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.

24. Paranoia In Our Line Of Work Is

This should come as no surprise but I don't own Harry Potter or the Marvel universe. Er, Stan Lee still owns Marvel right? I know JKR owns Harry. Poor lad.

Sorry for putting this out so late on the day I said I would put it out, but the Word docs ability to combine two versions of an edited document leaves much to be desired.

Brief Summary of the last chapter: Harry is informed of a spy on Earth and that the Hellion was supposed to be here to capture him. Harry does this instead. He and his faction then start to deal with the aftermath of taking the Kree vessel the Hellion, including calling in Dr. Doom as per their treaty with him, who inveigles them to not come after him when he invades other countries around Latveria in an attempt to hunt down the Red Skull in return for several dozen robots that can work in space on anything they are ordered to do. A bit of information, some of it interesting is found by a preliminary soft interrogation of the prisoners. Carol Danvers deals with the fallout of the battle against the Sentry, once more questioning why she works for The Man. Dani has a vision of Asgard thanks to Hela wishing to use her as a go-between, but things go awry and Dani lands in Asgard instead of Hel. There Dani meets Fenrir the wolf of the Ragnarok who at this point is but a young pup if one of massive size. She gets a few scars and a souvenir while making Hela question her basic assumptions about the girl. Harry's business ventures grow, while the Hellfire Club issues move forward apace. Harry and Scott meet a certain Spider, where Harry tries to drive home a few life lessons into the younger man after capturing Rhino. Kitty is told of her magical abilities, formerly agreeing to become Ororo's apprentice in the future. Mystique kills a vampire and saves a young mutant boy while stealing a rather vile magic book. Gaea is given an odd proposal, and work begins in space on the Ravenspires, an idea Harry came up with to address a weakness in Kree tactical doctrine. Harry meets with Hela and receives Lady Death's gift, which leads directly to the destruction of the Hand and the demon they worshipped, as well as making Dr. Strange's job much easier in the future. During the assault on the Hand's main base in Japan, the team meet Sunfire (and form a somewhat negative view of him) and recruit a young mutant named Hisako to the school. Harry and Jean go on a date around the solar system, ending up on Olympus Mons where the two of them make love for the first time.

I would like to thank Kathryn518 once more for being my big idea/characterization/flow gal, and BankerJoe13 for being the grammar and small mistakes man. Without their aid, this chapter would not read nearly as well as it does. I would also like to thank Zane Tribal Tyne Alexandros for the name Ravenspires, which he gave me a while back.

Chapter 24 Paranoia In Our Line Of Work Is A Necessity

"There is no part of me that is not blissfully happy right now. I mean, who knew my toes were so sensitive?" Jean Grey murmured, nuzzling her head into Harry's chest. Harry chuckled, the sound causing a deep sort of rumble in his chest that Jean felt which caused her to chuckle in turn. Both of them were sweaty, almost shining with sweat in fact and sore, but above all naked.

Harry waved the hand that wasn't currently pinned under Jean's body around, having noticed that the spells protecting their little love nest from the winds and dust of Olympus Mons were flickering. "That's the fifth time," he murmured shaking his head and looking down at Jean. Despite that he was smiling, in fact someone would've had to use surgery to remove either of their smiles.

To say that Jean and Harry had made up for lost time would have been an understatement of epic proportions. Harry didn't think they slept for more than an hour or so throughout the night before one or the other would wake up and they would begin again. Both of them were almost insatiable, much like Harry and Ororo had in that first night, though without the silk restraints.

Right now however he did have something on his mind. While the hand whose arm was currently pinned under Jean's body began to slowly stroke her naked thigh, he asked. "So did you like the date before this? Not to sound smug or anything but I don't think I have to ask if you liked everything after we arrived here."

Jean gurgled in laughter, shaking her head. "The date was magnificent Harry, you literally took me to other worlds, what could be better than that?"

Harry sighed, his hand pausing its strokes along her thigh. "It's just I'm still worried about the whole multiple girlfriends thing. I want to make certain I'm making each of you as happy as you make me, you know?"

"Trust me Harry that's not a problem and it isn't as if we're each only in this relationship because of you. We've come to love and care for one another too, so Emma and Ororo joining us for the first part of the date was just fine." She sat up freeing his arm while she stretched luxuriously, then seeing his serious expression Jean sighed dramatically. "Seriously Harry, the date was magnificent. The only thing that could've made it better was if we had gone dancing or something." Then she leaned forward and kissed him ardently for a moment before pulling back. "You don't have to be perfect Harry, you just have to be yourself, that's more than enough reason for me to love you."

"I love you too." Harry murmured, running his hands through her hair.

Jean sighed disengaging with him reluctantly, stretching and began to search for her 'bra', which surprisingly was in one piece, hanging from one of the bedposts. It might be the only piece of my clothing that still is in one piece after this she thought to herself, rather amused looking back on how… eager she had been. Frowning for a moment she concentrated on the sheet presently covering them, telekinetically rearranging its molecules into a dress.

Harry squawked as the sheets disappeared from all over his body and Jean laughed. "Please, you can conjure up something for yourself out of thin air. I at least need something to start with."

"Be that way." Harry said, conjuring up a pair of boxers and a T-shirt for himself looking around for the tattered remnants of his pants. They alas had been blown away during one of the times his protective spells failed.

Jean sighed, pulling at her hair and making a mental note to get a shower as soon as they got back to the Castle. Her mind however was on much more serious matters. "How long do you think it would take for us to start creating our own spaceships like the Hellion?"

"I don't know honestly. There are so many steps before we get to that point. We have to create the industry, we have to create the tools to create the industry, we have to first make certain that we can house people up in space for long lengths of time, we have to think about the design of the ship, all those things. Doom's robots will make an excellent start on a labor force, and my magic can do a lot, but I don't think we'll have a space going industry for another few months and at minimum. In the short-term we are horribly vulnerable, though I've thought up a few ways to address that with lower tech solutions given what we've already discovered about Kree/Skrull tactical doctrine." He said seriously now looking over at her.

"I don't like trusting Dr. Doom that much, oh I'll trust his word I suppose, but..."

"I don'ttrust Doom my dear, if by that you mean believe that he's truly a friend rather than a limited ally in certain circumstances, and I will certainly have you and Reed go over the robots he sends us. But I think that his current acquisition of most of the former Eastern Bloc and hunting down the Red Skull will hopefully keep him from making mischief. His mother has also changed him in some ways, so I don't think we have to worry about him lashing out indiscriminately as he pursues his ambitions. And in the long-term we might be able to direct that ambition."

"Maybe, I just wish we could keep a better eye on him, without breaking our agreement anyway."

"He tricked us into giving him an open hand in dealing with the Red Skull and none of us have enough intelligence sources in the former Eastern Bloc to figure out where that problem ends really." Harry replied ruefully. In actuality that was proving harder than Harry had suspected. The Red Skull had been active almost since the end of WW2, and had his fingers in every pie in the Eastern Bloc, and even had agents among Latveria's citizens, a fact Doom was… not pleased with. "After Doom is done with the Rote Schädel however, we might get away with some kind of surveillance."

Taking in the Vista once more of the red planet, where no man had walked before, Jean smiled, which segued into an evil smirk as a thought occurred to her. Harry caught the expression and cocked his head inquisitively to which Jean replied. "Oh, just wondering if we could do a flyby of the Mars Lander. That'd shock those NASA paper-pushers wouldn't it?"

"I intend to shock them quite a bit in the future without such, trust me." Harry replied dryly. He reached out and took his hand kissing it while staring into her eyes for a moment. "Ready to get back?"

Jean raised a hand to his face cupping his cheek gently as she opened the telepathic link they shared, which was now more of a telepathic highway then a tiny tenuous link. Somehow during their lovemaking their connection had grown even without her willing it, but was still, in some fashion hidden or perhaps a better word was separate from the rest of the astral plain. Not that Jean was complaining mind you. "I love you Harry," she said telepathically.

"I love you too, Jean." He replied in the same manner, and they kissed one last time before Harry teleported the two up onto the bridge of the Hellion.

OOOOOOO

While Harry and Jean had been on their date Ororo had gone back to Hogwarts. There she spent the evening going over the last of the portfolios for teachers, searching the ones with the right background to discover those that would be able to deal with the magical nature of the school, if not the extralegal activities of the team. Needless to say this was a small list.

The next day she and Emma met up for lunch in Hogwarts (for Emma it was for breakfast) to go over what questions they felt Harry was most likely to be asked in his upcoming live interview. Emma had set that up with Paris' news company for that for two days hence. It was going to be an extremely important moment for their entire group, not just Harry's company, and there were some issues that had to be addressed first.

They had finished writing up a list and were quietly sipping their coffee and tea when Harry and Jean teleported into the room. Ororo smiled in welcome, standing up and moving quickly around the table, where the three met in a hug. A moment later Ororo pulled back, looking at them both, allowing the two to move forward to grab up some food from the table, though Jean was interrupted by Emma who pulled the redhead into a hug of her own.

There was a noticeable glow about the two of them and Jean was limping slightly, though not as much as Ororo had from what she could remember of the night she lost her virginity. I wonder if that has something to do with being the avatar of the Phoenix, some kind of healing ability perhaps, Ororo thought. For just an instant that thought bothered her, niggling at her mind for a moment, but she couldn't bring it to the fore.

Emma pulled away from Jean to look at Harry, smirking a little. "Now that Jean's had her turn, don't think for an instant that I'm going to wait nearly as long for mine. For now however why don't you go find something to do and leave us ladies to talk. It's a tradition after all."

Harry shrugged, watching the three girls actually giggle for a moment, even Ororo who rarely giggled. For some reason Harry knew he didn't want to be here right now. "Um, okay, I'll see you ladies later."

As Harry disappeared Ororo and Emma both turned to Jean inquisitive eyebrows rising and she laughed, shaking her head. "Feed me, bathe me, then I might answer your questions."

OOOOOOO

After checking the time, Harry made his way down into the basement, where Shiang-Chi was going over different martial arts with the team in the training center, including Wyatt but not Betsy. She was doing something with her brother today and hadn't yet officially moved into the Castle. She would in a few days, but not just yet.

Harry entered, then waited about 20 seconds for them all to notice him. The girls noticed him first, and began to look at one another smirking while they wondered if they could skive off to talk to Jean. But his serious expression stopped them from even thinking that a few seconds later. Once Shiang-Chi had called a halt to their exercises, Harry nodded at them all and said without preamble. "You all know that recently we took an extra-terrestrial ship. I've been thinking about this and going over the notes that Emma made about talking to the prisoners, and I've become very worried about how vulnerable humanity is at the moment."

While the others all became serious, Piotr and Danielle both nodded grimly remembering how damn tough the Sentry had proven. Harry nodded back to them before going on. "As such, I want you all to spend at least two hours a day practicing on boarding and taking a spaceship." With that he turned motioning them all to follow, leading them to the Room of Requirement.

He walked in front of it three times, and then opened it to show a long metal hallway. "Most of this I don't know if the RoR will be able to show, but it'll get the enemies right, and will create at least the magical equivalent for their defensive weapons."

"Piotr." he said looking over at Colossus. "You'll be in charge of the first run through, then Amara, then Danielle, then Nikolai. After each run through you'll talk about it among yourselves. Next week I'll switch off to command the team and one of the four of you will take over the opposing side per day while we run through various scenarios, such as smaller teams being assigned to the mission, larger vessels, more numerous or prepared enemies, and so on."

Piotr winced. "Which means you'll be commanding them now correct, tovarishch?"

"Sorry, but yes." Harry smirked while all of them groaned at that, causing him to chuckle evilly. "Remember, we don't learn just by winning, but at times by losing spectacularly. "None of the Kree warriors will have magical powers of course, but they will have the full repertoire of weapons that we saw when taking the Hellion. You've got 5 minutes to talk about it, and then we'll start." With that Harry disappeared, leaving behind a very determined, yet worried group of young men and women.

OOOOOOO

A long, black limousine with black tinted windows drove up a dirt road towards a splendid mansion in a remote part of Apulia, Italy. The mansion, which looked like a renovated castle that had not been renovated fully, was set on a hill. It overlooked a vast property dominated by a vineyard and what looked like some kind of orchard, the limousine driver couldn't make it out. Of course it wouldn't have been interested in the first place even if it could have, it was simply the driver. It drove, that was all that mattered to it. This was because the driver was in fact a cyborg. While its basic appearance could fool anyone who looked into the windows, it couldn't actually move from its seat, being more a part of the car than a separate entity.

Because of this it was the passenger, a well-dressed man with a wide brimmed hat, who got out and to push the intercom button on the rather large, forbidding yet tasteful gate blocking the entrance to the property. He pushed the button on the intercom, waited a few seconds then said. "Madame, it has been several decades, but I have no doubt that someone of your beauty and intelligence will remember my voice."

With that the man removed his finger, pushing up at his hat slightly. Underneath it, the man had a pasty white complexion and red eyes, with a small red diamond on his forehead.

A moment later a woman's voice responded. It was most definitely a woman. The voice alone was so sensual and vibrant that it almost oozed sex even over the intercom. "Indeed it has young Sinister. Can I ask what has brought you to my door? And how you have found me exactly?"

"I believe it is time for me to call in an old debt Madame, and as to how I found you that will remain my secret for now. Might I come in?"

There was silence on the other side of the intercom, but the gates slowly opened, and Sinister smiled as he got back into his limo. A few moments later, it pulled up outside the mansion, and Sinister got out. He very hesitantly touched the door, almost expecting some kind of magical trap to activate upon that touch, but it appeared as if the lady he was here to see was willing to at least hear it him out.

Inside, the interior of the mansion was much more luxurious and well-cared for than the exterior. The floor was marble, and there were marble columns at the entrance to the sitting area to one side and to the dining area on the other. In front of Sinister was a wide, heavy marble staircase leading up to the second story. On the walls were what looked like some very expensive artwork here and there while a very good copy of the Greek sculpture, Laocoon and His Sons standing in pride of place below the staircase.

"It isn't an imitation." said the voice from the intercom, causing Sinister to turn slightly to face the staircase. A woman was coming down the stairwell as if it was a fashion runway and like her voice, her body was almost built for sin. She wore a silk dress that covered her entire body yet clung to it in certain areas like a second skin. On her feet she wore heels, and she had long lady gloves that covered her forearms and hands completely. Her dark magenta hair was done up in to a coif, allowing her high cheekbones and porcelain neck to be seen.

Her ruby lips smirked slightly at him. "You were thinking that the stature was an imitation, I assure you that none of my art pieces are imitations. I desired it, and so took it. The one in the Louvre is a fake made by my magics. I have no doubt the curator and others know it by now too, but they cannot admit the original was stolen right under their noses with no one the wiser for so long, which makes having the original all the sweeter."

Sinister smiled slightly bowing to her, as one would to equal. "I suppose we all have our little foibles, Madame Le-Fay."

"You are comparing my acquisition of art pieces to your acquisition of rare DNA structures?" Morgan Le-Fay, ancient lover and betrayer of Merlin, one of the most powerful magic users on the planet, asked archly. "How droll."

Then her eyes narrowed, and suddenly she no longer looked as if she was trying to seduce him into bed, unless of course it was his deathbed. Morgan's eyes began to shimmer, darkening noticeably. "Why are you here Sinister? I know I am in debt to you slightly for your aid in Britain 24 years ago, but it is a slight debt. Do not try my patience, or else we will see whether or not that 'mutant' given durability of yours, can withstand my magics." and here her tone seemed to indicate that she knew full well that his durability had not been come by naturally.

"I have run into a magic user who is interfering in some of my long-term plans." Sinister replied, holding up his hands placatingly, though at the same time tensing noticeably. "I lack any true knowledge about magic or how to counter it, which I need to in this case. I have a video of the man in question, though no real idea about what kind of powers he can bring to bear, if I could show it to you?" At her slow nod, he slowly reached into a pocket, and pulled out a video player.

It flew from his hand into the woman's, and she opened it looking into the small video player that was part of the recorder. She then hit play, and anyone else might have missed the way her eyes almost immediately narrowed. The video was the one Sinister's cyborg had taken of Harry talking to Scott in New York, and it was soundless, but Harry's features showed through as they were sitting there. The moment they both began to leave however, that faded quickly.

The very short video stopped playing, and for a moment Morgan looked at it then from it to Sinister. It was obvious to him she was weighing something up in her mind then she smiled faintly, a dark smile but somewhat warmer than her initial greeting. "My dear Sinister, it appears as if we might have a certain synergy of purpose here. Do come in, would you like some tea, or something stronger perhaps?"

OOOOOOO

The next day Harry and Jean headed up to High Note to work on designing what Harry was calling the Ravenspires. They looked to be a very good idea. They were low tech one for the most part, which meant that they could possibly make them much quickly than actual ships, thanks to all of their disparate powers. What they were was essentially hollowed out asteroids, with massive shields added to heighten their defenses even further. Inside they would have livings quarters, hydroponic sections, everything they needed to support a crew. As orbital bases they would take some beating especially with Harry willing to add various runic arrays to their defense.

The Ravens themselves, which were basically space fighters, were a different matter entirely. This was something Jean was going to some pains to explain to Harry, despite the fact that Harry had come up with a decent starting design. Building the things would take a lot of space-based industry, which they weren't ready to even start on yet, even if they could power them, which they actually could at this point. So Harry and Jean concentrated on further denuding the Atiras asteroid field picking out asteroids that would make good Spires later on and gathering a few others as well for other ideas.

Back in Hogwarts, Ororo was concentrating on her magical lessons with Gaea for the day, and the team had been given the afternoon and evening off. Nikolai, Piotr and Shiang-Chi had headed to California to meet up with Ben and Johnny to go to a Nascar race, both of the FF members insisting that the foreigners get a taste of some American fun.

The girls however were doing something much more sophisticated. Amara, Danielle, and Paige met up with Betsy to go shopping in Paris, with each of the girls armed with a bag of holding thanks to Kitty. Betsy had won a 500 pound gift certificate to a dress store there and the three younger girls wanted to get to know Betsy more. She had performed well in the assault on the Hand, and Dani, who had worked with her closely on that mission, had come to trust her in the field but that was different than knowing her as a person.

As they all stretched out in the first-class compartment that Amara had booked for them, Paige started the ball rolling. "Damn, I never thought I'd ever be able ta go ta gay-Parie. Then again, I've been to more places around the world since that night Cyclops and Colossus walked into my room than I ever thought I would. I don't suppose I should think that all the French talk with accents and look down their noses at everyone?"

"Not all French no, many of the Parisians seems do that though," Betsy replied with a laugh. "I'm British luv, don't look at me for an objective discussion on the French. Great clothing, great food, let's just leave it at that, alright?"

She leaned back in the luxurious chair, looking at the younger girls closely then asked her own question. "What's it been like working with the company?" Despite the fact that there was no way they could be overheard, she wasn't about to use direct language. Betsy might not have been a spy but she had worked for an agency that employed such, and knew the rules of the game.

"Exciting!" said Paige grinning.

"Educational," Dani supplied, smiling faintly.

"Sort of like that old Chinese curse." replied Amara, "living in interesting times. It's been a roller coaster, but at least it's had breaks here and there so you can get off and enjoy the view."

"I'll agree with that," said Dani nudging Amara shoulder gently. "It definitely has its good points' including tall, kind hearted artiste types hmm?" Amara chuckled lightly nudging her back. "What do you think so far?" Dani asked, turning back to Betsy. "And would you have even thought about joining up with our… employer if your old group was still around?"

"I don't know, I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today if that group hadn't fallen so spectacularly." That was said rather bitingly and Betsy motioned towards her eyes, which all three of the other girls knew were artificial. "I know that Jean and the others would have welcomed me at least, but would I be as useful? That one I don't know the answer to. I certainly wouldn't be as good… er… out in the rest of the world as I am now." Trying not to say 'field operative' was rather hard.

From there the conversation meandered. All four of them got to know one another over the next three hours until they pulled into the station in Paris at around four in the afternoon. It continued as they shopped, with Paige and the others using money they had been paid by Harry. That had come as a shock to Paige: that they actually were being paid for their work on the team. But the basic premise was that he wanted to make this both a profession and a passion, and wanted to have them all have their own resources as well.

It was close to six and the quartet had stopped to eat at a restaurant on the fourth floor of a building near the mall they had been shopping at. Paige was trying to use her Ororo-given lessons in reading languages to good use on the menu outside the restaurant while Danielle and Betsy were trying to convince Amara not to drag all four of them to the Louvre. They were not having much luck, when both desires became secondary concerns. Suddenly they heard a loud scream of some kind, so loud it was incredible even through the intervening walls and windows, then in the distance a loud boom, followed by a sort of 'Spiz' sound barely heard from here, then alarms which most definitely were.

"What the hell was that?" Dani said rubbing at her ears.

"Something we might need to get involved in." Amara said, pointing out a nearby window. Barely visible through the intervening rooftops there was a man in a green and yellow suit of some kind flying in the air.

"The Banshee had something like that, sonic powers and flight." Betsy said before moving rapidly towards the emergency exit and down the stairs. The others followed her quickly.

"That's right he does, that'd be weird wouldn't it, him putting off joining us, then us finding them here?" Paige mused. "That really irritated Harry when he put it off again."

"Spandex dilemma." Danielle said laughing quietly even as she led the way into a nearby alley. They all reached into their bags. Harry had firmly ordered that every team member always have their suit on regardless of what they were doing whenever they left Hogwarts, and this had proven prophetic today.

Dani pulled her half-mask on after tying her hair into a ponytail and sticking it down her mane of feather, and Ghigau began to give orders. "I'll go first, scout out what's happening, you three follow-up. Remember, code-names from now on, P, you're Husk for now, until you figure out your own damn codename."

Paige grimaced both at that reminder and looking down at the clothes she was wearing. She resolutely moved past the others to put herself behind a dumpster at the far end of the alley. She then looked around to make sure that there weren't any video cameras anywhere then removed the very expensive outfit Paige had just bought. It was a short skirt and blouse ensemble that Paige had seen once a few months ago in a fashion magazine and had coveted with the longing of a young child for something she could never really obtained. Now that Paige had attained it, she wasn't about to rip it apart. Once she was naked Paige concentrated and began to pull off her skin, revealing her normal metal form underneath, before she reached into her bag, pulling out her suit, a simple affair of unstable molecules like the FF's.

By this point Ghigau had used her hover boots to race up the side of the building and onto the roof, jumping from there to the next one and on towards the disturbance. She didn't even have to go halfway toward it thought before she saw what was happening. There was Banshee, closer now she recognized him from the pictures she been shown of their possible teammate, which confirmed Betsy's guess. He was flying around and blasting sonic booms down at someone on the ground, who was blasting back.

The blasts of force from Banshee came from his mouth, and they seemed to be waves of almost sound going so fast as to be a physical force. The other was different, almost reminding Ghigau of some of the weapons of the Sentry, small bursts of orange-ish light that were racing up towards Banshee. They hadn't hit yet so Ghigau couldn't tell what effect they would have, but that didn't really matter.

She watched for a moment then realized that Banshee wasn't striking at one target, but several. And one was extremely strong apparently because just as she thought that a streetlamp was thrown at him from below, going past him quickly as he dodged.

"Interesting," Ghigau murmured, then looked around as the others joined her with quite a bit more difficulty than she had. She was still the only one that used the hover boots, though Betsy/Psylocke might eventually get a pair herself. The other two of course couldn't use them because of their powers. "Let's get in close and see who he's fighting without being seen, then we'll figure out a way to get them away from the pedestrians. Why the hell did the Banshee attack them here anyway?"

"He might not have, or at least not done it on purpose." Psylocke said as she ran along with the others, leaping from one roof to another with quite a bit more difficulty than Ghigau. "He might have been simply tailing them or something and they spotted him, or he had to step in to save a civilian, or any number of things. A lot can go wrong in any kind of police action, trust me on this."

