to you with such a vague description."

"You know, looking back on my interactions with him at the Fireman's ball, I could see a fragility to Tony's boisterousness, as if he was having health issues." Harry murmured, as if changing the subject, watching Pepper closely. Thanks to his learning to read Emma, Harry's ability to cold read people had gone up immensely, and Pepper Potts was no Emma Frost.

He saw the minute twitch and the paling features, the concern she couldn't keep out of her face. "I see. It was always strange to me how Tony didn't seem to have much in the way of wounds after he was rescued. I won't ask you to betray his confidence. However, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I have access to medicines and medical abilities that are well above the norm."

Pepper leaned back slightly, her concern for her boss's life and her worry about selling weapons to an almost unknown for no reason warring within her. "I don't like being coerced like this Mr. Weatherby."

"Don't misunderstand me. If Tony needs medical aid, I will gladly set it up, regardless of whether you and SE can get me the supplies I need." Harry smiled thinly. "I'm not that much of a hard ass. No, you said SE doesn't stockpile weapons, and I'll take your word for that. But body armor, surely you have that?" Harry had hoped for both, but Pepper was right, she couldn't just sell him the weapons he would like to have, not without a lot more information than he, in his Weatherby persona, was likely to have.

"Why don't you tell me more about this girl whose gone missing and why you require these weapons Mr. Weatherby. Nice trick you've got by the way, I almost didn't notice you, but Pepper's hair is thankfully distinctive. Mind telling me what kind of tech you're using to get that effect, even now I'm having trouble actually noticing you or the table at all." A voice interjected into the conversation.

Harry and Pepper both looked up in surprise as Tony Stark suddenly pulled up a chair. Harry wondered how the man had been able to power through his notice-me-not, but in the end this made things simpler. "Well, it is the man himself. Taking a break from the hero business?"

"What can I say, I'm an adrenaline junky and it gives me my fix." Tony said blandly, smirking at the other man as he leaned back, seemingly at ease. "So again, why exactly do you need 'supplies'? I like how you've gone out of your way to not say weapons by the way, very diplomatic."

Harry cocked his head to one side. "You're certainly not acting like someone who is still suffering from PTSD I will admit, but what guarantee do I have that you will not share with other people that I've talked to you?"

"You came to me friend." Tony smirked leaning back even more and putting his hands behind his head. "And I think that you're the one that needs me, not the other way around."

Harry frowned a little. While there were other means he could use to get the weapons they would probably need for the rebels when they assaulted Mojo's realm, all of them were time consuming. Nor could a replication spell work on something like a gun. There were just too many parts to it. You would have to replicate each part in turn and then put it together that way. So while Harry's conjuration appeared to no longer have any kind of half-life (which was utterly surprising given everything he had known back in his home dimension about it) he was loathe to take the time to do that.

And I was hoping to open up a line of communication with Stark in any case. I suppose it could be worse. Besides, if he comes to me for medical aid, I'll know something he's gone a long way to keep secret, while in turn, Tony will only know about this current crisis with Mojo.

Finally Harry looked up at Tony searching his face for moment then he nodded. "All right, I'll trust you to keep this under wraps. As I said, the people I work for are connected to a group that deals with esoteric threats. At present, they're working against an otherworldly kidnapping group, one that recently stole away Betsy Braddock, who had a certain connection that could call upon the group I work for. This kidnapping group is large, and has already gathered hundreds, possibly thousands of slaves."

Pepper and Tony both looked skeptical, and Harry shrugged. "What government in the world would notice one or two people disappearing per year, with no hint of what has gone wrong regardless of their circumstances?"

"You're not talking about demons or something like that are you?" Tony said skeptically. "That kind of stuff doesn't exist."

Harry very carefully kept his smile off his face. Evidently Tony was a skeptic, well that was fine. "In this case, other dimensional doesn't mean daemonic no," he replied dryly. "I'm certain a scientist like you who has heard of Mr. Fantastic's experiments on the Negative Zone? There are other dimensions out there like that."

"And one of them is stealing away people?" Pepper said, not looking quite as skeptical as her boss but still disbelieving. "Why?"

"Does it really matter?" Harry said coldly and Pepper shivered a little at his tone. "All that really matters is that they be stopped from doing it any longer, and that the slave that have been taken from Earth and from other places be able to either return or form their own government there."

"So you'll want things like infantry weapons." Tony mused, leaning back, no longer questioning what Harry had said, something about the other man told Tony he was telling the truth. Not all of it, but enough.

Tony pulled out a slim hand held computer, which would in a few months become the Stark-pad, and take the computer industry by storm. He looked up after a moment and nodded. "I can get you about two-hundred assorted infantry weapons. Give me a few days now to make it so that they can disappear without anyone noticing."

"You believe him?" Pepper asked looking at her boss. For some reason though, she believed George too. There was something in George's tone and the way he was sitting that said he was being honest with them, for a given value of honesty at any rate.

Her boss smirked at her and nodded equably before looking back at Harry. "That being said George, I'm not going to do it for free. You mentioned medical aid. What exactly are you offering? And are you connected to that new medicine that's coming out, the stuff that was apparently tested after that terrorist attack in London?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Harry said mildly, smirking slightly which showed through his illusion of course. Both Tony and Pepper actually chuckled at that. "In any event, I have access to certain people who have medical knowledge beyond the norm, beyond even what someone such as yourself would be able to call upon. I can get you in touch with one such individual, and you can explain what you require to him."

Tony leaned back again, tapping his fingers on his Stark Pad while Pepper looked at him, hoping her eyes. Pepper knew precisely what the problem was. She had walked in on him replacing the small prototype arc reactor that powered the electromagnet keeping the shards of shrapnel moving towards his heart still with a new one, and helped him do so. After that, Pepper had forced Tony to tell him what it was doing, and that knowledge horrified her, made worse every time Tony used his Iron Man suit. If there was some way to reverse that damage, which was beyond current medical knowledge indeed any attempt would kill him, then she was going to jump on it with both hands.

After a moment Tony's eyes opened. He wasn't happy about asking for help, but he had run into a wall. Tony knew that his solution to the shrapnel in his chest was slowly killing him. The palladium he was using for the core of his arc reactor was slowly poisoning his nervous system. And despite how prideful Tony knew himself to be, he wasn't so prideful as to turn down help that might be able to keep him alive.

"All right." He said finally. "If you can give me some contact information, I'll have the weapons at a designated drop-off point in two days. I'll schedule an appointment for your contact to come by the house in Malibu next week."

Harry agreed, then stood up, causing both Tony and Pepper both to stand up, with Pepper excusing herself to go to the ladies room as the two men exited the café. "Were you connected as well to that odd message that I got that evening?" Tony asked quickly, looking at 'George' sharply.

Harry's illusion didn't even flicker. "I'm sorry, what message?" Harry asked, cocking his head quizzically to one side. Make a note Harry thought, just because Tony has mental issues, and I'm thinking his ego is worse than any PTSD issue, does not in any way affect his intelligence. Still I can come clean about that later, just keep my 'George' persona away from that aspect, make him think George is merely being used as an intelligence operative. It could be really useful later, and not just with Stark.

Tony's eyes narrowed, but he could detect no falsehood in the other man. The two men then shook hands and went their separate ways, though Tony did try to slip a small tracker into George's pocket as they passed one another. It fried immediately however when Harry portrait out moments later in an alleyway, and the house-elf on duty took care of it after informing Harry about it.

OOOOOOO

Jean smiled eagerly as Harry and the rest of the team trooped out of the Castle to join her and Kitty down by the shore of the as yet unnamed lake. Harry's name for it, Squid Lake, had been soundly rejected until he could prove that there was indeed a squid living in it like apparently had existed in his old dimension, something Jean felt was probably a tall tale he had come up with for the kids. She looked over at Kitty and smiled. "You ready for this?"

She caught Kitty mid-yawn, and Jean frowned slightly before wiping it away before the girl could notice. Kitty was up to something, she was definitely burning the candle from both ends. First she worked on the projects for Harry then went back to the X-men mansion. Once there she got up at the normal hour for there without taking into account the time change. Whatever it was however, Kitty hadn't told anyone what it was, so Jean figured if she wasn't going to ask for help, it wasn't any of her business.

She asked again, "Are you ready for this?"

Kitty grinned giving Jean a thumbs up. "You bet! I can't wait to see their faces after they see what we've come up with."

"Neither can I." Jean's smirk widened. To say the toys she and Kitty had come up with in the past few days would revolutionize warfare would be to make a supreme understatement. Of course none of the toys they were currently playing with would ever get out to the regular military, but from Jean's perspective that didn't matter.

Harry had hinted a time or two at further plans for the future, and she knew the outline at least for his plans for space, and she was already thinking of ways that her current toys could be used in that environment. Especially since heat dissipation is such a big issue in space, she thought, looking down at one of the toys on the large table that she had a few house-elves bring out for this demonstration.

By this point the others had come up, and were all standing nearby waiting to see what would happen. Harry conjured a few simple chairs and everyone took a seat while he smiled at Jean, sharing a light kiss on the cheek with her before sitting down with the others. "So what magnificent toys have you two come up with, Jean?"

"Oh, quite a few that I think everyone will get a kick out of! First, is this one." Jean laughed before reaching down to the table, picking up the first item. It looked like the sniper rifle that had originally been assigned to Vanguard, but the stock was different, the cooling coils were much smaller, the magazine in turn larger. "This is a plasma rifle."

"You said plasma rifle." Nikolai leaned forward quickly. "Not sniper rifle? Those things were slow hell between shots, use as a regular rifle would be impossible even the one you made before."

"Not a problem anymore." Jean replied simply. "The issue with the old design, above and beyond its bulky nature and quality control issues, was heat dissipation. That will always be a problem for any plasma-based system. However, Kitty and I came up with a solution. Or rather Kitty did by herself, and I merely helped her put into place."

Kitty took over at this point gesturing out into the lake. "Water, most particularly saltwater is one of the best cooling elements found naturally in nature, and we've got an seawater lake here. What I did, with Jean's help, was to reimagine the array from the runic doorway so that the surface was in some way connected. One end of that loop is on a large stone column that Jean placed on the bottom of the lake. The other end is in the cooling device that is part of the rifle. Nikolai, if you would like to try a few shots? Fire as fast as you can."

With a shrug Nikolai stood up and took the rifle from her expertly lifting into his shoulder and sighting down the barrel. At first he fired six rounds from that way, then he changed it to holding it at the hip, and fired the rest of the magazine away in a single burst over the lake. All in all it only took about 17 seconds fire the full amount, each shot making that "FZZARKK" sound.

Not once did the gun even become hot. After he popped the magazine Nikolai plugged in another and did the same thing. At the end of that magazine, he whistled appreciatively. "Damn, this is incredible!"

"Yep." Kitty grinned and took the rifle back, expertly removing the second magazine from it and slamming in a third. She then took out the cooling unit, and held it up handing it to Nikolai to hold with her bare hands. It was very mildly warm to the touch, but it was cooling rapidly even as he held it.

Harry stood up and moved forward to examine the runic array on the cooling coil closely. He smiled approvingly at Kitty while Ororo affectionately ruffled her hair.

"What's this one?" Nikolai said having passed the sphere over to Harry to examine more closely. He was now tapping the second rifle that was on the table. This one was leaner and longer barreled then the plasma rifle, with a slightly larger stock, and a side magazine of some kind as well as a sniper scope on top.

"That is my baby." Jean grinned evilly. "Why don't you try it?"

Nikolai gave her a skeptical glance, wondering what he was being set up for, but picked it up anyway. He turned, holding it to his shoulder, noting absently how light it was as he sighted over the lake. He whistled as the scope on it zoomed in on a large tree stump on the other side of the lake, nearly two miles away. I wonder what the diabolical one has done to this?

The current team sniper breathed in, removing all of the irritants from around him, and then breathed out, breathed in, and fired. There was a buzzing sound by his ear, not the electrical discharge noise of plasma, for just a second then a whooshing sound as something very small and very fast zoomed downrange.

Nikolai was still watching through the sniper scope as whatever he had just fired hit the tree. Whatever it was not a regular around, since even if a regular 7.62 round could be fired that accurately from over two miles away, it would have only made a single, albeit large, hole in the tree.

Whatever he fired went through the tree stump and slammed into a boulder on the other side smashing a large chunk out of the rock after shattering the tree trunk entirely as it passed through. "What is this?" Nikolai asked, slowly leaning back from the sniper scope to look at Jean, his eyes wide.

"That is a gauss rifle." she laughed. "Another word for it is railgun. The bullet is fired at near to 910 m/s."

"That didn't come from anything we got in Russia." Harry murmured looking appreciatively at the rifle. "Did you think this up all by yourself?"

"Not really no, the American military has been trying to produce a version of this for combat purposes, but miniaturization is a real problem. From what I read a few months back, they've only gotten it down to a size where they can put it on a battleship."

"You wouldn't happen to know what company came up with that would you?"

"Yes actually, and before you ask, no it wasn't Stark or Hammer. It was a small beltway bandit company, that works exclusively for the American Navy. Why?"

Harry gestured upwards and smirked a little. "Just thinking ahead."

At that response, Jean joined him in smirking. Whatever she, Harry and Kitty came up with, to produce anything in large amounts they would have to either develop the ability to manufacture it themselves, which would take a long time, or buyout other companies and use the infrastructure already in place. That had been a very interesting conversation, when Emma was informed about the long-term space based plans of Harry, not they were really as far along as actual plans of course.

Kitty smirked, and pointed to a small switch on the side of the Gauss rifle. "This is my contribution. I found a runic array in one of Harry's books that basically enlarges things that are place on top of it. Unfortunately it doesn't work for organic matter, but for inorganic it works great. There's an upper limit to how large it can get of course, according to the book, 3.737373 times the normal size, but even so…" she shrugged. "I don't care who you are, if you're hit by that, you will feel it!"

` Harry made a humming noise for a moment, then asked for a house-elf to stop by the training area to get the Juggernaut armor that Rogue had given back to him. He had already sent her a modified version of the heavy armor back.

"Let's see what happens." he said simply, though he honestly wasn't expecting much. With that, Harry flew over the lake to the other side, placing the armor on a conjured mannequin made of rock. After that, he moved to one side and waved his arm in the air to indicate that he was clear, covering himself with a shield just in case.

"I'll try the regular setting first." Nikolai murmured before siting downrange. Once more he went through the sniper's routine, firing on his second exhaled breath.

The shot hammered the red juggernaut armor straight in the center of the chest, and he watched in disbelief as the round noticeably bounced off, heading up at a diagonal deeper into the woods. "Good God!" he murmured. He hadn't actually realized how strong the magical metal was before this, but seeing that was putting it in perspective.

The impetus of the shot however was enough to shatter the granite outcrop that Harry had conjured up. Harry moved over to it, lifting the armor up and examining it closely shaking his head. Casting a spell on his mouth he then yelled out "no damage!" heard clearly from the other side of the lake. He then set it up again and moved to the side. "Try Kitty's modification!"

Kitty gulped, reaching over and flicking the switch on the rifle. "You'll only get two shots of this max. I couldn't figure out a way to connect it to the runic arrays here, so there's no way to transfer magical power or anything like that. You put your hand here." she instructed, moving Nikolai's hand up the stock a little to a series of small indents, where his fingers found tiny runes underneath the tips of his fingers. "Do more than two shots and you'll probably collapse. Even after one you're going to feel the burn."

Siting once again through the scope Nikolai murmured and absent minded affirmative before going into his routine. Breathe in, breathe out breath in, breathe out, fire. This time he was able to actually see the round as it traveled, because it was that much larger, but it wasn't moving appreciably slower. He watched as it slammed into the armor dead center.

There was a massive booming sound, and the new piece of granite, still covered armor tumbled away into the woods end over end. It took Harry a while to find it, and when he did he whistled in surprise.

Back with the others however Nikolai had dropped the rifle, going to his knees and gasping as if he had just run a hundred klick marathon. "I think…" he gasped, while his stomach rumbled as if he had been starved for months. "That your calculations were off Kitty."

Piotr came up from his chair and quickly knelt beside his friend, lifting him up by one shoulder, with Paige quickly moving to other. Kitty had already asked aloud for a house-elf to get some food, hearing the rumbling from where she had been standing by the table. "Okay!" she announced quickly. "So that one is a no go."

Harry landed beside them carrying the armor. Once again it was undamaged, though Harry wondered if that would've been the case if he had been able to imbue the round with some kind of magical energy. Still, it certainly proved the efficacy of the armor itself, though he wondered what it would do to the yellow armor. That however would keep for another day.

As Nikolai began to eat ravenously, trying to settle down the void that had replaced his stomach, Harry shrugged. "Not bad Kitty, but sort of a weapon of last resort I think."

Kitty nodded distractedly, looking over at Nikolai worriedly. "Sorry about that, I don't know where my calculations went wrong there!"

"Show them to me later, and we'll go through them together." Harry promised. "For now however, it wasn't that big of a deal since we're here at home, but I'm going to have to forbid that you use that setting. Make a note to remove it from the rifle until further testing, and let's move on with the rest of the presentation."

Jean nodded, moving over to the next few items. She held up what looked like a leather bracer, pulling it back to show the inside which was lined with a complex runic array that Harry recognized. "This is Kitty's other addition to this show."

"I don't know if we should do that." Kitty said looking over from where she had still been staring at Nikolai in dismay. "If my calculations were wrong on this one." she gestured to the rifle, "they might've been wrong on that one as well."

Ororo moved over holding out her arm. "In that case, I volunteer to try it. Will it automatically feed off magic rather than bioenergy, and what does it do?"

"During that first dinner together where Harry asked us to start thinking up ways of combining science and magic he showed us something really cool. What Harry did was to tattoo a runic array into the back of his palm so that he could summon things by name from a bag of holding."

"That's not what the bags are called." Harry muttered but Jean ignored him with the ease of long practice and a smirk on her face. Whatever Harry called them, she much preferred the old RPG names for those kind of things. "Luckily, Kitty was able to use Harry's notes, and she was able to re-create array easily enough, though adding a way to power it via bioenergy was much more difficult. Luckily the bag of holding spells are self-sustaining for some reason."

Here she but did look over at Harry. "Eventually we might wish to sit down and really figure out the science of magic you know, why one spell works and another doesn't for long, why one runic away array takes so much more energy to power it, why the magical energies dissipate at all."

Harry nodded a little "True, but that would be a task I would rather assign Dr. Druid eventually. Once I have someone to replace the potion oversight aspect of his current job, as well as pediatric for the children. Too many jobs for too few hats, though at least that first one can be handed over to the elves eventually."

He smiled slightly. The Big Book of Students was still compiling names, but most of them were in the green or yellow, which was acceptable. A few names were on the yellow/orange line, and those had been set aside to be brought in first, once they got in a few more teachers and Harry was finished with a few projects in the Castle.

Specifically Harry wanted to put up an exclusion ward around the basement and upper levels so that only faculty could enter. He knew eventually that they would bring in children who would be problems. It hadn't happened just yet, despite Paige and Amaras ongoing feud, they weren't actually problem children, but he wanted something in place before that. For the moment however, no name had gone into the red zone since Paige's, so getting Magical Minds up and running took priority.

Jean nodded and moved over to the other things on the table for a moment. "The bag of holding contains a combat knife, a few emergency potions, one example of each type that Harry's created so far." She lifted up a handgun that looked like some kind of water pistol mixed with a phaser from Star Trek. "And there's this."

She smirked a little. "With Kitty's help I was able to minimize some of the systems on this one a design I made myself. The shots aren't as powerful as the rifle's, and the magazine is much smaller. For some reason, the cooling array somehow interferes with the enlarging array for the magazine working. Again, something that you wizard types will have to figure out in the future."

Jean turned, holding it inexpertly, she wasn't exactly a gun user by preference, and fired several rounds out over the lake. The bolts were distinctly more yellowish, and far slimmer. The loud 'FZAARK' sound was also somewhat more muted.

Harry nodded approvingly. "The pouch I assume will have some kind of notice-me-not charm on it?"

Here Kitty joined rejoined the discussion, having gotten over her shock and guilt at what had happened to Nikolai, worried at how badly she had screwed up and how badly it could have gone. Mostly because Nikolai had kept on waving her off with a smirk. "Actually, I talked to Clare, and she says there is a house-elf spell that will do the same thing. That will need to be renewed, but the house-elves will remember to do it as necessary, and that way it'll actually be invisible to most magical senses as well."

Harry blinked at that and smiled. "Tell Clare well done for me would you?" He smirked internally, shaking his head. Apparently Claire and Kitty had bonded somewhat, much like Cory and him, which Harry was quite happy about. "And what's this?" he asked motioning over to what look like carapace armor of some sort.