As they came closer to the action they noticed that it was happening right in front of a bank, and were finally able to make out the players. Magma, Husk and Ghigau all hissed, staring at one of them in particular. "Is that the Sabretooth guy that Guardian warned us about?" Husk asked worriedly.

Harry had of course informed his team about the enemies they might be facing out there, including Magneto and those who had sided with him. "Yes," Ghigau said grimly. She mentally ran over what she knew of him then frowned. "I don't think we'll be able to try and take him prisoner, even if we try with the others, his regeneration ability is supposed to be insanely quick. Magma, I hesitate to ask, but is there any place nearby where you could use your powers?"

Magma shook her head. "I can use some of my low-key stuff, but I don't know, I'll have to head down to the ground to check."

The other mutants down there was a heavily muscled tallish man, though not as tall as Colossus even in his unarmored form,. He looked almost their age, but was heavily muscled beyond even Piotr in his normal body. As they watched the rather nice suit he was wearing tore, and what they thought was a rather distended stomach turned out to be two extra arms clenched tight to the body. With those two arms he began to hurl things up at Banshee, while the other two held large sacks of what appeared to be money.

"A bank robbery really?" said Psylocke shaking his head. "I thought that Harry was joking about stopping one of those in New York. There are easier ways of getting money you know."

"I feel it's sort of one of those supervillain things, they have to rob banks in order to call themselves supervillains…" said Ghigau actually stopping for a moment to contemplate that before shaking her head. "Whatever. Magma what do you think?"

"There's a place nearby I could use without causing any major damage," she said, frowning thoughtfully even as her body shimmered into its energy form. "So long as what's above it isn't important anyway. Are you thinking of what I think you're thinking? That Sabretooth's healing factor can't protect him from being dunked in lava?"

"If we have to." said Ghigau nodding her head grimly staring at the other girl through her bird of prey eyes. Magma returned the look for a moment then slowly nodded. She hadn't killed anyone yet, she had fought androids in Mojo's world, and had fought against magical golems and other creatures before that, then the Hand ninjas, who were only very technically human. This would be the first time she was going to fight a human opponent, someone actually, really alive, and it scared her. Still, Sir Dennis had found quite a lot about Sabretooth after Harry had described him, and the man was more a beast than the creature he was named for.

In the distance they could hear the approach of sirens and Ghigau groaned. "Dammit, that's not going to make this any easier."

"I'll handle that right now." said Psylocke, closing her eyes for a moment and sending out her telepathic power.

She found the police men's minds very easily, they were very focused in this current moment of chaos, while the normal civilians' minds were panicking, fearful or mildly inquisitive depending on individual temperament and their location in relation to the chaos. "Stop," she said projecting that thought so strongly that it came out as an order. Several blocks away the police cars slid to a halt, their drivers having all heard that shout. "Wait until the battle has passed then move in to aid the civilians who have been caught up in the current battle. Unless you are extremely heavily armed, you can't help against this threat ."

She glanced up at Banshee and nodded her head firmly. "This is an Interpol matter, afterwards you can take it up with agent Banshee, serial number 247953." Harry had requested a full dossier on Banshee and had been given it after making his deal with the Inspector general of Interpol. I repeat, you cannot help us here, you would only make it harder for us to do our jobs.

She held the connection for several seconds, overriding the policeman's fear and talking them down, repeating herself several times. Once she was certain they would follow her suggestions Psylocke opened her eyes then gestured with her hands. Her telekinetic blades appeared and she nodded grimly to Ghigau, noting that Magma was gone, having left for some reason she hadn't noticed. "Done, the police will stay back for now. Let's get it stuck in with the arseholes."

Ghigau nodded then jumped up over the car they had all been hiding behind at that point, racing forward on her hover skates. "Bow and arrow!" she muttered under her breath, and when they appeared immediately pulled back on the string, firing at the four-armed man. That was one of the special bolts, inscribed with lightning runes from Harry. It struck, and the man screamed a little before pulling it out and turning to glare at her. "Stupid bitch, you think that can stop Forearm!" He shouted, dropping the gold from one hand then using both arms on that side of his body to grab up a car before hurling it at her.

Behind Ghigau Husk grimaced, grabbing the car as it flew towards her jumping up as she grabbed it, then flipping with it in midair to stop its momentum before slamming it down into the ground and jumping forward. Thank god for Shiang-Chi's training!

She was intercepted by Sabretooth, who grabbed her arm and hurled her into a bus, which was thankfully empty, all of its passengers having fled earlier. Husk slammed into it with such force that she nearly was buried into its side. "You three are new," Sabretooth growled. "Who the hell are you lot supposed to be?"

That was as far as she got before he had to dodge a telekinetic blade aiming for the back of his head. He then dodged another one that would've taken him in the throat. Whatever those glowing blades were Sabretooth didn't want to find out what they did to him. He trusted in his healing power, but he'd recently learned that it really didn't help much against magic, something in magic made his healing ability go so much slower than normal, and those blades looked too much like magic.

The man who had been shooting out beams at Banshee was a black haired man with a neat goatee that had been wearing a decent suit, but was now wearing a black suit with red gloves and a mark on his chest. In his hand he was wielding what looked like a shillelagh. Except normal shillelaghs did not shoot beams of power out from their ends, and in his hands this one did so now.

The blast caught Husk as she was trying to remove herself from the wreckage of the bus, flinging her back with a cry of "dammit not again!" but no real damage.

He looked down at his stick for a moment, shaking it as if it was broken then had to dodge an arrow from Ghigau. "What is this, some kind of feminist superhero group?"

"Not exactly," said Ghigau racing forward. "You just caught us on a shopping day."

"The thing about shopping is that there's always a price." The Irishman said as he turned his cane towards her, blasting out with several bolts that nearly caught her, forcing Ghigau to dodge thus slowing her advance. "Is what you bought really worth your life?"

"Is gold worth yours?!" Ghigau retorted another arrow on her bow firing back, but the man dodged easily.

Banshee flew down, slamming a sonic assault into the man who simply shook his head while Banshee moved on to strafe the fore-armed man and Sabretooth, the latter of which dodged almost frantically. "Really Sean, haven't you learned that our powers cancel out yet?" With a sigh he turned to continue to fire at Ghigau. "He always was a slow learner and always quick to hold a grudge, a family trait that!"

At that point he was forced to dodge a piece of the bus, as Husk removed herself from its wreckage once more. She looked over to where Sabretooth was busy trying to gut Psylocke and raced in that direction, while that brief moment allowed Ghigau to retake the initiative. An arrow nearly caught the man with the goatee in the leg, and another almost caught him in the head. "My word!" he muttered, rolling on the street for a moment and then pushing off to dive behind a parked car. "You don't exactly play by the normal goody-two-shoes game, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Ghigau shouted rather irritated by fact the man still had enough breath to trade barbs. "You dodged it didn't you?"

Nearby Forearm and Sabretooth were trying to battle the team of Psylocke and Husk, with Banshee up above trying to get in a blast. But he was hampered by the fact he didn't want to hit his new allies or the pedestrians.

Yet despite not actually having trained together very often, Husk and Psylocke were a very good team. Psylocke would dodge here and there, drawing their attention while Husk simply moved in for a haymaker when she could. Psylocke would aim at their heads from the side or back, which even Forearm had to turn around to deal with, while Husk was simply really strong.

Husk wasn't as strong as Forearm, something that irritated her, but she was much more durable. Already he was sporting a missing tooth, and one arm was holding his rib cage. She'd also smashed Sabretooth a few times, but his healing factor dealt with any damage Husk could do with ease. It was astonishing to her to watch as his jaw, which she had just broken, healed within seconds, and he was learning to aim for her eyes which despite being metal were still vulnerable.

Sabretooth had also found out that when one of Psylocke's blades hit him, he felt pain the likes of which he had rarely felt before. Yet despite that the blades didn't do any physical damage, and were thus useless against him. And unfortunately Sabretooth still had his mental faculties. "Forearm, grab that car and hammer the steel bitch!"

Forearm tried to do so only to be interrupted as Banshee flew near, hitting him directly in the chest with a sonic scream that threw him backwards. The man screamed as the blast exacerbated his busted rib, and Husk capitalized by grabbing the car he was going to use on her, slamming it down on top of him.

But this had pulled Husk away from Sabretooth long enough for him to catch Psylocke in the leg, gashing her deeply. She jumped away wincing, but Sabretooth didn't follow up, turning and tearing off the door of another nearby car, revealing a family of four huddling there. He reached in to grab a young boy, only for the father to try and stop him. Sabretooth snarled slapping him aside with such force the man's neck snapped, then pulled out the boy with his hand around the youngster's thin neck.

He held the boy by his neck snarling. "Back off bitches, or else I'll snap the brat's neck!"

Psylocke had charged in again as soon as she realized what he was doing and she skidded to a stop barely out of reach, cursing. Husk too turned from where she had been trying to keep Forearm under the car, her eyes blazing with anger. Ghigau, who had been slowly closing the range with the man with the goatee stopped as well. Even Banshee, who had been about to attack Sabretooth from behind stopped, seeing how tight his grip on the boy's neck was.

Sabretooth smirked at them then looked at his downed comrade then over at the man with a goatee. "Black Tom, Forearm let's go!"

Forearm grinned weakly then moved over to where he had been forced to drop the gold bullion, picking it up in two of his arms while the third and fourth held his stomach.

Ghigau growled behind her mask then whispered. "Is there any house elf watching us?"

Behind her she heard a faint pop, and Cory appeared in the driver's seat of a parked car right behind her. "Yes Missy Braid, mistress Ororo told us that one of us should follow you so's we could pop anything you buys back to the Hogywarts."

"Do you think you can pop that boy out of his grip?" Ghigau asked, pointing slightly with the end of her bow.

Cory looked over to where Ghigau indicated, his usual smile disappearing quickly as he saw the young child in danger. It has been mentioned before that most house elves hold a special fondness for children. Threatening them was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, and most elves, who wouldn't raise a hand to anyone if they could help it, would defend a child from any threat they could match.

But here on territory not owned by their Master, and without their master here to give them direct orders, they couldn't do much. "I could get him out Missy Braid, if that man's grip was loosened a little, but I could not be teleporting far. Without him knowings it be happening, he'd bes fighting all the way, and that mights hurt him." He reached up to his long years pulling at them worriedly.

"All right, wait nearby and do it when I tell you."

The so-named Black Tom however had been looking at Sabretooth in shock. "I don't do that boyo!" he said pointing is stick at Sabretooth. "We don't take hostages especially not a leanbh!"

Banshee above him scoffed angrily. "You'd killed them soon enough though wouldn't you, you croi dubh!"

Black Tom whirled on him angrily. "I don't kill indiscriminately, and I've never killed any leanai! I've only killed people getting my way on my capers! I'm better than that!"

He turned back to Sabretooth but Sabretooth simply scoffed. "This was a group caper not just you Tommy boy. If you're so worried about the brat, I'll let him go when we reach our getaway vehicle. And you, Screamer, land down here now or else!"

Black Tom scowled angrily, but nodded reluctant agreement, staring at Banshee as he landed. He took a moment to deck the other Irishman with a punch to the jaw that flung Banshee's head back before turning away. "I'll hold ya to that Sabretooth."

"What should we do about these bitches?" said Forearm, nursing his mouth.

"Leave 'em," replied Sabretooth looking at the mall. "For some reason I think killing them'd bring down more trouble."

The girls moved after the quartet, with Banshee nursing his jaw, glaring angrily and trying to figure out a way to use his powers on Sabretooth that wouldn't cause him to convulse. If he did, the boy's neck wouldn't survive. At that moment, Psylocke's voice entered his brain. "Go along with it for now, we've got a plan. When we say though, hit Sabretooth with a low-key sonic pulse, to mess up his equilibrium, and keep doing it!"

"Who're ya four miss? You look familiar, but ah can't place you." Banshee replied in his head.

"I'm Psylocke, and you met my brother captain Britain once a year or so ago. I work with Guardian, which is what you should've been doing for the past few months." She replied tartly then cut the connection, leaving Banshee to wince mentally before she came back momentarily. "Oh, and I've used your name with the local police, they should be clearing us a route."

Thanks to Psylocke ordering the police around in Banshee's name, they didn't run into any further issues= as they passed through the city. They soon reached a rundown area of the city, where a young redheaded girl of around 15 was waiting with a large truck. She looked on aghast at Sabretooth as he dragged the boy after him, facing back towards Ghigau and the others. "What are you doing you crazy fool, set the buachaill down!"

I'll let him go when we're all in the van and out of the city." Sabretooth growled, not even looking back at her, losing patience with the Irish half of this job. They'd signed up for it both to get some cash for themselves and to get a good word in with the big M, but now they came to it they were both pussyfooting around? He'd half a mind to snap the brat's neck and tossed the body at the girl, just to show her that this was serious business, and that in battle you broke a few eggs.

She looked over at Tom. "Father?"

Banshee stared at the girl then over at Tom who looked at him his face blank. He didn't even seem to have heard the question from the girl who called him father. Seeing that the girl turned away glaring angrily at Sabretooth. "I said let him go!" Suddenly that scream took on a force all its own. It slammed into Sabretooth rattling him and his grip loosened around the boy's neck.

"Now!" Ghigau shouted, racing forward. She had been trying to figure out a way to bring Sabretooth's hidden fears to life to make him drop the boy, but hadn't been able to do so, but this worked just as well.

Banshee took that as his cue and began to bombard Sabretooth with a low key sonic scream, scrambling his senses so badly he couldn't figure what way he was facing. Ghigau reached him then jabbed an explosive arrow down his throat, which burst as she slammed his jaw shut.

Sabretooth howled, but with Banshee still hitting him with his sonic powers and now the injury couldn't fight back as Ghigau grabbed his arm, racing down the street as fast as her hover boots could carry her.

Behind her the boy who had stumbled to his feet looked around fearfully then abruptly found himself several feet away, and with a giant stuffed animal in his arms. The stuffed animal was taken from a toy store they had passed on the way through the city. Cory felt it might make the boy feel better, not knowing what had happened to his father earlier.

Forearm tried to fight back, but with both Husk and Psylocke concentrating on him he was only able to lash out for a few seconds before falling as Psylocke as slammed her blade into his forehead. He was dead before he hit the road below them.

Thanks to his healing power Sabretooth recovered quickly from the explosive round stuffed in his mouth and even began to heal from the damage being done by Banshee's powers. He tried to slash Ghigau across the face, but she abruptly let go of his arm, ducking and skating back quickly. Seeing he was now several blocks away from his allies, Sabretooth made to turn and run rather than face Banshee's powers or the bitch with the mask.

He was stopped however when the ground underneath him began to quake. He looked around wildly, wondering where the cause was coming from. In front of him a young girl, or at least what looked like a young girl made of a fiery sort of energy, was touching the ground with her hands. "I think the world is better off without you in it , Sabretooth." The girl said glaring at him.

Sabretooth got his balance back once more, only to feel the ground actually give underneath him. He's then had a few brief seconds to feel an intense heat from directly below him then he screamed. "AGHHHHH!"

Magma hadn't taken part in the battle because she had been preparing this, working to gradually bring up lava towards the surface without damaging anything important or creating a permanent flow, which was extremely difficult. Now Magma controlled the lava as Sabretooth tried desperately to claw at the ground of the hole he had fallen into, his lower legs being burned to nothing by the lava.

"GAHH, pleaaaaHHHH!" He screamed again as Magma's control of the lava actually formed hands to grab him by his arms and pull him back. With a last despairing wail Sabretooth disappeared into the lava below.

Banshee and Ghigau had watched this, one in horror and one in grim satisfaction. As Magma once more went to her knees, concentrating on closing the hole she had opened to swallow Sabretooth into the earth she moved forward, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder, protected somewhat from her energy from by her suit's gloves. "It had to be done Magma, I'm just sorry you had to be the one to do it."

"Only my powers could." Magma replied, her eyes closed for a moment. "I, I'll get over it, I think. You were right, Sabretooth was a fucking monster. Did he really kill that boy's father?" Psylocke had told her what was going on as they followed the villains through the ceiling.

Banshee turned away reluctantly, keeping his gorge down with difficulty. He knew that Sabretooth's death was something to be celebrated, but he hadn't liked having to watch him die like that. Seeing the other girl, the one in the half-mask, talking to the one made of energy, he turned back and flew back to where the others were. To his surprise Black Tom was still there.

Indeed Black Tom hadn't tried to fight back, he simply raised his hands dropping his shillelagh to the ground and crossing them behind his head. He turned, staring at Banshee, who moved forward slowly looking at him incredulously. "I'm a villain and I know it Sean, but there are lines I won't cross, and taking a boy as a hostage is one of them. Sides, I doubt these Furies'd let me go."

Nearby Paige and Psylocke were standing on either side of the redhead. She looked at them, hopefully. "Er, I hope my helping there at the end'll help me get off with just a fine or something?"

OOOOOOO

"She's my daughter?" Banshee said blankly a few moments later as the police arrived at last, staring at Black Tom where he was sitting in the back of a paddy wagon. "Yer lyin'."

"You bloody fool!" Black Tom said, not sounding arrogant or anything, simply tired. He sounded like a man who needed to do some soul-searching, or perhaps had already begun and didn't like what he found so far. Watching Sabretooth kill a man then take his son as a hostage had affected him more than Black Tom Cassidy would ever have suspected such could before actually seeing it.

"You blasted me with your bloody power before I could tell you about her. Maeve had Theresa a few months before she died in that IRA bombing." He glared at Sean. "I was the one that watched over Maeve, I was the one that took care of her while you were gallivanting around the globe! And when she died, I raised Theresa, and I think I did a damn good job! You might be her biological father, but she calls me that! Not you!"

He leaned back as if that bit of energy had sapped something from them. "I think that might be the only true, good, thing I've done in my life. She doesn't deserve to go to prison. She didn't even want to be here, but Sabretooth, Forearm and their superior insisted that she had to show she was willing to step up and fight for mutant rights."

"And that was what this was supposed to be, the money was supposed to fund something or other?"

"I don't know." Tom said shaking his head. "Tell me, those four girls, were they part of your team before all this, or was that just dumb luck like that one with a mask said?"

"Dumb luck," Sean replied. "Though they're saying something about some kind of spandex dilemma, not certain what that means." The two were silent for a moment, staring away from one another. There was lot of bad blood between them, but a lot of good before that, and come what may Tom had raised Sean's daughter. He didn't have to, and in fact Sean couldn't think of why he had after what Sean had done to him, winning the mansion and family fortune from Tom, and then there was the whole Maeve thing that happened between them. Neither of them had acted well in that, and Sean had won once again.

"I'll, I'll put in a good word for both you and Teresa." Sean said finally, as if the words pained him, but they came out firmly despite that.

"She prefers to go by Siryn, says she isn't willing ta live up to her namesake." Tom smiled weakly.

Sean nodded, looking over at where the girl was being put into another paddy wagon. She had talked to a few of the other girls, most of whom had disappeared now, leaving only Psylocke. She had already informed him that she had assumed power from Interpol in ordering the police about, but he had no problem with that, his superiors would back him up for this day's work no question.

With a final nod towards Tom, Sean backed away and allowed the wagons doors to close before moving over to Psylocke. Psylocke simply nodded over at Siryn. "Talk to her, I don't think you'll be able to assume a father's position in her life at this point, but you might become a family member at least. That's better than nothing isn't it?"

"Aye, it is, but I have to ask, is there anything you or your employer could do to help keep her out of jail?"

"I have no idea, but I'll ask. She won't be let off scot-free whatever else. She really was willing to be involved in this caper, and I talked to her. She does believe in mutant supremacy at this point, though Sabretooth's actions rattled her a lot, and she's a thinker, we can work with that."

Banshee grimaced. "I'll talk to her." he said again. He looked at the purple haired woman then nodded. "Thanks for your help. I'll be in touch, I know I've been putting off joining your group, but I think right now family takes precedence."

Psylocke nodded. "It does indeed, though I'm learning that maybe family means more than just those you were born with." With that parting quip she walked away, and suddenly felt as if no one was watching her. She looked around, and smiled seeing this was indeed the case then heard Ororo's voice. "Over here Psylocke."

The African woman was leaning against a nearby building, smiling in welcome as Psylocke moved toward her. She held out her hand taking Psylocke's and with another brief moment of concentration the two of them were gone from Paris off to Hogwarts to report the day's adventure to Harry.

Later that day, Harry sat Amara and Dani both down, talking to them softly about their performance, then about what Amara had done, helping her through having killed for the first time. That night he slept apart from Jean and Ororo for the first time in months. Instead he slept in the student tower's common room, and, when Amara woke up with nightmares, was there to help her calm down, talking with her again about what had happened, eventually getting through to her enough to head back to bed.

OOOOOOO

Despite the growing list of space borne sensors Reed had continued to work on, they could not detect everything. Thus a small unmanned probe entered the Earth's atmosphere undetected. Once hidden in the Rocky Mountains it went to work invading the local information network, looking for information to help its master, specifically one or two targets had to be identified before the master arrived, and he wished to find some local help as well. Willing or not.

OOOOOOO

It turned out that Harry was willing to put in a good word for both Teresa and Black Tom but Harry didn't have much influence in France unlike in Britain. He passed on a 'suggestion' that the two of them have their sentences reduced to the French ambassador who had been a part of the negotiations for where Magical Minds would be headquartered. She replied with a bland 'we'll think about it,' not wishing to say yes or no on that issue. While France was willing to follow Britain's lead on how to treat its mutant citizens, thought they were dragging their feet over it slightly, this was the first major crime by a mutant that had occurred since that push began. So it was going to be interesting to see how the government responded.

For his part Harry had other concerns to worry about as he woke up the day after what was being called the Shopping Disaster. Today was the day of his interview, and while Harry was pretty good at making things up as he went along or making up speeches he supposed, this kind of thing really wasn't something he had a lot of experience in. Oh, Harry had the time he had given a speech on the opening of Magical Minds to draw upon, but that was it.

He looked over to where Ororo was getting dressed, she wouldn't be coming with him for this of course. Instead she would be leading the reorganization of the castle to prepare it for the four new teachers she had found and the influx of new students. They wanted it set up so that the new teachers and students wouldn't necessarily be in the know about the still-unnamed team. After all, Harry and his group were acting outside the law, and that did tend to throw most people. It hadn't thrown Ms. Brown simply because she trusted Dr. Druid, but they couldn't assume all the new teachers would be willing to ignore that aspect, even if they were fine with the magical portion, which could not be hidden in Hogwarts even if Harry tried.

Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly given the age of the students in question, most of the new students didn't have issues with magic, and loved the castle and everything in it. But it was a major hurdle in finding teachers, and Ororo and the others felt trying to find teachers who would look the other way about the team's activities and were fine with magic wouldn't allow them to find any teachers at all.

Harry had already done his part for this adding so many runic arrays designed to stop or redirect attention from the basement and the seventh floor that it was doubtful the new hires would even realize they were there even if someone walked through those doorways while they watched. The location of the school was also restricted, but that the teachers knew about, having been told it was a safety feature for the mutant children that were being taught here.

"I forgot to ask yesterday, but how long do you think it will be until the school is able to run itself?"

"All the new hires I've cleared have experience in administration, but none have served as a headmaster of course, those are remarkably hard to find given our... unique needs." Harry and Ororo both chuckled at that, before Ororo went on. "The classes should be able to run themselves however, so the only real issue will be the fact we'll have to conform to National standards and submit exam grades to show that compliance." Ororo said shrugging her shoulders. "Ms. Brown and I have talked, and we wish to be ready by September of course so that we can start acting like a regular school, so that's what we're shooting for."

Ororo turned from pulling on a pair of business trousers to look at Harry, frowning thoughtfully. "By the way, have you talked to either Emma or Jean about the rather large bombshell you dropped on me during our last date? I agree that Jean's status as the avatar of the Phoenix will probably enhance her own life span, but that leaves Emma out."