Jean took over from that point nodding at it. "This is one of mine. I took the vulture's flight pack from him, I wanted to see what I could do with it."

She picked up the gauntlet that was lying next to the armor and held it up, showing a several thin wires connecting it to the backpack. "I've been able to re-create what his suit could do, the only problem is that controlling the flight aspect is really hard. Even for someone like me who's become used to flying it was pretty difficult, you have to have real instinct for it. At this point I'm afraid that the best use of this suit is to augment someone's strength. I want to talk to Reed about his teleportation technology, may be something there can be done with this suit. After all, if Wyatt's going to be our sniper, then he shouldn't be staying in close. An emergency way of getting away would be a good idea."

Jean moved down again, picking up what looked like half of a helmet. "This is the scientific method of creating a HUD system."

She handed it Harry, who put it on his head and at her direction flick the switch on the side of the helmet.

"It's a prototype for now. What we'll eventually do is create a system of circuitry in the uniforms that will tell the user of this our status by monitoring our heart rates and other things, possibly tie them into a emergency portkey like the one you made for Emma, Harry. Unfortunately that kind of programming is way beyond me, I can create the devices, but not the programming to actually display the information."

Kitty joined in again shaking her head. "I've tried to read a few computer programming books in my spare time." That was a laugh actually she didn't have any spare time these days. What little she did was spent taking meals with the X-Men or the team here, making sure that she stayed in touch with them all. "I'm afraid that it's beyond me as well for now."

Jean took up the conversation again. "I had hoped that one of the armor suits we took from Russia would have that kind of programming already on it for their users, but they didn't." She looked over apologetically at the two Russians. "Sorry, but it's kind of a fact that your government really didn't care all that much about its citizens, even if soldiers."

"You do not have to be sorry" Piotr said firmly looking over at Nikolai who nodded. "We have no delusions left to us about our government. In point of fact we are both ecstatic that we have not been called back to Russia to deal with mutants in danger."

"So am I." Harry murmured.

Jean shrugged, wrapping up her presentation. "Other than the armor that Harry's been working on that you're already familiar with, that's pretty much it. The command for the teleportation gauntlet as were as two open slots for everyone, get back to me and Kitty, and we'll put them in."

She looked pointedly at Paige who blushed a little. Paige had accidentally ripped her uniform again the day before, and could take a hint when it was delivered with hammer.

She glared at Amara who snickered a little, then looked away pointedly.

"I think this is was an excellent display." Harry said simply, hugging Jean fiercely and then reaching over to rub at Kitty's hair with his free hand. "Well done you two, we'll see a good all of this works in the field when we head down to Greece."

After that the group broke up, with Harry staying by the lake with Kitty, talking quietly to his runic apprentice and cheering her up from her first screw up by telling her about his own: a foul up that literally exploded in his and Hermione's face and slagged two desks. And all they had been doing was trying to make a simply lumos runic array.

No one noticed Paige's sudden smile, as an idea occurred to her.

OOOOOOO

True to Harry's prediction, he had the next day free. The day after however, Harry would once again be incredibly busy with business related items again. The work on the Magical Minds building had finished and he was going to have grand opening.

Today that did not matter, much to Harry's relief. Instead, he and the team were on an enlarged version of the carpet that Harry had taken to using as mass transportation to places they did not know. It wasn't quite as quick as he had hoped for, and he already had plans in mind for something else to replace it, but that would have to wait a while. The only person on the team that wasn't with them at present was Jean. She had been able to make an appointment with Dr. Pym the creator of the medical beds at the Xavier Institute, to pick two of them up. But they had been reinforced for this task.

He looked over at Wyatt, who had agreed to join them for this mission, and was hefting the sniper rifle affectionately, having fallen in love with the weapon upon first use. At present, he had only a minimum armor, but that would not last for long. Reed had taken one look at the work Jean had done building on Vulture's backpack as well as her notes about it, and appropriated the project, saying he had a few ideas.

Then he looked over to where three other newcomers were sitting, smiling slightly. He had gone over to talk to Dr. Strange that morning about a long-term project, one which he had wanted to see was feasible before talking to Gaia about, and had been surprised that Stephen had wanted to along on this mission. He had said at the time that he wanted to examine the items that Harry had found before moving them out of the area, and that anything strange and unusual in Celine's mind might require more local magical knowhow than Harry could call on.

With Stephen had come Clea and their apprentice Wanda. Harry was pleased to see Wanda, glad that she was having this time to get to know teens her own age. She and Jean had seemed to hit it off a little, and she and Paige and Amara also seemed to get along. How much of that had to do with the fact that she wasn't part of the team and the two girls didn't need to figure out where she was in their little strange female hierarchy thing Harry didn't now, nor did he care.

He let his eyes rest on Paige for a moment, who was talking excitedly to Piotr holding onto his arm and leaning over the side of the carpet as they zoomed over Italy. Harry had teleported them over Barcelona, and they were flying down toward Greece from there, cutting out more than half the journey. Paige's mother had given her the okay apparently, but Harry had to wonder how much information about this little jaunt Paige had actually shared with her.

Still, he thought to himself, trying to make himself believe it really, with Stephen Clea and myself along there shouldn't be any kind of magical danger we can run into that will be at a real threat to the team. Or at least, I hope not.

Sir Dennis had taken a break to direct them to the mark on the map back in Hogwarts Harry had made. At present, his work was simply compiling notes about different anti-mutant groups in the world and anti-human mutant groups of which there were alas too many. With his help they arrived at the target location after only an hour and a half of flying. Still, Harry had enjoyed the looks of simple pleasure and wonder on the younger set's face at flying.

Selene's cache in Greece was covered by a monstrously powerful illusion which was being fed by one of the same ley lines that made is ponderous way through the earth under Hogwarts. The illusion made it seem as if the peak had begun to lose the battle with erosion, crumbling in place, still barely standing yet far too dangerous for anyone to try to build anything on.

They hovered in the air for a moment while Stephen and Harry stepped off the carpet, their mage sight activated so they could see through the illusion and could also now see the traps laid out everywhere underneath. The two of them floated down and around the area, taking note of several nasty looking traps here and there.

Steven shook his head at two in particular. One was designed to make stone spikes shoot out the side of the hill to skewer anyone trying to climb up it, coupled with another portion below it to make it look as if they had simply fallen and been killed by a small avalanche. The other was in a line right near the top of the hill, which would attack the mind of anyone stepping over it with their worst nightmares, driving them insane. "How distressingly imaginative in its nastiness, yet irritatingly thorough at the same time. One feels that Selene should have acquired a hobby over the centuries." He murmured looking around.

"Selene was all of that and more." Harry said, remembering that night in London. If he hadn't drained magic from Juggernaut and Cyttorak, that battle could've gone either way.

The two quickly got to work, zooming here and there to take out the traps they could see along the outer shell of the illusion area. After that, Stephen dissipated the illusion with his own spell, which was akin to the ones Harry learned from Blaize.

Above them they could hear the gasps of admiration from the people still on the carpet who could see through the illusion. Where before there was a bare hill that looked like it was ready to collapse, now stood a spire of rock that seemed to have only eroded slightly near the base.

The very top of the mount had a small monastery of some sort that Selene had appropriated. It was a series of buildings, two large ones, one medium sized, and a small one right by a tiny path going up the only side of the hill that wasn't a sheer cliff face, all of them connected by covered walkways. They were set in a square around a central garden which was in turn enclosing a small well, which was so deep that they couldn't see the bottom.

"Let's head down now." Clea murmured, directing the carpet with ease.

OOOOOOO

Jean knew that her teeth were grinding noticeably together. She knew it, but she couldn't stop it, not that her 'host' noticed. When I said to Harry that he was spoiled by Reed in terms of geniuses and their quirks, I didn't think I was spoiled by it as well!

The man leading her through a labyrinth of tables, engineering and scientific equipment and occasional mountains of paper was a genius, just ask anyone who knew Dr. Henry Pym. He was one of the world's foremost experts on biochemistry, hailed by many to be the only man in that field who was more highly regarded than Reed Richards or Tony Stark, who tended to be more jacks-of-all trades.

And oh boy did Henry know it. He was egotistical, brusque to the point of rudeness to anyone he didn't know well, and abrasive on top of that. He was also, and this was the point that was forcing Jean to clamp down hard on her teeth, plus the need to stop herself from using her power to rip off his limbs, a raging sexist.

This was made clear in the first five minutes of conversation with the man. Jean had opened up the conversation, while Henry led her through the warehouse he had taken over as a laboratory. She had told him about her own aspirations into engineering.

Henry had responded by saying. "Oh, well if you want to waste your life I suppose that's up to you, but everyone knows no woman is ever going to make it in the hard sciences. Your brains just aren't wired the right way for it, better to find yourself some other profession."

Of course Jean had taken umbrage at that, and sited several dozen names in the scientific field that were women, but Henry had replied that a few small outliers did not change the basic premise, and indeed felt that many of them were only building on the work already done by a man. Then he had brusquely dismissed her anger as being one brought on by the inevitable weakness of the female mind, before turning to lead her to wear the two medical beds and their accompanying equipment were being stored.

Silence after that had been welcome, allowing Jean to get control of herself before she either blurted out something of her own accomplishments to prove Pym was wrong, or to use her powers on him in some humiliating and painful manner. Especially since he'd take such an assault as proof of my 'female mind's weakness to emotion'. Ugh, I hate sexists, chauvinistic assholes, especially ones who really should fucking know better!

Jean breathed a sigh of relief as they finally found the two medical beds they had ordered through Charles.

"Here you are." Henry said. "I trust you have a jeep or some such to transport them? The two large boxes are the beds themselves, the five smaller is the equipment you need to hook them up to, including the two screens that will display the information of your patient. There are instructions inside, any halfway decent electrician or engineer should be able to follow them easily enough."

His tone seemed to imply that he considered Jean barely adequate at that task, and her teeth ground together even harder to keep her from shouting something she would likely, no, she wouldn't regret it at all come to think of it. "Thank you doctor," she replied instead. "I do have transportation ready, thank you. I trust the check cleared?"

"If it hadn't, I wouldn't have even let you through the door." Henry replied bluntly, rolling his eyes. "Now I have work to do, I trust you can use the lifter to get the packages out to your car?" Without waiting for a reply Henry walked off, pulling out a sheath of tightly cropped notes and looking them over as he walked.

I could use my telepathy, Jean thought wistfully. I could lobotomize him, make it seem like some kind of experiment gone wrong. Stop that Jean, let's just get the goods and get out of here. Leave the pig to his own devices.

With that thought Jean got to work, not using her telekinesis since she didn't know if Henry had recording devices around. It took her only twenty minutes to load the boxes into the small moving van she had rented for the day. Cory was waiting inside, whisking each piece away to the castle in turn. The van would stay at the mansion for the evening, then one of the X-men would return it the next day.

As she rode away, Jean was still dealing with her irritation at the man she had just left. Her last thought when leaving was: that man needs a good woman to smack him into shape, good luck to whoever takes on that job!

Jean never noticed that a few cars had stopped outside the warehouse as she was leaving. And even if she had, she would never have been able to see the people inside the cars thanks to their specially tinted glass. Two men came out of one of the cars, while their fellows remained in their cars, waiting. If someone had been in position to look into the car the two men got out of, they would have seen a flash of a baggy yellow pant leg.

OOOOOOO

Clea moved forward quickly to join her lover and Harry in going over the outer defenses, removing what they could. All three of course knew that they were missing one or two here and there, traps like this were very hard to spot even with mage sight. The three of them briefly debated the idea of making their own entrance or simply landing in the small garden in the center of the structure, but none of them thought that a good idea. Traps set into the masonry of the walls or hidden in some other fashion could still eb there after all.

When she joined them at the entrance to the monastery, Ororo had much more luck. Calling on her skills as a thief, she spotted several pressure-based traps and pointing them out right by the doorway. Behind them, the teens spread out waiting, in a few cases eagerly, for trouble to appear.

After removing the door carefully from its frame, Harry, Stephen and Ororo peered into the interior of the small entrance hall. It was bare save for a few statues made of stone, though Harry could sense something magical in them. Still at present he was more concerned about less obvious traps. The floor was made of rocks set into concrete, and there was a small chandelier with places for candles long since gone for light. Two open doorways lead out to either side to the covered walkways leading to the other buildings.

"Those are all pressure traps." Ororo said definitively, pointing them out one after another from where she crouched low to the ground. "I can't tell what kind of surprise they are linked to from here however."

"How can you tell?" Harry asked.

"Each stone is raised just slightly above the others, much like a primitive pressure plate would be, and I gather that this place was built quite a while ago so that makes sense. Another portion of it is the placement of them. You can't enter either of the walkways heading deeper into the monastery without stepping on those stones. The central most point, the one that isn't in front of the walkways, is probably designed around a larger trap, one to encompass the entire room."

Ororo frowned momentarily straightening up and looking up as far as she could at the ceiling of the entrance way without actually poking her head over the doorway. That line was worrying all of them, but they couldn't detect anything on the actual doorway itself. Nor could Ororo discern anything up above them in the way of nasty surprises.

After a moment all three of the adults pulled back and looked at one another. Harry shrugged. "This is why we brought the team in the first place, to get them all some experience out in the real world. Let's see how they solve it."

Stephen shrugged. "As long as we are here to protect them from anything purely magical, I suppose that makes sense."

The others nodded and the three of them moved backwards waving the teens forward. Ororo instructed them on what that she had been able to discern from the interior and then the adults stood back, letting the teams solve the problem if they could. Problem solving, teamwork, and the ability to think on their own were incredibly important, and this would be a real test for all of them.

Colossus changed into his metal form gesturing into the entrance way. "Regardless of anything else, I am in the lead."

Paige however was quickly ripping away her normal skin, and now stood there in a metal form she had been working on for a while. "Me too. In fact, why are we so hard up on entering this way, couldn't we take out a portion of the outer wall and enter that way?"

They all looked over at Ororo who shrugged. "It's a thought, but we can't tell you if it's a safe one or not. That will be up to you to find out, the way the entrance area is shaped none of us can see inside it."

"And I'm not about to risk sending in Hedwig even on the wing." Harry replied firmly.

Amara frowned a little knowing this was a test of the team, and the adults would only help so much if they could. They would block any direct magical attack on them while letting the physical and mental ones to the team. However she thought that Harry conjuring up some tea and biscuits for himself and the others was a bit much.

"Remember what I said back of the Castle." he said looking up at them all and smirking evilly at the look Paige was sending him. "Don't touch anything inside until we've given you the okay."

"In that case." Amara said taking charge. She transformed herself into her energy form, and small bits of fire and magma appeared in her hand. "I'll hit the pressure plates from here, that'll give us an idea of what kind of trap is in place. Piotr, no damnit, need to get into the habit, Colossus, stand by the doorway. Husk and Vanguard can try to break through the walls somewhere else. "

Husk was the name they had assigned to Paige. Given her powers it was an accurate description, but it wasn't a name Paige was particularly happy with. Until she came up with something better however, Husk it was, no matter how much she glowered at Magma. Wyatt hadn't yet been assigned a nickname, having shot down Longshot, which was Harry's idea for his name, quickly, promising to come up with something in the next few days.

With Vanguard now able to call up his shield at will the two assigned to breaking in would be pretty much invulnerable, or so the teens thought anyway. "Scarlet Witch, you go with them, Wyatt will stay here." Magma ordered. While her knowledge was still lacking badly, Wanda could wield magic, and her powers made her very adaptable.

"Don't go too far though." Harry cautioned, speaking up now. "Just on the other side of one of these covered walkways.

"One moment." Wyatt said raising his hand in which he held a small rock he had picked up from the pathway leading down the hill. He threw it at the area between the small exterior wall separating the covered walkway from the outside of the structure and the slanted roof. Then he nodded in satisfaction when it was immediately hit by some blue-black sphere of energy. "Thought so."

At the sign of that waiting 'surprise', Clea opted to follow her apprentice, while Ororo and Steven took up position behind the others just in case. Amara waited until Piotr was directly in front of the doorway, with her crouching behind him aiming between the doorway and his large, rather sculpted metal thigh. Despite what she was about to do, and what she should have been focused on Amara couldn't help but wonder if he was as well built in his human form.

She then hurled her makeshift missiles inside, smashing into the three pressure plates that Ororo had noticed. Several dozen scythe blades came out of the walls at various points, sweeping the room from end to end. A blast of fire at head height immediately followed, filling the air of the room right in front of the two open doorways.

Ororo nodded in satisfaction. "I thought the walls seemed too thick." she said smugly. "The scythes are just one shots, they'll have to be reset if they're mechanical. If they're magical I have no idea though." Harry and Steven both shrugged at that, having no idea how to do such a thing magically.

Piotr sighed explosively, then after sharing glances with the other teens behind him moved forward through the doorway. A magical barrier appeared right in front of him before several dagger shaped bolts of pure black were about to strike him, and Harry smirked at him, the tea and biscuits nowhere to be seen. "I've got your back Colossus."

"Normally that would be a comforting thought." The former Russian civilian responded dryly. "At present, it just means I'm in front of you, ergo more liable to be shot at." Still he stood still, waiting as Harry sent spells past him toward the places where those attacks had come from disabling wards that he had not been able to discern until they fired off.

With that, Piotr stepped forward three paces into the entrance room. He waited again, but nothing happened and he moved forward. Ororo came in after, glancing around and nodding in approval at what she saw. The traps she had noticed did indeed have to be reset. None of them were foolish enough to come near the small statues set in each corner.

Further along the outer wall, Paige grunted as she smashed a fist into the low wall, watching her fist bounce off as if it had struck rubber. "We'll have to head back to the others." she said irritably. "There's some kind of spell on this, unless you can remove it for us, Scarlet?"

"That's what I'm here for Blondie." Wanda needled, moving past Paige who smirked, tossing her hair. She knew envy when she heard it. Wanda however quickly found herself out of her depth. "I can barely feel any magic in the wall at all, I have no idea what it's doing, it might be part of the preservation spell that's kept this place so well-preserved, or the spell that makes your punches bounce off like rubber."

"Let me try." Nicolai said, raising his rifle firing at both the wall and the air above it below the slanted roof. His bolts whizzed through the air with no effect, but the plasma rounds that impacted the wall also bounced away. "Interesting, I think Harry might want to study this, that is a pretty cool defense."

Paige grunted irritably, but Wanda had been studying what the magic in the wall did when struck, and she nodded now, pushing forward a bit of her magic, her utterly chaotic, ever changing magic into the wall, joining the magic already there. Wanda had hoped that this would destabilize the magic there, letting them to smash the wall down.

What she had not expected was to have the magic suddenly cascade, causing a surprisingly large explosion. "KRAKOOM!"

It was only thanks to Vanguard's fast reaction time that Wanda escaped with only minor wounds. The moment he saw her suddenly panicking face, he reached out, grabbing Wanda and tossing her behind him and Paige. Thanks to his force field and her metal body, the two of them weathered the explosion, which demolished the wall from one building to another.

All that was left was a few bits of rock spreading out everywhere. The bits that had flown back into the covered walkway triggered more traps, causing dozens of varying magical and machine traps to go off, one after another. The whole corridor was thus demolished, in peals of thunder, flashes of utter blackness, beams of purple, and, of course, poisoned darts, scythe blades from the ceiling, spikes from the floor and the odd pit suddenly appearing.

All in all, it was the most impressive piece of destruction Nicolai had seen. "Boshemoi, Scarlet, I think that if there were awards given to explosions, that one would take away the most artistic award, yes?"

"Oh shut up Vanguard, all I did was the first bit, and even that was accidental." Wanda groaned, rubbing her rear as Paige helped her to her feet while Harry and the others turned to look at what had happened, peering out from the door to the entryway. Harry and Steven made their way through the wreckage, both of them looking oddly at the trio. "What the hell happened?"

Clea sent her apprentice an admonishing look, standing there immaculate thanks to a hastily conjured shield. "My young fool of an apprentice here decided that instead of unraveling the runic array set into the fabric of the wall she would simply pump some her chaotic based magic into it to see what happened. This was the result."

Paige tried to speak up for her new friend. "Er, to be fair, I don't think that a lot of that was on Wanda, I mean, yeah the initial explosion was but the rest was just because of you know, the fallout…" She trailed off under the look Clea was giving her.

"I assure you young one, I am well aware of that, but think for a minute." Clea reached over, one hand glowing with one of the healing spells she and Steven had learned from the Hogwarts library. Wanda gratefully leaned back into her teacher's hands as they worked at her lower back, where she had felt a large bruise forming from where she had landed, then her shoulder and arm.

"In any well-crafted warding scheme, the defenses are more often than not intertwined. If one goes off or dissipates for any reason, it can cause the others to respond in similar fashion. If that had been the case here, then my apprentice could well have caused this whole edifice to explode as spectacularly as the wall, or triggered all the magical traps all at once or any number of other outcomes that would have bene decidedly unpleasant for all of us, and possibly the surrounding area."

So saying, Clea finished healing Wanda, save for one rather spectacular bruise on her bare forearm. Her hand hovered over it as she looked sternly into Wanda's eyes. "I should let you keep this little mark, the better to remind you of the folly of not thinking things through. You know your magic has strange effects on other types. My uncle believed that pain was an excellent teacher."

She laughed quietly while the other teens looked on in dismay, but Wanda merely nodded and Clea's hand once more glowed the light green of healing. "Luckily for you, my dear, I am not my uncle. Still, don't worry me like that again, I have no wish to have to go to the bother of finding another apprentice."

Wanda blushed under the gentle remonstrance, but nodded, smiling faintly at the older woman's concern. While to the others it may have sounded harsh, Wanda appreciated it more than she could say. Someone who taught her to learn from her mistakes while expressing concern for her, like a parent ought to, was something Wanda treasured.

Harry however simply shrugged and moved on. Magical teens were bound to have a few explosion type accidents after all, he certainly had more than his fare share. "Well, on the bright side she cleared this whole passage of traps. I guess we're going to see what this building contains first." He indicated the medium sized building that made up the leftmost corner of the diamond shape of the monastery.

While the majority of the teens busied themselves removing the remains of the various traps, and Wyatt and Vanguard set up at the top of the path leading down the hill just in case, Steven and Clea joined Harry and Ororo at the arch leading into the next building. Ororo was the first to speak and when she did, she sounded puzzled. "I see the same setup of pressure plates here as elsewhere but…" She frowned for a moment, then went on. "I think that there are at least five traps set along the ceiling linked to…"

She waved a hand slightly, sending a tiny breeze through the doorway at ankle height, carrying the dust of the explosion in. When it settled, they could all see very slim, nearly invisible wires crisscrossing the room. Ororo smiled. "Tripwires. The problem is, I think that they are all dead-man types, the ceiling looks like its going to fall inward if you trip any of them."

Harry and Steven exchanged a glance and Harry shrugged. "Ok lads and lasses, it's your turn…"

This time the teens showed off more in the way of problem solving. With Ororo's aid, they once more destroyed the pressure plate traps, then Paige and Colossus got to work on removing the roof entirely. They cut around the top of the wall about a foot below where it met the roof, then the two powerhouses lifted it off entirely. Selene had neglected to put any triggers on the roof or that high up the wall, so they were able to remove it easily. After that, they entered, but still tripped one last trap which was purely magical in nature.

There was a tapestry lining one wall from end to end in this room, along with numerous paintings and over a dozen very odd looking items. At the moment, the only one that mattered was the tapestry however. It depicted a hunting scene, a large lion, a bear and other animals, followed by the hunters, two human men of rather heroic good looks and a dozen hunting hounds.

As Colossus set foot into the room the image on the tapestry came alive, jumping out of it to attack. Harry blinked in surprise. "Huh, hadn't thought of that one."

"It's a rather old-fashioned way of holding golems in stasis." Clea said analytically, looking on. "I much prefer simple statues myself, that way they can react individually, but this way is rather more visually impressive."

"Wait, so these are golems!" Paige shouted, from where she, Magma, and Colossus were busy fighting off the beasts as they tried to swarm out of the entrance into the walkway. "I want to be clear on this!"

"Oh yes, magical constructs, I would guess a mix of bone, wood and steel judging from how quick they are. This isn't the first time I've seen such. In my old dimension it was considered the thing to do to, if you found your lover cheating on you, to capture his or her soul and put it in such a golem, then trap it in the painting." Clea said, smiling as she and the other oldsters flew up into the air over the battle to land lightly in the room beyond.

Steven smiled faintly, shaking his head at Clea's odd sense of humor, after all, he was a one woman sort of man regardless of such threats.

"Good!" Paige shouted, slamming a fist through the body of one of the hounds. "Then we don't have to hold back."

"Seems a pity in some ways." Wanda said, raising a shield to block a few of the arrows from one of the hunters while returning fire with her other hand. Her spell struck the golem, causing the thing to trip and lose it's bow, which turned into a snake which proceeded to try to bit the thing. "Those two hunters at least are awful sexy, like movie stars."

"Get your head in the game girl!" Magma roared, sending out a stream of flaming magma from her hands which burned a few more of the hunting pack. The bear and lion were fully engaged in trying to eat Colossus, but were not having much luck. "They can still hurt you!"

Wanda nodded seriously, and the quartet made short work of the golems while the magic users removed the remaining magic traps, both from this room and the corridor beyond that connected it to the backmost building from the monastery's entrance. That room however, both Steven and Harry had determined contained even worse magical traps than the rest they had run into. In fact the teens were not going to be let near it at all.

After that they returned to examine the items in the room with the paintings. All of them were very odd looking, and only one or two were actually magical. One was a helix made out of stone, but for some reason it moved occasionally on its plinth. Harry frowned a little at it, wondering what the story behind that was, but decided not to ask, simply placing it in the mokeskin pouch.

Another was a statue of a naga, but Steven and Clea both stated it was an actual naga, frozen in stone. Steven pointed to the being's neck, where you could make out a collar that was part of the stone. "That would be a control necklace of some sort. I imagine that it cannot be activated without the other end. A pity, but nothing we can do after so long. Even if the spell was lifted, if it is at all like other such spells I have seen, the time passed since would hit the creature all at once. And even without that, he would be alone, there are no more nagas in this world."

There were other curios, but they didn't seem to be magical in nature, simply curious in appearance or as to why they were here. A set of armor much like any Greek hoplite would use, but there was no magic on it. A guan-do made of some green metal shaped like a dragon, which Steven took with Harry's blessing. There were also a dozen paintings, but from unknown painters, picturing scenes of both debauchery and terror.

Harry and Steven went over them all, but could only say they had once been magical. The magic on them had long since faded, the stasis wards not having effected them for some reason. Still, they both agreed there was something… off about them, some kind of psychic residue. So they were destroyed then and there, though they were not alone in that.

There was also a necklace made of a reddish gold metal. Upon seeing it, Clea immediately destroyed it with a spell that resembled a spear of ice and pure magic, snarling and spitting in a language that none of the others understood.

Steven tried to ask her what it was, but whatever it had been had disturbed Clea so much she refused to answer him at present, merely striding outside to join the two on watch. He shrugged ignorance and the exploration continued.

Oddly enough there were no traps in the garden, so they were able to cross the diamond from one corner to another easily. There the teens repeated the trick of ripping the roof off to circumvent a large part of the traps, and then fought the next set of conjured golems. This time it was a herd of centaurs, who proved much more troublesome. What happened after the battle however was worse.

In this room there were several dozen raised dais, much like the few that had displayed the oddities in the other room. These however looked strangely otherworldly in origin. A inhuman eye, a skull that, except for having a much larger brainbox looked like some kind of dinosaur, a chest piece that was made of what looked like glass, were some of them. A sword made of small scales of some kind, something that was clearly a gun of otherworldly origins harry snagged for Jean to look at. There was also a statuette that looked vaguely Egyptian made out of black rock with a golden spear with a crescent moon shaped blade that was radiating magic which grabbed Steven's attention.

But the thing that grabbed Paige's attention, and made her forget Harry's injunction on not touching anything, was a bracelet of silver covered with precious stones. "Oh my god, that thing is so gorgeous!" Paige reached forward before anyone could stop her.

There was a flash of black light then Paige screamed as she was flung backward, her metal arm smoking and bubbling. Harry and Steven hurried over while the rest of the teens backed away warily.

Paige was whimpering in agony and rolling around on the ground, but Harry quickly hit her with an Immobulus, halting her movement. With that the two wizards went to work, Harry with potions and small healing spells, while Steven chanted a longer spell of healing. "Damn it Paige, this is why I said not to touch anything! Fuck, if not for your steel body, you'd have been naught more than a pile of burning bones! And even now, it's a wonder you still have your am."

"She can't hear you Mr. Potter, she's fainted. Though I won't say anything about your words, and they were doing so well up to this point." Steven said, shaking his head. "They handled everything they ran into as well as could be expected, and obeyed orders about not touching anything up to this point. I was impressed."

"So was I up till now." Harry muttered, and the two wizards bent to their work. Eventually, using a mix of Reparo type and healing spells they were able to reverse the damage, though they decided to let Paige unconscious for now. It wasn't anything magical, it simply came from the pain she had endured. Still, better to learn this lesson now my dear: just because you can turn to metal doesn't make you invulnerable. Learn it now, because if you don't I'm never going to let you be on the team. Better to let you be mad at me forever than for me to bring your body home to your family.

Later on, after returning to Hogwarts, Harry would say that very thing to Paige, who at that point was looking shaken and jittery. He could see it hit home, and he hoped that would be enough. That was for later however. Right now they still had this room and the last to plunder.

This room's artifacts would take more time to study than the last ones, so Harry split the artifacts between them. Harry put all of his in his mokeskin pouch, while Steven merely teleported them directly back to his workshop back in New York.

After that they turned to the last building to be searched, finding Ororo and the others standing in the already cleared walkway, looking at it with trepidation. "There is something about that building that worries me, beloved. I cannot detect any traps for one thing, and for another, it is too unassuming in comparison to the others. There just seems to be a sort of aura about it."

Harry and Steven looked at one another then ordered everyone back outside to join the watchers, even Ororo. A moment later they were joined by Clea, who nodded to them both. The trio of magic users readied themselves, then entered the room. At first, nothing happened, but that lasted a bare second before they were utterly inundated by offensive magic. No normal traps here, no these were all of the magical scorched earth variety, designed to kill anyone entering the room with extreme prejudice.

Harry's shouted "Protego!" Lasted only a second, long enough for Clea and Steven to shout out their own shied spells, but those barely lasted longer. It was Harry's "SciathnaBhFéadfadh!" that saved them, the power being so overwhelming so quickly neither of the sorcerers . The anti-magic shield went up all around the trio, confining them inside, much like Jean's phoenix fire had done during her initial assault on the first of Selene's caches.

"Remind me to congratulate Jean on facing this and walking out alive!" Harry shouted over the din of the attack spells constant inly slamming into his shield. "I realize the power she can call on, but this is something else altogether!"

The monstrous assault lasted only a few minutes however, much like it had against Jean. But unlike the redhead Harry and his two companions were untouched. Clea was a little rattled, but none of the three were winded.

A quick scan via mage sight confirmed that whatever trap had been there had burned itself out. With that, Harry made his way forward, looking around warily. "There's nothing here…"

Steven conjured up a large globe of light, which hovered in the air of the room for a moment. "I do not think that Selene would set such monstrous protections on an empty room. There is something here, we cannot simply see it at present."

That reminded Harry of how Jean had described the way Selene had hidden Balthakk's gemstone. "Look for a hidden panel, some kind of small hidey-hole."

The urgency in his voice compelled both of the other magic users to redouble their search, while Harry filled them in on the gems, some of which Dr. Strange had already been told. The idea however that Selene might have found two such, and not only knew not to try and use them, but separated them so they would be harder to find, was astonishing, and made Steven see her in a slightly better light than before. Only slightly of course.

The eventually found it. In a corner of the room on the floor was a small hole, barely large enough for Clea to fit her hand through, though Harry warned her not to try. He got down on his hand and knees to peer in and was not surprised to see a gem there. It was not yellow or red like the others from this pantheon Harry had seen, but lusterless grey, as if someone had made a gem out of iron. "Interesting, another gem, but not one I've seen before. Do you have any idea how many Elder gods were in this pantheon of Cyttorak's, Steven?"

"I believe Cyttorak had dealings with seven others, though I would certainly not call it a pantheon, they were too loosely allied for such, nor do I have any idea of which one this could be. I would hazard a guess however that it would belong to Krakkan. Through use of the orb of Agamotto, I know that Watoomb, Ikonn and the other more… intelligent members have released many of the tethers that could call them to this plane. They still give powers to spells when called upon, but could no longer create avatars in our dimension. The one thing any god fears above all else after all, is losing their power, which two fo them have had to deal with thanks to you.

"Krakkan however, was, in the words of Watoomb to my predecessor when he was asked about other Elder gods, 'dumb as a box of rocks'. Watoomb is the master of illusion, but he is also one of the more, not affable but straight speaking magical entities." Steven's tone bellied the real worry he felt staring down into the hidey-hole at the gem inside.

Clea frowned as well. "Should we use magic to reach in and pull it out?"

"No." Harry said firmly. "Who knows what kind of trap could be waiting on active magic crossing into that space? No, I'll call Jean, she can get down here, and use her telekinesis to lift it out, like she did for the first one we found like this."

Jean was indeed done with her meeting by this point, but she refused to let one of the house elves pop her down, saying instead she wanted to fly down, the better to burn off some energy. So she had Cory pop her up to High Note, moved it into position over Greece, then flew down from there.

She arrived, her phoenix aura fully active as she flew through the air. As she flew in to land, Harry looked up, in awe of once more of the beautiful, fiery maiden who had decided to share her life with him. Jean landed, her aura flickering out, her hair settling down her neck and back, her good humor restored. She cocked her head at Harry, seeing the fond, loving expression on his face. She smield back at him, linking her hand with his. "So, where is this jewel of yours Harry?"

Harry tucked her hand in his arm, leading her over to the hidden cubicle, while Ororo joined them, glancing at Jean. "Any reason why you need to blow of steam?"

Jean reached out, pulling her other lover into a one armed hug. "I'll tell you about it later, lets just get this over with and head home. I am in serious need of some 'us' time."

This pronouncement won her some laughs but also firm agreement from her two lovers. Soon enough Jean had pulled the metal looking jewel out of its alcove, and Harry, who used a specially empty 'bag of holding' for it, then ordered Cory to deliver it to the secure room in the RoR.

After determining there were no other hidden surprises, the quartet of magic users and Jean returned to the others to find Paige had woken up, shocky and shaky. Harry clapped his hands together. "Well that was an almost perfect field exercise my friends, but we're done here."

"A quick question before we head back." Wyatt said from where he had position himself on the ground, sighting out over the hills and dales of the surrounding area. "Did you all look into the well?"

"No, why would we do that?" Harry asked quizzically, a feeling shared by everyone else.

Wyatt looked surprised. "You didn't notice? The shadow that hides the inside of the well, it never moved as we were flying over it. That isn't natural."

Not two minutes later, after making certain everyone else was outside the monastery, Stephen joined Harry gazing down into the well that was the center of the monastery's inner garden. "We walked right by this thing and we never even noticed." Harry muttered. "Score one for the nature specialist."

He and Steven looked at one another then Steven's hands began to move, weaving an anti-illusion spell. That spelled hit whatever was blocking their site deeper into the well, and they now looked into a much less deep well than had previously been there. At the very bottom there was a statue. It looked like some kind of statue to Zeus of the Greek gods, complete with lightning bolts in one upraised hand made of silver, gold, bronze and copper. Other than that, it looked like any other statue.

However to their mage sight it was thrumming with power. A lot of power, far more power than nearly any of the other knickknacks in this cache, though not quite as much as the gem.

He looked at Stephen for an explanation. "I have only heard tell of these." The Sorcerer Supreme murmured. "You know of course that many of the old time pantheons of gods are real, yes?"

"I'd pay dearly to know where the hell they all came from, I have a vague idea of how Gaia came into being, but the others, well my response to them would be a lot more different if I knew that they were just aliens that it moved in after religions had popped up that they could take advantage of, or had simply been created by some kind gestalt mind."

Harry liked Balder well enough, and he was willing to treat with the Asgardians, even after researching the mythology, though with some qualms about bits of it. Specifically, the way they treated their own at times, Loki's treatment by Odin, Loki's treatment of his children. That and the idea of Ragnarok worried him too. Thankfully however it didn't seem to be his problem, and he was willing to take the Asgardians as individuals.

"But the Greeks…" He shook his head. "I've spent a few hours every night looking into the mythology of the world, and the Greeks in particular were nothing more than giant bullies. The tale of the Gorgon and Arachne in particular pissed me off when I read them, since those were done by supposedly 'good' gods. And don't get me started on the way they viewed humans as a whole."

"True." Stephen nodded, not taking his eyes off the statue down in the well. "Even their so-called heroes were not exactly heroic if judged by today's morals."

"So this is, what, one of them frozen or something by another god's spell?"

"No, I believe it is a portal of sorts. Whether or not it is one you actually need to impart some sort of outward stimuli too, or whether or not it will react on its own I cannot tell without further study, and I would prefer not to study such. It is almost certainly booby trapped for one, above and beyond any surprises Selene might have put around it."

Harry nodded crisply. "We've got enough issues already, no need to invite more down on top of us. Hell, I'm not even willing to touch the thing to see if I can drain it, I really don't want more shit on my plate like that right now." So saying Harry opened his mokeskin pouch, emptying it of what it had already inside, putting that all in his trunk, which he still always carried on him, the habit of years.

The mokeskin pouch was special however because it cancelled anything magical put inside it. The statue was then slowly lifted into the pouch while Harry forced the pouch open as far as it could be. Even so, the statue nearly didn't fit. But soon enough it was gone, cut off from whatever realm it might be a bridge for.

After that the weary group apparated back to Hogwarts.

OOOOOOO

The next day, while the team had the day off, and Paige was still getting her ear talked off by her mother for being stupid and for lying to her about not being in danger, Harry was down at the grand opening of the Magical Mind's building. Emma was there too, though hidden by a notice-me-not field, just in case Harry needed her advice in case something else came up.

The headquarters for Harry's new corporation was more a complex rather than a single building. There were three buildings really, though they were all connected by walled walkways. The main building was the business offices, three stories of different rooms dedicated to running the business, talking to and managing clients, computers and all that jazz, though there was still room for even more to be added. The second building was scheduled to be a laboratory, though as yet it hadn't been filled either with devices or people. Still, Harry had plans there.

The last building was a massive silo and receiving bay, which already had two trucks in it. Dr. Druid and his elf work crew had done Harry proud, producing the number of potions for the four orders that had already been made, and the ones to the army here in the UK would be going out at the end of the ceremony.

Of course, the potions, and indeed the trucks that carried them, had defenses in place as well. Indeed, to get them ready for the day Harry had been going without sleep for the past few days. The interior of each truck was now covered by an illusion to make them seem empty, and the door and sides were lined with spells to make them much tougher than normal, almost to the level of a battleship's hull. That didn't even consider the recall runic array on the potion flasks themselves.

The batches to be used in the field by the army had other protections, which had been even harder to come up with considering they couldn't be linked to a specific place and still work when shipped off to various army bases. But he had eventually come up with a few. He was certain some of them would still leak to people he didn't want them to, but deliberate resale was not going to happen.

That was why Harry's now stood in front of said building, the doorway to which was blocked off by a ribbon. He couched, somehow nervous as the ten reporters and other interested individuals, mostly locals from the surrounding businesses and farms, looked up at him.

Despite his nervousness however, the opening ceremony went out off without a hitch. Harry gave his speech, which was mainly about Magical Minds being built on the premise of helping people worldwide through the use of revolutionary medicines. The question-and-answer session went quickly as well, since only business and medical journalists were there. While there had been a connection made between Magical Minds and the medicines used on the Gurkhas after the terrorist attack in London, no one had connected them to Guardian or as he had called himself at the time, Mr. Wizard.. That persona was still an unknown to the general community, and would remain so as long as Harry could make it stick.

The Business reporters asked about his business operation, what wages he would be offering at various positions and his hiring policies, which he answered crisply and concisely. When asked about his financial backing however, Harry simply smiled and said proprietary knowledge, that he had put down the money himself, and did not answer any questions about where he had come up with the money other than a bland 'next question please', which wasn't so unusual as to raise eyebrows, especially since it was known he had already sold shipments to the military. The reporters were also more concerned about his business plans going forward, which Harry responded to in vague terms, again something that was expected.

The medical questions were much more pointed, but also not asked with any real hope of getting answers. After all, most medical companies kept their medicine formulas secret, or at least only shared what they had to. Harry's bland and non-informative responses to those questions weren't abnormal especially with something really revolutionary.

The real moment of surprise however came when General Demontebanks came out walking. It was well known in the UK that the general was a paraplegic, having taken some spinal damage that ruined his nerves along his lower spine making his legs completely unresponsive and unfeeling. Harry had healed him with a dose each of nerve healing potion and bone healing potion. A few hours to make certain it worked, this was the first time Harry had used them personally to heal spine damage after all, and the general could walk once more.

To see him walking, albeit with a cane and very slowly thanks to his leg muscles having atrophied somewhat despite therapy, was beyond astonishing. All the medical reporters there made that the center of their articles and when the ceremony ended surrounded Arthur, piling the general with questions.