"Call me a coward, but I haven't." Harry said rather grimly. "It's not a conversation I'm looking forward to, and one we can hopefully put off for, oh, a dozen more years or so."

Ororo nodded understanding that since she wasn't exactly looking forward to that discussion either. Best to wait on it until all the current issues they were dealing with, preparing Earth for any further spaceport assaults, the Hellfire Club issues including whatever the Sentinel Project was, and getting their companies all running as efficiently as possible along with the school, were dealt with. Listing them all like that it's a wonder we have time for anything else.

"At the moment, I need to get going." Harry said moving back reluctantly. He let his hands traced up her side for a moment to touch her cheek lightly. "I'll see you when I get back." Ororo nodded and watched Harry leave the tower, heading to give Shiang-Chi a few instructions for the training he wanted the team to go through while he was away.

After that, Harry teleported to the X-Men mansion pausing for a few moments talk to Charles, handing over some contact information for him from Betsy so that he could be brought in to help with Emma Steed, before flying off. He flew along the coastline, then found an unwatched and camera-less parking lot. There he found an empty parking lot and brought out his Pagani then drove to the location of the mansion where Emma was going to introduce him to Paris before the interview.

She had reiterated that it was a must that they have Paris on their side. She could sway public opinion like no one else, and at least in the free world had her hand in practically every news agency and those she didn't have a hand in owning, she had agreements with.

Emma was ostensibly meeting with Paris there to take in some sun along with Cordelia and Angelica plus Paris wanted to meet the becoming famous Harry Potter in an informal setting. She also wanted Emma to join them at her news agencies headquarters to introduce Emma to her newest draw, who was going to be the controlling spokesperson for the discussion.

This villa was actually part of a gated community, so he only had to be let into the community itself before heading up to the villa in question, which was much smaller than the Frost place in New York. Paris had a mansion of her own in New York of course, but if pressed she would say this place would probably be her favorite. She had said so to Emma that morning. "I mean really, North Eastern weather or Floridian weather, which would you pick?"

A butler answered the door, showing Harry in then through the mansion to where the ladies were relaxing on the veranda. The butler bowed him in saying, "Madam, Mr. Harry Potter is here."

"I'm feeling rather overdressed…" Harry said looking around. Emma and Paris weren't the only two there which surprised him. He hadn't known that Emma had brought along her sister or Angelica, but both of them were here and swimming around the pool. Cordelia was wearing a very daring bikini that wasn't quite the right size for her, and Harry looked away before he laughed at her attempts to look sexier than her current body type could back.

Paris and Emma were sitting at a lounge table, sipping something fruity looking while nibbling on what looked like bruschetta. Both of them wore business suits, light ones for the weather, but still serious looking. As Emma had told him Paris was another blonde, her hair tied up in a style that almost reminded him of Prof. McGonagall at present. Emma's own hair was cut to her shoulders, loose yet somehow merely adding to the overall seriousness of her outfit in some indefinable way.

"Mr. Potter." said Emma coolly, though her telepathic reading was much warmer. "Hello Harry, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Harry thought back, as he bowed, 'responding in a somewhat lighter, yet still distant tone of voice aloud.

Emma responded by glaring at him before formally introducing him to Paris. "Paris Lourdes, this is Harry Potter, owner of Magical Minds and one of my business associates."

"I have to thank you again for putting your name behind my company like this, and for letting me advertise on your networks before this." Harry bowed, formally kissing the back of Paris' hand when she held it out to him. "I understand the public needs to know more about me before placing trust in my medicines."

Paris looked at him through her sunglasses, putting down the paper she had been reading. "Your medicines have taken the world by storm, inquiring minds wish to know how they are made, where did they come from, and of course more about you. Trust me, the ratings for the interview you've agreed to give will more than repay me, not even mentioning the art piece you sent me."

"Art piece?" Emma asked, one eyebrow rising in feigned surprise. It had been her after all who had asked Harry to send a Faberge egg to Paris as part of his payment for broadcasting this interview.

"Oh yes, Mr. Potter here is quite the art collector, or at least has access to such. He sent me an actual Faberge egg, one of the ones that had been lost to history during WW2. As a calling piece, that takes some beating."

Emma turned to stare coldly at Harry, to which Harry simply glared back, before Paris caught his attention once more internally wondering what that was about yet changing the subject adroitly. "At any rate I hope you're ready for the questions. For my part, I note that you haven't allowed the FDA to start testing your medicines, and that you haven't changed your initial stance on selling at a somewhat unbelievable price to those countries that haven't explicitly extended their laws to protect their mutant citizens." That had caused a bit of what Paris thought of as 'a moment' for Edward, but Paris herself couldn't care less about the whole mutant issue. Though Paris was as interested as Edward in finding out Potter's reasons for becoming such a champion of their rights.

"No I haven't." Harry replied with a shrug. "Unlike the MHPRA the American FDA wanted to know everything about the process of how his potions were made rather than simply relying on the case studies of the soldiers that had been given them after the battle in London against Selene's forces. Every other nation I'm currently selling to seems to have taken having their own doctors look over the case studies in person as a sign that my medicines are precisely what they appear to be. While I admire much of America, I'm not about to bend over backwards for one of its bureaucracies, especially when the doctors their embassy assigned to look over the soldiers that used them are on my side rather than the FDA's."

"And yes, my position on the pricing of my medical products hasn't changed. If a country is unwilling to protect their own citizens because of an arbitrary definition on what it means to be human, then they can continue to pay through the nose for my companies products. In fact if he had his way Harry wouldn't be selling to hospitals in those countries that hadn't met his demands on that issue yet at all. Emma however had convinced him to simply sell his goods at a price that most hospitals or even most states couldn't pay for now. That would whet their appetite for more, and would make it seem an economic as well as moral choice to get behind mutant rights and push. "We like open competition here in America." Paris replied drolly, waving him into his seat. "If you don't allow other companies to know how you are creating your medicines, how can they try to create better versions of said in order to compete? How can less expensive versions eventually be sold under other names?"

"Never and never." Harry replied bluntly. "Not to put too fine a point of it, but the… unique nature of my medicines means that no one else will ever have the means to produce them. Yes it's a monopoly, sorry, but that's just the way the biscuit crumbles."

Emma growled slightly, indicating without words that she had tried to figure out those means of production, which she had hinted to Paris before this. Paris looked at her friend for a moment before looking back at Harry engaging him in small talk. She found out that Harry was very well read, which she liked, and also very knowledgeable of the world, something Paris also liked, though his views were much more direct than most she was used to. It was obvious Harry was new to the world of big business, where politics and business went hand in hand.

Despite this Paris was forming a good impression of the young man, and wondered idly if he and Edward would get along. She shook that thought off however, not wishing to dwell on thoughts of Edward at the moment. He had been supposed to join her for an entire week down here, but had only been here a day before being called back to work. Apparently her fiancé had been neglecting his own company recently, spending too much time on his own 'private projects', and was now paying for it.

During the conversation Paris learned that the two of them had met when Harry had discovered Emma's company was investigating his medicines, during the time when they were still being field-tested. Then he had simply called her up rather than deal with any middleman. It was a unique approach that had earned him some measure of respect from Emma, but it was obvious that the two of them were simply incompatible personalities.

Two ringleaders without a ring, Paris amused to herself, watching as the two of them politely ignored one another save for an occasional barbed comment. Or are they? It isn't like Emma to be this obvious in her dislike of someone, especially if she has a working relationship with him. She frowned in thought, looking at the two of them then joining in commenting on Emma's hairstyle with a wicked little smirk on her face, though her mind was still working.

So was Cordelia's. She looked at the three adults at the far end of the pool, wondering if this man had any connection with the change she had seen in Emma over the past few months.

Eventually however the time had come and Paris sighed theatrically. "Unfortunately, we have to move this on, would you like to ride in my limo Mr. Potter, or will you follow us down?"

"I think I'll follow you down, I like to drive myself and I've never driven in Florida before. The weather here is amazing." Harry replied.

Paris nodded and the three of them went inside, then into the mansions garage where Paris stopped staring at the green supercar that was waiting for Harry. "My word, I can see why you like to drive."

She gestured over to where a Lamborghini Athon, a concept vehicle that had never been sold on the open market, had been parked far back of the garage area. "That is what I drive when it's just myself, though I don't get nearly enough time for it." In fact the only time in the last few months Paris had gone out to drive was a few days ago with her new acquaintance Amora Galan. The two of them had a lot of fun simply driving the day away.

"I can sympathize with that sentiment, though here in America it is probably much worse." At Paris's quizzical expression Harry elaborated his opinion with a smile. "Here if you want to go fast you have to either acknowledge that you're going to break the law and be on the watch for police, or be near one of the dinky little tracks they like so much here in the colonies."

Paris chuckled then gestured Emma over to where the limousine was being pulled out for them. The two of them got into the back, where Paris simply nodded at the driver and told him the destination, the PL News Network headquarters downtown. When the security partition closed, Paris turned to Emma, staring at her. "That was an interesting performance both on yours and Mr. Potter's part."

For a moment Emma almost allowed her surprise to show on her face. She was also almost tempted to probe her friend's mind, wondering where she was going with this, but refrained for the moment. "What are you talking about?"

"As if you don't know." Paris scoffed. "You would never show your dislike for someone so openly my dear especially if you were trapped in a working relationship with them. I've seen you brush elbows with Shaw and a dozen others at the Hellfire Club, many of whom I know are chauvinists of the first order and many who are generally unlikable even beyond that. So what is your real relationship with Mr. Potter?"

"We are… friendly…" Emma said, now giving in to the impulse and probing her friends mind. As usual Paris didn't have any of the technological devices necessary to block or warn her about such probes. Emma quickly found how Paris had figured out that Emma and Harry were acting and also that Paris wasn't done asking questions. But she also now knew how to answer them, and pulled back quickly, feeling a little dirty about having given into her paranoia now.

"So who are you trying to trap?" Paris' eyes were cold as she looked at her young friend. "And for what reason?"

"Sebastian Shaw." Emma replied promptly. "And the reason is to see him and his influence removed from the Hellfire Club. He's made several moves against me, both to coerce me and to simply undermine my companies in various ways. He even threatened me physically once, well after my initial introduction to the inner circle."

"That assassination attempt on you a few days after your father and sister died?" Paris said her eyes narrowing in thoughts now. "There was nothing to connect it to anyone, I recall. The police found some evidence linking the men to Hammer Industries, but later felt that that evidence had been planted, correct?"

Emma nodded slightly. "That was the conclusion the police reached, much more quickly than I had thought they would reach any such, which was another clue that something was going on. I've found evidence that would not stand up in court, mostly because of the… electronic means I went through to gain it, that linked that to Sebastian."

Paris frowned thoughtfully, trying to remember what little her own corporate espionage agents had discovered about the conflicts arising in the Hellfire Club at present. There were several low-key feuds among the lower members, but she also remembered Edward mentioning something his spies had caught, which seemed to indicate… "But aren't you moving against Pierce with Shaw?"

"Shaw asked for my help in that endeavor, and given what I've since discovered about Peirce I am more than willing to do so," Emma replied calmly, again having been forewarned that this question would be coming. "Initially however Sebastian implied that if I did he would back off, but trusting his word on that would be a mistake I feel Potter can be a major ally, and his own holdings are also a place to run if things go horribly wrong."

"I want to be clear that you are not intending any move against myself or Edward." Paris said coolly looking at her. "If you do not give me your word on that, I will warn Shaw that you are after him."

Emma was almost, almost tempted to push Paris just then on her connection with Edward. Having read the woman's mind she now knew that Paris was even unhappier with Buckman then she had thought several weeks ago, and it had only a little to do with how he was continually pushing back their wedding date. Paris had a hint of Edward's obsession with the mutant threat, and was becoming more and more worried about being associated with him if he was that fanatical about it.

But Emma refrained from pushing Paris about it now. It was not the appropriate time, and Paris was not at the point yet where she would be willing to break things off with Buckman. Instead she replied simply, "I promise neither Harry nor I are planning to move against Edward Buckman or yourself. "Potter is not interested at all in these corporate maneuvers, and has his hands full running his various companies now. And I have no interest in anything Edward owns, nor any interest in enlarging my own holdings through attacking others. I am simply defending myself."

Paris stared searchingly into the younger woman's eyes, then nodded slowly. "I'll believe you for now. It'll be interesting to watch you two in action at any rate, nor will I lose any sleep over Pierce or Shaw, or even Leland if it came to that." She looked away for a moment, wondering how that clash would go before looking back at Emma, a small smirk appearing on her face. "So, exactly how… friendly are you? Those eyes of Potter's…"

OOOOOOO

PLNN was a huge building in Jacksonville, standing out even among the other skyscrapers in the city's center. With Paris's approval the limo and Harry both parked in the parking area reserved for the president. "With that car I'm sure you wanted in the most secure spot possible." Paris said, once more admiring Harry's Huayra then leading the way to the elevator.

"Thank you," said Harry not mentioning all the defensive magic his car had before following her. The elevator deposited them on the 17th floor of the building, where the dialogue was set to take place. The room itself was set up sort of like a talk show set with several seats for questioners, one seat for the main questioner, and one for Harry, separated from the reporters by a dining table set between Harry and the announcer.

Harry only noticed those things peripherally however his attention was locked on the woman waiting for them. Another blonde, she was even more well-built then Paris or Emma, and her beauty was almost otherworldly. In fact, Harry would bet on it being precisely otherworldly, because what he was sensing from the woman was magic, almost as much as Ororo had now.

It was only long practice that kept Amora from staring in shock at the magic user that had just walked through the door behind her new benefactor. She and Paris had gotten along famously from the start (in fact she actually lived with Paris, back in New York). Amora had easily been able to use her magics to get her a Bachelor's degree in communication, and that plus her own looks and intelligence had done the rest with Paris helping along. Amora wished to accumulate quite a lot of money, which she used to get what she wanted, in particular clothing and jewelry. This was going to be her first major show hosting, but she had appeared in various other jobs that put her in the limelight since their initial meeting.

The way the magic user's eyes locked on her told Amora that he had sensed the magic around her as well. She frowned wondering what was going on here but Paris's voice interrupted her. "Amora, this is the person were going to be interviewing today, Mr. Potter."

"Charmed." Harry said bowing slightly, though his eyes glittered like emeralds even as he did so.

"Have any of the other reporters arrived yet?" Paris went on, and not noticing the slight tension between Amora and Harry.

Emma had, but didn't know the reason. Paris had introduced her to Amora before this, and the two of them had gotten along well enough. They were very different people but had a few interests in common, and it was clear that Paris had not lost any of her ability to spot talent. "Harry, what's going on?" She asked telepathically.

"Tell you in a moment when I figure it out." Harry replied dryly in the same fashion. "Do you think you can convince Paris to take you off somewhere for a few moments?"

"Not really, not without using my powers and I am not wishful to do so to a friend." Emma replied tartly, still feeling guilty about the way she had invaded Paris' mind earlier.

"Then I'll have to use a bit of subtlety."

"Oh, god, that's never a good sign..."

While their telepathic conversation was going on Amora had replied to Paris' question. "Some of them have, would you like to talk to them?" "I had security escort them to the waiting room next door."

"Yes." Paris replied. "I want to make certain that the other agencies sent their best as they said they would. I okayed a certain group, but if someone had a 'sudden cold' and couldn't make it and had to be replaced, I'd rather know about it now. I also want to make sure that they know to keep questions on the up and up. We are not running a tabloid magazine here."

"Despite the set looking like a talk show?" Emma quipped, lightly nudging Paris with her shoulder.

"Despite that. This setup is a new idea of mine, one I imagine that say, the NFL or other sports could use same for their press conferences. Something to look into." Paris replied smirking a little at the younger blonde before heading towards another doorway where the reporters would be waiting.

Emma followed after her, since it would be unusual for her to wait, and Harry made a show of looking around as if he was interested in the set up ignoring the man who had come up to fit him with a small microphone. He deliberately passed close by where Amora was standing, having just been fitted with her own microphone. "Are we going to have trouble?" he asked in a very quiet voice.

"Not for me war mage." Amora replied fervently, using the name she had heard used for magic users whose magic was an intrinsic part of their bodies. "If you are that Harry Potter that we are supposed to interview today, some mysteries are cleared up for me, but I don't really care about medicine or business overmuch. I am here to have fun, and my arrangement with Paris is simply to aid that."

Oh, Amora liked everything she was doing working for Paris else she wouldn't do them, and this interview was certainly going to be one interesting. But she wouldn't lie to herself and say that she was going to be staying around overlong. No, once she had enough money to set her up in the life she wished, say for about forty years or so, she would gracefully retire, with no one the wiser as to her true nature.

"You're not from this world are you?" Harry asked. "So long as those are your real long-term intentions I don't care but your accent reminds me of someone else I've met recently."

"I am of Asgard, specifically a descendant of the Æsir, so I hale from another dimension." The Sorceress replied, wondering who Harry had met recently that came from there, as it surely hadn't been her or Thor who she kept an eye on, ostensibly still following Odin's orders. "But I'm not here to cause trouble, certainly not with you, certainly not with my current employer."

Harry briefly glanced at her then nodded. "I thought I'd placed your accent." He said, now louder for the cameramen and others around them. "Always nice to see someone else from across the pond."

Paris smiled politely as if that had been all they had talked about, then moved forward gesturing to one seat across the table that would separate her and Harry from the other reporters. "Just so you know how this will work, I will open things up." Amora began, the tension not disappearing, but in abeyance for now. Such would always be the case when magic users met one another in unexpected circumstances.

A few moments later Paris and Emma returned, followed by a troop of about 12 men and women, mostly men, who moved over to take seats in the audience section of the studio. They each stopped by a man who fitted them one after another with a small microphone, more than a few pointedly not looking in Amora's direction.

All of them were of the opinion that she was not a true reporter, and reporters and anchors rarely got along. Reporters in general were somewhat incorruptible, only interested in the story and ferreting out information regardless of their area of expertise. Anchors however were political animals, always understanding the party line that their network followed and willing to bend public opinion this way and that for better ratings. And talk show hosts were of course scum of the earth to any right-thinking reporter.

Nonetheless they all knew they were here on sufferance. This was a major coup for PLNN. Harry Potter had made a tremendous splash in the medical world and in the business world as well, which seemed to be growing if his recent acquisition of Saab and some construction companies was anything to go by.

But nothing was known about him! Not where he got the money, not where he came from or any of his background, nothing. Most pharmaceutical companies were not open about how they created their medicines, but their owners were usually well known, and of course most were owned by several people rather than just one person. So none of the reporters were willing to rock the boat, which was why they hadn't raised any issues when Paris laid down the rules.

She did so now for Harry's benefit saying that each reporter would be allowed to ask two questions as he and Amora chose, giving the two of them control of the discussion, and that they had 50 minutes, which would translate to an hour with commercials slotted for this show. Then she and Emma left for the observation booth, turning the show over to her stage director, who walked Harry through the signs of when they were cutting to commercial, and to face the cameras at all times.

He also suggested that Harry drink a cold bottle of water before the lights came on, as they were notoriously hot. Harry replied with a smile faint smile and did so, though he didn't honestly expect to be bothered.

"This is going out live people." The stage director reminded them all. "So no cursing, and think up your questions now before we start the show." Not two minutes later he held up a hand to his headset then nodded, pointing imperiously at Amora. "And we are going live in five, four, three, two, one, now!"

Amora smiled, enhancing her beautiful features further. "Good evening everyone, today we have a very special guest with us, Mr. Harry Potter. Many of you know Mr. Potter as the owner and president of Magical Minds, then new pharmaceutical company whose products are making such up a tremendous impact on the medical world. Am I correct Mr. Potter in assuming that you are also the sole shareholder?"

"That would be correct yes, Amora." Harry replied, having been told to use her name rather than the more British 'Miss', which he had thought to use.

"Would you care to tell us about yourself a bit? You are a rather mysterious individual in many ways after all." Amora led him on.

"Hmm… well for a start I'm not from around here, and I don't mean I'm from Britain. I am, just not this one." At the reporters perplexed expressions Harry smiled. "You see, I was born in what is known as an alternate universe, one that diverged from this one several millennia ago. I found myself in, call it the area between dimensions, where I ran into the Fantastic Four after finding Franklin Richards and rescuing the little tyke from being kidnapped by one of its denizens."

Harry laughed, ignoring their shocked gazes. Of course a lot of the public followed the Fantastic Four's adventures, and this sounded rather plausible, though it would be the first time the FF had brought back someone who was actually friendly. One of the reporters, rather more intelligent than the others blurted out, "Is that where you get the ingredients for your medicines?"

"I think that counts as one of your questions even if we haven't gotten to that portion of the interview yet,, but yes." Harry replied with a smile before Amora could interject. "But yes, I got the seeds for the ingredients to my various medicines from my home universe. That's why I have a limited supply for now, I had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to transplant them." A lie, but a small one, and close enough to the truth that it wouldn't matter in the long run.

Amora spoke up leaning forward slightly in her chair before the reporters could try and take over the dialogue. "I just want to be clear on this, you claim you come from an alternate dimension? What exactly would that entail?"

"Well for one thing, my universe didn't have a King William, it had a queen Elizabeth." There were some startled laughter at that, and Harry smirked before becoming more serious. "And for another, the world was moving quite a bit slower than this one, if you understand what I mean, technology was advancing slowly, not in the leaps and bounds of this world. My home world didn't have geniuses like Tony Stark or Reed or the rest to fuel its advances. No cell phones, which let me tell you would have been bloody useful."

"I see." Amora murmured, while the reporters laughed once more. She however was thinking hard about what Potter had said and what it meant about his magical ability. She once more confirmed that she didn't want to tangle with this war-mage at any point in the future, though this would not be the last time that thought occurred to her during this interview. "And what was your occupation in this other world? Business entrepreneur, doctor, what?"

Harry shrugged. "None of the above I'm afraid, oh I was taught medicine but that was more to help my other occupation. I was a student, who then became a soldier in a very nasty guerilla war. I was fifteen or so when I was forced through many different pressures shall we say to join the war. It was… well it was nasty."

He paused, watching with amusement as the reporters eyes widened and they leaned forward, before his eyes took on the thousand yard stare of a soldier who had seen too much. "We, my friends and I, were fighting against a group of terrorists that had tacit governmental approval for their actions, and we were fighting it alone for the most part. This small group of individuals wanted to rule over the majority feeling it their divine right because they were born with it."

He did not specify what 'it' was in this case. That was unnecessary, and unneeded.

For now a bit of information about the kind of war it was would go a long way. "If you were not one of them, you were less than an animal in their eyes, and what men will do to other men when they believe such as that is…"

There was a moment of silence in the studio before Harry shook off his grim mood. He still lost himself in memories like that occasionally, but such episodes were becoming rarer as time went on. "Anyway, we fought them, and we eventually won, but it was a pyrrhic victory at best. All my friends were dead, and I had lost all my faith in the government. Nor did I want to merely leave the country because I had become rather famous there and knew that fame would precede me wherever I went. There was an experiment involving dimensional travel and I decided to see what was out there."

Harry laughed suddenly, breaking the somber mood his words had evoked. "I freely admit that I probably wasn't in my right mind at the time, but it worked out very well in the end. Franklin and his family saved me from the Limbo I found myself in, and here we are."

"Well that was interesting, but I'm afraid it's time for a brief commercial break." said Amora after a moment, her voice betraying no shock though there was a bit of amusement at how Harry had given the reporters just enough information to whet their appetites yet no more. "When we return, we will open the discussion up for questions."

During the break, Paris looked over at Emma, whose eyes had narrowed. "You didn't know?"