When a letter delivered by owl arrived asking for his aid in showcasing the efficacy of Potter's potions, Arthur had agreed without reservation. The need to talk to reporters like this was a small price to pay for being able to walk. He in particular was looking forward to this weekend when his grandchildren would be coming up with his son and step-daughter. Being able to walk the two young boys around the house was something he would cherish forever.

While the general took center stage after the formal portion of the grand opening/question and answer session ended, Harry bowed out, stage right. He found Emma there, smirking as she continued to watch the crowd of busily note-taking reporters, still hidden under the notice-me-not he had cast on this small portion of the area. "So, what do you think?"

Emma reached forward, grasping harry firmly by his tie, pulling him into a searing kiss. Though surprised, Harry returned it, his arms going around Emma as he too disappeared under the notice- me-not. The two made out for more than a minute before Emma was forced to pull back to get breathe. She smirked impishly at Harry shaking her head, her blonde hair moving this way and that, smacking against his chest before she pulled back. "What do I think, I think you're idea of bringing in General Demontebanks to show what you're potions could do was inspired!"

She gestured out past Harry's back to where many of the reporters had begun to leave the area, hurrying off to be the first to get their stories out. "Those reporters aren't just from British publications, they were from Irish, Italian, German, American, a lot of other first world countries, and you just proved that your potions work unequivocally on a known, and well regarded, paraplegic! Even if doctors themselves, or even governments remain leery of you and where your medicines come from, individual citizens will read those magazine and news articles and start pushing for access to them! Good god Harry, it wouldn't surprise me if public opinion forced even the American FDA to let you start selling to the civilian side quickly!"

"You'll have the resources of a king even before you spread to other industries!" So saying Emma leaned up to capture his lips again, and Harry chuckled into her lips, amused as always by how business, and riches in particular was such a turn on for the blonde.

One problem however that Harry nor Emma had realized yet was that he had yet to get used to the idea of robotic agents. Intent-based wards or spells would never be able to find mechanical intelligences because they did not, as the spell saw it, have minds that could be full of intent. They were simply pieces of furniture. That wouldn't work against a ward scheme that had become connected to a hearthstone which was developing what could very easily be called sentience, such as Hogwarts. There were also some defensive wards worked very well on robots, attacking their senses just as much as any humans. However the Magical Minds building was not blessed with such a hearthstone, and the majority of its magical defenses were based on intent and mitigating the damage of an all-out assault.

Thus using robots to spy on the building was possible. Two different terrorist organizations and thought to send in robotic agents after their first few attempts to send in human agents had failed during the hiring process. They were concerned about how that had happened, but had hoped to use robots to bypass whatever had been used to turn the human agents aside. So among the workers that were even now filing into the building there were two androids, assigned to figure out where the hell Harry Potter was getting his potions from and anything else useful for their masters. They would not succeed in this, but they would pick up some other relevant information eventually.

For now however, harry had no idea about this small scale infiltration, and he and Emma left the building several hours later with the happiness of a job well done.

OOOOOOO

Over the next few days, Harry's prediction of more orders for potions coming in swiftly was proven quickly correct. Despite the fact that the civilian medical side would have to wait another month before his potions were approved to be sold to civilians, several UK hospitals were already placing orders with his company, and plans were being made to fill them out as soon as they legally could.

With that and his already very considerable monetary base Harry began to work the Hellfire Club's London Branch with Emma's help. Quickly Harry began to make business connections there, as well as starting the process to weed out the few people there that were truly evil. There was a kind of benign avarice inherent in the club, but Harry couldn't care less that most of them did illegal drugs or had other vices, peccadillos really since every member was filthy rich.

What he and Emma cared about was the fact that one of them was running several sweatshops down in Africa in which the people there were treated more like disposable pieces than employees. Another one was connected to the organized crime, funding the Maggia in their attempt to gain a foothold in the UK. Two others were connected to a kidnapping and extortion ring, and one had a thing for young boys.

It would take some time to build up enough evidence to point MI5 at them however, but until then Harry made nice with them all. He quickly found himself as a Bishop in the club hierarchy already thanks to his monetary resources, which were incredible at this point despite the need to pay his employees and funding Jean's projects. In fact he was the only one at that level, though several, including two of the ones Harry was determined to shut down, were close to that level.

Emma of course wasn't actually connected to him publicly. If the other members of the London Branch were asked they would say that they the two of them were semi-cordial, but not in any way connected beyond the business deal for distributing Magical Minds potions. Emma used telepathy to communicate with him, the first time Harry allowed her access to his mind, something she was ecstatic about. As a sign of trust having a little corner of that invisibility cloak raised for you took some beating.

She did so while sitting up in the overlooking area reserved for the Kings, but since this branch didn't have a King it was opened her as Queen. The rules of the club were rather idiotic and old-fashioned, but at least they allowed for some carryover from one branch to another. And the resources of the club itself allowed her and Harry a large hand up in monitoring the activities of their fellows.

Harry also made the time to pick up the weapons from Stark, and make an appointment to drop in on him next week to see what could be done for his mysterious medical issue. Tony had arranged for the weapons to be in an old, due to be demolished warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Harry swooped in, disabled the two hundred and ten listening and monitoring devices (he didn't take it personally, Tony was a genius, not knowing something was like an itch you couldn't scratch for him) and then removed the weapons with the help of Cory and his band of popper specialists. Tony would have to wait a week to get his answers which no doubt frustrated him no end.

While Harry was busy with this however, life continued apace in the Castle.

OOOOOOO

Dr. Druid looked up from where he was marking off something on a checklist as the door to the series of rooms that had been designated for brewing purposes opened, revealing Fay Brown on the other side. He smiled in welcome, waving her over to where he was working. "Anything I can help you with, Fay?"

"Nothing serious, though I did want to ask if you had heard anything from Harry or the others about when the next batch of students and teachers would arrive?"

The big book of students hasn't reported a mutant activating his power in the past two days, and none been in danger since that incident with Paige. "As far as I'm aware, they have plans to wait for a time barring a child's name entering into the orange. They plan to bring in new teachers before searching for more students."

"Good." Brown nodded. "I can handle the workload now, thanks mostly to the house-elves helping me, but if we add more students of varying levels I'll need another teacher at the least. Anyway, I was wondering if you would be able to go with me on a short shopping trip? The classroom I've been using is nice, but I would like to go out and grab a few things for it, add my own touch so to speak."

Dr. Druid frowned thoughtfully looking at the woman and then nodded with a smile. "Certainly, I believe the elves here have this potion business down, certainly than I do. Just let me tell them, and we can go. And um… perhaps we could also stop for a bite to eat while we're out?"

The rather voluptuous middle-aged teacher smiled faintly. "I would like that."

Later that day they left the castle arm-in-arm, using one of the house-elves to teleport them down to London. Neither adult noticed that several of the students were watching them and wondering what was going on there.

OOOOOOO

"ENOUGH!" Shiang Chi yelled, quickly stepping into the training ring. He grabbed both Rahne and Illyich by the scruff of their necks, hurling them to either side. "Enough, I say!"

Both teens looked rebellious, glaring around him at one another, eager to continue the fight, but it was obvious that Shiang had done the right thing stepping in as he did. Both of them were looking much the worse for wear, with bits and pieces of fur missing from Rahne's werewolf form, and several claw marks coupled with a black eye for Illyich.

The martial arts instructor rubbed at his forehead, shaking his head sadly. "So, that old comment about cats and dogs is really true. Good to know."

Both of the animal type mutants had lost it the moment they came within six feet of one another. There wasn't anything said or done to start the fight, nothing like that. It was as if a switch had been flipped in both of them the moment they were close enough to smell one another over the background scent of the dojo. "I think from now on, you two are not allowed to spar with one another." After a moment, Rahne and Illyich nodded sheepishly.

OOOOOOO

Harry was enjoying a sleep in, having not even noticed that Jean and Ororo left the bed much earlier. They had wanted to let him sleep since he had been doing so much down on the business side of things, which both of them new he didn't enjoy. He was rudely awakened however when he heard a young female voice yelling "Attack!"

He bolted upright in bed just in time to catch Melody and Illyana and several of the other pre-teen kids jumping on to the bed, bouncing around. "Hello father!" Melody said laughing merely. "Time to get up!"

Harry laughed, grabbing up his daughter in one arm and flinging her over a shoulder while he did the same to Illyana with his other arm, then got out of bed despite all the teens trying to push him back down laughing all the while. It was moments like this, he thought, and moments with his ladies, which makes all this work worth it.

Over the past few days, despite having been busy, Harry had been unhappy that his time with his family had been so disrupted by the business crap he was dealing with. Harry had wanted a family for so long, and had hated that other priorities had taken time away from them. With that in mind, he decided to take the rest of the day off to spend time with his daughter. The day ended with a flight around the castle's environs on his magic carpet, with Jean and Ororo having joined them.

Watching Ororo teaching Melody about some of the birds they saw as they flew over the forest, Harry was filled with a sense of love and wellbeing, gazing at them, a tender smile on his face. Ororo caught his glance and cocked an eyebrow in query. "Harry?"

"Oh nothing Ororo, just, thinking how much I love you all, and moments like this." Harry replied simply, his smile widening slightly as he tasted the words and the rightness of them.

Ororo's eyes widened as she actually found herself blushing like a school girl at the love in Harry's voice. Melody simply laughed, leaping up from next to the wind rider to hug Harry firmly in response

Jean looked up from where she had been gazing over the side, looking over the side of the carpet to gaze back at Harry, a tender smile forming on her own face as she gazed back at her lover. "Oooh, that was very nice Harry, utterly spontaneous and right from the heart." She moved over to him, leaning in to kiss him over Melody's head. "Never doubt we love you too, Harry Potter."

Ororo joined them as well, while in the center of the group hug Melody smiled so hard her face hurt as the songs of her family enveloped her.

OOOOOOO

Emma stretched luxuriantly where she slay between Jean and Harry on their bed in High Note. They had decided the evening before to have dinner up there and to check the detections systems. The house elves hadn't reported anything untoward, but it was the kind of thing they wanted to make certain about. It had also allowed Harry and the others to give her a tour of this part of their operation.

That amount of trust yet again nearly brought her to tears, and she vowed once again to be worthy of this relationship she had joined. Ororo had also decided that Emma could sleep in the same bed as them now, though they didn't do anything else. None of the others had really been in the mood for anything physical since the meeting with the FF, the knowledge Betsy was enslaved in Mojoland niggling at the back of their minds, even at their happiest. It just seemed wrong somehow, especially given what routinely happened to female slaves in human society.

That hadn't effected the sheer, not quite sensual enjoyment Emma had gotten out of sleeping next to the other three though. It was again part trust, the knowledge that she could trust them at her most vulnerable and was trusted in turn. This was coupled with the feeling of security and safety she got sleeping next to the others. It was easily the best night's sleep she ever had in her life, well worth the knowledge she would probably have to come up with a cover story for her sister, who was getting more and more suspicious of her older sister's movements.

And of course Emma's enjoyment was also part physical pleasure. Emma had known since even before meeting Jean that she was attracted to both sexes, and Ororo's habit of sleeping naked was a sight to see. The African woman's body put any celebrity's to shame, and that didn't even consider Jean's own chemise clad form, which at present was pressed up tight against Emma's back. The redhead's arm was flung over Emma's body and her hand resting on Harry's hard, toned stomach, intertwining with Ororo's there. Harry's arms were around them all, his hand's resting on Jean's hip and Ororo's rear.

Emma took all this in as she began to get up, a laborious process for her without coffee. Giving it up as a lost cause, she deiced to simply bask in the feeling of belonging for as long as she could before the rest of the world intruded.

OOOOOOO

"Well at least I have hips to speak of! You're flat coming and going!"

Harry looked up from a conversation with Ororo, Melody and Illyana about what they wanted to do for Illyana's coming birthday, which Harry had marked out especially because he wanted to get her to learning occlumency soon. She wasn't quite old enough yet to start teaching magic too, but mental and self-control, yes. That would make learning the actual spells much easier.

Looking at Paige and Amara, who were once more arguing, Harry shook his head. "I've had just about enough of this."

I had hoped it would blow over, myself." Jean nodded from where she had been talking to Dennis. "Still, what can we do but hope they get over it? Any attempt from an authority figure to step in might make it worse, or simply make them keep it out of sight of the rest of us."

"I have a suggestion actually." Ororo said, smirking a little before she leaned into whisper into Harry's ear.

After a moment, Harry laughed. "Kill or cure I suppose!" With that he stood up, making his way down the long table.

At the other end of the table the two arguing girls looked up as Harry came towards them, not noticing Nicolai and Piotr both breathing deep sighs of relief as the argument ended for the moment. Suddenly both girls found themselves in midair, floating behind Harry as he trooped out of the dining hall. "What the… Put me down!" Paige exclaimed. Magma however simply stayed silent, wondering where this was going.

"We've all had enough of your arguing and sniping at one another. It's hurting team unity, it's interrupting our mealtimes, and it's disrupting the harmony of the castle." Harry said, walking down the hall briskly.

They came upon one of the teaching areas, and Harry quickly cast a few spells on both of them, then sat them down facing one another in admittedly comfortable chairs. "Neither of you are leaving this room until you figure out what the hell is bothering the both of you about one another. No powers." He said looking at Paige and Magma severely. "No killing or crippling blows, I'll have one of the house-elves standing by with a few potions to help heal any wounds. Other than that, you're here until you have gotten over whatever the hell this is and can work together and be friends. Do I make myself clear?"

Both girls gulped under his glare, nodding despite themselves. Harry closed the door after him, locking it behind him while the two girls went back to glaring at one another.

The insults began again after a moment, but strangely enough the house-elf that Harry had asked to watch the duo reported that neither of them tried to come to blows. Harry knew that if he had tried something like that with two men they certainly would have come to blows. Women however were simply wired differently.

The two of them stayed in that room for the rest of that day and that evening, causing Harry to ask a house-elf to pop in with two of the beds from the student's tower.

However, the next morning he and the others were pleased that Ororo's idea had actually worked. The next day they both came out up of the room, having proved to the elves watching them unseen that they had made up, and both of them having come clean about their real reasons for disliking one another. Once spoken aloud, their reasons all seemed small and petty. After which they had found quite a bit to admire in one another instead, and were now friends.

OOOOOOO

Jean and Reed smiled at one another as they watched Wyatt test out the abilities of the suit the two of them had put together in front of Harry. They had called him in for this, wanting to see if Harry could think of anything to add to their work.

While Jean's original work was excellent in reverse engineering Vulture's suit, she had been correct in that actually using it to fly was much more difficult than it first appeared. So Reed had removed the wings of the suit as well as the propulsion, but the small battery of the suit was surprisingly powerful. It had to be to run the rest of the suit, though of course it wasn't on part with something like the reactor Iron Man used. Reed had his own ideas about that one, but wasn't going to go and mess around with Tony's toys. In scientific circles something like that was a big no-no.

However, the battery was small, so there was room for two more without adding overmuch to the weight. One battery handled the strength enhancement. One battery was an emergency one which would take over the duties of either of the others.

And the third powered Reed's addition to the suit: a line of sight teleportation device. It wasn't very powerful in terms of range, but it was the most energy efficient design he had come up with so far. With it, Wyatt would be able to teleport around fifty times in a ten meter radius before running out of power.

The suit was now comprised of a bodysuit like everyone else wore, over which Wyatt wore heavy gauntlets that covered his hands and forearms, heavy boots coming up to his knees, and a chest plate. All of it, at Wyatt's suggestion, was painted dark earth colors, brown and deep red.

He also had a full helmet, which Wyatt had helped design. The helmet was like the head of a wild dog, painted black with long ears sticking out at the back, a long muzzle which somehow conveyed a smirk at the viewers expense, and red tinted eyes.

Harry was incredibly impressed by the work the two engineers had put into the suit, and said so. "It was really Jean who did most of the design work," Reed said modestly. "I only added the teleportation device, plus redesigned the power routes to allow for it and its power source."

"Still this, and some user activated Disillusion charms…" Harry shook his head, a wicked smile on his face. He then turned to Wyatt, who had just teleported back over to them from the other end of the FF's training area. "By the way Wyatt, have you decided on your callsign yet?"

"I have." Even the speaker system of the helmet had been created with Wyatt's input. His voice came out with a little growl to it, yet there was also some humor there, like a prankster who took his work seriously. "Call me Coyote."

OOOOOOO

Harry looked up from having dinner with Jean and Ororo, Emma not able to join them for this evening, as a house-elves popped in looking a little worried, wringing his ears in both hands. "Yes, what is it?" He recognized the young house-elf is one of those assigned to the students tower full-time, and wondered if there had been some kind of emergency.

"Master we be…" the house-elf caught Ororo's look and went on hurriedly. "That is, Drippy and I are assigned to clean the men's side of the tower. But it be too noisy! We not, er we don't care how messy it gets, that be fine, but they is always leaving this thing on that plays music, it's horrible!"

Harry frowned for a moment then stood up bowing to Jean and Ororo. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go deal with this." The two ladies rather than excusing him followed him, wondering what kind of cacophony could make a house-elf refuse to work in an area.

They entered what had been the Gryffindor tower in Harry's old dimension. The smiled at the girls, who were crowded around the TV watching some kind of sappy movie or other save for Melody and Illyana who were both already asleep in Melody's room, having spent half the day with Illyana's grandparents.

The three adults moved up the staircase into the men's side, looking in on the area that was currently being used by the pre-teens. It was an utter pigsty. Clothes were strewn everywhere and for some reason there was food as well left out on plates, and even several bags of snack foods. Harry wondered how they had convinced one of the house-elves to let them bring food up here in the first place. Books were strewn everywhere, including a new comic series that Ms. Brown had picked up for Jeb at his behest.

Sergei was leaning against the wall along his bed, bobbing his head to incredibly loud music coming from a speaker, so loud it was only because of the sound dampening of the stone walls that had kept them from hearing it outside of the tower. Jesse and Christopher were dancing to the music, or were they play fighting? Harry couldn't quite tell, nor could Ororo who at first thought it was some kind of tribal dance. Ivan was laying have on and half off his bed, munching on something while reading a comic next to Jeb, who had the next in the series.

With a wave of his hand Harry shut the music off, glaring around at the kids. "I see." he said softly. All four boys looked up with trepidation at him, and Harry said softly. "Why don't you five just sit there for a moment, I'll be right back."

With that Harry left with Ororo staying behind to stare at the two she had saved from Sudan in disapproval. "Really?"

"But everyone likes the music! This hardcore rock stuff from America is awesome!"

"That does not excuse playing it so loudly that the house-elves refused to be in here!" Ororo said, causing both to look away. Ororo's eyes cut to Jeb who bowed his head. "Pray we don't decide to get your mother involved. I know for a fact its past your bedtime, and I doubt she would condone this mess." Jeb winced at that, but stayed silent.

Harry made his way up to the second dormitory room, where the older teens shared their own room for now. Once more students came in, Piotr and Nikolai would each get their own room elsewhere in the castle. This room was much cleaner except for one area which looked as if it had been set aside for a painting area for Piotr. That was all right, one man's mess in that kind of environment was another man's organization. However all five older teens were listening on large headphones to different things as they lay in their beds.

Harry waved his hand, his magic reaching out to grab the headphones off each of the boys' heads. As they gasped and looked around, Harry stared at them sternly. "Well?"

Sam spoke up. Sam spent most of his time he in New York with the X-Men exercising with them, but he lived in the castle for now to stay with his family. "Sorry sir, the kids're always playin' their music so loudly we need ta use headphones ta get any sleep our own selves. And the last time we tried to get them to stop playin' it, they messed up our stuff in here, and wrecked my Walkman somehow."

Harry frowned angrily at that, but nodded. "All right, all of you come with me. This is going to get solved right now."

Once he had all the boys in one room, Harry gave two lectures. One was that house-elves and their cleaning up after the humans was a privilege, one that would not be disabused. The next was about personal space and respect for one another. He ended that speech by saying "I understand that you like this music Jesse, Christopher, but that does not give you the right to play it so loudly, or deep into the night as you are. You can headphones all the time outside of class, wreck your ears for all I care. But do not disturb the peace of the castle as a whole. And Christopher, I understand from Sam that you or your brother ruined his Walkman when they asked you to keep your music down? You two are going to be paying for that. Your powers are a gift, do not abuse them in such a manner."

Both African boys nodded, and Harry looked at all of the men/boys sternly. "I trust I won't be called back again?"

All of them nodded and Harry returned it firmly. "Good, in that case I suggest you five get to cleaning. I'm going to assign a house-elf to look at the job, but he's not going to help you and you won't be done it until he's satisfied. That should do as punishment for now, plus paying for the Walkman. I'll assign you some work outside, cutting grass or something of that nature, until you have worked enough hours on minimum wage to pay for it."