"I knew he had some connection to the Fantastic Four, that was all I could discover, though he seems to look down on 'heroes' in general, feeling them to be, well useless frippery I think." Emma replied with seeming honesty. "But I had no idea he was from another dimension like that."

Parris hummed thoughtfully, watching as the reporters tried to question 'off the record' which they would then feel free to use later in their follow-on articles, which they could word to convince the public to draw the conclusions their networks desired. However Harry just ignored them, talking quietly to Amora about cars of all things.

A moment later the show restarted, and the questions began. Harry shrugged. "Let's start with the front row and work our way back then." He pointed at a man in the front row on the far right.

The man quickly replied. "Your origins are fascinating Mister Potter, but do you have any concrete proof that it's the truth and that you don't really pose a threat to this world?"

"If I was a threat, would I have shared my origins?" Harry replied blankly. "And other than my medicines and their efficacy, no, not really. I had the seeds for my various medicines ingredients, and a few other knickknacks, but most of them are of a personal nature, and I am not about to share them with anyone."

"But your medicines could be some kind of mind control… thing…" The man began then petered out, realizing how lame that sounded.

"Yeah, I've been there mate." Harry said consolingly an amused smile on his face. "We all have moments where we speak before thinking. Next?"

This time a woman questioned him. "I've never followed any of the armed forces so I don't have any questions about your history and I trust the Fantastic Four enough to not question the otherworldly aspect of your origins. My question is business related. Recent reports indicate that while your company is still compiling orders, it can no longer fulfill them at the present time. Why do you have such a small amount of stock, and do you have plans to solve this issue?"

"I do. I recently found some more land that could be turned to that purpose. It will take approximately four months before the next crop is ready to be used to create the medicines, but after that I will be able to multiply my current stock by a factor of fifteen to twenty."

"Will the prices for your medicines go down at that point?" The woman asked hurriedly. She was mostly assigned to medical topics, and had an uncle who had just been in a fire a week ago. His face and body had been badly burned, but the salve that Magical Minds sold was so amazing! If she could get some of that…

"The prices won't go down in the countries who haven't met my demands until they do so. That is non-negotiable. Next?" Harry replied evenly and honestly.

The next man was assigned to business topics much like the other woman was to medical as were the next few questions. They covered the fact that Harry refused to sell to any hospital based in a country or any country's military if that country didn't have a good record of protecting their citizen's rights. He would emphatically not sell to any hospital based in a country that was home to a terrorist group regardless of its ideology.

"It is not a matter of protecting my medicines, certain failsafe's I've installed on their containers see to it that my medicines go to their buyers, and only their buyers." Harry said, his tone grim even though he looked faintly amused. "It is the idea of seeming to ignore the fact they cannot control their own citizenry, who have proven a danger to those around them."

"Other countries can however earn the right to buy my company's products at the prices hospitals in Ireland, Italy, and France are currently paying by extending their citizen's rights to include those of 'mutants'. Until they do that, they can wait for that to occur before buying or continue to pay twenty times what those forward-thinking countries are paying."

Ireland had gotten a hint somehow about Harry's pro-mutant stance even before Magical Minds went public and since then had leaped ahead of France and Italy, passing a set of laws explicitly stating mutants had rights under the law. They were now clamping down hard on their home grown version of Friends of Humanity. Indeed they had gotten ahead of France and Italy, both of whom were moving forward much more slowly on that topic. Harry had ordered Magical Minds therefore to send the next shipment bound for Italy's hospitals to several of Ireland's hospitals who had ordered his potions instead, as a marked hint that Italy needed to get a move on that issue.

After that there were a few questions about Harry's origins, but most of them dealt with the war he had been involved in, which Harry covered like the veteran he was, imbedding in the watching populace's mind that here was a soldier who had seen things no one should ever see, yet had come through it with his morals and his mind largely intact. Above everything else, Harry came off as, well, human. Much like his neighbors were discovering about Thor, despite his otherworldly origins, Harry wasn't arrogant, or felt he was perfect or anything like that. He was simply personable, in a way politicians tried to pull off yet failed at miserably.

Eventually the question and answer session wound down, each reporter taking more time to think up their questions. This group of reporters was comprised of some of the more intelligent of the breed, and knew not to try and reword questions or try and finagle more information out of Harry than he was willing to give, especially given the fact they were only here on sufferance, and the fact he had dropped several bombshells already.

As they were winding down, one of the last reporters asked. "Does your background in your home dimensions have any connection to your pro-mutant hiring policies and views?"

"I have lots of reasons for that policy." Harry said with a faint smile. First, I think it's rather stupid to arbitrarily equate having odd powers with not being truly human, the whole Homo Sapien Homo Superior thing is idiotic in the extreme. In fact, I thought I'd be asked this question and brought along a few visual aids."

He reached into his bag which had been laying against his chair, and pulled out three pictures on cardboard when folded out became about 2 feet long each. He set them up on the table, and asked "Do you know what this is Sir?

The reporter nodded wondering where this was going. "Those look like DNA strands."

"That is exactly what they are." In fact they were a copy of Sir Dennis, a normal humans, an apes, and Storm's. She had volunteered after Harry had explained what he was going to use it for. "Now can you tell me which of these is human, which is that of an ape, and which is a mutant?"

That threw the man, because at first glance all of them seemed alike. "Can anyone?" Harry asked.

He waited a few moments and finally one of the reporters volunteered an answer, "That one in the middle I think?"

"Now should that count as one of your questions," Harry said laughing and the woman gaped at for a moment before chuckling. Harry replied, "In fact no it isn't. You're correct that that one seems the base model as it were of the other two, but that is the image of an ape's DNA. Humans are basically an offshoot of apes, this has been scientifically proven."

"And there is even less difference between normal human and 'mutant'. It just seems horribly arbitrary to me to have someone come around and say all guess this group he said pointing at the normal DNA and this group are separate species. There's no real easy definition of species, but two different species are largely seen as such if they can't interbreed. Since mutants and humans can interbreed, or else where would mutants be coming from, I fail to see that 'mutants and humans' are two separate species."

"You're defending them so ferociously Mr. Potter, even going so far as to link your company's profits to their civil rights, are you perchance a mutant too?" One reporter asked before Harry could go on.

Harry paused for a moment, cocking his head to one side, a faint smile on his face. "Could you tell if I was by looking at me?" He shook his head grimly. "Face facts gentlemen, if I am none of you could tell. And really, when the smob goes looking mutants who do they find? Those with physical deformities, the ones who look different than what is called 'normal', many of whom are defenseless. A young boy was killed months back in Idaho for the crime of having bug eyes, that's all, nothing else, no powers no nothing, simply a physical deformity, just like any autistic or physically deformed child. Nor is he the only one to have died in America alone because of such."

"Would you cheer if a child with cancer or a cleft tongue was butchered by a mob, or would you stand up and shout no this is not right!?" Harry's voice had become passionate with those last words, and he took a moment to calm down before continuing. "It is those mutants, those whose mutations don't give any kind of power or skill that are the targets of the hate groups like the Friends of Humanity. And I will do all I can to force the world to see the sophistry of preying upon such poor souls."

"I am not trying to apologize for those mutants who use their powers for their own gain, like that incident in France recently. I don't think that mutant powers give mutants any special right to look down on non-mutants. It is simply that they were born with gifts, which they need to be trained in using so they can learn to not define themselves by those powers alone. To think their powers make them better than non-mutants make those mutants who follow such ideology no better than the hate groups on the other side."

Harry went on quickly before anyone else could question him on that point. "Yet there is far more to my loathing of the anti-mutant movement and the mutant superiority movement than simply understanding how similar we are deep down or my intolerance of bigotry. The fact of the matter is, that there are a lot of other issues humanity should be dealing with right now rather than coming up with yet another reason to tear ourselves apart. Can you tell me sir, how many alien races the Fantastic Four have met?"

When the man who had questioned him couldn't' reply Harry waited a moment looking around at all the reporters. When no one answered he said simply, "Five or six depending on how you count the Mole Man and his forces. Now, while the Mole Man might have retreated and signed a nonaggression treaty with the Fantastic Four, and several of the other races aren't in the same dimension as this planet, the two most dangerous and expansionist of them are. The Kree and the Skrull have very different ways of doing business, as evidenced by the forces the FF has dealt with previously, which is their equivalent of human Special Forces operatives. Bloody Hell, I shouldn't have to tell any of you that considering that the battles against the Sentry and the most recent alien assault were in the news, yet despite that no one seems to be doing anything about it."

"What do you mean by that Sir?" asked one of the reporters.

"Well, there hasn't been any agreement in the United Nations yet to fund any kind of space based navy, defense system or even a space radar system to cover the Earth's orbitals or anything of that type, really. Why? The nations of the world are too set in their ways, too used to looking at one another as enemies rather than seeing that humanity is all on its own here on this small fragile marble that we call home. I've looked at the reports about those threats that the Fantastic Four shared with the American government, which they urged the American government to share with the UN. I've also seen Reed Richard's estimates of the size of the empires of those races, and I've talked to the Fantastic Four about those threats and what's the Kree and the Skrull think of humanity.

Harry's voice lowered in timbre as he looked out around at the reporters, then stared into the camera that was currently trained on him. "The Kree think of us as nothing more than animals. If Earth was any closer to where the Fantastic Four estimate their empire to be, they would've already wiped us out as simply as a human would spray his garden for bugs. As it is, they just don't wish to devote resources to it yet."

"As for the Skrull, the Fantastic Four's reports on them were actually somewhat more in-depth. Apparently the representatives of their Special Forces units liked to talk much more than the Kree Sentry. The Skrull think of humanity the same way old time slavers thought of their victims. We're useful, but the very idea of us having rights, of human life being important in any way to them is laughable."

He let that sink in for a moment, letting the reporters there remember what they had seen of the Fantastic Four's battles in the past before going on in a very soft tone of voice. "Humanity is living on the sufferance and laziness of others."

"The only reason either race hasn't bombarded the earth back into the Stone Age is because they don't care enough just yet to put forth the effort. But after this last battle against something that looked remarkably similar to the first Sentry the Fantastic Four tangled with how long will that remain the case? How many Special Forces units can they lose before they decide to send in some of their regular navy? The fantastic Four couldn't stop a full fleet of spaceships, and they know it. Nor will talking with these aliens work. If it would, they would have opened up dialogue with us, rather than try to send in their Special Forces to see if Earth was worth conquering."

He leaned back slightly shaking his head. "That is why I lose the mutant human divide, why I loathe the idea of 'Homo Superior' and 'Homo Sapien' being two separate races. Not only does it seem an arbitrary and a rather ridiculous distinction, but I feel we have much bigger problems that we as a race need to tackle together. Not just America, not just Britain, not just the Fantastic Four doing their magnificent job of defending the planet, but all of us working together to make certain that we cannot simply be wiped out on a whim by other, more powerful races."

Amora stared at Harry for a moment, wondering if he thought the Asgardians were a similar threat. But since he hadn't named them among the threats she decided to take the fact that he had met an Asgardian before and didn't seem to hold any ill will towards them as a good sign. She looked over at the reporters, who were staring at Harry some of them with blank faces, some of them aghast. It was as if no one had really set out the reality of humanity's position in terms of alien races before. Or that they thought the Fantastic Four could deal with them regardless. Even Paris looked shocked and thoughtful. She wondered if this would be a wake-up call for America and the world in general

But Harry, despite wishing to take the chance on putting it out there, knew it wouldn't be. The bureaucracies of NASA and its equivalent in other countries were too entrenched, space exploration cost too much money, and all governments were much better at ignoring long term problems rather than dealing with them. As for the rest of what Harry said, that might go over slightly better with those who were willing to think, but if that would be the majority of the populace Harry didn't know.

Amora looked over at the stage director who nodded his head rapidly, one hand waving to indicate she needed to wrap it up. "Well that wasn't precisely a high note to end on folks, but I am afraid we are out of time. Thank you for joining us Mr. Potter, I think you've definitely given both us and our viewers a lot of food for thought. Till next time this is Amora Incantare, wishing you all a good evening."

OOOOOOO

From where he was watching the news broadcast in the helacarrier, Fury groaned, wondering what the hell this public demand for action was going to do, and cursing Potter vociferously for trying to change the status quo like that. Elsewhere the helacarrier however, Carol Danvers rubbed her face, then nodded determinately, and turned back to her computer.

OOOOOOO

"The initial public response to the first interview is positive, the government's not so much." Emma was saying into her phone the next day. The phone in question was one of six that Reed Richards had made and distributed to Harry and his own team. They were far beyond anything else on the open market, and their signals were also untraceable by any technological means.

"In fact I am sensing a distinct lack of government enthusiasm, though I am uncertain where all of it is coming from because it is making for very strange bedfellows in some cases. I think some of it might be simply the bureaucratic response to your blatant challenge to not only the FDA's authority but the American government's competence as a whole, or something else. The Republicans might not like you because you're a foreign influence, the Democrats because Magical Minds is a natural monopoly, and both might not like you because you're using your influence to push your own private agenda while not even making a nod in the direction of playing the game as they see it." Emma explained.

"I really don't care so much about the government's approval one way or another." Harry's voice replied from the other end. He was back in Hogwarts with the team right now, taking a break between controlling the 'enemy defenders' for them on another ship assault.

Jean was finalizing the plans for the Ravens he had started, but the two of them had run into an impasse with the Ravenspires: there was a major difference between simply hollowing out an asteroid and designing it's interior so that it becomes an orbital fortress complete with everything it needs. Jean was good, very good at reverse engineering or coming up with new designs for weapons or simple, single-purpose items, but there was so much to be considered when designing a space fortress, above and beyond the obvious, that she didn't know where to start.

"We need to get the American public on our side." Harry said, voicing a portion of the solution to that item. "America is the only nation that has both the industry and the knowhow to build large scale military ships. China doesn't, nor would I wish to do business with them at present in any way, the Russians have major bloody quality-control issues, and while they make a decent sub, that's it. I don't trust anything that they send up rather than down.. Britain's got the know-how, but their shipbuilding sector is fully utilized in keeping its own fleet supplied. I need access to those designers, those systems experts, one way or another, and if we can get the American public on my side now regardless of the government, maybe I can do so openly in the future when we go public with my space-based needs."

"That's months in the future if that, but we made a good start." Emma replied. "You'll probably have to do a follow up interview at some point, especially if you buy American based industries, but for now, I think we're good to go. Remember though that Shaw and I are almost ready to move on Pierce, and we should bring you into the New York branch soon."

Harry had been duly inducted as king of the London Branch a few days after his company had gone public with their medicines. Since then he had only rarely shown up there, busy with everything else he was doing, but the rank was real. "Hmm… I thought you wanted me to get to know Buckman and Shaw one on one before showing up?"

"Buckman is a possibility, though he is being incredibly hard to nail down at the moment. I, I'm getting really worried about that. I think whatever this Sentinel Program is, it's nearing completion." Emma said, her voice much less certain and far more worried than she would ever allow it to be in public. "Shaw is not going to have time to meet you in a social setting until Pierce is dealt with, unless you wish to walk into his den as it were, and meet him on one of his own properties."

"Got it, how about this coming weekend?" It was Monday, though Harry and his ladies frequently forgot the actual day, since their lives were dominated by jobs that did not conform to the five day 9-5 mold.

"Perfect, that will give me some time to get to know my newest bodyguard, thank you for the stack of one shot arrays, I hope they will work as advertised. And I might have an idea about how to get more information about the Sentinel program, though I wish to talk to Xavier about it, so if you could set up a meeting with him, that might be a good idea. Other than that, we're about to pull up to the prison's wharf, so I've got to go."

Harry chuckled. "Trust me, it'll work. If Sandman tries to turn on you, those throw-away arrays will work to at least limit his ability to attack you. I'll talk to you later."

Emma hung up the phone and smiled grimly, getting out of the limo. This had taken far too long, and she knew she might have made an enemy in Oscorp for some reason, but that was for later. About an hour later, after having to deal with the smarmy chief warden Emma was led once more into the special area reserved for the Sandman. "Well, Mr. Baker, while it has taken far longer than I would have liked…"

OOOOOOO

Emma's words proved prophetic. Several hours later she was walking the Sandman through the mansion while laying down the rules of his parole and introducing him to his fellow security guards. Emma also made certain that he knew where not to go i.e. the fourth floor where she and Cordelia had their rooms. After coming back to the security center and introducing her security chief, Emma received a call from Shaw on her home phone.

"It's starting," he said coldly, "I've already begun to move against Pierce's holdings, and myself and the Hellions will be moving against Pierce soon. I want him panicking and running, he'll bolt for one of his South-American holdings, and we'll hit him then."

"We?" Exactly what do you mean by 'we'?" Asked Emma, holding up a hand to Baker and her security chief, both of whom paused in their conversation to watch Emma walk out of the room, talking into the phone a maid had given her.

The security chief hadn't initially been a fan of bringing the former supervillain in, but upon reading his background, he mellowed somewhat having come from a similar one himself. If he hadn't lied about his age to get into the army, he might have well ended up very much like Sandman did, minus the powers of course. He was all for giving the man a second chance, but that wouldn't stop him from watching Baker very closely.

"I want you on site nearby when Pierce starts moving. Break into his mind, that'll panic him even more and let us be certain that we've found all his hidden caches of cash and resources after." Shaw replied.

"It might also make him look around for where such an attack could be coming from. A startled beast is a dangerous one." Emma retorted.

"How close do you have to be then?" Shaw asked, his voice bland.

Emma smiled to herself, shaking her head at the blatant attempt to dig for information. She could actually use her powers from miles away, so long as she knew the specific mental signature she was looking for. But she wasn't about to share that with Shaw. "A few blocks is the best I could manage, and I am not willing to bet against Pierce being paranoid enough to have protections or defenses hidden around his property rather than on it. Besides, why do you think he'll start running immediately? That makes no sense if you're opening up with corporate attacks."

"That supposes that the corporate attacks are the normal sort." Shaw said smiling grimly. "I have in fact pointed out to the government at some of his work in cybernetics, which break several dozen medical practice laws, excluding several dozen other areas where he's played fast and loose with the law, and a surprising connection to a certain crime syndicate."

At that Emma winced slightly, seeing that as the example of a pot and a kettle.

Shaw of course couldn't hear Emma's inner thoughts, and had continued speaking. "…And certain agencies will be raiding many of his holdings within the next hour nationwide. There is also a call out to the Air Force to make certain that his personal plane does not leave American airspace."

Let that be a lesson to you Emma, the blonde thought to herself. Shaw has connections, just like Buckman. And he's telling you this so you know what he can do to you in the future if necessary. Of course, my holdings aren't nearly as open to that kind of assault as Pierce, not with his cybernetic experiments and extra-legal business deals with the Magia. But planted evidence is something to watch out for in the future.

"Isn't that too precipitous?" she said aloud. "I thought that the plan was to slowly scare him into running, while removing all of his bolt holes one after another before he decided to."

"Pierce doesn't actually have that many bolt holes, hidden supply caches and offshore accounts yes, but not actual hiding places. He apparently had an agreement with Hammer Industries to give him shelter, but the agreement was that he had to get to them in Mexico. With my own forces watching for movement in that direction plus with the Air Force alerted, he's unlikely to get away."

Emma rolled her eyes certain that if she had been in Pierce's place that she could. But she wasn't Pierce, and a sudden thought occurred to her. "I think…" she said suddenly, "I think we are working under a false assumption here."

"What?" Sebastian said, his previous tone of smugness disappearing for a moment hearing the worry in Emma's voice. "What kind of assumption are we making?"

"I think that we're forgetting something very important, Pierce isn't what anyone would call sane. He can act sane, but he's underneath that act he's a fanatical ideologue with a helping of psychopath. What would a a psychopath do who suddenly realizes he's under attack? He's not going to run, he's going to lash out." She frowned as she considered it. "The question then becomes, who is he going to lash out at? Is there any chance that he is aware that you're a mutant or can trace this governmental attack back to you?"

Shaw was silent for a moment. "While his intelligence agency isn't nearly as good as my own, I believe he might be able to trace some of the assaults on him back in my direction. Not the federal government's involvement, but possibly enough, and… I will admit the timing will look rather suspicious. And he might well know I am a mutant, though not my specific powers."

"Then I suggest you do what you can to defend yourself, or at least remove yourself to a position of strength. I will bunker down here." Besides being a psychopath Pierce was a misogynist, and he had been harboring a growing hatred for Emma and her business acumen for weeks now.

With that she hung up the phone, and moved back into the command room to talk to her head of security and newest recruit, while at the same time opening up her mental link to Jean. Normally it would be difficult for Emma to open a link across such a distance, but between the two of them it was as easy as if Jean was standing right next to her. "Jean, tell Harry that Shaw's moving against Pierce now, and I think we might run into a bit of a problem. Is there any way you or one of the others could stop by here?"

Carrying on two conversations was difficult, but she managed to do so, and convey to her head of security and Sandman that they might be facing an actual assault on the mansion soon. Emma even came up with reasons that the two men took at face value: that Pierce was harboring a secret lust for her, and might now that he had been pushed into a corner because of federal investigations into his companies and he might decide to lash out. She even shared a psych profile of the man, which was the final bit of evidence both men needed to realize how serious she was about this. She then told them that in the event of an attack she would pay them a month's wages for that day's work.

Forty minutes later, Vanguard, Ghigau, and the Cherokee arrived on the scene. Not having a way to explain their presence, Emma asked them to set up on her mansion's roof. She also asked them to only fire if the battles entered her property and they could hide it in some manner.

Jean arrived with them, and stayed with Emma in her room just in case. Ororo was busy with the new teachers and couldn't get away. Harry however had another job to do.

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere, Sebastian had taken Emma's warning to heart, and had informed Domino to get the Hellions ready for anything. He'd also turned the security of his mansion on high, something he would never normally do since his defenses were much more proactive at that level then was remotely legal. Even with his mansion being literally dozens of miles from anyone else, it might bring official anger down on his head.

But this was a special case. Small camouflaged alcoves opened up everywhere around his property, which was dominated by a natural seeming forest and a hedge maze in the back. Large, Gatling guns, main battle tank cannons, multi-shot lasers, the weapons were varied and eclectic. Swiftly they powered up and began to scan for intruders, their barrels sweeping this way and that.

Ten minutes later the Hellions had gathered on the first floor in the main hall of the mansion, which was much like Emma's. There Sebastian informed them of what he knew, which was scant little, and then what he fondly thought was a pep talk. "I have no idea of what the cyborg's capabilities might be, or what kind of numbers Pierce can call upon, but if he attacks us here I expect us to be ready."

He said, calmly stripping out of his shirt to reveal a hairy muscled chest with wide shoulders denoting the heavy exercises he routinely did. Without his shirt Sebastian Shaw looked much more like what he really was underneath his urbane air and business acumen: a brawler. "Domino, if you were attacking my mansion which way would you come from?"

"It would depend on my knowledge of your security and my own force's capabilities." Domino replied promptly, not even looking up from where she was busy recalibrating the sight on her rifle. "And if I cared about leaving witnesses behind. What are our basic assumptions here? What would his objectives be, and are we assuming that he's gone full on rabid on us, or is he still able to think?"

Shaw paused, thinking. Regardless of anything else most of Pierce's holdings and Pierce himself are going to be wanted for questioning by the federal government. That can't be stopped now, and my electronic assaults have badly eroded his monetary assets, including his overseas bank accounts. If he can get away at all, he'd probably be heading to one of the countries which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States, so I doubt he'd care much about breaking US law at this point or further evidence of said against him at least. And if Frost's right…

"Assume that he doesn't care about witnesses, and that he is primarily attacking to kill me for my part in the current debacle. It's not a stretch to assume that everything that's happening to him now is caused by me after all, he certainly knows at least a few of the electronic and corporate assaults are." Sebastion scowled irritably. He had thought that Pierce would act like a businessman or a crime lord and bolt if he was pressured from all sides like this. But he won't act rationally, Frost's right, we ignored the fact he's a fanatic. Now Pierce is a beast looking to lash out.

Twenty minutes later alarms began to blare, and Shaw moved over to a monitor in the nearby wall. On it a camera set into his properties outer wall showed what had prompted the alarm. Twelve giant dogs all much larger than they should be in real life almost as large as brown bears really, had just broken through the outer wall as if the stone was so much cardboard.

As Shaw watched the automated gun emplacements opened up on them but the dogs survived the fire and kept coming. A dog that looked somewhat like a Doberman raced to one side, its eyes locked on a Gatling gun. Its eyes glowed and then beams of laser fire fired from them, slicing into the Gatling gun. A small panel on another dog's front shoulder opened, revealing a small rocket launcher. The rocket sailed straight ahead, slamming into another gun emplacement, blowing it into flinders.

The dogs soon cleared the hole, and then Donald Pierce entered his normal, somewhat controlled expression in abeyance as he glared around him. Next to him stood a black haired man of similar age and body type, who had two small machine guns in either hand.

A third man rolled in on small tank treads, his lower body disappearing into them, or perhaps he no longer had legs. Given Pierce and his people were cyborgs, Shaw knew that was possible. In one arm he held a large caliber machine gun, and his other hand held what looked like a large shotgun, though there also seemed to be other weapons set into the tank portion of his body.

Two more men followed him. They were large bruiser types that almost looked like rip-offs of the Bruisers that Shaw had designed and added to his own security force and the Hellions. Seeing them he cursed volubly. "It would appear as if Pierce knew more about my own doings than I had thought."

Domino had come over to study the video with him, and frowned. "I wish we had built up the number of security guards again sir. I'm confident about my team, but this is going to be tough." Sebastian had not yet built up the numbers he had lost when he sent the Hellions and the rest of his forces in to see if they could subvert Paige and Sam Guthrie.

Of course there had always been men in his companies' normal security teams willing to sign up for 'training'. But he couldn't make those men disappear or get reassigned immediately after such training in large groups without gossip doing it's horrible work and the security teams becoming leery of such or worse, individuals going to the authorities themselves. He'd had to liquidate a few men before they could go to the police about missing friends already, but such things were messy and best to be avoided.

"Fight them in the mansion or out on the grounds?" Sebastian asked looking over at Domino.

By this point the dogs had raced on, and now several more were coming in after them sixteen dogs in all. "Outside, use the guns to back us up." Domino said nodding her head sharply over to a green haired woman and two Southern American men, one of whom was Jetstream.

"Sunspot, Polaris, Jetstream, take to the sky, start hitting the dogs as they move away from the humans. See if you can draw their fire but don't try to take on the humans themselves until we know what their abilities are."

All three nodded and moved off. Jetstream looked particularly excited. He had been convalescing ever since the Guthrie debacle, so this was going to be one of the first times he could really spread his wings as it were. His body had been almost entirely rebuilt, and he was possibly as much of a cyborg as Pierce's people were reported to be, but that and his mutant ability of creating thermo-kinetic energy still allowed him to fly.

As the trio left Domino murmured to Shaw. "If the five humans are as tough as those dogs seem to be, that's fine, we can handle that. If they have any more tricks up their sleeves, then it will get nastier."

"Agreed, but there's nothing we can do about it now." He replied, in an unruffled calm.

Outside Sunspot, better known as Roberto DaCosta, summoned up his powers. His entire body turned yellow black with gathered solar energy then he shot into the air above the mansion. It was pushing evening now, but they still had a few hours of sunlight.

Beside him Polaris flew up, her green hair flying in the wind as she used her magnetic powers to polarize herself in relation to the rest of the world. She was already attacking the dogs down below, ripping out the pieces of destroyed gun emplacements and throwing them at the dogs at almost supersonic speeds. The makeshift buckshot tore into two of the dogs, ripping them into bits and pieces of wire and flesh which she then hurled against two more, but those dogs dodged.

Polaris then held up a hand almost contemptuously, stopping a rain of bullets coming at her. She flung them back at the man with the two machine guns who yelped and dodged to one side. "Mutant bitch! Looks like you were right Pierce!"

"If he's employing muties as security Shaw's probably one too." Pierce replied grimly, holding up a finger towards Polaris. His nail suddenly fired off, and Polaris gaped for a moment as it zoomed through her protective field several feet in front of her before dodging at the last moment, taking a small gash from it along her side. She gritted her teeth, but she had been training with the team for long enough that she was able to handle the pain.

"Hunters!" shouted Pierce suddenly even as he dodged a blast from Sunspot. "Concentrate on the land defenses, Pretty Boy, Bonebreaker and I will handle those three." Then he went on, in a lower tone that the pickup didn't catch. "Pretty Boy do your thing but keep up your anti-air fire all the same."

The two Bruiser types behind him and Pretty Boy both nodded, racing forward with the dogs as they did their hands seemingly changed shape, not like Random's or like that of a mutant shape changer, but their skin parted to reveal robotic parts underneath, which shifted and changed. When they stopped, they had coalesced into what looked like two large laser cannons, which the men turned on the gun emplacements all around them.

Domino held the rest of the team back, allowing the defensive emplacements to soften up the enemy, forcing them to come to her while at the same time giving her a good idea of their abilities. This didn't stop Domino however from taking potshots down range with her sniper rifle, one of which impacted on Pierce's shoulder, making him stumble to one side, blocking Pretty Boy's fire. Bonebreaker had already turned away to fire at Sunspot and was out of position to cover his fellows.

Seeing this opportunity and eager to regain some team cred after having been manhandled by the hillbilly, Jetstream raced in. His guns blazed at Pierce, eager to finish him off.

Pierce however simply took the damage and calmly got up, then one hand lashed out changing as it moved through the air, elongating to nearly fifty yards long. It looked to be made of liquid metal changing into tentacles reaching out for Jetstream. Before the rash youth could get out of range Pierce had him in his metallic grip pulling him down to the ground and then dragging him closer like a landed fish.

Once he was close, Pierce laughed, putting his foot on Jetstream's head. "This is how all mutants will end! Oh, and don't bother bitch!" He shouted up at Polaris. "Whatever you're trying to do to my body won't work, I have a field that reverses the polarity of all the metal in my body every millisecond! Your merely human brain can't keep up!"

That had initially been designed to allow him to go after Magneto, which he knew he would eventually. "Just keep on flying up there babe, you're next!"

Polaris kept on trying to gain control of the metal parts that made up Pierces body, but she didn't have any luck and she screamed in horror as he crushed Jetstream's head under his boot. "No!"

Then she was forced to dodge as the one Pierce called Pretty Boy moved away from Pierce, turning his machine guns on her again, only this time when she tried to control the bullets they didn't stop. "Rubber bullets!" she growled. "Damn it, they came prepared!"

Nearby Sunspot also couldn't come to her aid because of the amount of antiair fire that Bonebreaker was throwing up. The heat-seeking rockets were especially troublesome. He zoomed down low, then quickly jetted upwards again causing the missiles to impact on the ground, blowing large holes in the landscape.

However as he ascended once again he was caught in the side by another blast from Bonebreaker. This one however wasn't a physical assault that his solar power could burn to nothing or divert.

Instead it was a sonic attack, and it completely ignored his solar-given strength and durability. "GAHHH!" Sunspot lost all of his ability to focus on flying and slammed back into the ground like a wayward missile.

"Plucked that bird's wing!" said the half-tank cyborg laughing wildly. "That's the way to deal with the freaks!" The fact that this was being said by a man whose lower body had been replaced by tank treads f was highly ironic, or would have been if any of the fighters had time to comment on it.

Seeing another teammate go down Domino ordered the team in rather than wait any longer, even Shaw joined in, rushing out to engage the attackers. All of them were armed with various weapons, and their firepower caused Bonebreaker to turn away from the downed Sunspot for now.

Havok, or Alex to his friends, had been recruited almost immediately after returning home to the islands after the whole Magneto thing, though he couldn't remember anything about the X-men thanks to Xavier hiding their identities from his mind. Initially he had joined the Hellions because of Empath's messing with his mind, and over the next few weeks Empath had done so much permanent damage to his mind that Havok now fully believed in Shaw's cause.

He had also formed a close relationship with Polaris. Now Alex was the first to race forward, his hands glowing with energy as he brought them forward firing concussive blasts of force down range at the invaders. One such blast caught one of the cyber-dogs, hitting it with such force that it actually came apart as it flew backwards. The other caught Pretty Boy, but didn't do as much damage to him, only throwing him backwards. He was up soon returning fire with his machine guns forcing Havok to dodge.

Domino had gone to rapid fire on her rifle, and was now belting out bullets as she charged, trying to get Bonebreaker's attention away from the downed Sunspot enough to for him to get his feet under him. "Richter! Do your thing!"

She was speaking of another young man who had joined the team thanks to Empath's ability to mess up his mind much like Sunspot and Havok. Richter had the ability to create localized earthquakes as his codename suggested, and used that ability now. The ground began to quake under several of that attack dogs as they raced forward to battle the newcomers, allowing Shaw and the others to bypass them.

Shaw personally made for Pierce. "You seem to like it crushing heads Pierce, a pastime that I enjoy as well! Let's see how you like it from the other side!"

The cyborg leader laughed, moving toward him. He threw the first punch, his arm lengthening to slam into Shaw's jaw, but Shaw merely moved his head slightly, grabbing Pierce's head and pulling him in close throwing out a punch that caved in Pierce's jaw sending bone, teeth, and some metal bits flying. "That's how you punch, you half-metal atrocity!"

Nearby, Domino's fire had allowed Random to close the range but he was being held back by several of the dogs moving around him. However, Pretty Boy hadn't been concentrating on the physical fight, he had been concentrating on the digital. One of his special skills was the ability to wirelessly invade any local network and take it over. He had been working on gaining control of the local security grid since Pierce had ordered him to start, and had finally won through.

Suddenly all the remaining gun turrets around the combatants turned their fire on the Hellions. Richter went down his head missing from a Gatling round, and Catseye, who had been trying to get close enough to jump on Bonebreaker, lost her hand, going down with a scream.

"No, not again!" Polaris shouted, grabbing all of the gun turrets around the Hellions and ripping them out with her magnetic powers showing strength that she hadn't exhibited in the team exercises then hurling it at the many of the remaining dogs. But the effort took it out of her forcing Polaris to land, gasping for breath.

With the ground no longer quaking under their feet, the attack dogs raced forward, trying to get at the most dangerous target, which was Polaris after that show. Havok however raced to her aid, destroying two dogs with energy blasts before standing over her protectively, lashing out and destroying nearly all of them.

By this point Sunspot had regained his feet, and was engaging in a brutal long-range duel with Bonebreaker, who had a force field that kept Sunspot's solar blasts from reaching him. Sunspot however was pressing him so hard that he had diverted nearly all of his internal power to that shield. He was so busy doing so however he didn't dodge when one of the attack dogs attacked him from behind. Sunspot was forced to turn and engage the animal in hand-to-hand, bringing up his arm to block the beast from taking him in the throat. Gripping the animal's muzzle Sunspot used his solar power enhanced strength to rip the beast jaw and the rest of its body in two.

That however had taken his attention away from blasting Bonebreaker, who took advantage quickly, nailing him in the back with the missile. "Got you mutie!"

"ARGH!" Sunspot went down with a cry. However, Bonebreaker didn't have any time to gloat. Domino was on him, her knife flashing, catching him in the eye as her empty rifle dropped to the ground. He yelled angrily, not in pain, just anger and tried to grapple with her, but she leaped away, rolling in the dirt and coming up next to Sunspot who she grabbed and hustled into cover.

The reason for this became apparent when Bonebreaker looked down at himself, having feeling felt something on his chest. When he looked down, he saw that Domino had placed at least four hands worth of C-4 against his chest, and at a little bit of circuitry was blinking at him as he looked down at it. "Well fu-!"

That was far as he got before Domino hit the detonator. "BOOOM!" Bonebreaker and quite a bit of the ground around him went up in a massive explosion.

Nearby Pretty Boy and Random were fighting each other on equal footing, their ability to change their forms negating one another's advantages. However Random was slowly winning, pulling off any bit of Pretty Boy that he could, slowly taking his ability to change forms away. He was still super-strong, and Random had taken more than a few broken bones, but in close he was winning this fight.

Meanwhile Havok and Polaris had rejoined the battle, and had taken out the two bruisers. They didn't they have the liquid metal kind of ability as Pretty Boy and Pierce it seemed, nor the basic intelligence to dodge.

Pretty Boy got Random down on the ground with a sudden over the shoulder toss and raised one hand, quickly changing it into a heavy blade. He was about to bring it down, when Domino shot him in the back of the head with a holdout pistol. He staggered forward, but was about to finish his downward thrust when Havok's energy blast slammed into his body throwing him away from Random.

He even tried to get to his feet from that, but Random and Havok both began to blast him with both barrels, Random's arms changing into the triple barrel cannons that he had used during the Guthrie debacle to slam bioenergy at the cyborg. After a few moments they halted their fire. "Did we get him?" Havok asked.

What was left of Pretty Boy wasn't pretty at all, all of his skin and flesh had been blown off by their blasts, leaving only a bare skeleton of metal. Even that had been broken and smashed, yet something inside it was still propelling it forward.

"Oh hell no!" Polaris reached forward with her hands, her magnetic powers gripping the metal monstrosity, and gestured violently to both sides with her clenched hands, turning the remains of the cyborg into so many bits and pieces throwing them every which way.

Polaris huffed, going to her knees once more. "They're much easier to deal with after you destroy whatever anti-magnetic field they created!" she murmured, staring around the battlefield much of which was littered from the destruction that she had caused.

She turned to look up at Havok who had raced back over to her. "Havok, honey, I'ma gonna take a nap now…" And with that she collapsed sideways, her exertions having pushed beyond what she could endure.

Kneeling down, Havok checked frantically for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when he found it. With that taken care of, he looked over to where Pierce and Shaw were going at it hammer and tongs.

Neither man was giving an inch, but Shaw was clearly winning. His mutant ability was to take and absorb any impact on his body and use it to power his physical strength and his ability to heal. Pierce didn't have anything in his repertoire that could damage him, except for sonic-based assaults, which apparently had only been fitted to Bonebreaker.

Pierce had durability, super strength, and the ability to heal himself cybernetically going for him, but eventually that was simply too little against Shaw. Realizing this, and seeing all of his men and dogs down he tried to disengage, but Shaw had a grip on his shoulder.

"Oh no you don't!" Shaw growled, slamming him to the ground. "You don't get to run now that you've tried this, it was ante up time, and I'm afraid you lost this hand!" Pierce tried to kick out, but Shaw merely grunted, and then his own fist came down, punching into and through Pierce's body to dig deep into the ground. He pulled it out, and sparks and various fluids came with it, gushing out of the giant hole that Shaw had created in his chest.

Even so Peirce was still alive, and Shaw watched in amazement as he tried to crawl away. "Oh well." he shrugged. "If that doesn't kill you…"

With that Shaw reached down with both hands grabbing Shaw's head. "I did say I would crush your head Pierce." Without further ceremony Sebastian crushed Donald Pierce's head between his two hands before wrenching the remains of his skull off Pierce's body.

Sebastian held it up in one hand for a moment looking at the mangled twisted and above all crushed bits of metal and flesh that had been Donald Pierce, bishop of the Hellfire Club, smiling thinly. After a moment he looked over at Domino. "The Hellions?"

"Catseye is missing a hand, Richter and Jetstream are both dead, Sunspot needs immediate medical attention, Random and Polaris are both exhausted and rather battered in Random's case, Havok took a bullet to the side but his body armor protected him though he probably cracked a few ribs, and he took a bite in the leg from one of the cyber-dogs."

She gestured over to where Random was already carrying Sunspot back into the mansion. The other three were also moving in that direction, with Havok and Catseye supporting Polaris' comatose form. Domino looked back at Shaw, shaking her head. "That trick Pretty Boy did taking over the controls of the defensive guns nearly was the turning point. If it wasn't for Polaris the body count would be a lot worse."

Shaw nodded, then reached down to pick up the remains of Donald Pierce. "We'll have to figure out some other way of recruiting new members, but for now, I believe we've done enough for one day."

"You don't want to send me over to the Frost place to help her? Frost's espionage activities were able to find that there were four main cyborgs, and judging by the cyborg dogs and those two bruisers, he might have had even more that we weren't able to discover."

"That's her problem." Shaw replied coolly, continuing on his way towards the mansion with Domino keeping pace beside him. "It will serve as an interesting test of her capabilities. While she might be an ally now and one that served us well here, in the long run she is simply another problem to be dealt with."

In the sky above, Harry Potter frowned angrily, his invisibility cloak making him undetectable by any means Shaw had access to. Emma's agents had paid in blood to discover where Shaw's mansion was, but they had found it, and Harry had quickly flown down from High Note to watch the battle. Now, he began to gesture, magic crackling from his fingers as he stared down at Shaw. He knew that Emma wanted to wait before moving against Sebastian for many good strategic reasons, but it would be so simple, and it would remove a major issue in the long run…

Harry's rather violent thoughts were interrupted by a telepathic call for help from Emma. The instant he removed a corner of the invisibility cloak covering his mind, her voice hammered into his brain with all the force of a pickup truck. "Harry, my sister's missing, something's happened, I know it! Find her, please!"

For just a second the seriousness of that plea didn't register, then he sighed, looking down at Shaw as he entered his mansion. "You were lucky this time old boy, but that won't last." With that he raced away, only stopping to grab up a stick on which he used the 'Point Me' spell. Then he flew in the direction it indicated, hoping that this was a false alarm.

It turned out it wasn't. Pierce had sent two bruisers to kidnap Cordelia who had gone to a water park with Angelica and her bodyguard that day, hoping to use them as leverage against Frost just in case. They had rammed their reinforced SUV into the limo the girls were using, knocking out Angelica and Cordelia in the crash. Harry arrived just in time to help Cordelia's bodyguard in secret, killing both cyborgs with quick Rifela spells to weak areas. The damage done by that spell looked like that of a gun, so he was able to leave the scene with no one the wiser.

OOOOOOO

Donald had decided to head the assault on Sebastian because he felt that Shaw deserved a personal touch, he had indeed discovered that some of the corporate attacks on him came from Shaw's company. That, and the fact that he had much more faith in Skulltaker as a leader than any of the other cyborgs. He was Donald's primary kidnapper/assassin, a former Navy seal sniper who had been crippled in a battle with a mutant he had met on the opposing side on a mission to the Middle East. It had been almost ludicrously easy for Donald to recruit him, and he had been Donald's most loyal and most deadly 'Reaver' ever since.

His team for this mission was not as large as the one Donald was leading against Shaw and was very different in its composition. There were only seven cyber-dogs, and four Bruisers, but they were very different from the combat types that Pierce had taken against Shaw. All of them had some offensive weapons, but most of their weapons were designed to neutralize or capture their opponents instead. Pierce wanted Emma alive, he didn't think she was involved with the attacks on him but he had long harbored a growing hatred for her, as Emma well knew.

There was also another specialized soldier with Skulltaker, one who Donald called the Cracker, which had been the prototype to the work done on Pretty Boy. It wasn't in fact a cyborg at all but a robot, and very look much looked the part. It stood only half the size of a normal human, with six long arms which it kept folded together as if they were a single arm each ending with different tools. It had a very simple task, to take out the mechanized or computerized defenses of the mansion.

It also had an active camouflage system. One moment it was a small child running around near the back of Emma's mansion, the next Cracker was next to the outer wall and over it, camouflaged as part of that wall so well that it fooled even the cameras covering that area. Once there, it unlimbered its arms, connected one to the outside of the camera from behind and got to work.

Inside the mansion the security team was on heightened alert and the chief of security was in the command room. So he was there to watch as all of the cameras suddenly went down. "What, the, get them…."

He couldn't even finish the sentence before everything else began to shut off as well. Nearby the security team's programmer was trying rapidly to figure out what was going on and shaking his head. "I don't know how they did it, but I've got at least a hundred maybe more viruses in the system cutting into everything. I can't keep control of it."

"Can they turn those guns on us?" The chief asked bluntly.

"Maybe." the other man returned, not even looking up from his work as he tried to out-program a robot that had been deliberately created to beat him in this game. "The only way we could stop that is by cutting their power, none of the gun emplacements have their own internal power source; they're fed solely from the generator here in the mansion."

"Do it." The man ordered, and the tech gratefully moved his hand over from the keyboard to slam it down onto a large red button. Seconds later all the lights in the mansion went out, and the security leader nodded grimly. "Let's get in position."

Outside the mansion Skulltaker nodded his head, waving his hand in the air and signaling his team forward. None of them were intelligent, but all of them had been programmed to follow nonverbal cues. Instead of breaking through the wall separating Emma's mansion from the surrounding properties they went over it quickly and silently, then moved through her backyard towards the mansion.

They were watched from afar by the three snipers. Harry actually wasn't there, Emma had verbally torn into him when he attempted to come by himself, almost ordering him to head to Shaw's mansion so they knew how the battle there went, saying that she did not need Harry to personally come riding to her rescue, and that there were other things that Harry could do that the team could not. It was best to let the team handle the tasks they could.

So the three snipers watched as the attackers moved through the mansion's ground. As soon as they moved out of the garden they came under fire from Emma's security team who had moved to engage them along the terrace leading up from the backyard to the pool and sitting area there. The banister there was steel covered with marble, so it made for a very good defense against most conventional weaponry.

However, these were not conventional forces. The cyber-dogs and Bruisers let loose with their weaponry, blowing apart the banister in places, killing or knocking unconscious several of the security guards before more than a few seconds had passed in the firefight. Surprisingly though they lost one of the Bruisers to what appeared like a lucky shot from a security man who had caught the cyborg in the eye.

Or at least it seemed that way to everyone involved down there. The truth was that Coyote had seen his chance, and nailed the cyborg in the head with one of his rifle rounds.

"Nice shot," Vanguard murmured over the team frequency.

"Fair." Coyote said, shrugging mildly as he moved over from the position he had previously been in. "I wish we could go to rapid fire though, the lads down there don't have the weapons to really tangle with these lads."

"We have to keep our involvement to a minimum." Ghigau sent, her voice irritated. "We can't afford to leave any evidence of a third party helping Emma. Doesn't make it any easier." That caused both the other snipers to nod in unison.

Below the few survivors of the firefight fell back while their fellows in the mansion began to open fire from the first and second story windows. The men back in the mansion were more heavily armed, with several SAWS and other crew served weapons. With them they pinned down nearly all of the attackers for several minutes, though several more died under return fire, and more than one of the teams in the mansion died as well.

"Now?" Ghigau asked.

"Now." Vanguard replied. Both snipers lined up their shots quickly. Below, the Bruisers reeled under several hits from the heavy weapons in the mansion, then suddenly it seemed as if their armor gave way in different portions. One's head suddenly imploded, a round having entered its mouth. The other's chest exploded outward along one side as something gave way, and its power reactor blew.

That left only one Bruiser along with seven dogs and Skulltaker. And Skulltaker was the main problem. Several dozen yards back from the battle a long barreled normal looking sniper rifle stuck out from behind a tree for only a second and there was a "FIZZ!" of a laser joining the general bedlam.

Right below Vanguard a SAW team on the second floor went silent. "черт (damn)…"

Thanks to his actually having intelligence Skulltaker had been using fire and maneuver to close with the mansion, shooting at the targets that showed themselves with an accuracy all three snipers respected. But he was keeping his head down letting the lower-level cyborgs take the battle to the mansion's security team, and he moved away from the battle now around the edge of the mansion. "Hunter five, one and six follow me."

"Should we go after him?" Coyote asked.

"Negative," Ghigau replied, making Vanguard cock an eyebrow in surprise. The last time he looked he had been given command of this mission, but… "Remember Sandman's still down there, I bet he can handle the cyborgs easily enough, the rest of the security team can't."