Jesse and Christopher looked at one another morosely, but nodded, knowing they were getting off lightly.

With that the three adults left, followed quickly by the older teens. Behind them the boys looked around, wondering where the hell to start.

OOOOOOO

Dani entered the dining hall with some trepidation. She had been here a little under a week now, but this was the first time Jean had given Dani the okay to leave her room for an extended period of time with the kids around. Today Jean had said that she had built up her mental discipline enough to stop her power from lashing out without direction, and had even begun to work with on using them on purpose. They had spent most of the morning picking up some furniture for her room, just enough to make it homely. Surprisingly, Dani's taste of furniture was a mix of Ororo's and Melody's, wooden furniture made to look natural with dark colors and furs with several items showing proudly her Native American heritage.

Paige ran up to her, grabbing one hand. "Hey Dani come over here and sit with Amara and me."

The two of them had met and bonded over music and movies in one of the few times that Jean had allowed Dani out of her room to interact with the others. The two had become semi-close friends, though Dani also got on well with Amara. Really she was simply a calm, understanding individual, who could get along well with anyone.

Dani was hesitant, but sat down with the other girls and began to eat with them. the two girls, having buried the hatchet, made her welcome easily. Having found so much to admire in one another rather than feel jealous about, they were well on their way to becoming real friends, and were much more secure in themselves because of it.

Later that day she and the others went out to the lake to swim around, and she startled herself by joining in a splash war with all of them against Jean and Harry. The two adults lost when Ororo came out to aid the kids, using her powers to deadly effect.

She smiled to herself as she went to bed that night. I think I'm going to like it here.

OOOOOOO

Six days after Magical Minds had opened for business, this period of calm ended. In the middle of the night local time, Harry was woken from a deep sleep by the ringing of his cell phone on the table by the bed. The wizard frowned, but reached over Ororo's naked body to pick it up, noticing that she and Jean were both already waking up, looking rather irritable which increased when they noticed the time as only three in the morning. Despite all of them being early risers, this was a bit much. Still, only a very few people in the world had access to this phone number, and it behooved Harry to treat the call as if it was possibly an emergency.

With that in mind his tone was moderately cordial when he picked up the phone and asked. "Yes, who is this?"

Hearing Mr. Fantastic's worried voice caused Harry to sit up in bed, dislodging the covers from over himself and the other two, whose eyes widened at his sudden movement. "Harry, I'm sorry to wake you, I know were dealing with some severe time differences here, but this can't wait. I've found something on the drones I've been sending into Mojoworld, and I think if we don't strike soon, we may lose what might be our best opportunity to set up a true government there."

Now fully awake Harry said quickly. "We'll be ready to go in thirty minutes, lower your teleport block until we're all there." If you give a job to a genius, you would be a fool to ignore his advice.

He turned to Jean and Ororo, noticing that they had both already got out of bed. Ororo was using her newfound magical powers to heat a pot of tea for herself while Jean pulled on her uniform set. "Jean, since you're the most dressed, rouse the team and make sure they have full load out of all our new toys. Also hand out some Pepper-Up potions, just in case anyone needs it. I'm going to hop down to Captain Britain and pick him up, Ororo you write out a message for Shiang Chi and the others, I want us gone in thirty minutes."

Both women nodded seriously, Ororo conjured up a piece of paper and a pen to start writing, even as Jean finished pulling on her uniform. "Does that include Paige or Amara?"

Harry shook his head. "Not Paige, but Amara, yes. She proved herself well enough on the operation down in Greece. Paige however is still in the doghouse." Jean nodded then raced down the steps out of the headmaster's quarters.

Harry frowned thoughtfully, closing his eyes as he concentrated on what he could remember of the main hall of the Braddock estate. After a moment he felt he had it, and disappeared with a far louder pop than normal. He reappeared in his target area, stumbling slightly as he did so, nearly smashing his head into the bannister of the massive staircase. But when you were forced to teleport into an area you hadn't entirely memorized, that was as close to perfect as you were likely to get. He looked around and began to yell for Captain Britain, and ignored the two elderly servants who rushed in with a carving knife and a very old hunting rifle respectively.

Brian himself appeared on the staircase's upper landing, looking down at him with as much dignity as he could manage dressed in a fuzzy bathrobe. That wasn't even counting what he wore on his feet, which despite the seriousness of the situation made Harry smile. Bright blue slippers with what looked like googly eyes on them were just not something he would picture from mister stoic himself.

"Guardian?" Brian said quickly, unmindful of his appearance, not knowing what was going through Harry' head. "Is there something wrong? My sister?"

"Mr. Fantastic just called me." Harry said quickly, hitting both of the servants with confounding spells. Just because Brian trusted them didn't mean Harry was going to, and he hadn't bothered to cover himself with any notice-me not-wards or anything of that nature. "He says there's something going on, and that we should all be ready to go. Given the urgency I'm afraid it either has to do with your sister, or something that will fundamentally make any rescue of her harder."

"Give me two minutes." Brian said and quickly turned racing back into his room to reappear dressed in his uniform. He jumped over the railing landing lightly on his toes and raced over to Harry who grabbed his arm. "I'm going to drop you off at the Baxter building and return for the others." Harry said quickly. Brian nodded, and a second later after Harriet called he had they stood in the teleportation room at the Baxter Bell building. Harry was unsurprised to find that the other Fantastic Four members were up and about, and he gently pushed Brian towards him before disappearing with crack back to Hogwarts, his normal could self-control in abeyance.

Thankfully the others were already, the same group as the last time he had been to the Baxter Building. Paige, while not badly injured during the debacle down in Greece, had been grounded by her mother for lying to Harry about having gotten her permission, something Harry too was still angry about. Not a minute later they were all at the Baxter building once more.

"Ya added another face ta yer team, Potter?" Ben asked, looking at the young girl who he didn't know.

Harry nodded. "The young lady with the tan is Magma, her name is rather descriptive of her powers, hence why she is not in her activated state. It was by far the easiest name we've ever had to come up with."

Amara nodded with a smile, trying to hold in her awe of meeting the famous Fantastic Four with all the self-control of a politician's daughter. She was dressed in a tight dark blue and red outfit, made to be as light as possible. Yet it incorporated the thin slivers of the yellow version Orihalcum scale mail like everyone else's save Colossus'. Even outside her energy state, this protected her from quite a bit more than anyone would think at first glance, and the unstable molecules worked to absorb the impetus of impact.

Colossus, already protected by his metal form, was further armored with heavy plate armor over his torso, vambraces and greaves all made out of the original version of Orihalcum, which was more durable but also heavier than the yellow kind Harry had gotten from his battle with Balthakk. That was something Harry had found out since receiving that second set of armor.

With that in mind, Harry had subsequently redone the uniforms for the others, making them much lighter, and allowing him to put the tiny scale mail pieces throughout their uniforms rather than just their torsos. This had given him enough ammunition to talk Ororo into wearing a full body uniform, which she was wearing now. It was black, with gold highlights along her belt, neckline and shoulders, and fit her as well as Jean's uniform fit her. She still retained a cape though, but this cape had more defensive properties on it than Harry's original crysis suit. And she also still had her headpiece on her head, whose defensive properties had again been added to, now that Harry knew she could power the runic arrays herself.

Amara's suit had heavier armor at the back of her elbows and on her knees, as well as a full head mask that she could pull up over her head only with difficulty thanks to her hair. For now however it would do to protect Amara's head with the same level of protection as the rest of her. At Amara's side she wore a short sword, and on one forearm she had a small rectangle of metal that she could enlarge to a heavy shield. At the moment that was due to a runic array set into the metal, but eventually Jean would create a scientific equivalent, since powering the array to enlarge it used a lot of bio-energy.

Reed nodded cordially to them all, not asking questions about the newcomer, looking a little harried.

There was already a picture up on the screen behind him. It was showing a youngish looking blonde haired man with the looks of a movie star. He was jumping through what looked like some kind of action scene where he was throwing knives at several hidden enemies while dodging return blasts from what looked to be several different types of laser based weapons. "I apologize for waking you all up, and I normally would have liked to use the full week I asked for to do this, but something has come up. This is a Longshot, he is one of the star attractions for Mojo, his biggest seller in fact in terms of ratings. However, he has no loyalty to Mojo per-se. My drones caught a snippet of a conversation that indicate he is preparing to lead a full rebellion against him. The conversation indicated they were nearly ready to 'rise up and grasp our freedom with our own hands.'"

Harry whistled in astonishment. Jean did too and she put their thoughts into words. "So these Couch Potatoes don't have anything implanted in their slaves to ensure loyalty? No mental or genetic indoctrination or chips implanted into their brains? That's bizarre as hell!"

"It would seem not. From what little I've been able to glean on my drones, all of the technology, or practically all of the technology, is based around a few major advancements, three of which came from the same individual, a doctor called Arise. He was the one who developed those hover-beds they use to get around in, and he was the one to develop a method to create their slaves. He was apparently also in charge of ensuring the loyalty somehow, but that apparently did not, in fact, happen."

"I take it you think this Longshot's rebellion will fail without outside intervention?" Brian asked leaning forward intently. "Is my sister involved in it in some way?"

"I have found your sister, your description of her was most helpful for that, but there is no indication she's involved in the rebellion." Reed replied. "She's part of some Mojo's most popular programs, though I cannot tell you if it is voluntary or not. In one she plays a love interest for Longshot but that seems to be their only connection. In another she's a spy, and in the third a gladiator. In all of them she plays strong, combative women, with quite a bit more marital art skill than I had expected, and her eyes seem to have been replaced, though if they are biologic, magical or electronic in nature I cannot say."

Reed looked uncomfortable for a moment. "A fourth series starring Betsy had been suggested in one conversation a drone picked up in the coliseum stage and would've been of a… hard-core nature." He coughed uncomfortably. "Apparently there is a fetish among the spineless ones, which is what they call themselves, for non-spineless one females with spineless one males."

He coughed again looking incredibly uncomfortable while all of his listeners looked both aghast and sick at the same time. "Thankfully I have seen nothing from my drones that indicates that was seriously being considered." Or at least nothing he was going to share with the woman's brother in any case. He had caught Mojo and one of his chief directors discussing the possibility, but Mojo had shot the man down for the suggestion telling him to wait a while until 'the fighting female concept grows passé'.

"As to why I think Longshot will fail, the latest version of my drones are able to take bio readings, and one of Longshot's closest companions in this rebellion are not human. He reads as some kind of android. The recorded output matches a few others that I've noticed in Mojo's service even if its physical form is vastly different. I believe this type is called War Wolves, but do not quote me on that. If Mojo already knows about the rebellion, then he's probably using it as a 'special event' to bolster his 'ratings' and crush the spirit of the genetically created slave race by putting it down as harshly as he can."

Harry rubbed his lightning shaped scar for a moment while he thought. "I think we can safely say that if the humanoids on this planet are willing to rebel that we don't have to worry about our major concern there, that they wouldn't be able to act independently, or would be coerced back into slavery at some later date. Have you found anything out about their defenses?"

"The primary defenses on this world consist of androids of various type, gun emplacements in several places around the city and the open sets my drones have been able to scout, and several slaves that apparently work for Mojo willingly apparently in return for better treatment. Two of them in particular seem to be his major enforcers, like the six armed woman I mentioned during our last meeting. Alone I would say they're not a threat, but combined they could be."

Several more images popped up, showing a ram headed humanoid and a woman with silver hair wearing silver armor that made her look like some kind of Valkyrie. Except in her case she had six arms rather than the normal two.

"Other than that, I have created a real-time map of the only city on the planet. I don't know anything about the layout of the interior of its buildings unfortunately, but I know where all of the various TV stations are, the TV towers, as well as the ten main bases for security androids. I would estimate that only about 2% of their total android output is online at any given time, all of it involved with the various TV shows and movies. However, don't assume that that will make them any less deadly." With the touch of a button another image popped up and Reed began to walk them through all different types of androids his drones had spotted, as well as the location of the gun emplacements.

Harry listened to this still rubbing at his scar mark, thinking hard. Something was bothering him some sixth sense told him Mojo was more dangerous than they were giving him credit for, but there was nothing they could do about it now expect assume the worst. "All right." He slapped one hand flat on the table for emphasis. "Reed, are you and your team still willing to aid us? And how are we going to get there?"

Reed nodded firmly while the rest of the Fantastic Four followed suit. They all owed Harry, and helping him with this was one way to repay him. "Yes we're all willing to help you on this operation. As for our method of transportation, I will be opening a dimensional gate to a place on the outskirts of the city in a rather run down area. I will have to keep it open however, so my lab defenses will be turned on while we are gone."

"In that case, I'll leave a dozen golems or so to defend the other end of the gate. Then we're going to split up into six groups. One. Infiltration and expatriation. Captain Britain, Susan, Reed, that will be you. I'll cover Captain Britain and you, Reed, with as many spells as I can hide to hide your presence, your job will be to find your sister captain. I trust you have an idea on where to find Betsy?"

Reed nodded thoughtfully and Harry went on. "You can decide after that if you want to escape with her right away or meet up with group two, which will be moving in to aid the budding rebellion. That will be Ororo, Wyatt, and Vanguard. Ororo is carrying a magically expanded pouch that contains as many weapons as I could get my hand on, hand them out to the rebels and direct them as best you can to take out the TV towers. The more of those that go offline, the worse their communication net is going to be, the more they will be unable to react en-masse to the rebellion, and the more people they will be able to convince to take up arms with them."

"Group three will be Colossus, Thing, and Magma. Your job is going to be to smash as many of those android depots as you can, cause as much havoc as you can to pull attention away from the rebellion as it starts up. Group five, Phoenix and the Human Torch, air support. Air units can turn the tide of the fight if we let them, take command of the sky and knock anything else out of it."

"And yourself, beloved?" Ororo asked looking over at him one eyebrow raised. "What exactly will you be doing?"

"I'm going to go after the big man myself." Harry replied grimly. "With group two causing havoc and group three helping the rebels, if I remove Mojo from power the chaos will really start to work for us since I doubt any of the rest of these couch potatoes has the mental faculty to step up and take charge."

Reed frowned not liking the finality of the way Harry said the word 'remove', but in this case he certainly understood that removing Mojo permanently, however that was accomplished, was very important going forward. He was not as willing to kill as Harry was, and it disturbed him sometimes that Harry was so at home with it, but he trusted Harry's judgment.

"What are we waiting for then?" The Thing smirked, cracked his rocky knuckles. "Let's get this show on the road."

OOOOOOO

Longshot frowned as he crouched in the sewer pipe that the rebellion was currently using as a meeting place. "We're agreed on a time frame, but how are we all going to communicate? This won't work if all the bits and pieces needed to go off don't work."

"That means we'll have to take one of the TV towers first, so we can use the airwaves to signal with one another." Muttered a man next to him. The man was slightly more handsome than even Longshot, and dressed in a flowery, even gay manner. His name was Maury, and he was known as a comedian and talk show host, one of the better draws of Mojo's Empire for the group of Spineless Ones that weren't interested in violence. He had brought over two hundred other slaves into the rebellion a mere month back, but he had proven himself capable and tougher than his looks suggested.

The other men all nodded, including Longshot's fellow conspirators Bowser and Sebastian, the men who had been with him since he first began to plan this rebellion. "Makes sense." They both said as one, then laughed a little at that, causing a little of the tension to leave the air for a moment.

Bowser was a large man with a massive beard and deep set eyes who routinely played the 'strong type' sidekick or villain and even sometimes the behind the scenes inventor. After a smirking over at his friend he went on. "I'd recommend station 12, I was over there working on the next Bojo movie. While on paper it looks like the most heavily defended, it's got a single weak spot, all of the power comes from a generator nearby. Cut that out, it doesn't have an internal generator to fall back on like most of the other TV stations do. It's due for renovation, but they haven't gotten around to it yet."

There were some laughter and murmurs of irritation at that. The Spineless Ones were nothing if not, well, spineless. It wasn't just a description of their bodies but of their attitudes towards life. They wanted everything handed to them on a silver platter, they weren't very organized, and their attention span was measured in seconds rather than minutes. If it wasn't for their technology, most specifically the armies of androids they controlled, coupled with Mojo's leadership, the Spineless Ones could've been overthrown decades ago, well before Longshot was birthed in his crèche.

"Alright. I'll lead that attack at first, that'll leave you Longshot to lead the main assault on Mojo." Maury said. While the others all muttered agreement he plucked at one sleeve fastidiously while staring at the small watch he wore. "Now I think we all need to head out, you have a show you're doing in an hour Longshot, and I have to get to a meeting with my designer to see how Mojo wants us dressed for our show later today." With that the meeting broke up.

Bowser, Sebastian and Longshot made their way out of the sewers one after another before meeting up two blocks down, moving through the night deserted city. It had been designed and built before the Spineless Ones had fallen into the habit of TV watching, and barely saw a fraction of the traffic it would have before that. Not that Longshot knew any of that of course, the city had always been this empty as far back as he could remember.

About four blocks after meeting up the trio of actors hailed down a hover taxi, a flat hover type vehicle that had low-slung sides. These were habitually used in several of the TV programs Longshot starred in, but also were used to carry goods around the city, particularly the androids used as film crew. Like the rest of the city they had once been used by the Spineless Ones themselves, but none now alive could remember that time. They were now also used by the humans to move around the city quickly. Indeed, there were already two men, cameramen from their uniforms, aboard, working franticly on what looked like a badly broken camera between them.

Longshot and his two friends sat down, talking quietly and moving their hands in various manners going through some of the stunts they were going to have to perform for the show that afternoon. Sebastian was a little irritated however. "I don't understand why I have to play the bad guy in this one. Without my beard, which I got rid of on the producer's orders in the last season of Star Conquerors thanks to that stupid plot of it being one of my 'power sources', I don't look evil. Why can't the smart villain and tough villain be rolled into one in this episode?" He asked, looking pointedly at Bowser.

"Don't look at me." Bowser said shaking his head. "None of us make the decisions around here remember?"

"Yes, but that will be changing shortly, won't it?" Longshot muttered causing Sebastian to smile and nod in agreement. Longshot laughed quietly reaching over to punch him in the shoulder. "Then you won't have to be a villain any longer, and I can stop dodging around for a living. I swear, I wake up in a cold sweat sometimes imagining why the Spineless Ones like to watch me jump around dressed all in tight leather."

Sebastian laughed at Longshot's quip, but oddly enough Bowser didn't join in. "That supposes…" Bowser said his voice slowly changing with every word. "That Lord Mojo hasn't anticipated your little rebellion."

"What are you saying Bowser?" longshot said suddenly on edge though he couldn't tell why, it was his friend sitting there after all.

"That information I said about Station 12?" Bowser said with one hand reaching up to area right under his hairline. A seam appeared there, going down his body as his voice finished changing into a metallic growl. "It was a lie. Station 12 is actually the most up-to-date and heavily guarded in the TV station in the city next to Lord Mojo's personal tower. Lord Mojo's been on to you since the very beginning Longshot, though he didn't really want to believe his star performer was plotting against him. After all, everything you are you owe to Lord Mojo. But if you're willing to bite the hand that made you, well that hand can just as easily unmake you!"

Sebastian and Longshot stood as one, with Longshot reaching down to a bandolier of knives that he carried at all times, his signature weapon in most of the roles he played. Sebastian reached down as well for a laser gun at his side. It was supposed to be a prop, but he had long ago figured out how to remove the safety limiter on it to turn it into a real weapon.

He would never get to use it in real life. There was "Splurch!" sound, and Sebastian stared down at a silver claw that had just punched straight through his torso from behind.

Both of the cameramen that had been working on a camera at the other end of the hovercraft had transformed into half human, half bestial silver creatures, that looked vaguely canine even if they could walk like a human.

"Sebastian!" Longshot shouted in anguish, hurling one of his knives at the same time, jumping back onto the side of the hover cars security railing.

The thing that he had thought was his friend Bowser dodged to one side, which had been precisely what Longshot wanted him to do. The knife continued on its course slamming into the controls at the front of the hovercraft. There was a squeal of electronics shorting out, and the hovercraft descended like a rock to slam into the ground.

Longshot was the only one prepared for it. When the front of the hovercraft suddenly pitched down, slamming into the road pitching the rest up into the air he pushed off with his feet, leaping away with as much acrobatic ability as he possessed to grasp a wire going between two buildings then flipping himself down to the ground safely.

He stared at the crash for a moment, wondering if he should try to pull Sebastian out of there then shook his head. Sebastian was no doubt already dead from that hand through the chest, and he couldn't afford to stay around here. He had to find Maury and the others, get the word out not to start the rebellion. If Mojo knew they were going to rebel, especially their time table, any chance they had had success flew out the window. Longshot knew he would probably put to death anyway, or possibly brainwashed like a few others had been after showing unique abilities, but if he could save his friends, even if they remained slaves it was better than the alternative.