He and the dogs swiftly rounded the house instead of charging directly into the fire of the defenders, while Skulltaker was looking up at the roof. His system was telling him that some of the shots that had taken out his men were coming from up there, but none of his sensors could see anything. Not even infrared, thanks to Harry hitting the three snipers with the full package of his concealment spells: cooling, disillusion and Muffilatio charms on all of them.

Still, Skulltaker knew something was up there, so he was concentrating on figuring out what, even as the three dogs blasted their way into the mansion, ripping and tearing at the wall. He shook his head and entered the mansion after them, giving out orders. "Head up to the second floor, take the security team in the side while I find the primary target."

At that order the dogs had raced through what looked like a dining room towards the stairwell visible through the open doorway. Moments later however, they stepped onto what appeared at first like an indoor sand play area of some kind directly in front of the staircase leading up. That part at least had been correct from the plans of the mansion Pierce had downloaded for him, the sand however was a surprise, and very out of place…

Suddenly Skulltaker remembered a report Pierce's espionage team had passed on. About Frost wanting to rehabilitate… "Get Back!"

Before the cyber-dogs could respond to his command the sand came alive underneath them, grabbing the cyber-dogs with tendrils of sand that grabbed with astonishing strength. There was the shriek of twisted metal and the "Snap, pop and RIIIP!" of flesh and the cyber-dogs were all in pieces, flung here and there.

Skulltaker swiftly moved backwards, bringing up his rifle while Sandman coalesced out of the sand standing in front of the staircase leading up.

The other man shook his head while color appeared in the sand, giving the appearance of a plaid shirt and jeans. "You picked the wrong day to attack this mansion dude, even a day earlier would have been better. So sad." With that he raised his hand which elongated quickly, his fist becoming a mace, harder than granite.

Skulltaker dodged rapidly and one of his arms, composed of the same liquid metal as Donald and Pretty Boy changed into several dozen tentacles, all of them with sharp ends. He raked at the arms as they came near him while his rifle came up, blasting away at full auto now.

That rifle wasn't up to the ability of the rifles that Kitty and Jean had designed, but it was a decent enough laser. Sandman however simply faded in front of it, letting the blast pass through his body harmlessly, to cut into the stairwell. His arm became harder than granite, the blades of the tentacles simply pinging off it.

He grabbed Skulltaker's rifle with his other hand, which came up out of the wreckage and ruin of one of the Cyber-dog's to do so. Skulltaker tried to release his rifle, tried to transform that arm in the same manner as the other hand, but the sand was all over it, pulling him down and crushing the metal under its grip.

Skulltaker's eyes glowed, and laser beams shot out but even that couldn't stop Sandman from ripping his body apart. At the same time, he felt a mental intrusion, ripping and tearing at his mind, taking all the information it could, but then he felt nothing again.

As the cyborgs head separated from his body, joining the rest of the mangled wreckage around him Sandman stretched his arm tremendously up towards the top of the stairwell. He picked up a small transceiver, which ran on an internal battery, like all the other security men had been issued. "This is Sandman, I think we're done inside. How are you all doing outside?""

Up on the roof Nikolai turned to the other two snipers his head cocked to one side. "Well, that was rather anti-climactic. I wonder what Guardian found."

Emma nodded grimly where she was standing in her room with Jean as her security Chief issued an all clear. "Thank you chief. That bonus I mentioned, I'll triple it, I never expected an assault like this. Sandman, that goes for you too, you've already made me very happy that I got you out of jail."

Below Sandman smiled grimly thinking this job might well be his dream come true. Action like today, big checks, and no need to fight any costumed superheroes, yeah, he liked that idea.

"Inform me when you have the names of the dead, I'll also pay a year's wages to their next of kin if they have any, and for schooling for any children up to college level." Emma went on, shaking her head as she realized how many of her many men had died today.

Her security chief replied in the affirmative, sounding both angry yet pleased with her response. Angry that he had lost so many men and her thinking that money would make it better, but also pleased, because money really would help both his living men and the families of the dead.

After she finished talking to him, Emma nodded at Jean, then began to sift through the information Skulltaker had, which wasn't a lot, though some of it would be of use…

Emma paled suddenly as one memory of Skulltaker's came to the fore. She quickly raced out of her room with a surprised Jean following after her, heading down to where the servants had been ordered to remain in their rooms until the battle was over. She flung one door over and glared at the head butler. "Where's Cordelia and Angelica, and why the hell hasn't anyone noticed them missing?"

While the man babbled a response, his normal calm manner in abeyance with the sounds of battle still going on in the background, Emma castigated herself for not noticing her sister's absence then got a grip on herself. Time enough to beat myself up over it later, now I need to do something about it. With that thought, she telepathically reached out to the only one who might be able to help.

OOOOOOO

"Quite a lot." Harry replied to Nikolai repeating his question several hours later, as he looked around at the team where they all sat in the Room of Requirement on fluffy chairs, sofas and other comfortable furniture conjured just for this purpose. Emma wasn't there, having to deal with the fallout of the assault on her mansion, acting astonished, appalled and furious in turn with the police and the newsies. She had also, strangely enough, had to call Paris back, who had seen what happened on the news and had wanted to make certain her friend was all right. Emma was there in spirit however thanks to a telepathic link to Jean.

"First, is I can give us a bit of an update on the team makeup of the Hellions, and I'm not looking forward to discussing this with Scott." At everyone's odd looks he sighed. "It looks as if Alex was recruited to the Hellions. How that came to be I don't know, but he was there taking part in the battle."

Jean face-palmed, shaking her head. "Really? We warned him that something like that might happen, and he was still recruited?"

"I think Alex was recruited immediately after he went home after that whole Magneto thing frankly." Harry said shaking his head. "I thought Xavier was keeping an eye on him, but I guess not. Or, possibly more disturbing whoever recruited him might have somehow bypassed Charles' watch of him."

Later on, when Harry passed onto Charles and Scott what had occurred he would learn that the former was indeed the case. Alex and Scott were still exchanging e-mails, but nothing in the e-mails had hinted at anything occurring that was out of the ordinary other than him getting a new girlfriend. Charles had assumed that the two brothers keeping in contact was enough, and had not been keeping a mental eye on him.

Harry would lambast him but not all that much, since Charles had other things going on closer to home. None of them were infallible after all.

Behind Harry, the image being projected from the pensieve changed to show the woman called Polaris. "Alex, or Havok his call sign seems to be, and this girl with green hair, were the heavy hitters of the group, at least at first."

He waited as the others watched a replay of the battle, before Amara spoke up disconsolately. "Magnetic powers, this Havok seems to have energy projection powers, and that might be Roberto Dacosta, the second flier to go down I mean. It looks as if he was recruited as well."

Jean and Emma were conversing as they watched, and it was Emma who came up with the suggestion. "Emma thinks that Empath's ability to mess with people's minds could allow him to make permanent changes over time, so it's possible that the three newcomers aren't working with Shaw willingly, not really." Jean relayed.

"It's a possibility I suppose. Do you think Robert would have joined this group if he was in his normal frame of mind Amara?"

"I didn't know him that well!" The neo-Roman girl protested. "I know he was serious about his current girlfriend and playing soccer, that's about it. Oh, and she might not have been a mutant, not certain, I only ever met him once and didn't meet her at all. We might want to look into that somehow, if Roberto did leave her behind, that would be a certain sign he wasn't in his right mind."

Betsy nodded. "I can do that. A telepath might be able to find something out that other people would miss. Do you know the girlfriend's name? Or where his family would be?" Magma shook her head at the first question, then nodded and gave an address in Rio De Janeiro for the second, and the conversation went on."

About an hour later the team had finished the analysis of the fight Harry had seen, and Harry was summing up their plans there. "Capture if possible subdue if necessary and kill only as a last resort for Havok, the woman called Polaris, and Sunspot when we face them in the future. Domino, Shaw, Catseye and Random, should all be put down with extreme prejudice, as well as any new recruits they gather before we face them since they no longer have Empath around to muck up people's minds.

"I'm still concerned about the fact we don't know Shaw's actual power. Yes, he looks durable, he's got some kind of healing factor and he's super strong, but is that it? If he was strong enough at the beginning of the fight to punch all the way through Pierce as he did here why didn't he?" Piotr mused.

Harry shrugged. "He seemed to get stronger as the fight goes continued, but why that is I don't know."

"I thought it was part of the super villain code that they had to monologue about their powers at some point in every fight." Dani complained, causing a chuckle to go around the table. "I think however, that we've done enough analyzing. We're just spinning our wheels right now.

"Let's leave it for now, and come back to it when we're actually planning to move against this group."

Harry scowled a little. He had wanted to remove Shaw right then and there, with his team exhausted and out in the open it would have been the perfect time. But he'd been forced to leave to save Cordelia from being kidnapped, an act that Emma was incredibly thankful for.

And Harry's desire to remove Shaw might have been risky as well in many ways. For one thing, Shaw would appear to die because of Pierce that way, and would be lauded as a whistleblower and a hero. For another, it would leave Shaw's other backers out there. There were at least three more mutants working with Shaw elsewhere in America, excluding Harry Leyland who hadn't taken part in the battle.

With Shaw out of the way, there was no telling what they would do, or how they would act. Leland wasn't nearly as dangerous as Shaw, but Emma only knew the codenames of the others, and had lost several spies to gain even that. Those codenames were Sage, Lord Imperial, and Wolfman.

And possibly worse, the loss of Shaw would place Buckman as the most powerful of the inner circle of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club. That would give him all the resources of the club without anyone to offset his influence, a bad thing considering the club had its own private army at the command of the inner circle, let alone the espionage side of things. Even if Harry joined immediately, he would still be seen as a junior partner after that.

After a moment Harry sighed, snapping mental fingers at lost opportunities. "Yes, it's a good idea I suppose. Storm, run the team through two exercises against what we saw from the Hellions going from what I saw, after that you lot can hit the sack. I, alas, have to go and tell Scott about his brother." Needless to say, that conversation was not pleasant.

OOOOOOO

"…Pierce Holdings will now be held by the federal government as the investigation continues, despite the man himself having disappeared. The manhunt is on for Mr. Pierce, but with no clues as to his whereabouts, the police are not optimistic about running him to ground. Again, if you have seen a man matching the picture on my left, please contact…"

"An interesting show, I wonder what hole Pierce ducked into…" Said a gruff voice from a man whose face seemed to be carved from granite at present. In one hand he held a glass of bourbon which he waved at the younger man who was standing by the window staring out over an army training camp, while the other stroked his short, gray beard. "Still, how far will this set us back? Pierce striking out like that was not in our calculations, you've lost your richest backer."

"I'm not thrilled about it of course general." The younger man said shaking his head. Thunderbolt Ross had not been seen in public for a while, which of course fit his new persona non grata, but that didn't mean he had simply disappeared, nor had Col. Stryker. "But I believe we can cope."

"Even with the government still insisting they won't give us the funding we need to finalize the projects?"

"Most of the government is saying that, portions of it of course are much more intelligent than others." Stryker turned back with a faint smile. "We'll get our money one way or another. From what I hear your new Hulk Busters are still being blocked thanks to Fury for now, but even with the decent PR they've been getting lately thanks to that alien Potter the mutant threat is still a hot button issue, especially with the violent flare ups there have been lately. Which means the Purifiers might well be authorized soon."

Stryker scoffed, spitting to one side. How anyone couldn't understand that he and the Fantastic Four were in cahoots here, working to put themselves in charge or something similar, he couldn't understand.

Ross smiled thinly then raised his glass of bourbon to the other man before taking a sip. After that he put it down resolutely and stood up. "In that case, I better go over the troops again."

OOOOOOO

Over the next two days while Emma tried to ride the fallout from Pierce's moment of madness, Harry and his group finished several small projects. The first arc reactor's parts were done, and the construction of it began. Several more asteroids had been hauled in from the Atiras group each of which was covered by a Fidelius, hollowed out and fused together into one huge station in preparation to be turned into holding farmland for his potions ingredients. On the outside it looked like, in Kitty's words, 'a gobstopper from that Willie Wonka movie'.

This was necessary though so Harry could use one of his last remaining hearthstone on it to power the arrays and various defense spells, such as the Fidelius he had already cast on them each in turn and then again when he fused the various asteroids together. Of course writing down the various runic arrays to enlarge the interiors would take far longer.

He and Kitty had just begun work on that together, with Harry instructing the girl on some more of the intricacies of combining different runic languages into a single array, when Harry was interrupted by a psychic call from Jean. "Harry, we've had a call from our contacts with the British government, it seems Balder is back with that treaty."

After giving some instructions to Kitty, Harry teleported down to Hogwarts, then from there to the same empty parking lot in London they had already used several times. From there he made his way to the conference building he had used previously.

Balder was there waiting by the checkout desk carrying what Harry guessed was the treaty. It was a large piece of parchment the size and width of Balder's forearm tied around at either end with velvet, upon which Harry could discern a few glittering runes of Norse design. Harry wondered idly how the heck Balder or whoever had gotten those to work on pieces of cloth rather than stone. Whenever he tried that kind of thing the item in question tended to burst into flame or disintegrate unless he figured out a way to ground them through use of another runic language, which was incredibly difficult on anything but stone.

The treaty was held in one of Balder's hands, and he was using the other to gesticulate some kind of story or other to the young receptionist, who was laughing at something he said, her cheeks a rosy blush. Balder was not dressed as he had been the last time that Harry had seen him, wearing instead what looked like a very good suit, and his good looks and sense of humor seemed to be doing its work on the young woman. I wonder if Mr. Harper had that suit specially made for him in case he returned…

Nearby said spymaster was leaning against the wall, ostensibly reading a newspaper but Harry could see that his eyes were watching Balder and the receptionist, a faint amused smile on his face. Not that he was alone in this, Harry thought it was rather amusing to watch Balder at work as well. Balder was supposed to be the God of diplomacy and light wasn't he? At least that's what little I've been able to find out said, that and his connection to the Prophecy of Ragnarok, his death is supposed to kick off the whole thing but he seems hale and hearty.

To say that Harry was still irritated about how little he had discovered about the Asgardians was to say that the ocean was wet. The missionaries had done too damn good a job, far too damn good a job in Harry's opinion, erasing, changing or destroying all sign of the original Asatru religion. What was left was an amalgamation of a few facts alongside several dozen not quite reputable myths, along with a whole lot of inferencing. It was so bad, Harry felt it must almost certainly have been deliberate but to what end and by whom he had no idea. But at least this part seems to have been accurate.

He slowly disengaged his Notice-Me-Not spell, nodding politely at Harper who nodded back before Harry coughed delicately. "I do so hate to take you away from your discussion Balder, but I unfortunately don't have enough time to wait for you to… finish."

Balder turned with smile on his face, grasping Harry's outstretched forearm while the receptionist suddenly gasped, realizing that the handsome giant of a man who had been flirting with her was meeting with the new business icon Harry Potter. For his part however Balder simply shook Harry's forearm firmly, saying "Indeed, I am due back soon as well, but when faced with a woman such startling beauty, I could not help myself."

The receptionist blushed again, then practically fell over herself getting the three men situated in one of the conference rooms. "And if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

Balder watched the young woman go then turned while Harry and the Mr. Harper did sweeps of the room, then nodded to one another before Harry turned back to Balder. "So has your king agreed to the nonaggression pact?"

"Indeed, and a very limited trade pact. Some form of a defense treaty will have to wait, but the gist of it is…" Balder went on, describing the various clauses in the treaties, what exactly the Asgardians were willing to trade to the humans, and in what quantity.

"And what would you be willing to take in trade for those items?" Harry said, interested in some of them himself. Various metals for example, he really wanted to see what he could do with some of the steel that the Asgardians produced. And there were certain runic arrays that worked well with gems as a main focus, but getting high-quality gems on the market especially of the size he was thinking of were simply too expensive for a project that Harry didn't actually have the time to pursue at this moment.

"I'm certain we could come up with some ideas." Balder murmured, and Harry rolled his eyes.

For the next hour or so the two men went back and forth, trying to decide on an equitable exchange rate. After all, both sides had things that the others side could not actually create and there was no set monetary equivalent to use as a reference. The Asgardians culture ran on barter and gold currency, actual gold coins. Harry wasn't about to let that stand, especially since Balder had looked up the value of gold, and well understood that any exchange rate there would be in his favor.

Eventually they moved away from using precious metals at all as an exchange rate, and slowly came to a series of guidelines. Foodstuffs would be sold to the Asgardians in on a 4 to 1 basis for items of clothing and fabrics, many of which were far stronger than the human equivalent. A cotton shift for example that could stop bullets would be a major draw. That ratio would go up astronomically for base metals and worked steel.

However, the balance of trade shifted the other way entirely when discussing electronics since Harry had gotten Balder to admit that TVs and other such items that the Asgardians were quite interested in could not be created in their culture, they just simply didn't have the basic knowledge to do it. For TVs, radios and the power to run them, it was a ratio of 2 to 1 in favor of the electronic devices. So for example one TV would be good for two Asgardian broadswords or the equivalent weight in metal.

However Balder could not make agreements to trade gems, items of power, or magical knowledge. "Those we have to wait until we see how well these agreements work. How exactly will we make the exchange?" Balder asked, moving past that point rapidly. He had been given strict orders on what to do here, stricter than normal frankly. He was after all the most diplomatic of the Æsir, so Odin-father normally gave him his head, and expected him to make the best of it.

This time however Odin had instead given Balder extremely set instructions to follow which had actually made Balder a little angry at the time, though not enough to make waves. After all, Odin was a long term thinker. That one eye of his saw more than any other save perhaps his wife. It was why he was King, why he had ruled for so long and so well, through good times and bad, and Balder would not gain say that.

What Balder did not know was that Odin was counting on the trade agreements to be too small seemingly to gather any attention from… any other eyes. But Odin knew that oaks grew from small seeds, and even small cracks in a dam could cause the whole façade to crumble over time. Especially if someone was ready, poised with a hammer to help the weight of the water along.

Harry looked over at Jack Harper who smiled back blandly and said simply, "I believe my government will be more than willing to set up a warehouse on guarded property for these trades. Of course we will also have to take a certain amount of remuneration, say 10%?"

"10% of the worked goods except for the metals." Harry said with a nod. "No magical items or knowledge once we get to that point until I okay them." If I ever do, which is highly unlikely.

The spymaster rubbed his forehead, wishing that the Iron Lady was here to do this. But then again, given how leery Mrs. Thatcher was of Harry, perhaps that would have been counterproductive. "10% of the worked goods, 2 out of every 10 for the metals. For example if you get 10 swords, we get two."

"Just for setting up a place to have the trades occur? I don't think so." Harry laughed. He was all for the British government making some money off this agreement, after all it was happening on their land, and he wasn't about to let any Asgardians into Hogwarts, no matter how much he liked Balder, nor did he want his meetings with them out in the open as they would be if they happened at Magical Minds regardless of any attempt to hide them.

After all, he really didn't care about the jewelry, clothing or anything of that nature, but he definitely didn't want anyone else to get their hands on Asgardian steel. He said that aloud, and then went on firmly, "And I'm not budging on it. I'll create my own area for the trade before I let that happen. I'd be willing to go up to twelve percent on the worked goods though."

"And how would you supply the goods on your, or should I say humanity's end?" the spymaster riposted.

After that however he went on in a more conciliatory tone. "I do not believe that my government at this time would be interested in the steel save for a sword for Captain Britain, and a small holdout knife for the Crown Prince. There have been… threats in that direction considering his outspoken views on certain terrorist groups and the UN's position on them, and other parties are leery of another powerful, popular king following William. Having a knife of that caliber might be an aid in the future. Would that be agreeable?"

Harry nodded. Considering that the British were in fact going to be providing a lot of the luxury goods that Harry would then resell to the Asgardians that made a good deal of sense. He was merely their go-between for that, as well as selling directly from his own resources. "I'll agree to that, and if William or you want me to, I could whip up some armor for the Crown Prince or other security for the royals when they are away from Buckingham palace, though it would have to wait for a time, I have so much on my plate right now it isn't even funny."

"Welcome to the life of a public servant Mr. Potter." Jack replied dryly.

So the initial trade agreement was agreed to. Balder unrolled the parchment, and then began to write down in simple easy script the agreed rate of exchange as well as the rest of it. This was formally witnessed by both Jack and Harry then Harry used a Duplication spell on the parchment, which flared red for a moment before fading to reveal that the spell had worked and created two other duplicates.

At the spymaster's bemused look Harry shook his head. "It only works on paper and other simple items, I couldn't duplicate a gun or something of that nature if that's your wondering. What was that red flash?"

"The parchment is tied into another parchment back in Asgard." Balder replied. "My king will know that you cast a spell on it, but so long as the agreement I return with matches the agreement shown on that parchment, he will understand your need to have your own copies. I will keep one copy, my king will keep another, your government Sir." He said bowing his head to the spymaster. "Will keep a third, and you will keep the fourth Harry. That way none of us can change anything, without all us knowing that it has been done."

Harry smiled at the precaution, though he wondered internally how Odin had figured out a way to create a magical connection across dimensions like that. Perhaps the God of Wisdom is more than a title he thought to himself, before he went down the row of parchments, signing his name, before touching his name with a finger, hitting it with a small spell to make it unchangeable. "I presume our names will appear on your king's copy as well?"

"Yes." Balder replied with a nod of his head. Once everyone signed, Harper moved over to a decanter of brandy that he had brought along, which had by this point chilled nicely. "A toast gentlemen, to new horizons, and new friends."

The other two men echoed the toast, clicking their glasses together, and sipping ritually though Balder simply threw his back. "That," he said shaking his head, "Is good stuff. Doesn't have much of a kick to it, but I love the flavor. You might wish to add that to the list of goods my people would be willing to trade for."

"Will you handle all such transactions?" Harry asked sipping at his own brandy.

"I will, if we can set up a place for trade this trip I will return in a week's time with a first batch, then we will barter for that within the outline of the exchange rate we have already set."

Harry nodded, making a mental note to make certain that he remembered to gather some goods for the Asgardians.

By the time they finished for the day, they had decided on an army depot to house the trading station, and Harry had also subtly questioned Balder on his people, coming away with many more questions than answers alas. Still, he decided to set that aside for now to concentrate on his own projects for now.

OOOOOOO

The next day was Wednesday, and in the morning Harry was once again up in space working on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Melody and Illyana had convinced him to use that name the moment they heard about the project, and Jean and Ororo had both agreed it was most appropriate. By lunch time, he and Kitty had written out on the hearthstone a full third of the arrays Harry wanted to place on them, all of the enlargement arrays and two of the defensive. Harry would handle the time displacement arrays himself, but this would let the house-elves start to plant now. After that fully half of his total house elf force was devoted to farming, but he still had more than enough to handle any of the other little projects and keep up with work in Hogwarts.

At the same time, the first twenty robots Doom had sent Harry had quickly been cleared of any surprises by Jean and Reed then been put to work on the Fidelius covered asteroids. Half of them worked on the interior of the Hanging Gardens, putting in a permanent air recycling system. The other half began work on what Harry was calling 'The Forge', which would be a factory set into another Fidelius protected asteroid he and Jean had dragged from the Atiras like the others. The Forge would create things down the road for their orbital industry, anything from armor equal to that they had looked at on the Hellion to power junctions to weapons, which would be far better than the ones they had found on the ship for various reasons, including magical ones. It would be slow work, months in fact, but it would get there eventually.

After lunch however, Harry, Jean and Ororo met up with Reed Richards, Susan and Dr. Doom. They had scheduled this time to listen to a presentation by the psychologist/sociologist Reed had brought in to question the prisoners.