He raced down the streets, racking his brain for where Timothy was scheduled for his next show, as well as a way to get there without being seen more than he had to. He didn't get two blocks however before a silver body bore him to the earth.

Longshot crouched with the weight that had just landed on him, one hand reaching back and, with the luck that gave him his name, grabbing a outstretched claw. With that hold he threw the creature over his shoulder, throwing another knife at it in midair. He smirked as the knife caught it in the body, punching through the allow that made up its silver carapace but his smile disappeared when he saw he was surrounded by the rest of the pack.

"No one runs from the War Wolves, Blondie." one of them said, though not the one that had been impersonating his friend. "Not for long anyway."

"Did you kill Bowser! When did you do it!?"

"Your friend Bowser never existed." The one who had impersonated the bearded man said. "He was simply a creation of Lord Mojo. I was assigned to work my way into your confidence, and then turn on you the moment you tried to betray him. We've known all about your independent streak! In fact everything we've said since leaving that meeting has been recorded, as will the death of everyone else involved in your little rebellion. It'll be the greatest blockbuster in existence! We like to call it The Last Hurrah! Catchy, isn't it?"

"I don't know." Said new voice. "I think it's rather cliché myself." From above them came a human, clad in a formfitting red suit from head to toe, wielding a red and white shield in one hand and a rifle of unusual make in the other.

The rifle spat out several small slivers of plasma, slamming into and killing one of the werewolves while he dropped directly on another with the shield edge thrusting downward into its spine.

The third tried to turn, but a far hotter and slightly larger plasma bolt struck it from the side. The bolt hit the war wolf in the side of the head with such force that its head almost entirely disappeared leaving its now headless torso to fall to the ground, spewing sparks and electrical fluids.

The rest of the pack were blown away from successive lightning blasts from the clear sky above. A beautiful black woman dressed in black and with a strange black and gold cloth tiara on her head floated out of the ground to land lightly in front of Longshot. "Good day, I believe your name is Longshot? We come from Earth, where Mojo has been appropriating some of your fellow stars. We were waiting for an opportunity to come in and take him out when we learned of your rebellion, and decided to help you along. I am Storm, this is Vanguard, and our sniper, who is setup elsewhere, is named Coyote."

This sounded almost a little too good to be true, especially after his friend's betrayal but Longshot realized he had no choice but to trust these people for now. He was also a little nonplussed. Normally when a woman was around him they would be blushing or sending various signals that they found him attractive. This one wasn't, and it threw him off his stride for a moment.

Still, the urgency of the situation forced him back into action. "We have to hurry then!" He exclaimed for a moment turning to find the nearest camera before he stopped himself. "My friends, most of them might be walking right into a trap…" Longshot paused as explosions went off elsewhere in the city, one of them was so big he could even see the smoke from where he was standing. "What…"

"We're only one group of the team that's come to help you." Storm replied simply. "Another group is basically causing as much havoc as possible. Now, let's go meet your friends shall we?" The weather witch smiled, somewhat impishly it must be said. "I come bearing gifts."

OOOOOOO

Betsy Braddock was of two minds about this whole experience she was currently undergoing. Naturally no one liked being kidnapped from their bed, let alone forced to act in TV shows for someone else's sick, twisted, pleasure. But Mojo's domination of her mind hadn't taken anywhere near as well as Mojo hopefully thought, and whenever she was away from his presence she could regain control of herself. It was horrible, she was fucking telepath after all, she knew what Mojo was doing to her mind, but Betsy could fight it off, like pushing herself out of a deep quagmire. Thankfully she was a very decent actor, something she had done in high school and even college for a time. And on the other hand, Mojo and his scientists had been able to give Betsy a new set of eyes, far faster than she had ever dared to hope would be the case with Harry Potter.

Part of her resented the fact that Harry had never gotten back to her about his promise to try and make magical eyes for her, but given what Storm and Phoenix had told her whenever they talked, it was obvious that other things had taken priority, and she really couldn't fault Harry for thinking he had more time to get back to her. After all, who could've predicted she would be kidnapped like this?

At first Betsy had tried to escape on numerous occasions the first few days, but Mojo and his people were old hands at capturing and then 'taming' new stars for their TV shows. She had been returned quickly, then put under Mojo's mental domination, but as before her own telepathic ability had been able to help her fight it once she actually left his presence.

It was horrible, not being in control of yourself like that, but Betsy could fight through it. The worse part was that Betsy knew she didn't have the strength to fight off the initial assault. Betsy had tried, oh how she had tried, the first few times, but Mojo's will crushed her own easily. It was less painful to simply let him put his mental control in place, then break it the moment she was out of his presence. It wasn't quite to the level where Betsy could call it a mental rape, Mojo didn't crush her spirit that much, but it was certainly close.

Given her looks and athleticism, Betsy found herself being one of their main draws for a new show that reminded her somewhat of the old Get Smart program. It had a bumbling silly male lead, and an extremely effective female costar who was the one who really did everything, which had been Betsy's role. It had, while not been fun, at least been amusing at times. Yet even that showed how good the spineless ones had become in convincing their stars to become used to their lot, and Betsy fought against that feeling as fiercely as she did throwing off Mojo's control the moment she could.

Betsy looked down at her hand, and with a thought formed telekinetic blade of purple power that stuck out from her hand about 9 inches or so. This was the other reason she was somewhat ambivalent about being here. Somehow Mojo had awakened within her a small latent telekinetic ability, which Betsy could manifest in the form of these blades of hers.

Yet for all that she owed Mojo in a sick twisted way for her upgrades, when she began to hear screams and alarms she recognized a chance to escape and took it with both hands. One moment Betsy was sitting on her bed, the next she was up and getting dressed in her skintight purple suit that she used for most of her roles, watching the door warily. She closed her eyes concentrating for a moment then cursed. Of course I can't sense androids, she thought sardonically, they don't have minds per se, but I think I'm going to have to chance this. If I could just find that strange teleportation room or whatever it was called that they used to bring me here, I might have a chance. A slim one,Betsy had to admit to herself, but slim was better than none to get away from Mojo and his control.

OOOOOOO

As he had said, Reed's portal opened up into an abandoned area on the far northern edge of the city, one that had fallen to have disrepair thanks to the nearby mines which had been used to fill it with goods from outside the city having faltered. Harry spent a few minutes conjuring up several golems while Reed emplaced several portable gun platforms to defend the portal.

After that Reed left with the two others assigned to infiltration, followed quickly by Harry slipping on his invisibility cloak and slinking away into the city, heading towards the large tower Reed had pointed out as Mojo's headquarters. Then, with Johnny and Jean on over watch destroying anything that got into the air, Thing, Colossus and Magma went to town.

The nearest android depot didn't even know what hit it. One moment everything was all right, they weren't even going to be called in to help put down the rebellion since they were so far out of the way from its target. Then the next, there was a giant orange rock-covered monster in their midst, smashing the door down as well as the two android guards posted outside. Following the monster inside was a being made of some kind of energy that looked almost like flowing magma. Where she stood the ground underneath began to sizzle and buckle. The few first-team responders to this break-in were destroyed by a hail of very tiny bits of super molten rock, which burned through their robotic bodies like molten knives through hot butter. The next group, heavy hitters who were routinely used as mid-level bosses in some of the adventure brand TV shows, trundled out, only to run into a steel covered Colossus who tossed them around like so many toys despite their heavy cannons and bodies.

The nearby TV station was even worse off. With Johnny killing the few air drone that were currently in the air, Jean paused a moment, allowing a few of the androids who were programmed as cameramen to catch her in all her Phoenix aura glory as she checked the building telepathically to make sure none of the genetically created slaves were inside at present.

There weren't, and Jean couldn't even feel a single mind in there. So with a thought she conjured up her telekinetic powers, but rather than smashing into the building, she simply brought her powers down like a hammer on top of it, ripping the top five stories off before throwing the rubble down on the remainder with all her might. With that tower down, Mojo or whoever ran the city's defenses lost the ability to convey orders to any of the android depots near the portal.

About twenty minutes later after the diversion began, both the air group and the chaos group began to run into real resistance. The group on the ground ran into a roadblock between them and their second target another, much larger android depot nearer the center of the city. This group of androids were ready for them, and had time to pull out the big guns.

Something like a bomb, only more focused, went off from one such cannon when Colossus and the Thing tried to close, impacting Colossus and throwing him backwards with a grunt of pain. He was however saved by his metal form and the armor he wore, which allowed him to shake off any real damage despite the impact.

Grimly he rushed forward taking up point in front of the others, getting hit with two more such blasts for his trouble before Magma was in range to use her powers. Concentrating for a moment, Magma slapped her hands down onto the ground. This planet was nowhere near as seismically active as Earth, which impacted how quickly and how well she could call upon her geothermal powers, but she could still call use them.

The ground rumbled, and the buildings all around them began to quiver and quake, then suddenly a fissure opened up in the roadbed, causing the androids in front of them to either fall onto their sides, unable to stand the shaking, or into the fissure. With another grim thought Magma closed the crevice, while Colossus and the Thing raced on smashing into the remainder. Even so, more androids came up against them as the city began to respond to the invasion.

Above them the two on over-watch ran into the same problem. An anti-air cannon popped out of the side of a nondescript building, followed by dozens, hundreds more all around the combat area. Soon the air was filled with speeding bullets, laser rays and plasma bolts. Phoenix and Torch had all they could handle for a few minutes simply dodging all of the fire coming at them now.

Eventually Phoenix got tagged, a plasma round from below slammed into her as she was pummeling the top of the nearby buildings, destroying all of the defensive sites there as quickly as she could. She grunted as she was flung out of the sky by the impact, but her telekinetic aura and her suit protected so that she wasn't particularly injured, simply fried a little around the edges.

When she looked around however Phoenix groaned irritably, seeing reinforcements coming from another of the androids station in force both on the ground and in the air. The sky heading deeper into the city was filled with hundreds of drones rising into the air from the nearest intact depot, all of them zooming towards the attackers.

Still, she grinned evilly and began to conjure up massive spheres of fire throwing them out down the street at the oncoming rush of androids. Above her, Johnny zoomed ahead, smashing into the air drones like a solar flare burning all that stood in his path.

About ten minutes fighting brought them to the next depot, wading through thousands of combat androids. Here they were again stalled, the defense of the depot holding them back.

While The Thing and Colossus protected her, Magma once more knelt to the ground, her eyes locked on the massive squat building in front of them, were android continued to pour out of the large entryway. She ignored them, even as Ben grunted, having taken a blow from some kind of heavy cannon whose impact even he could feel. Again, it was more difficult than if it had been happening on Earth, but Amara was able to pull her power together to perform what she was thinking of calling her signature trick.

The ground rumbled, cracked and there was a loud, booming sound. Suddenly the androids coming out of the depot were not running into battle so much as they were trying to get away from what had occurred behind them, and the amount that were rushing out had lessened considerably.

"What the hell did you do girl?" Ben asked, even as he smashed some kind of close combat robot to pieces when it got too close.

"Just watch." Amara smirked. "There's something a little nostalgic about this for me really, after all, this was what I did when my powers first manifested."

Ben didn't get it. Only when real magma began to appear along the ground of the entrance to the depot did he understands. Then there was a booming sound as suddenly a massive plume of magma and fire and ash blasted out of the center of the depot. "Heh, not bad. I don't think we need to worry about this depot anymore."

"I rather doubt it." Colossus muttered, slightly in awe of the girl's abilities, despite having seen them during practice sessions in the RoR.

With no more androids coming out, the battle on the ground shifted, with the three of them able to smash through the remaining defenders and move deeper into the city to their next target. Above them however, the battle remained very much in doubt, even with Phoenix, having silenced all the nearby anti-air guns, joining the assault on the flight capable drones with a vengeance.

But, as diversions go, Jean thought cheerfully as claws of telekinetic force ripped into dozens of gun drones. This one is sure as hell doing its job!

OOOOOOO

While his teammates and allies were causing havoc elsewhere, Harry flew over the city unseen to land in front of an entrance to the massive spire where Mojo resided. It was at least half the size again the size of any of the signal towers or the TV stations, and much wider besides. That alone would signal it's importance. The ten-story tall face shaped to look like Mojo's on the side of it took it beyond the realm of important and into the realm of grotesquely self-aggrandizing.

Covered with his invisibility cloak, and his footsteps silenced with a spell, Harry made his way through the first few levels. Noting the purposeful movement of all of the androids here, Harry realized that he had made the right call on both the tactical and strategic level. Mojo, despite looking like a ham or a hysterical actor in some of the imagery Reed had shared, was very obviously a good organizer for all of that, and he had the troops already acting quickly and under control rather than in a disorganized fashion.

He frowned however as he noticed a flash of purple out of one eye. Turning quickly he saw Betsy striking down two androids who had found her while she coming to this level. He saw the bright purple blades of kinetic force she wielded from her hands, and raised once energetic eyebrow. Those are new. Quickly Harry made his way over to her, pulling back his hood for a moment to show his face. "Betsy!" he whispered. "Over here."

Betsy turned and saw Harry's face hovering in mid-air. Hearing the noise of more searchers coming their way, Harry motioned her over to him, and the two took refuge in a small storage closet right beside where Harry had been standing. It was so small the purple haired girl was forced to press up hard against Harry's chest in a way that most men would have killed to feel, but Harry was too busy concentrating on the here and now and the danger of their situation to feel anything sexual about it. This did not however stop his male mammal brain from noticing that Betsy was rather more stacked up top than he had thought she had been when Brian had accidentally opened the door on her changing.

Betsy didn't notice anything sexual about the situation either, covered with sweat and a few bruises and scratches she had sustained so far in her attempted escape. What she did know was that Harry had come to rescue her from a fate that was, in it's own way, worse than death. To say this made an impact on her was a severe understatement.

When she spoke however, she did her best to push those thoughts to the back of her mind. And if her voice still quivered with emotion, who could blame her? "So, are you still going by that bloody stupid moniker of Mr. Wizard, Mr. Potter? Is it just you that is here to rescue me? What took you so long?"

"No." Harry said looking through the sliver of space he had left open in the doorway to peer out into the hallway. With their quarry no longer in sight, the robots they had heard continued to run down through the building towards the entrance to join in trying to suppress the chaos occurring elsewhere in the city. "Ororo and Phoenix are here along with your brother and several allies I've made since the last time we talked. Why are you here in this building though? We all thought female actors were kept in a separate building more central to various studios."

Betsy shook her head, shivering a little. "Mojo likes to keep his 'guest stars' as he calls those of us he captures closer than that. Thankfully I'm the only one of those here right now, though he was planning a major expedition soon to gather up more mutants. Something about needing to replace his top star or something, and the amount of 'ratings' I drew in convinced him it would be a good idea." Betsy shivered again her arms clenching around her.

Harry noticed this, but didn't have time to ask about it at present. He simply filled her in on what they knew about the rebellion, staring out into the hallway waiting until it was clear for a moment to open the door. He then hit Betsy with several other spells, and said quickly. "All right, head out into the city and try to stay up onto the rooftops if you can, Torch, Storm or Phoenix will see you up there and get you to where your brother is."

"What about you?"

The wizard shrugged. "My main mission in this building hasn't changed, I'm still going to hunt down Mojo and remove him from the equation."

Betsy's eyes widened at how casually Harry mentioned killing Mojo. Not that she had any problem with that, it was the casual way he said it that startled her. She was used to most superhero types not being willing to kill their enemies, even if that was the best idea at the time. She felt it had something to do with the spandex they wore negating their common sense.

Of course, Mr. Potter isn't wearing any spandex, Betsy thought, giving him a once over for the first time, and liking what she saw. He really is as good looking as I thought. Not as good as Longshot, but neither as smarmy as the blonde wanker is either. Still, not handsome enough to make me want to get between him and Ororo and Jean, nor enough for me to share.

However in regards to the idea of escaping alone Betsy shook her head. "I know where Mojo's rooms are, the area he personally uses as offices and sleeping quarters, it doubles as one of the studios for his talk show. They're not on the top floor is your expect, but on the seventh one, right at the lower end of that face on the outside, and they aren't marked either. I'll show you the way."

Harry frowned, but nodded. He canceled the Mufilatio spell over them both that he had cast earlier then pulled up the hood of his invisibility cloak, telling her to lead the way.

At the same time, he was happy to feel Jean trying to get in touch with him via their mental connection. "Harry, the diversion's going great out here, I think we've got at least half, maybe more of the defenses of the city tied up right now. The problem is, they really do have weapons that can hurt us, even with the armor, and they are getting more organized as the fight goes on. I'm trying to keep in touch with Ororo, the rebels haven't begun their part of this party yet, but it's damn hard to split my concentration like this while still fighting."

"Understood love, I'm moving in on Mojo now, with him down, their organization should be shot to hell. Contact Reed and his team if you can, tell them I've found Betsy, and she'll stay with me for now. Tell them to link up with Ororo and her team."

OOOOOOO

Reed, Brian and Susan had been having an easy time of it in terms of moving around, but had no luck at all in finding their target. Moving through the city was easy, with all three of them invisible to any detection, but their overall speed was somewhat lacking until they decided to chance the use of one of the hover cars. After that, they arrived at their first possible destination, an apartment complex used to house all the single female actors, quickly. They had found no trace of Betsy there, nor did her name turn up in the buildings system when Reed hacked into it.

They left quickly, and moved to the nearest rooftop, where Reed frowned, looking over the city towards where the battle was occurring, the noise of it reaching them even here. Below, many of the female actors, which included several aliens, came out to look in the same direction, talking excitedly to one another. Mr. Fantastic however was more concerned about their personal mission. "This was one of only two places I thought your sister would be Brian, and I'm afraid it was by far the most probable. The only other place would be a studio where she stars as the female lead in a spy show. I know where it is, but it will take us even further away from the fighting."

Brian frowned, something only visible to Reed because they had been in contact when Harry cast the spells to hide them from sight. For some reason though, Susan could see it too, something in her own method of becoming invisible allowing her to see through the Dissilution spell.

Whatever Brian was going to say however remained unsaid as all three felt something touch the exterior of their minds. It was a very light touch, but for all of that all three got the impression that the person on the other end of it was being very careful to keep it so. "Susan and company, Guardian says he found Betsy while breaking into Mojo's spire. Apparently he keeps stars taken from other worlds close by for a while, probably to make certain that their indoctrination keeps. She's going to stay with him for now, and he asks you to join up with Ororo. She says the rebels are about to hit their target, on of the TV towers in the western section of the city."

While Brian breathed a sigh of relief Susan replied for them all. "Roger Phoenix, we'll move in that direction and try to get in touch with them. Do you think you can guide us to her?"

"No can do, it's taking all my concentration just to talk to you while keeping myself safe up here. Sorry." With that, Jean cut the connection, turning all of her attention on the fight once more. She ripped another empty building apart with her telekinesis, hurling the bits and pieces down on a column of heavy androids, massive two story monsters with heavy weapons for arms, moving through the city below. Hidden by the skyline of the buildings around the road, none of them saw the assault coming, and she grinned, before flaring her phoenix aura higher, swooping back into the dogfight around Johnny.

Susan and the others heard the booming sounds of explosions and the tortured shrieks of torn apart metal crescendo for a moment before settling down to a dull background roar. Reed shrugged. "If Betsy is with Guardian, then she is as safe as can be expected. I think Phoenix is right, we should get in contact with the rebels." With that, he led the way off the roof, his body stretching to allow his wife to ride down on his back while Britain simply flew down and the trio made their way towards the western section of the city.

OOOOOOO

It had taken forty minutes to get to Timothy, and ten minutes more to get him to trust the newcomers. That Storm was willing to supply them with weapons, and proved so by handing out several rifles and SAWs to his own rebel cell, helped immensely. They in fact called in four more cells, the ones scheduled to help him take the TV tower, for rearming. Timothy and Longshot looked on in growing shock as Ororo pulled out weapon after weapon from a bag only as large as her hand. Machine guns, crew served heavy machine guns, rifles, and even two rocket launchers were handed out, with the promise of more once they had more rebels to arm. Tony Stark had really come in for them, putting aside the numerous bugs he had tried to emplace with the shipment of course.

Eventually she, Vanguard and Longshot joined the attack on the new target, Their TV station 17, which was in the eastern side of the city. Once they took that, they could talk to the other rebel leaders elsewhere in the city, both among the actors and others working for the TV syndicates that ran nearly everything in the city, and the hundreds of invisibles.

One thing Reed's drones hadn't found out was that there was a decent sized population of humanoid slaves not involved in the TV sector. Oh, that sector was the most important in terms of the Spineless One's attention and the personal power Mojo and his very few competitors wielded, but they still needed to eat. They still needed maintenance run on the various utilities in the city, and living minds could perform many of these tasks with more initiative or simple flair than an android, no matter how advanced or well programmed could. That population was small, but extremely versatile, and all of them were willing to rise in rebellion.

At first, the group of two hundred strong rebels passed through the city with little trouble. The massive onslaught Colossus and the others were performing on the other side of the city had pulled all the attention of the security forces that way for now. Ororo had no way of knowing if that was because the androids were merely reacting as programmed, or if Mojo was the one calling the shots and thus being tricked at present with no one else to provide another point of view.

Whatever the case, they were able to attack the target tower without any of the security forces intercepting them. When they arrived however, things went south. The rebels moved in quickly, taking fire and returning fire from the dozens of gun emplacements and security stations that had been set up outside. Before Ororo and her team could move forward to provide support however, they and the rebels found they had been flanked. Fire came from the buildings to their left, and several medium-sized combat droids including several War Wolves, dropped down behind them, catching the rebel forces in a trap.

Dozens of men went down as Ororo turned shouting "Protego!" Her shield spread out, covering the men out in the open even as Coyote, who had been moving on a diagonal over the rooftops from the rebel's line of advance, took the flankers from behind. Ororo's shield held protecting the men until they could get undercover in the nearby buildings or in the rubble of the road for a few moments before shattering under the firepower hitting it.

With that done, Storm looked over to Vanguard. "Vanguard, Longshot, take out the War Wolves before they close, I'll take out the droids that are firing on us from the left!"

Under the fire from Coyote and Vanguard and Longshot taking them on from the front, the War Wolves all went down quickly, but Ororo was nearly blown out of the sky when she tried to take to the air covered by another Protego. Dozens of strangely colored energy bolts slammed into her shield, smashing it and flashing threw to burst against her body armor.

Ororo grunted under the impact, but kept going, getting into the air and taking the shooters under fire themselves, throwing powerful lightning and wind blasts down at them.

However she was stopped by a six armed woman wearing silver armor, the same that Reed had mentioned as being Mojo's chief enforcer. Spiral pointed to hands up at where Ororo was flying while her other hands pointed downward into the firefight below. Scabrous green bolts of finger sized energy shot out from her empty palms.

Again, the Protego shield availed Ororo not at all, the first bolt shattering it to allow the second in to smash into her chest. It was only because of the Orihalcum laced into her bodysuit that allowed her to survive that, but even so the heat form the blast caused her to grimace in agony.

Below, the other four magic bolts slammed into four rebels, including Alex, Timothy's second in command, who jumped in front of the bolt meant for Timothy.

Seeing that, Ororo snarled, blasting back at the woman with lightning which Spiral deflected with some kind of nunchuck which she grabbed from her belt with one arm while in her other arms continued to fire out spells.

Longshot turned form finishing the last War Wolf, jumping up and grabbing a overhanging wire and flinging himself up even higher, landing lightly on the roof right next to Spiral. His hands flashed out with knives in each hand, but Spiral's own hands moved with preternatural swiftness, moving down to her belt and coming back holding two long swords, whose shapes vaguely resembled katanas.

She easily blocked his blows, but this took enough of her attention away from Ororo for Ororo's next attack to hit her, throwing Spiral off the rooftop and into another building with hurricane force wind. With a roar Ororo called up a powerful tornado ripping and tearing the building apart, collapsing it down onto the woman.

Ororo doubted that had killed Spiral however. The speed Spiral was throwing out spells was amazing, not as fast as Harry or Dr. Strange perhaps, but certainly fast enough that she could have been able to raise a shields to protect her from the debris. "Longshot, you and Vanguard join the rebels, take that TV station! I'll handle this one, Coyote can guard my back!"

Longshot grimaced, not liking the fact that someone else was going to take Spiral on rather than him, but knowing he would be more helpful in a major battle, where his luck could work for both him and those around him. Besides, if Spiral is here, that means Quark is around somewhere, I'd love to get a piece of that bastard!

He flipped himself off the roof to join Vanguard, who was moving forward with Timothy and several others, having developed the technique of fire and maneuver. They were able to force their way forwards despite the defensive fire, and soon Vanguard was close enough to charge the entranceway. He did so, his mutant power fully activated.

With his shield up none of the incoming fire could harm him, rather it all bounce back. Nikolai had been practicing religiously with his power so he could call it up at will and for longer periods of time. He still couldn't use it for more than five minutes at a go, but that was long enough for this. Vanguard slammed into the forces stationed right around the entrance, his shield smashing into one android while his rifle stitched up several more, while behind them the rebels kept on coming.

In the main entrance hall, which was made wider than humans needed to allow for the bulk of the spineless one's hoverbeds, they ran into another group of defenders. This time they were led by a humanoid with a goat head who had heavy powerful shoulders, and goat legs, wearing armor and a heavy bandoleer of what looked like grenades. "Maa, it's the end of the line Longshot, you'll never get past Quark! Your rebellion is dooGAH!"

He was forced to dive aside as Vanguard fired at him. "Sorry, we don't have time for the normal villain speech."

"Damn you, you newb!" Quark roared, pulling out a rocket from where it had hidden behind the makeshift barrier his team of androids had put up. "You're not going to ruin my combat scene!" This caused Vanguard and the other rebels behind him to duck and cover, losing several more men when the other androids, who had actually been waiting for Quark to finish his speech, opened fire on them. "I'm the damn star of this scene!"

Longshot bounded forward, trusting to his luck based powers to keep him safe as he closed, smirking all the while as his hands flashed with his knives. "Hah, you a star!? You're nothing but a bit player Quark, and I'm going to prove it to you personally!" He was forced to retreat however as dozens of androids came off the lifts filling the air with laser fire.

Outside, Spiral smashed her way out of the rubble of the building Storm had collapsed around her. Her helmet was gone, letting her silver hair fall loose down her back, her armor was scuffed, and one of her right arms was broken, showing it was mechanical unlike her others. She ripped it off throwing it aside as she glared up at where Storm stood on the roof Spiral had originally occupied. A second later, she disappeared with a pop.

Storm's eyes widened in surprise, but she felt the air move behind her just enough to give her warning to lurch forward. This allowed her to dodge the sword thrust, but not the magic bolts that came from Spirals upper arms. She grunted in pain as they struck, but they couldn't penetrate her Orihalcum armor, even if the heat, for whatever reason, could. Storm whirled, far faster than Spiral had expected and one hand held her belt knife, thursting for a weak point on the other woman's armor.

Spiral disappeared again, but Storm was already moving. She lunged to the side, then gripped the air all around her, whipping up a sudden wind that grabbed Spiral when she appeared again throwing her aside. Still she was able to fire some more magic bolts at her opponent causing Storm to duck aside.

At this point Captain Britain and the others arrived, having not run into any trouble that caused the spells on them to fail. Spiral, warned by some sixth sense, dodged aside as a fist came out of nowhere that would have taken her head off. Even so, one of her hands pointed in that direction, firing off several bolts of magic.

"Protego! Difindo!" Storm enchanted quickly, sending out a cutting spell at Spiral at the same time she cast the shield over Reed, whose covering Disillusion was fading even as she watched. "Watch out, she uses magic!"

Spiral disappeared once more then suddenly a web of fire appeared, encasing the roof. Storm and Brian quickly flew out of the way. It nearly caught Reed and Susan, but Susan enlarged her shield to cover them both, bursting through it to the other side. Her almost fell however when dozens of green bolts slammed into it. Susan gasped, nearly brought to her knees by the effort of holding her shield against what was apparently an anti-shield spell.

"Reed, Susan get out of here, you don't have any protection against magic!" Storm shouted, then rained hundreds of lightning bolts down out of the sky in a wide arc all around their position.

Spiral screamed as two of them impacted nearby, but her teleportation ability allowed her to keep from getting hit full on. She scowled, throwing out another kind of spell with a gesture of her fingers, a yellow orange beam that nearly impacted with Storm, who threw up a Protego at the last minute. The spell splashed along it, but could not penetrate like the magic bolts Spiral had been using. Spiral cursed, then turned the same spell on Reed and Susan.

They both ducked aside, and Captain Britain zoomed in, trying to close to hand to hand with Spiral. The silver hair girl smirked, and hit him with the same spell, but then had to duck aside as it did nothing for some reason. She frowned, then switched to another kind of spell, a white and yellow one that smashed into Britain, to send him plummeting into the ground, unconscious as if he had been hit by a powerful Stupefy spell.

When she moved in for the kill however, Coyote made his presence known once more. He had been busy covering the last of the rebels as the stormed into the TV tower, taking out shooters who were trying to fire at them from the upper levels. Now he turned his gauss rifle onto the woman fighting Storm, Brian and the Fantastic couple on an even footing.

Spiral screamed in pain when the gauss bullet caught her mid-back, slamming her forward, but she rolled with it, her armor for some reason able to withstand the blow even as it cracked under the impact. She teleported away again, closing in with Storm in an effort to keep the sniper from lining up another shot until she could neutralize him.

"GO!" Ororo yelled. "You'll be more help with the rebels than out here!"

Reed and Susan exchanged a scowl but couldn't argue, magic was one area where they were at their opponent's mercy, unstable molecule uniforms could only do so much against magic. With a nod the two raced towards the building, with Coyote once more covering them while Storm, one hand wielding a katana taken from where Spiral had been forced to drop it, the other a magic laced sword of wind, began to trade blows with Spiral.

OOOOOOO

True to her word, Betsy was able to guide Harry straight to the office/ostentatious lounge/talk show area that served as the center of Mojo's business conglomerate, as he called it. Other people of course would call it an empire, despite the odd way he retained his power over his 'subjects'. They did however have a minor argument at the doorway leading into that area hearing the boisterous laughter of someone thoroughly enjoying what he was seeing inside. Betsy wanted to help Harry against Mojo, wanting to get some of her own back as well as insisting she could help Harry.

"No," Harry said calmly even as he flexed his hands, readying himself even while he noted the dark, wrathful edge to Betsy's tone. "You and I have never worked together, I have no idea how you move, what you're capable of except for those telekinetic bleeds of yours and some telepathy, which you say doesn't work or even backfires against Mojo, only the faintest idea. You are not going in there with me."

Betsy scowled but her scowl shrank as Harry went on. "There are two voices in there. Does Mojo have some kind of Vice President or something?"

"He does." Betsy smiled evilly. "A former slave of some kind whose intelligence and knowledge of what would bring in more ratings made him valuable. I have no idea what the man's name is, but yeah, he serves Mojo as some sort of chief executive."

"Good." Harry nodded sharply. "You take him out of the equation, I don't care how you do it, but we can't let someone else simply step into the leadership void while I start hammering on Mojo."

Betsy nodded, and Harry counted down on his fingers as he ripped off his invisibility cloak, it was too cumbersome to really fight in. When Harry reached zero he smashed the door in with a Reducto, then reached out with another spell to grab all the shards from the door and tossed them through as well, creating a sort of shotgun effect on the other side of the doorway.

There were six mid-size android soldiers lined up in front of the doorway, as if they were an honor guard for the man who was right behind them a sort of sallow faced old looking human male with long black hair and yellow skin every inch of it crisscrossed with what looked like circuitry. He dodged aside, but the androids were not nearly so mobile. They all were destroyed, speared, decapitated or simply torn apart by the deluge of bits and pieces of the doorway.

Mojo was much bigger in person, Harry thought sardonically as he whirled on his walker's legs from speaking into a recorder of some kind that was hovering in front of him. He laughed suddenly, clicking his fingers which turned on several cameras set into the wall frames around his studio. "Of course!" He yelled aloud. "We can't have a hostile takeover without the main man taking part! Ladies and gentlemen!" he said turning his head to declaim into the closest camera. "I bring you Mojo versus nameless other! Will Mojo succeed hah, of course he will, but! Will he kill this man too quickly for any…"

That was as far as he got before Harry transfigured the nearest recording into a sphere of metal and hurled it at his head. Mojo quickly brought up his own hands, deflecting it with a magic shield that appeared around his hand allowing it him to smack it aside.

Harry made note of that sign of magical talent, with a frown. He also began feeling some kind of magic spell or a kind of miasma around him, beating at his mind and power, but it failed to find purchase. Harry decided however not to try to close the range and drain Mojo. Something about the miasma around him told him it would be a bad idea. He turned on his mage sight, frowning as he saw very tiny lines of some kind of energy, not magic or at least not any kind of magic he was familiar with, hovering in the air, with Mojo at its center. Still, it didn't seem to be able to find any purchase on him, so he ignored it for now.

Behind him Betsy had charged the man who was just getting out of the wreckage of the androids hopefully about to take out one such individual.

Harry strode forward, leaping lightly over the piles of broken androids. "The name is Guardian, Mojo." he said calmly, that calmness being a striking dissonance in comparison to the sounds of ongoing combat ringing out over the city outside and the violence he had just unleashed. "You kidnapped a friend of mine, and I'm here to make certain that you don't do it again."

"NEVER!" Shouted Mojo, and suddenly from his back appeared some kind of scorpion tail, whose end showed several cannons of various type. At the same time fighting music began to blare out of several speakers, the song The Night, by Disturbed, though Harry didn't know enough about music to tell that. "The show only ends when this fat man says so! I'm the producer, you're just a bit player!"

The central can on his tail thing fired, and Harry dodged to one side, noting what it did in passing. It blew a hole through the intervening wall between what was possibly Mojo's sleeping area if he ever slept, and the studio where they were currently fighting.

Harry returned fire, not bothering to exchanged quips with a madman. His return shot of Diffindo slammed into a hastily repaired shield, but the impact of it nearly pushed Mojo back on those skittering little legs of his walker, making him seem unprepared for the next blows. "Rifela! Rail Gun! Fulgur Plumbum! Drill of Light!"

Each successive spell was more powerful than the last, each attack more powerful than the proceeding one, going from a single blast to a dozen to a hundred to a thousand. Mojo however simply laughed, and reinforced hid shield with one hand while directing several attack drones with the other. They had popped out of the walls everywhere around Harry, and all of them zoomed in, armed with various weapons. Several of them were very esoteric ones, simply swords sticking out of their bottoms and other things, but there were some more serious ones such as a heavy laser that seems to fire out rounds as fast as a Gatling gun.

Jumping around as much as he could Harry summoned up his own shields to block the blasts that still found him. He then slapped his hand down on the ground summoning up to golems in the form of gryphons which began to rip and tear through the drones.

"Amazing exceptional, keep it up, the people deserve a show!" Mojo yelled aloud even as he fired off several more blasts from his own weapons, more of which had appeared on the sides of his walker unit. He muttered a word in his native language, and suddenly a ball of fire appeared above his head. It then began to blast out smaller fireballs at Harry. "Violence sells! There is nothing to get the ratings up like a good murder!"

Harry laughed darkly, still moving around. With the drones now having their own issue with his two lien golems, Harry cast a quick freezing charm on the fireball that was about to hit him, going through it easily and shooting another spell to dissipate the fireball above Mojo's, while at the same time slashing at the ground sending a spell through the ground. "Terra Hasta!"

The original spears that this spell created died smashing into the shield Mojo had raised around him, but the spell itself continued on in the ground underneath, causing mojo to leap backwards to avoid being speared through his walker from below. On the heels of that one however came another spell centered on the ground, this one changing the ground into a quagmire that clung to the legs of Mojo's walker, greatly hindering his ability to move.

His opponent quickly tried to reverse that spell, but this wasn't Magneto in metal. Harry was still uncertain even now if he would be able to overcome Magneto's ability to use and control metal on his home turf so to speak, but in a battle of spell versus spell it was a different story. Harry grimly poured some more power into that spell, more than he had expected if he was honest, but not enough to worry him, keeping Mojo's counter spell at bay. At the same time Harry sent another shockwaves through the air, imitating Ororo's ability to suddenly summon up spears of hurricane force winds.

Mojo's shield still held, but it was clear now that Mojo was sweating. He spat another one word spells in his native language, sending out bolts of power from his hands, calling upon sudden lightning from the air above them, which Harry ignored, his Potter family immunity to lightning making him overconfident.

Mojo however was a little more subtle than Harry thought, and one of the lightning bolts that hit him actually contained another spell inside, one that smashed into his back with explosive force hurling him to the floor. His crysis suit and Magia Erebea spell protected him however, and he leapt to his feet quickly pressing forward grimly.

Still, that had allowed his attention to waiver just a moment for Mojo to successfully cast a spell on the ground to regain his footing, and the fat creature grinned at him evilly. "Loving it!" He pointed to one camera in particular, which had a red stripe along the side rather than the seemingly normal blue. "Make sure you keep getting me from my good side in all this!"

Harry didn't respond verbally, simply throwing more spells at him, these however were not just attack spells but area of effect spells and spells designed to attack his opponent's senses. Interspersed with the attack spells and sense attacking spells word dozens of illusions, forcing Mojo to split his attention between Harry and dozens of after images that were all around the room, also seemingly casting spells. Harry couldn't make them do that of course, but he could cast an area of effect illusion and then control that to make it seem as if he could. He also tried to transfigure the walker Mojo was riding on, but his spells couldn't find any purchase.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Harry was able to use this as cover to get in close and slap a hand on the very visibly straining magic shield covering Mojo. "Briseadh Sciath!"

The shield shattered like a pane of glass, and Mojo was open to his next spell, a supercharged lightning spear that sizzled through the intervening yards of air between them, slamming into the fat man's shoulder even as he dodged, blowing his arm off with sizzle and a shattering crack.

Even as Mojo reeled he tried to throw another spell at Harry, but Harry deftly dodged it, idly noticing it looked like some kind of black coruscating disc of red and blue swirls, almost reminding him of some of this spell Selene had used. While Mojo screamed at the pain of his arm, feeling more agony than he had ever felt before, Harry was forced to dodge again from something coming at him from behind. Looking over his shoulder as the same sphere tried to hit him from behind, somehow homing in on him.

Harry shrugged and hit it with a high-powered cancellation spell, then turned to find Mojo had skittered away deeper into the studio, now throwing even more drones after him, as well as several androids coming through the wreckage of the doorway. Harry scowled, and summoned up several more Gryphon golems. As he finished he was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue and fear that tried to tear at his mental defenses.

Behind him, Betsy had finished her task, slamming a TK blade home straight through the head of the ex-slave. She had not liked some of the books he had given her, nor did she find it particularly amusing to remember some of the suggestions he gave Mojo for using her in the future. The same wave of fear and fatigue hit her, bringing Betsy to her knees even as more androids tried to get through the wreckage by the door.

The main target of this assault however simply laughed. "If a horde of dementors couldn't make me feel despair, you certainly won't! Expecto Patronum!" A massive gold and white stag appeared seemingly made of solid magic with no need to add a more physical body, something Harry hadn't actually noticed about them before this. Now it was unmistakable, since the stag used its massive horns to gore several drones out of the air, then turned charging the doorway.

Betsy looked on in awe as the magnificent stag slammed into the horde of androids that were trying to get through the doorway, pushing back against the terror and exhaustion she had felt, leaving her once more in control of herself. Betsy pushed herself to her feet, then raced forward joining the battle with a loud yell.

Behind her Harry quickly followed Mojo, not wanting to let up for an instant.

OOOOOOO

The battle inside the TV station was indeed much more Reed and Susan's speed than a fight against a teleportation using sorceress. They found the battle inside having seesawed, with the rebels splitting up to try and get to separate lifts to take them higher into the building. Since these building had been made by spineless ones, they had no stairs per-se, only lifts and ramps. The ramps however were proving bottlenecks against the rebel assault. The fight in front of the lift was particularly vicious, since Quark was there directing the battle.

As the two experienced adventurers entered the lobby area, Longshot and Vanguard were trading shots with Quark, whil Timothy had quickly split his forces. He left six men to back up Vanguard and Longshot, while splitting his other men into two even forces, heading up the two ramps that could lead up into the rest of the building.

Susan and her husband exchanged a glance, and without a word Susan raced to catch up with one of the teams heading toward a ramp. Her shields would be of immeasurable value in such an environment. Reed however raced forward to join the fight against Quark and his troops.

Longshot ducked under a shot from Quarks rifle, returning fire with one of his knives shouting "Hah, you'll never defeat me Quark, don't you know, the star always wins!"

"Hah you're not a star anymore, Master Mojo's cancelled your contract! After all, you can't pay a dead man!" Quark reposted than had to duck from a plasma round from Nikolai.

Unfortunately that was it for Nikolai's rifle. The runic array that was part of the cooling system didn't work when separated by dimension, a problem the magic users had overlooked. Nikolai had burned it out from successive firing, and now was forced to toss it aside.