Andrew Lefton was a rather portly man, who looked like the poster child for the absent-minded professor. But his eyes behind his wireframe glasses were quite sharp, and whatever his thoughts about being a peacenik when it came to humanity this did not extend to aliens. Nor did he seem to have any illusions or preconceived notions in that direction either, which Harry supposed was natural enough coming from someone that Reed had personally vouched for.

After they all sat down in the same room they had used to talk to Doom previously on the Hellion, Andrew began quickly. "The problem with many warlike cultures is that they don't work long term. I will explain. A despotism or military junta, a government controlled by the military, does not allow free speech or free will in its citizens for the most part, and the rights of that citizenship is sharply curtailed in order to allow the government to retain control. In humans, there has never been a military-as government that has allowed with within its culture places for art, self-expression, and science."

"Indeed, most warlike cultures do not allow for change at all, especially in terms of a person's position in society beyond a certain amount. The Spartans are of course the prime example of this, but there are others. But the Spartans are the ones that I think of, because in many ways the Kree are like them yet in other ways they are so very different. I probably do not have to say this, but their thought processes are fundamentally alien. How much of that is the fact that they have been raised in a military culture, and how much of that is simple lack of empathy I do not know."

"What do you mean?" Asked Dr. Doom, his voice sepulchral from inside his mask, while next to him his mother continued to sip slightly from a fire whiskey Harry had supplied.

Andrew flinched a little at the sight of the supervillain. He knew there was some sort of agreement there, but he didn't really like to be reminded of it. Still, he answered readily enough. "Every person I've talked to among the blue-skinned Kree I would term as a functioning sociopath where other races are concerned." Everyone's eyebrows went up like that, and he shook his head. "The definition of sociopath is a person who cannot, not does not, but cannot understand cannot empathize with another person's emotions or desires, cannot see another person's point of view regardless of anything else. If you are not Kree and I need to emphasize this, if you are not Kree, you are worthless to these people. Even their client races are looked down upon and scorned. I would need a much larger study sample to tell you whether or not that is true across the board, but I'm getting the distinct impression that it is. A lack of caring of other race's right to exist at all is built into their culture. Even the Spartans had more care for their enemies than these people do."

There is a moment of silence people digest that. Then Harry murmured, "So basically when they talk about war, they're talking about total war, as in utter destruction of the enemy."

"They wouldn't even understand why you are considering any other kind of war. The destruction of the civilian population is simply good sense to these people. I asked questions like that, questions about orbital bombardment and other things of that nature, and what I found out horrified me." Andrew replied, shaking his head. "Let me get back to my main point. I had fully expected to find that there was some kind of break between the civilian and the military in this culture, that the military was on top because it had the guns as is so often the case with humans. But it isn't, the military is on top because that's how the Kree think. That is a tremendous distinction!"

"And one will have to take in mind." Reed nodded, wincing at the implications.

"What about the pale skinned ones? Do their impressions differ?" Ororo asked, wondering about Una, who was doing a simply wonderful job as the school nurse.

"A few of them could pass for humans in terms of thought processes." Andrew nodded. "Una is the best example of this. I've talked to her on the phone a few times and she certainly fits the normal human mold. Mar'vell is getting there slowly, but he's been heavily indoctrinated. All of them have to a certain extent, they've been convinced that their place is below that of the blue skinned ones, but they were fighting it before they were captured."

"Do you think they would be safe to be released into the general population?" Reed asked.

His friend hesitated but nodded. "Eventually I believe so. Seven of them or so could be released now, but I believe that doing so would have a negative effect on the remainder. Let them stay together for now, and then release them into a closed society as a group. Not an open one, and open one would overwhelm them all, and I'm uncertain what many of them would do if they were so overwhelmed."

"I'll ask formally Dr.." said Harry turning to Doom. "Would you be willing to take these people into your country and watch them? Needless to say you would be free to pump them further for information so long as out and out torture wasn't used and you shared anything you learned about their species or space warfare."

"I will agree to that." Doom said with a nod. "Have you found anything about their industrial capacity?" he said turning back to Lefton.

Harry nodded and asked the same thing. "Have you learned any specifics at all that we can use?"

Andrew shrugged. "Not a lot. Some things that the people themselves didn't know, things that 'everyone knows', though they were not willing to answer specifics about the military. It should come as no surprise that their star systems are heavily organized, and of course it has to do with the military. If a system can produce a dozen ships of ships battlecruiser and above they are called primary systems. If they cannot, they are called secondary. There are tertiary systems as well, but those are supply systems with resource heavy planets which cannot support life but which sends a steady supply of material to primary systems.

"Moreover, almost their entire industry is run by robotics. They don't have a base worker class. That was hard to get out, they didn't understand the term."

"Are you talking about not having any kind of civilian sector at all, or not any civilian influence in the industrial sector?" Jean asked.

"No civilian influence in the industrial apparatus. Everything it of course is owned by the government especially orbital construction. However, there are true civilian sectors such as clothing, theater and other things of that nature. They are all looked down on of course, but even the blue skinned ones understand the necessity of having them. But robots are taking on more and more tasks, allowing the Kree to increase their military manpower to a far higher degree than any human society could handle."

"Interesting, but it doesn't actually help us. Still, continue Doctor." Harry mused.

Andrew nodded and went on. He described the everyday life of the Kree, both pale-skinned and blue. There was no nobility, the government and military were run via seniority and largely based on meritocracy, another sharp deviation from any real militant culture among humanity that Andrew made certain to point out. He described the training the soldiers went through, the fact they were all from different planets, and that they were trained on randomly selected training stations. He mentioned the indoctrination among the blue-skinned Kree that began when they were young, the segregation that existed between the pure and non-pure Kree.

Eventually, Andrew got back onto the topic of government. "Factionalism is almost entirely unknown, but there are two factions among the Kree. You all know that the Supreme Intelligence is a computer correct? It is not in fact, it is a… a cyborg entity I suppose you could call it, made up of hundreds of thousands of the minds of the most intelligent brightest and greatest Kree. There's even a ceremony for a brain to be inducted into it, and it is seen as a high honor. A few of the ones I talked to had seen one such broadcast several years ago."

"But while the Supreme Intelligence is supposed to control all aspects of the society, it has advisors who are not part of its matrix to handle a lot of its duties. They are headed by a man called Ronan the Accuser, who is apparently the highest authority in their judicial system. Needless to say he is a pureblood Kree, and he is extremely well thought of by the military, apparently having come up its ranks before making the jump over to his current job."

Andrew paused, then went on. "This is just supposition without much evidence, but I think reading between the lines of what the prisoners said about him, he might be more individualistic than most Kree. It is well known, all of them agreed on this, that Ronan doesn't like the fact that the Supreme Intelligence controls so much of Kree life. He puts it in terms of military necessity, saying that the Supreme Intelligence isn't able to react to shocks and surprises, which are natural aspects of warfare. However, there are rumors that he means to supplant the Supreme Intelligence in some manner, which might tie into why Mar'vell was accused of treason, though how is beyond me."

For some reason Doom and Harry exchanged a glance at that and Harry leaned forward. "How would such a move be seen by the normal Kree soldiery, or is the 'sample size' we have at present to small for you to answer that?"

"I'm afraid it is if you want a definitive answer. I got some positive thoughts on that subject, some negative. All couched as I said before in terms of military necessity."

"Pity," Harry said leaning back. At everyone's looks he shrugged. "If one or the other was more amenable to leaving Earth the hell alone, we could make a deal with that one and work against the other."

"For someone who doesn't like politics are remarkably shrewd about them." Susan murmured, laughing quietly.

"That's not politics that simple strategy. Of course so is remembering 'the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more no less'. We would still have to be on guard against betrayal later on, but the upheaval caused from such infighting could be useful."

Reed winced a little at the cold analytical tone Harry was using, but couldn't really fault it. Earth was such a very vulnerable egg after all, humanity didn't even have a basket to protect it yet. He snorted as his minded mangled that metaphor, but it was true enough.

"Battles between the Kree and the Skrull come in three different varieties." Andrew went on, moving to another topic. "One is what we would term commerce raiding, small actions, quick in and out. Apparently the Skrull do the same thing to the Kree, but merchant vessels on both sides are armed, so the battles are often much tougher than you would think."

Harry and the others nodded, having learned about those kinds of battles already.

"The second type is what I would call limited engagement. Small fleets looking for maneuver room, always trying to attack the other side from a position of strength. This kind of warfare goes on all the time on the border between the two races, nearly all of the crew members I talked to served on ships that took part in them. The goals of such are to take one system or other and deny it to the enemy in any way possible."

"Then there is a third kind, which I would call main offensives. The Fleets involved in these number in the thousands and they spread out over multiple systems. And this is not me trying to sound startled her or worried. One of the Kree I interviewed was the equivalent of a private first class on a battlecruiser that served in what they called the fifth assault fleet. When I asked him what an assault fleet was, he looked at be me askance, as if he thought I was making fun of him or something, it was simply something everyone knows.

"These fleets are constructed around 40 Doombringers or Planet Crushers, 400 dreadnoughts, over 1000 battleships and even more battlecruisers and upwards of four thousand frigates of the size of the Hellion."

Harry rubbed at his forehead. "Those are not pleasant numbers Dr., I'm not about to blame the messenger but damn…"

"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you about their order of battle, these people weren't high ranking officers if they were officers at all, and the blue skinned ones still refuse to give us any straight information about their militaries. They talked a bit about their culture, though I'm still wondering why."

"Because they think that their culture is just as superior as the rest," Jean replied with a shake of her head. "They think that the more they talk about their Empire, the size and strength of it, they'll wear down our morale, and we'll simply surrender."

All the humans around the table blinked at that then shrugged and moved on. "Were you able to find out the answer to the question I posed to you before you began Dr.?" Harry asked.

"The question about what they do to with their ships that are damaged or obsolete? They do have a few junk systems, systems where obsolete ships are left before being destroyed for their parts later on, but they are few and far between. I was able to find the location of one, or at least its name."

Harry smiled faintly. "What was its name?"

"It translates to Dead Man's Row."

All the others at the table were now looking at Harry and he smiled faintly. "I had a new acquaintance of ours, who is a remarkable programmer, look at the information from the engine room's computers that was still intact and there was in fact some astrological data there. We actually can figure out where that is."

"And what will you do with that information Mr. Potter?" asked Dr. Doom, though his tone seemed to indicate that he already knew.

"I think it represents an opportunity, especially along with another little project I've been thinking of handing him." Harry went on looking back at doctor Lefton. "This was informative, not as much as I would've liked, but as much as we can at this point. Needless to say please keep the information that we have taken alien prisoners to yourself, we might wish to call you in the future, but for now unless you have anything more to share we can adjourn."

It was several hours later, and Harry, Jean and Ororo were meeting with Emma back in Hogwarts discussing Harry's plan, which Emma was against. Not because she didn't think it wouldn't work, it sounded plausible at least, so long as they could pull off the acting necessary, and with a telepath along even that wasn't exactly a hurdle.

No, it was the idea of Harry leading the operation himself. "You cannot be absent for that long. We have your introduction to the New York branch coming up this weekend, then we have the second interview next week, and you know my feelings about the whole Sentinel Project coming to a head soon! You have no idea how long this job would last!"

Jean had a screen in front of her, looking at the astronomical data as well as calculating the speed of the Hellion. She frowned thoughtfully. "Emma's right, this isn't exactly a short jaunt. I think 2 1/2 weeks out, then a month or so back, and that's assuming we don't run into trouble. We surely won't want to lead anyone searching for us directly back to Earth after all."

"How ready is the Hellion for action?" Ororo asked.

"Reed was able to reconstruct most of the programming for the weapons, as well as the shields and environment controls, though the original control programs were gone, so we had to create them from scratch. It's missing a few external weapons we took apart to reverse engineer, and the interior is still messed up from our taking it, but for the most part the ship is good to go. I wouldn't want to send it into any kind of battle, not without a full crew, but for something like this we might get away with it."

"And Douglas can really write up this slave program?" Ororo asked.

"He and Hisako yes," Harry said with a nod. "I asked him that several days ago, and he's already shown me a preliminary program.

Both teens were of course being paid for their programming work, since Douglas' ability with languages did transfer over to computer languages, any computer language. He was a master programmer within moments of studying a new one, and had reconstructed all the astrogational data the engineering computers had saved on them, even more so than Reed or Doctor Doom had been able to.

It had astonished both teens that Harry was willing to pay for them for this service, but saw it as simply a way to keep them happy and tying them more securely to his faction, nor was he exactly being foolish about it. They both received weekly stipends, which they could use on one of the bi-weekly shopping trips the teens were let out on, but for the most part that money was going into a savings account for both of them, sort of like Paige's. It would only come available when they were 18.

"How many ships are you thinking of us taking?" Jean asked looking at Harry.

"As many as we can get, we'll worry about crewing them once we have them, right now we just need a mobile defense force. It'll be at least two maybe even three months before the industrial sector I'm working on begins to come online, and equally long for what we can do for the Ravenspires to be finished which isn't as much as I'd hoped to be honest." Harry replied.

Jean shrugged. "Sorry Harry, but there is a wealth of difference between creating a combat suit or even a fighter jet, and creating even a rudimentary spaceship or space station., That kind of large scale design is simply too intricate, with far too many damn problems, for you and I to do it."

"Exactly, so we need to figure out some other way of getting a visible defense force."

"Visible?" Emma's one eyebrow raised in query at the use of that particular word.

"Those ships would serve as decoys to draw fire away from Earth if the Kree send in ships with the intent on bombarding humanity back into the stone age." Harry replied grimly. "And if they're concentrating on the ships they might not see us coming. Which doesn't even consider the fact that my spells flummoxed the Kree sensors completely, something I am damn well going to take advantage of. Use a few ships to draw them away from the others being hidden under cloak, then take them out, either with the team or through the other ship's weapons."

"That makes sense but you still can't leave now Harry." Emma replied. "You're a public figure now, if you disappear like that this closely after your first interview it's going to look very suspicious. Especially considering everything else that has been going on in America."

"You're not suggesting that someone would think that I was in cahoots with Pierce are you?" Harry scoffed.

"No, but they might assume that you were hiding the same sort of thing that he was but haven't been found out. The American government in particular is eagerly looking for ways to force the British to force you to divulge the secrets of your medicines, to ensure a free and equal competition rather than the monopoly you have."

After a moment, Harry sighed. "I don't like the idea of sending anyone else out so we'll table…"

"No we won't." Jean said shaking his head. "You're right Harry, we need to figure out a way to keep any opposing force from simply coming in and bombarding the planet from multiple angles. We couldn't handle that kind of thing, this plan could give us at least the decoys we need to keep that from happening. I'll lead the team we send on this."

Harry locked eyes with Ororo for a moment, who nodded, and he looked back at Jean, emerald staring into jade for a moment, then he nodded reluctantly. "I'm not happy, but I can't deny the need for this mission." And I'm not about to say that I don't trust you enough to get it done. "But if you're in charge Jean, you get to choose the force."

"Myself, Una and a few other Kree prisoners, those who have shown the most hate and disdain for their old society I'll ask doctor Lefton about the number of prisoners he thinks would be willing to work with us. Nikolai, Paige, Dani. I'll take Douglas too if he agrees, his computation skills will help, as will his ability to read body language if we have to communicate with anyone."

Harry winced. "I don't like the idea of having him out in the field. Despite his skills with languages of all kinds, he has about the same sense of self-preservation as a lemming." Douglas had of course been given some training in hand to hand as all the teens were even those not on the team, and took to it precisely like a rock took to swimming. He was also a horrible shot, and didn't like the idea of hurting anyone.

"Do you think the fantastic four would be willing to send Reed along?" Jean asked.

"Read and Susan possibly, they were the ones most interested in space exploration before their mission." Harry murmured, irritated at himself for having to fight the instinct to want to do this himself. Why the hell had he been training Jean and the others in leadership all along if it wasn't for times like this if he couldn't trust them to handle it without him?

Jean nodded, and the conversation continued from there were as they went into particulars of the mission.

OOOOOOO

The probe had found appropriate servants for its master. Two of them in one fight, if the probe had actually been alive it might've been joyful at that. Instead, it simply sent back to its master information, while he continued to watch and compile a database of the local players, in particular the two possible servants, searching for exploitable weaknesses.

OOOOOOO

For the next two days Guardian and Jean spent all their time figuring out how to run the Hellion at something approaching normal levels of efficiency with the lowest number of crew they could get away with. Reed was ecstatic with the opportunity to go, and with his stretching powers could handle the engineering room alone, which was an excellent saving in terms of men. The ships reverse-engineered programming could also allow the bridge crew to perform most of the functions of the ship, though the weapons would not be as responsive from there, and the ship's life support system couldn't be run from there. Well, they would once the bridge was fully repaired.

Ororo led the rest of the team in stocking the ship with foodstuffs four three months along with some exercise equipment that Guardian bought especially since they would be in space for possibly over a month and a half at best. Even with the ships artificial gravity they would lose muscle definition quickly if they didn't keep up their exercises.

Harry was still not happy about not going along, but he knew they needed the ships as quickly as possible. To make certain of that he had talked to Mar'vell about that one soldier to another the morning after Lefton's presentation. Mar'vell, was now fully convinced he had been set up and far more loyal to his girlfriend than the Kree Empire, so was more willing to help Harry. He agreed with the majority of the pale-skinned Kree in that the Hellion's mission to capture him had been part of some kind of power-play from Ronan. The use of a Sentry pointed to it being so, those were damn expensive and could not be sent anywhere without someone high up okaying their mission these days. But if that was the case, then there would be a much quicker follow-up than would normally occur.

"If you have two local lunar cycles before a follow-up mission is sent I'll be astonished." Mar'vell had said bluntly. "Ronan is many things, but he's not incompetent, and if this really was a power-play on his part, then your capturing the Hellion and destroying the Sentry as you did might have played into his hands. It was the Supreme Intelligence that sent me here, if Ronan can point to that as a failure because it helped Earth become a threat, even just to any force sent against it…"

Mar'vell shook his head. "I have no idea what his goal with that would be, and I doubt he could split off anything more than a raiding pack, not without a lot more uproar. But sending a Medium Fist led raiding pack wouldn't be that difficult and packs almost always operate in groups of fifteen. Any one of them would have enough firepower to wipe out life on your planet if they were unopposed."

Medium Fist was the Kree name for what humans would call battlecruisers, and while they often operated in packs all on their own, they were also used as flagships for packs of lighter units. A raiding pack would normally consist of eight frigates or as the Kree called them Fast Fists, and six Light Fists, which were their equivalent of light cruisers.

After several different training exercises, Harry felt that with surprise on their side his team could take out six ships like the Hellion in a pinch, less if the ships they attacked were larger. Jean and Harry could take out one ship at a time if they had to, though it would be very tough. The rest of the team he could split the team to retain significant firepower in each small group, but that would possibly spread them dangerously thin, something Harry really didn't want to be forced to try.

Harry could, if he got onto a ship, summon up a golem army to wreak havoc, but he couldn't direct them while on another ship himself, and the Kree had proven they could stop his golems with sufficient numbers during the battle of the Hellion, so that tactic while good wasn't a be all. He and Jean would be able to destroy several ships at one go from the outside as well if they needed to , but even so, they couldn't cover the whole globe.

Doom could probably take out one all on his own or four if he devoted enough of his robotic servants to the assault, and the Fantastic Four another two or possibly maybe three depending on the efficacy of the weapons and tactics that the Kree had developed since the fantastic four's first brush with a Sentry. They hadn't seemed to find any way to deal with Susan's invisibility, which made that a wildcard, but Johnny couldn't burn through the outer shell of the ships quickly enough to destroy them like Jean or Harry could, which was a minus.

And even if they could defeat the first assault, Mar'vell was certain the next attack would come within two weeks of when the first didn't report back on time. And they would continue to escalate. So not only was the mission to get humanity some ships a necessity, but Harry would have to come up with a way to somehow bamboozle any follow on assault into thinking that they had succeeded.

All of this meant that the team, and Harry and Jean in particular, were working non-stop. However that did not mean that all of them were happy with this state of affairs. When Ororo once more awoke to an empty bed the day before Jean and the others were due to leave, she frowned irritably before her lips curved into a smirk. She had been planning a bit of fun for a while now, ever since she realized that Harry wouldn't be naming the team anytime soon unless he was kicked in the ass about it. Harry and naming things just didn't work, something Melody also seemed to have figured out if her unilaterally naming the Hanging Gardens that was anything to go by.

She sat up, then asked the room around her, "Nessy?"

Her personal house elf popped in curtseying. "Mistress asked for Nessy?"

"Could you get me two of the house elves that are on kitchen duty this evening? I have some requests for dinner to pass on. And then, I think you and I are going to go out shopping for a bit." She smiled, remembering how Jean had confided Harry's worries to her about their date, and how Jean had said that the date could've been made a little better by some dancing to appease him. "I think it's two birds with one stone time, or actually three birds considering."

At around seven that evening Harry and Jean returned to the castle. Harry had finally finished working several runic arrays into the outer hull of the Hellion. They wouldn't last for very long with no magical along to take their power from, but Harry had pumped them with as much magic as they could hold. He estimated they would last for at least three weeks, which would make the ship's hull far tougher than it should be given its weight, at least four or five times the original. That would come as a nasty shock to the enemy if they got into a firefight.

Jean too had finished her work, repairing all of the ship weapons that had been damaged in their taking of the ship and putting back together those they had taken apart that she could while also repairing the bridge, which was the most important task. While the navigation systems and accompanying programs had been repaired previously, or else she and Harry would never been able to go on their amazing date around the star system, the sensors, the internal communications gear, the external communications gear, and the weapon control systems all had to be repaired. Even with Reed and some of Doom's robots helping her, finishing that task in two days had been really pushing it.

The two of them had teleported into their bedroom, where they found Ororo strangely absent. Checking the clock Harry nodded. "I guess she's down eating with the others." Jean nodded, and the two of them made their way through the Castle down to the dining Hall. Halfway down to the first floor they began to hear sounds of laughter as well as someone singing and looked at one another in surprise.

When they got closer the doors to the dining Hall from the staircase opened, and Illyana and Melody burst out, racing forged up the stairs to grab Jean and Harry's hands. Melody grabbed her father's hand, and Illyana grabbed Jean's hand pulling them forward. "Father, it's amazing, Ms. Ororo brought in a karaoke machine! We've all been taking turns, and there's pizza and grape soda, and lots of snacks and everything!"

"It's really fun, and we all got to put down our ideas for names for the castle, the school even names for the team!" said Illyana smiling as widely as her friend. "Ms. Ororo says the person who gets their name accepted is going to get a prize!"

The two lovers looked at one another, then smiled widely. "She must've been planning this for a while." Harry chuckled.

Well I have to say that her timings magnificent. We could all do with a bit of fun, especially with my group heading out into the great beyond tomorrow." Said Jean, linking her free arm with Harry's as they moved down the stairs opening the door.

The dining hall was abuzz with lights, conversation, laughter and music. There were only two tables in the hall, one table along the far side of the dining hall from the main doors which held the karaoke machine. The other was set in the direct center, and was filled with food: pizza, chicken wings, and other snack foods that were not routinely seen in the castle because Ororo and the others in charge of the students had decided to keep to a nutritious diet. Drinks were absent, but that probably only meant that house elves would have to be called for them.

Along one side was the two teens that Ororo had rescued when she went to rescue Douglas, along with the three youngsters from Russia and several of the newcomers playing what looked like some kind of charades game along with Ms. Brown and two of the new teachers. Several of them were wearing what Harry could tell were penalty outfits, rainbow colored suits that looks like one of the house elves had gotten out of control when conjuring them up.

A little ways further down that same wall Betsy, Emma, Piotr's grandparents and the other two new teachers. They were playing an incredibly bloody game of Risk using the hard light system. Between them were bottles of wine along with some much more highbrow munchies than the rest of the partiers were enjoying.