Reaching down next to the body of a dead rebel, Nikolai grabbed up the fallen man's makeshift gun, then charged forward. He used his force field to cover the distance between their positions, then smashed one android to the ground with a blow from his shield before peppering two more with large nails from the gun.

Quark however charged him in turn, and Nicolai, reaching the end of the time he could sustain his force field, dropped it to meet the other humanoid with his shield. Quark slammed a punch home into the metal shield, but Vanguard rode the blow, spinning around to land a flashing kick into Quark's side.

Quark retaliated, slamming his head down with punching force onto Vanguard's sending him reeling to the ground.

That was when Reed arrived. He threw his arms around the genetically modified humanoid encasing him in rubber. Longshot moved forward, quickly slamming the pommel of one of his knives home right behind the man's head. Quark slumped unconscious in Mr. Fantastic's grip who looked at Longshot quizzically.

Longshot shrugged, looking uncomfortable for a moment. "There was a time when Quark was just an actor like the rest of us. If Mojo did something to him, some kind of mental brainwashing or something, well, I can't fault him for what he's done since. Besides," he smirked. "He always was one of the better muscle type villains I ever faced."

Reed nodded and Longshot beckoned two of the rebels forward, who took the prisoner from Reed and tied him up while Reed joined Vanguard and Longshot in the lift. He looked at Vanguard, who was shaking his head groggily. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay, the mask portion of my outfit doesn't have a lot of protection from simple impacts though. That guy's head was really hard!"

The others laughed ad Nikolai while the lift carried them up. Thanks to the lift, they were able to bypass much of the fighting on the other levels, and went straight for the command center for the tower.

Here they ran into further resistance in the shape of dozens of fun ports that opened up from the walls and ceiling, even the floor. Longshot leaped and twisted his way through their beams, trusting in his acrobatic skills and luck to get him through, having been down to just two knives now he couldn't afford to throw them. Reed used his power to simply slip, slide, and stretch his way through them, while Vanguard and the rebels laid down covering fire.

Twenty minutes later they were in the control room, where Longshot and Vanguard took the lead, not wanting any of the computer stations to be damaged. Vanguard took another blow, this time from a android who slammed his stomach into the red-clad human's midsection, but his armor withstood the impact, dispersing it easily. Longshot got through without even a scratch.

Reed pushed a decapitated android out of a chair and quickly began to type in commands. "Interesting, the controls and programming is all in English?"

"Oh yes, the androids aren't the only ones who use these systems, slaves sometimes do too. In fact that was the whole reason we knew we could use Mojo's own airwaves against him to spread the word. I guess at some point the spineless ones did this for themselves, but I don't remember any spineless one but Mojo taking part in anything that could be called work."

The former actions star knew he was babbling a little, as he frantically tried to figure out the controls to the various systems. Just because slaves knew how to do it did not mean he did after all, but he knew there was some kind of local area command switch, that he could use to force all the androids in the building to obey him.

"Hmm, I think I can do one better than that. Hmmm…" Reed typed away at the computer for a moment, then he smiled faintly. "Ah, there we go." A moment later all the androids in the building ceased to function, shutting down on command. "Now, lets see about this signal. Did you know these radio towers are all linked? I think it might be possible, yes, I can hack into the signals coming from the other towers, use them to carry your call to arms. I can even… hmm… I can even cut out Mojo's spire from the TV network. He probably has some override or something, but I assume we can trust Mr. Potter is distracting him sufficiently. Grab a microphone Longshot, you're about to go live across the entire city!"

Longshot grinned, and reached over to pick up a headset.

OOOOOOO

Mojo turned at bay in the direct center of what was obviously his command center for the majority of his media-based empire. Hundreds of different TV screens were everywhere, many of them on some kind of robotic arm. These automatically moved towards Mojo as he entered only to be smacked aside by his one remaining hand angrily while he turned to face the way he came.

Once Harry was in the doorway however he began to hammer Harry with spells, flames, darkness and pure magic spells for the most part, which Harry blocked deflected or shielded himself from with one hand while returning fire with the other. Busy as he was on defense however he could only use low who scare to medium scale spells, which Mojo's shield, once again thrown up around him could withstand. Changing tactics Harry suddenly apparated, causing Mojo's eyes to widen.

He looked around wildly, but Harry reappeared directly behind him slamming his hand into the shield once more shattering it with the same spell as before. The next second a Magia Erebea enhanced fist slammed into Mojo's porcine face throwing him backwards.

Mojo's walker automatically compensated for the force of the throw as well as reacting to the danger of its controller, two of its legs twisting in place to spear through where Harry was floating in midair.

Harry dodged them, reaching out to grab one of them at the same time. He pulled sharply, ripping the lower half of it off, and turned trying to use is as a spear on Mojo's fat stomach. He was caught by Mojo's flailing hand however and flung aside by the force of the blow though that was simply because he was so light himself rather than the fact it did any damage. Harry rolled with it, coming up on his knees to block the next blast, but he winced when a shard of steel broke through his shield to let in another of those odd spheres of coruscating blue and red to slam into his thigh. Thankfully his armor was up to the task of taking it, helped by his Magia Erebea.

This gave Mojo time to hastily raise his shield again and begin preparing another spell, but suddenly he wavered, looking around wildly. Harry's eyebrows shot up, the haze of minute particles of that odd magic he had never seen before, the ones that had been running into Mojo since the fight began, were gone now. "What… No… who said to go to commercial damn it!"

"Drill of Light! Fulgur Plumbum!" Harry didn't know what was going on, but he sure as hell was willing to capitalize on it. He slammed spells into Mojo's shield, hundreds thousands of drills shrieking and drilling into it breaking it once more, allowing the next spell to hammer into his body causing a tremendous amount of damage despite Mojo's high level of magical immunity.

The spineless one's ruler howled. "You can't do this to me, don't you know who I am! I AM this town!"

"A little fish in a small pond is what you are." Harry said coldly, and lining up for another shot. He grimly took three laser blasts from defensive stations set into the ceiling to concentrate on casting his next spell. "Fragor unda fortitudine!" This was the same spell he had used as a 'doorknocker' on Mephisto's castle, albeit much less powerful and more controlled.

It came out as a tight beam, sweeping aside the two attack spells Mojo had thrown up before spearing through the hastily raised shield Mojo had thrown up. It caught Mojo in the face, disintegrating his head, sending bits and pieces of gore everywhere.

With no mind to direct it Mojo's walker slumped to the floor, and mojo's fat corpse rolled off it. Harry however was not done, they didn't know anything about the physiology of these spineless ones, and Harry wasn't about to take the chance that they had a second brain somewhere or something like that which could regenerate the rest of the body from even decapitation.

To that end he hit the body with Blackfyre, which turned the body to ash in short order, along with slagging the remains of the walker before he cancelled the spell. He smirked a little, unable to stop himself even as he winced at a few bruises and cuts on his face and hands that he hadn't noticed during the fight. "And that's a wrap, ladies and gentlemen!"

OOOOOOO

Outside, the commandeered TV station, the battle between Spiral, Wyatt and Ororo continued. Thanks to her ability to teleport without any warning, her general speed, and the power behind her spells, Spiral fought both of them on an equal footing until she caught Wyatt with a magic bolt that slammed into him just as he was teleporting in, somehow having figured out his pattern. Thanks to the armor the Native American biathlete was wearing, he wasn't that badly harmed, but the spell still knocked him out.

Spiral then turned her attention to Ororo, but she was prepared. Having retreated to a rooftop that was almost entirely flat, Storm turned at bay, throwing out lightning and wind at Spiral as spiral closed the distance, using her magic only to protect herself. "You can't win!" Spiral shouted, breaking her silence. "Surrender, and Master Mojo will give you a fair contract! He's always looking for new leading ladies!"

"I think not." Storm murmured, even as she blocked the incoming magic bolts Spiral hurled at her. The two exchanged assaults, with Storm staying put for some reason, while Spiral teleported all around her while Ororo concentrated, feeling out the wind and air, trying to predict her opponents movements, something she had been trying to do since the fight began. At last she knew what to look for to predict where Spiral would appear. Then she shouted "Bombarda!" the most powerful spell currently in her repertoire, pointing a finger where the air had just begun to ripple slightly.

The spell caught Spiral just as she was teleporting in, throwing her aside with a cry, one arm a blackened and smashed wreck. Still she had managed do dodge most of it, and her reflexes allowed her to roll with the explosion. There however she ran into a problem. "Wha-!"

Ororo had prepared herself much like she had so long ago when she wanted fight Jean in the Danger Room. She had lowered the temperature just a few inches right along the rooftop, coating it in a slim layer of ice. The Ice stopped Spiral from regaining her footing, allowing Storm to press her advantage.

A lightning blast smashed into Spiral. She cried out but fought back, slamming three of her working arms onto the ground hard enough to guage her fingers into the ice to stabilize herself while the forth shot another spell at Ororo, before she teleported, appearing in the air right in front of Ororo, one leg raining down blows at the other woman.

Ororo however could feel where she was about to teleport to. She dodged back then slammed her hand, covered with hurricane force winds moving as fast as she could make them, into Spiral. Her armor amazingly held for a moment before giving way with a tremendous squeal of tortured metal. Spiral screamed as her body began to be torn away, yet despite her pain she was able to punch Ororo away.

The two combatants pushed themselves to their feet, staring at one another. Even with her Orihalcum armor, Ororo was feeling it by this point, sore, weary, and with at least one cracked rib despite her protection. And she knew that most of her magical defenses were gone by this point, overwhelmed by Spiral's magical assaults.

On the other hand, Spiral was a more than little crispy and battered around the edges. She had taken numerous near misses from Ororo's lightning attacks, one or her arms was useless, her armor was nearly gone front to back, hanging on by slim pieces of shoulder plate, her weapons were gone, dropped throughout the fight, her headpiece was gone and half her hair gone, and she was holding her side gingerly with one of her remaining arms.

Even so, she was the first to stand upright. Spiral flicked her fingers on three of her hands, all of which filled with magical power while Ororo wearily rose into the air, preparing herself.

Suddenly Spiral twitched, then again. Ororo frowned, wondering what was going on, then gasped as Spiral collapsed to the rooftop like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Still wary, Ororo sent a small zephyr at the other woman's body. Nothing happened but the other woman's hair moving under the wind.

Ororo sighed, her shoulders relaxing. "I have no idea what just happened, but goddess I am glad for it. Yet, why do I think my Harry has something to do with this?" So saying, she gathered her powers and froze the other woman to the rooftop, then flew off, back to the TV station the rebels had taken.

OOOOOOO

Generally speaking, after that it was all over bar the shouting. Thanks to Reed taking over all of the broadcasts, the Spineless Ones had been cut off from Mojo, and not a one of them had shown the ability to actually function without the constant TV broadcasts. Even the other media moguls who had at one point been real threats to Mojo's monopoly had long since lost the ability to concentrate long enough to do anything. Harry estimated it had also been this act that had so thoroughly weakened Mojo in some fashion, though how that could be he couldn't say.

Thousands of the pathetic aliens had died in the fighting throughout the city, not because they in any way took part, but because they were in buildings the fighting had demolished. It was a very rare Spineless One who could even figure out how to do anything beyond order food or change the channel on their specially made hover chairs, so none of them had even thought of, much less been able to, run or even hide when the fighting rolled over their buildings.

While Reed and Susan seemed to be saddened by this, Harry and the others couldn't bring themselves to care. If there was ever a race that was an evolutionary dead end, it was the Spineless Ones. Harry had no idea what would happen to them, and frankly couldn't care less. Their vaunted technology had left them with almost nothing in the way of drive or physical ability, and it had come back to haunt them.

With Mojo's very public and very violent execution his loyal humanoid servants had surrendered. Harry was of a mind to either imprison them or banish them somehow, but Longshot spoke up for them, mentioning that at one point Spiral in particular had been one of the backers of the rebellion before she had become one of Mojo's major stars and from there segueing into one of his enforcers.

The rebellion had lost upwards of a hundred and fifty men in the assault on the TV Tower they had initially taken, most of those in the fighting outside the building thanks to Reed and Susan's role in taking the interior. Casualty reports were still coming in from the fighting throughout the city, however, but the main fighting had died down now. Pockets of androids here and there were still holding out, obeying orders to fight against the rebellion that Mojo had sent before Harry had attacked him, but they were no longer any real threat. Ben, Colossus and Magma, who had a rather amusing reaction when she saw Longshot, had destroyed the majority of their depots throughout the city.

"Should we leave the weapons we brought with us here with the rebels?" Jean asked.

She and the others were standing around Harry on top of a rooftop looking down at Longshot, Timothy and two other survivors of the rebellion's High Council while they continued to organize things. Harry and Ororo, who was now leaning against her lover's shoulder, tired beyond belief, had taken two hours to do what they could for the wounded, and had dropped off several hundred potions to aid in that endeavor going forward.

That was after Ororo had to smack some sense into Harry about his concern over her wounds and his anger at Spiral, alas. She was not a doll, and refused to let such thoguhts grow in Harry's head. She was a warrior and wore her bruises proudly.

Strangely enough the most necessary for the wounded amongst the rebel injured was the blood replenishing potion. The gene banks, the places where the humanoid slaves had all been created, had seen some of the heaviest fighting, and had been smashed into disrepair so no one was able to tell anything about their medical history or even their blood type. The other potions were also a big hit, saving lives and limbs, and winning the earthmen even more good will.

"No, its not like the weapons we gave them were any better than the ones the androids used, they could just as easily make their own now as keep the ones we gave them." Harry replied. "No, I think we can trust the former slaves to put together a proper government, not one with piratical or imperial leanings. In fact, I think we're done here."

"I definitely agree with that." Ororo murmured shaking her head from where it rested on Harry's shoulder. "And I think that Longshot at the very least has his head screwed on somewhat straight. If they can get over the fact that there is more to the world then can be shown in TV screens, and stop posing for the cameras, they'll be fine."

Ben laughed quietly. He and Colossus had had a pretty easy time of it all things considered. Yeah they had been banged around many times by super-strong androids, but in the end the spineless ones really hadn't had anything that could kill either one of them. Batter and bruise yes but kill no, not with Spiral and her magics pinned down by Ororo.

Not that this was something Ben wanted to do ever again. "It isn't every day that you help a rebellion to over throw off a dictator, and hopefully watch the beginnings of a new democratic government." Indeed, they could see what looked like a vote of some kind down below, which resulted in Longshot and Timothy taking bows before several dozen other men and women. "But still, I can hear my extra-large bed calling for me."

Harry looked over at Reed and Susan, and both nodded in agreement. After saying their farewells to the rebel leadership, they left without any fanfare, with Betsy and Brian leaving the way. The two of them had quite a bit of catching up to do, telling one he another what had happened since Betsy had been taken. Reed had volunteered to look after her and run some tests on her cybernetics, to make sure that there were no hidden surprises there before letting the two of them head home.

In the Baxter Building, Betsy stopped Harry and Ororo as they made their way towards the teleportation room, with Jean in front of them gently needling Magma on her blushing response to Longshot. The geologic manipulator didn't really understand why she had been reacting so strongly to the TV star, and confessed to having had a very odd moment there.

Amara noticed and smiled very slightly at the look of relief on Piotr's face at that. She took his hand when he held it out his solicitously as she made her stumbling way into the teleportation area, more exhausted then she had ever been from her continued use of her powers. Which included, at Longshot's behest, shutting down the tiny volcano she had created. That had actually been more difficult than creating it in the first place.

Ororo and Betsy looked at one another smiling. Then Betsy turned to Harry. "Is there room on your team for me?"

Harry frowned a little. "Realize that I'm not at all comfortable with a government spy on my team." I'm not even particularly enthused about Banshee being one for Interpol, but his expertise in the area of law enforcement and their contacts will probably be necessary in the future so I can put up with that. "You would have to agree to cut ties to the British Government before I say yes, and you would need to agree to be trained as well."

"I'll quit my job then." Betsy said firmly. My brother Brian can continue to stand for our family with the government. I want to broaden my horizons, to do good for the entire world not just the United Kingdom, and I think I can do that best as a part of your team."

Harry and Ororo looked at one another, communicating in that way that couples often did. Finally, Ororo nodded smiling at her friend. "We would be happy to have you, as long as you get cleared medically by Reed of course. How long should that take?"

"Finding anything physical will take only a few hours, even with her cybernetic eyes. I would like however to look at the technology there, specifically the technology and programming that connects her eyes to her brain. It's an area of interest that I haven't gone to before." Reed said, not mentioning that he and Susan would also be monitoring the young woman for any mental issues brought upon by her time in captivity. She seemed to have born up under it extremely well all things considered. Yet Reed knew that such captivity left scars of the mind, especially when your mind had been controlled to keep you as a slave.

Jean heard that and looked over at her them from the entrance to the teleportation area. "That's an excellent idea! Think of what that could mean for people who have lost their eyesight to warfare or accidents!"

"Just so." Reed nodded. Of course to make certain that this signals heading into their brain could not be piggybacked for any reason, either to simply see what the person is seeing, or to modify that imagery in some fashion will take several days. I'm not as good at programming as I am at electronics or pure science." He made that admission without any sign of false hubris. He was in fact one of the best at programming, what he was not, was fast at it. "It will take me some time to make certain that there isn't any malware as it were inside the eyes. After that however I see no reason why she couldn't join your team Mr. Potter."

Harry smiled, reaching over and shaking Betsy's hand firmly. "When you're cleared then we'll welcome you aboard. Wyatt, are you going to stay here?"

Wyatt nodded from where he had been peeling off his armor, handing them over to Vanguard, wincing occasionally from chaffs and from a large bruise on his forehead. "I think I will remain. The Fantastic Four is often attacked in their home base, and could use some help at such times. I will however stop by ever day for training, and will always be available should you need me on a mission."

Harry nodded. "Excellent." With that, he and Ororo bid farewell to the FF and their guests, turning to teleport back home, exhausted, battered, but happy.

End Chapter.

---

And there you have the next chapter folks. We see the carrion crows starting to circle, while Harry has now stepped out into the business world, but not yet fully out into the light.

Again, this chapter sort of took over really. I didn't know where it was going start to finish, yes I had an outline, but bits and pieces kept on banging away in my head, demanding they be added. Still, I'm happy with the results, and the fact that two more groups will never show up again: the Mojoites, and the Greek gods.

On the Greek gods, especially Hercules: I realize that some people might have fond feelings/memories of Hercules, and in terms of the Greek gods he was one of the better ones, and I know that there have been some recent adventures where he in particular stood out, though I haven't read the actual comic books and years. However, when you look at the actual mythology, the Greek gods were assholes, even worse than the Asgardians (except to eachother)! Even the good ones like Athena – what she did to Arachnae for example. And Aphrodite? Goddess of love? Goddess of adultery rather, following in her old daddy's footsteps.

No, Harry would respond poorly to the Greek gods if they joined this story, with the possible exception of Hercules, but even there given what happened to the Amazons, no. Furthermore, I don't want Harry's faction to add any more people to his still as yet named team (torn about the name should it by an original, an X derivative, or what?) because, as was seen in his battle against Mojo's forces, the team is already incredibly powerful and varied. I don't want to add more to it for the near future, simply because having them steam roll all of their enemies won't be fun. One more normal human maybe, but not for a while.

Harry's basic driving forces have been shown in this – above and beyond his sense of wanting to do good, is his love of family. Now ask yourselves this question, what would Harry do if something threatened or harmed his family?

For those of you worried about Harry now being OP for the majority of enemies he's going to face, don't worry. While it will in no way be permanent, Harry will be weakened for a short time in the future, not through enemy act, but his own in order to take care of something else. This will allow either the rest of the team to shine, or for Harry to utilize knowledge and control rather than just brute force like he did against Mojo. Also recall that there is a limit to how big his magical core can grow at one time, so he is in no rush to drain the new jewel.

For those of you wondering if Spiderboy will show up in my story, yes, he's been hinted at several times already, and he and Harry will meet in the next chapter. Harry may attempt to take him under his wing like he did for Scott and the X-men, but won't have much luck for a time. No, he won't be joining the team, though Peter Parker might be given a job in Magical Minds eventually. And Tony will start to have more of an impact on the story as well, though he won't be a main character.

I also hope everyone likes how I did the business end. In the future I won't be covering it in much detail unless there is reason to. I will instead concentrate on personal interactions (romance and otherwise), the political side of things, and of course ACTION!

For Some reason, my Dragon Naturally Speaking had a lot of trouble with the name Betsy – this he, then he, that see, ugh. B names give DNS conniptions for some reason.

Oh, a reviewer asked a while back about Harry having an animagus form- no. In my opinion, being an animagus takes two things, the talent/drive to become one, and having an inner animal. Harry doesn't have an inner animal. If he did and if they were based on power level, at this point it would be Godzilla.

As always, thank your for reading, and please review.