Emma didn't look up as Jean and Harry entered, all of her concentration at present on the game that she was currently losing to Betsy. She desperately needed some downtime after the last few days dealing with the fallout of the attack on her mansion and Cordelia. This was the first time she had been able to get away without anyone knowing. Cordelia had become almost clingy since her second brush with violence, and Angelica was simply twitchy all the time. Even now one of the house-elves was watching Emma's mansion to make certain she could get back immediately if someone came looking for her for any reason.

On the other side of the room was what looked like a first-person shooter game being projected into the air using the hard light system. Jesse, Christopher, Dennis and surprisingly young Rahne were there, engaged in what looks like a shootout between the four of them. The fact that Rahne was here at all given the level of noise was surprising, but something Harry was happy to see. Other than Dani she didn't seem to get along very well with the rest of the teens, she was friendly but not close with them, and seemed to be leery of Harry and the other magic users, which made sense given her staunch catholic upbringing, but she didn't make an issue of it.

With the karaoke machine Danielle and Amara were singing a duet of 'Firework', dancing along on the table to the words. Danielle didn't actually have a very good singing voice, she couldn't seemingly hold a note very well, but Amara had a decent one. The two girls was clearly having a lot of fun, dancing around one another, linking arms occasionally and even once or twice dancing together from one end of the table to the other.

The rest of the teens were around them along with Kitty and Sam. Nikolai was leaning into Piotr's shoulder, whispering into the larger youth's ear something that seemed to be putting quite a large blush on his face as he stared up at his girlfriend and Danielle who were dancing along the table together at that moment, more grinding than regular dancing really.

Ororo turned from laughing at the two girls on the table to smile as the two young girls led Jean and Harry towards them. "Thank you my dears," she said reaching down and rubbing both of their heads affectionately. "I saved you your spot so..."

Illyana and Melody both grinned as Danielle and Amara finished their routine, hopping off the table while the two younger girls rushed over to the karaoke machine. The two of them quickly found their song, then hopped onto the table and began to sing Akuma Matatata from the Lion King. Melody had an extremely good singing voice thanks to her powers, while Illyana had an okay voice, but no training at all. Still, there was very little they could do to mess up that song.

Below them the teens cheered and clapped, and when they heard their friends' voices many of the other younger children turned from what they had been doing to come over and cheer them on as well. Watching this Harry wrapped his arm around Ororo's waist, pulling her into his side while the other did the same with Jean. "This was a magnificent idea Ororo, thank you, we really needed this."

"I felt it was time for us to do something to figure out a new name for the castle and for the name for the team to finally be decided. We need a single call-sign, something that people can remember. We'll also have to think of some kind of badge for us, a symbol in the future. Right now, we've all been working hard, and I think we need a bit of a break." Ororo replied, resting her head on his shoulder.

So the evening continued, with all of them taking turns with the karaoke machine. Interspersed with everyone else's performances, some stood out. Harry and Jean performed a rendition of 'Shut Up and Dance With Me' that had everyone wolf whistling. Piotr performed a surprisingly good rendition of We Didn't Start the Fire with his sister. Harry and Ororo performed Butterfly. Paige convinced Douglas, Rahne and Nikolai to join her in a horrible performance of Closer to the Heart. Then near the end Jean and a reluctant Emma performed a rendition of Uptown Girl before Emma had to leave to head back to New York.

She kissed them all goodbye beforehand, lingering with Ororo and Jean as much as with Harry before he escorted her up to the secure room that held the runic doorways. As they reached the threshold, Emma leaned up, capturing Harry's lips again in a heated kiss, her tongue thrusting into his mouth to duel with his. She pulled back only when she had to breath, murmuring, "Have I told you how grateful I am for your rescuing my sister?"

Harry gulped in air, his face flushed from the kiss. "Um, yes, you um did, yes."

"Hmm, I don't think I've shown how grateful I am just yet for all of your help though…" Emma hooked one leg around Harry's waist, her dress, riding up so that her panties rubbed against Harry's crotch. "I don't suppose I could convince you to send a, what are they called, a simulacrum to my house and then spend an hour or so shagging me rotten against the wall right here?"

Again Harry had to gulp, not for air this time just self-control. "Um, n-no, sorry. That, um that wouldn't work, the simulacrum couldn't be programmed enough to deal with everything it could run into. And um, you're drunk Em, I don't think that'd be appropriate for our first time together…"

Emma scoffed, pulling back slightly, though not before she rubbed herself just slightly against Harry's traitorous erection. "Part of you doesn't seem to agree with that. And in any event I'm not nearly as drunk as you think."

"Still I don't want our first time to be a, a quickie against a wall."

"Very well, but remember what I said after your date with Jean. I'm not going to wait for long." Emma reminded him, then leaned forward to kiss him again. "I love you Harry." She said aloud, one of the very rare times she had done so, before kissing him again.

Harry responded in like kind. "Don't worry, we'll make time at some point, just the two of us."

"I'll hold you to that." Emma replied, then backed away, swaying her hips deliberately as she made her way over to the runic doorway that would take her home. After activating it, she looked over her shoulder one last time, her eyes smoldering with desire, before walking forward.

Harry shuddered a little, then closed his eyes trying to calm himself down before turning to head back down to the party.

When he arrived he found Melody and Ororo performing My Hero Is You. After the two finished, Ororo waved her hands in the air to get everyone's attention before speaking. "All right, it's getting late and some of us have bedtimes that we're well past by this point." All of the younger children booed at that, though the teachers nodded approval. "However, we have to have a vote on the new name for the castle and the school specifically before that. Everyone has had a chance to put their names in, so we'll vote on them now."

This took some time, by the end of which all the youngsters were almost nodding off where they stood or sat. Eventually the name for the castle was voted to be Camelot. It was sort of obvious, British, castle, magical place. This school name however would be the Avalon Academy for Outstanding Children.

That name had actually been thought up by one of the new teachers, Mark Tuborn. Mark was an older man who had gotten through Ororo's vigorous hiring process because he had an older brother that was a mutant and because he was fine with magic having lived in Wales for much of his life, where some magical creatures could still be found when you weren't looking for them. He had spent most of his life in the public school system first as a student then a teacher, and had fallen into ecstasies when shown the hard light system and the curricula for the school. He felt that it really encapsulated both the fact that that most of the children here would be mutants, and the fact that the education offered here would be at a much higher level than most schools could offer.

With that, the youngsters were led off by their minders and most of the other older adults also made their way to their beds leaving only the teens and the team members along with Dr. Druid strangely enough. Harry personally took Melody and Illyana up to bed, bringing them up to the room they now officially shared. It was situated next to Piotr's room on one side and the entrance up to the headmaster quarters on the other. The Rasputin grandparents were situated in a room on the other side of the hall.

"Did you enjoy yourself father?" Melody asked wearily, while Harry tucked her into her bed. Illyana was already in her own, her eyes slowly sliding shut despite her best efforts. It had been a very long, tiring day.

"Of course I did Melody." Harry said leaning over the bed to give her a kiss on the four head. "You and Ororo did a magnificent job organizing things. Thank you."

He pulled back looking down at her but Melody was already fast asleep, utterly exhausted from the party. Harry stood there a moment looking down at her lovingly, brushing her hair lightly then looked over at Illyana and gave her a good night kiss on the cheek as well before leaving. By the time Harry returned all of the other youngsters had been led off as well, the teachers having gone to bed immediately after, and thus they could move on to other matters.

Ororo nodded to the remainder. "And now for the team name. Same as last time, put the name you're voting for on the small card in front of you, one of the house elves will gather them up and I will look them over up here."

Jean and Harry grinned to one another, amused by the way Ororo had taken charge so easily. Whatever else she was or would become, Ororo was an excellent teacher and organizer. A few minutes later the ballot was in, and Ororo counted them out. "We have three votes for X-calibur, two for the Thunderbolts, one vote each for the Spartans and Legionnaires, and the rest is for World Guard."

"Now hold on a minute, I like the image the name World Guard conjures up, but I prefer to have it be a little more mysterious and worldly than that." Harry objected, to which Amara and some of the others all nodded agreement.

"Something in Latin?" said Rahne, scowling irritably. She hated Latin, it reminded her too much of the priest who had run the orphanage and who had beaten her even before her mutation had been discovered.

"I like Latin," Harry replied mildly. "In Latin that would be 'Custodes Mundi', which would be Guardians of the World. What do you all think of that?" After a moment they all nodded save Amara, who had tried to convince them to use the Grecian version, which was Kósmo Frourá. But she was outvoted badly.

After that, the party began to break up. Many of the teens headed off to the dormitories, though Harry was rather amused to note that Danielle and Amara were dragging Piotr off somewhere together, while Nikolai and Shiang-Chi were moving over to the area of the room that had been devoted to the Risk game.

Lemon Start:

By unspoken agreement Harry and Jean led Ororo up to their room. As soon as the door to the spiral staircase closed Harry began to kiss Ororo ardently, his hands going around her waist while Jean pressed into her back. She moved Ororo's hair out of the way then began to kiss and nibble at her neck while her hands fumbled at the dress that Ororo was wearing, pushing it off her shoulders and undoing the back zipper. A moment later the dress pooled around Ororo's feet, and Jean moved back, beginning to pull off her own clothing which had been her work clothing, T-shirt and jeans.

With her mouth still locked with Harry's and her eyes closed Ororo moaned as Harry's hands rested upon her rear, lifting her up slightly. Her legs automatically went around his waist, and Harry took her weight with ease, turning around and moving towards their bed. Once she was resting on the mattress his hands relinquished their grip on her rear moving up her back to unclip her simple white bra before tossing it aside.

By that point Jean had divested herself of her own clothing and joined them. Still concentrating on Ororo she began to lick and nibble at the bits of Ororo that she could get to given Harry and her hugging each other. Jean moved from sucking on the African woman's fingers up her arm and then down to her chest when Harry moved backwards to allow her access to it moving down himself to work on Ororo's other breast. "Goddess… my loves…"

As always Jean was enthralled with how Ororo's skin tasted so much like cinnamon and chocolate and some other unnamed space. It was intoxicating, and her breasts were simply amazing, large milk chocolate orbs capped with dark chocolate nipples that were so incredibly enticing. Jean took one of them in her mouth, licking, biting and sucking in the way that Jean knew drove her insane, listening with delight as Ororo threw back her head and moaned aloud. "Ohh, Jean… oh goddess…"

Harry was doing the same on Ororo's other breast, though he had left her nipple alone for now. He leaned back slightly gazing up at her past the curve of her breasts as he worked at their underside murmuring. "You put on one hell of a date for us, I think it's only fair that you are spoiled a bit, Ororo. Just lean back and enjoy."

Ororo might have tried to protest but Jean leaned up from the breast that she had been worshiping to kiss the older woman on the lips. Their tongues dueled in Ororo mouth before Jean pulled back, licking at the underside of Ororo's tongue in midair for a moment before moving down Ororo's jaw to her neck and then back down to her breasts while Harry moved his own mouth further down Ororo's body. "He's right Ororo, you deserve it."

By this time Ororo's panties were literally drenched, and Harry quickly removed them, revealing her distended clitoris and the white lightning bolt above it. He nuzzled into the lightning bolt for a moment, licking around the outside of her flower before beginning to work on it in earnest.

Above him Ororo moaned loudly, her hands now hugging Jean to her. Presently she pulled Jean away from her breasts kissing her again. While Harry continued his work on her nether regions Ororo pushed the younger girl upright slightly to get at Jean's chest where she went to work licking and nibbling at Jean's white, freckled, breasts before taking one of Jean's pink nipples into her mouth while her fingers traced down Jean's front, finding the fireball she had helped Jean shave there before moving slightly further down. Feeling how wet Jean was Ororo's fingers immediately went to work moving in and out of her pussy first one then to finally three at a time as Jean threw back her head moaning loudly. "Gahmmmm….Ororo! Yes!"

A few minutes later Ororo's hips bucked in her first orgasm of the evening when Harry performed his Parseltongue trick for a few seconds to give Ororo that final push over the edge. "Goddess Haaaarry!"

Ororo bucked up from the bed so hard that she almost pushed Harry's face away from her privates. Yet he gamely stayed in place, his tongue as deep into her as it could go as he murmured in Parseltongue. "Yes that's it Ororo, that's it my love, cum for me!"

"AHHHHH!" In response Ororo shuddered and bucked, her eyes wide while a continuous moan came from her mouth as she rode through her orgasm and several aftershocks before collapsing back onto the bed for a moment, unable to remain upright.

Jean followed her down, kissing her tenderly on the neck cheek and mouth for a moment disengaging very reluctantly with Ororo's fingers which had been inside of her when Ororo came, her own body trembling slightly. She had been very close to her own finish there and was now momentarily frustrated.

Seeing this Harry reached up from where he had been kneeling beside the bed to pull Jean down and to the side laying her chest to chest against Ororo before leaning up and taking Jean's smaller slightly more hooded flower in his mouth as his fingers gently probed around Jean's opening before thumbing at her clitoris.

Jean moaned, arching her back then moaned again louder when Ororo recovered enough to lean down and began to nibble and lick at Jean's breasts. When Ororo took one of her pink nipples into her mouth once more and nipped at it slightly that threw Jean over the edge as well. "Oh God, Harry I'mmmmmm!"

Shuddering slightly Jean fell forward, her breasts flattening against Ororo's. The two women put their arms around one another kissing tenderly murmuring sweet nothings for a moment in one another's ear while Harry divested himself of his jeans and underwear, moving to join them.

Looking over her shoulder and seeing this Jean smiled wickedly, reaching between her and Ororo to use a few fingers to open Ororo's petals slightly with two fingers while her thumb began to lightly flick at the small hood at the top of Ororo's flower.

Seeing this and hearing Ororo moaning agreeably Harry lined himself up with his African lover first, slowly sinking his cock into her waiting pussy. He took up a slow rhythm at first while putting his arms on either side of Jean and Ororo's bodies. At the same time he began kissing and nuzzling at Jean's back causing the redhead to moan in delight under him. "MMm… can't get enough of this Harry, fucking intoxicating!"

She and Ororo exchanged heated kisses, while Ororo slowly lost herself once more to Harry's rhythm, her arms around Jean moving to grab Harry by the head pulling him down past Jean to kiss him lovingly on the lips. "Harder my love!" she murmured pulling back. "Faster!"

"As, the, the lady co-, commands!" Harry said, his voice deeper than normal and disjointed, showing how hard it had been for him to keep to such a slow pace. Gratefully Harry sped up, his hips now slapping into Ororo where they met while his chest did the same to Jean who had not moved from where she straddled Ororo yet.

A moment later Jean moved slowly up Ororo's body, stopping at her breasts for a moment her legs on either side of Ororo's chest. She reached down, and played with Ororo's breasts while Ororo continued to rock under Harry's thrusts. Moving forward and to the side slightly, she let her pussy glide over one of Ororo's nipples several times before turning around and situating herself over Ororo's head, her hands going down to kneed Ororo's breasts. Ororo's hands willingly moved with her, gripping her thighs as Ororo leaned up and began to lick and nibble at Jean's soaked nether regions.

Both girls were so worked up that the neither of them could last for long, and Harry's own self-control was losing the battle quickly. At that point he suddenly remembered to use a contraceptive spell on Ororo and himself, shaking his head at having forgotten.

Jean saw the glow and smiled tenderly at Harry's thoughtfulness, though it was somewhat redundant. She knew Ororo had been taking contraceptive pills since that night Harry had returned after defeating Magneto. Ororo had even gotten Jean to start taking them when she moved into the castle with them. Still, Harry was a magical so a magical contraceptive on top of a normal contraceptive made for good sense.

Harry and Jean leaned forward sharing a deep kiss for a moment while Harry picked up speed again, pushing Ororo over the edge. Ororo, who had been licking and nibbling at her Jean's clit, bit down slightly in response before she could stop herself, which sent Jean over the edge for a second time.

Feeling his African lover clenching around him Harry bellowed "Ororo!" and came thrusting in one last time as he did so. He fell forward slightly as Jean did the same, leaning against one another murmuring "I love you," into one another's ear while they recovered.

Below them Ororo, almost exhausted from the three orgasms in such quick succession smiled slightly tapping Jean's thigh to get her to move to one side. After Jean did so, Ororo sat up slightly, while Harry withdrew from inside her. She saw he was still hard, and licked her lips before twisting her body around so that her face was facing Harry's cock. He shivered as her breath hit it and she looked up at him wickedly. "I hope you're not done yet?"

Harry laughed, reaching down to run his hands through her hair as she leaned forward slightly, causing him to hiss as her tongue played across the head of his cock. "With the two of you as my muses? I don't think so."

End Lemon

OOOOOOO

The next day the trio slept in, before very reluctantly heading up to the Hellion, with the rest of the newly named Custodes Mundi, before Harry teleported down to grab Reed and Susan. It had been decided the he and Jean would be in joint command. Reed was in command of the running of the ship. Jean would handle any combat related issues that came up and keep the crew training while making certain the Kree 'prisoners' going along didn't do anything.

Besides the team Jean had decided on, they were taking Mar'vell, his girlfriend Una, and several other pale skinned Kree. They had all given their word not to act out in return for being allowed to live on Earth after the mission was over as normal citizens. One of them was a communications tech who was the most vocal among the prisoners when talking about his dislike for the Kree society. Douglas had also already agreed to go to handle the programming issues that popped up occasionally. He, Jean, the com tech, Mar'vell and a sensor tech composed the ship's bridge crew.

Looking over at him now, Harry could see Douglas working with Hisako as they stared into one of the computer screens on the repaired bridge. They were preparing some kind of program to overwrite someone's sent image with that of the former captain. This way the person they chose to act as the captain would be seen from other ships as Yon'Rogg but it would be much more reactive than a program to simply show his image from stored data would have been.

Paige stood behind him leaning over Douglas' shoulder in such a way that her chest rubbed against his back and neck and Harry rolled his eyes. The Kentucky native was apparently trying to stake her claim on Douglas in no uncertain terms, though Harry didn't think Hisako was actually a threat in that area. Watching Douglas blush so much that his face looked as if it was about to burst into flame was amusing however. It gave Harry something to do for the few moments it took Jean to return from flying down to the engine room to talk to Reed.

He turned when the bridge door opened, showing Ororo carrying a clipboard, which seemed so anachronistic surrounded by the high tech of the bridge. But Ororo liked to have a physical list to check off rather than a computerized one. "All the supplies are stored." She reported. "Final tests of the available weapons checked out, and a visual of the outside of the ship shows nothing that would hint the fact that it's been taken over, thanks to last night's work by the space-bots. So long as they haven't already totally written the ship off, we hopefully will be able to get in and out of the junk system quickly."

From where he sat nearby Mar'vell nodded. "I don't think the junk systems are patrolled routinely, and they only have a bare minimum human element. It's mostly automated, and it would take incredibly bad luck for us to be there at the same time a pickup fleet came through."

"Good to know, though I'd prefer not to have to rely on chance and luck." Harry retorted, shaking his head. He moved over to Ororo, putting one arm around her waist. "You can't handle everything yourself Harry, no matter how much you want to." She murmured into his ear, easily able to see how anxious he was. "Jean and the others will be able to handle this easily enough, and Emma was right. You need to stay here."

"I don't like the fact that we're making militarily strategic decisions based on good PR and business sense." He said, his voice more serious than Ororo had expected. She looked at him and she realized that this was one of the main reasons why he was bothered by it, not just his concern for the people going, particularly Jean. "I understand the necessity, but I don't like it. It leaves us vulnerable to sudden surprises, and I am worried we're spreading ourselves too thin."

"Harry, paranoia in our line of work is a necessity, almost a survival trait. But it can be taken to extremes. Control what you can, and let the rest handle itself. You could not have chosen a better team to go, and we still have a sufficient team on hand, especially with Johnny and Ben willing to aid us or vice versa at need. Now," she said briskly. "Straighten up and smile, Jean and the others are heading off into the great beyond and they don't need to hear your concerns."

Watching as Jean entered the bridge, Harry realized that Ororo was right.

Jean was effervescent, literally sparkling and not just because of her telekinetic powers going haywire due to her happiness. Her eyes were glowing, and Jean had a smile on her face almost as wide as the one she wore during cuddle time after their lovemaking. She hugged both of her lovers one after the other than both combined, grinning eagerly. "We're going to be the first humans to ever leave the solar system!"

"Well technically, the Fantastic Four of have left it a few times on their adventures. But we'll be the first to actually leave on a ship! And alternate dimensions and other crap like that don't count. Susan and Reed are happy about it too, they're calling it their honeymoon anniversary, even if the date doesn't align."

Harry chuckled, shaking his head. The Richards had said goodbye to their family an hour ago, before having Harry teleport them up to the Hellion, and he had seen how they were almost giddy about the opportunity. The fact Reed had brought along at least a ton of scanning equipment, and had convinced Harry and Jean they needed to stop for astrophysics experiments at some point was part of it. The rest was simply having so much time to themselves where no crisis could get to them was the rest.

Of course they had left Madame Harkness in charge of looking after Franklin, with Ben and Johnny around at need. But Harry had surreptitiously asked the Madame to allow him to send over a house-elf to help. She had agreed to that, though refused to let Tibby, the house-elf Harry had chosen, do anything except in emergencies, which Harry was fine with. He had also given her an emergency Portkey, just in case. Harry would also make certain to stop by at least once a week.

Still chuckling Harry leaned forward to kiss Jean on the lips. She responded to it enthusiastically, their hands going around one another's waist for a brief moment. Then she pulled back, pushing lightly at Harry's chest. "If we keep doing that, we'll never leave."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Ororo said laughing quietly as she moved forward to share her own kiss with Jean. "Stay safe." she ordered after pulling back, her forehead against Jean's. "The unexpected can always occur, and I do not want it to occur to you. To any of you." She said looking around at the others. They all murmured reassurances, while Nikolai, who was sitting in the captain's chair smirked.

Jean nodded then looked at Harry who nodded as well, and she moved over to the interior communications console. Tapping a few buttons she got Reed in the engine room. "Reed, are you ready?"

"Power core is operational, engine is go, shields are up, weapons on standby. We are ready to go."

Harry motioned to the others who were not going on this trip to join him. "Good luck, we'll see you when you get back." He said to them all, nodding his head. He had explained the importance of this mission to the team the day before, and all of them knew the importance of this mission and had even volunteered when asked to go.

He looked over at Jean and said. "Come back safe." He kissed her a final time before moving back to join the others while Ororo gently removed her arm from around Jean's shoulders before doing the same. The two of them waved one last time, then Harry and the rest of the group that was staying on Earth teleported down to Hogwarts.

Jean stood for a moment looking at the place where they had been, her happiness dimming for a moment, then her smile broadened into a wide grin as she turned back to the bridge members. "Let's go." she said simply.

From his position Douglas muttered 'to boldly go' and then felt a telepathic slap upside the head.

"None of that, I am not a Trekkie we are not trekkers understand? Stupid computers and their idiotic ability to create anything out of literally nothing! Do they have any idea about the computing power that would require! And their dumb mass ship designs." Jean moved off still mumbling imprecations as she keyed in the ship's navigational orders.

Behind her Douglas pouted a little, but nodded. Slowly, the Hellion pulled away from Earth's orbit, moving out past its gravity well swiftly before disappearing into hyperspace.

OOOOOOO

The very next day, Harry took a flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York. For this Harry had to be seen to be arriving in America, and he hadn't yet made the time to buy his own personal airplane. He wanted to talk to Tony Stark about that, but was waiting for Tony to get back to him about the AI core.

Almost immediately upon the plane's landing he felt Emma's telepathic touch, asking for permission to enter his mind, barely felt outside his mental invisibility cloak, like a wind against the canvas of a tent. Harry allowed the connection, once again lifting up a small portion of his invisibility cloak to allow her into that section.

"Are you ready for this Harry?" she asked, while she was getting into her own limo at her mansion. The two of them would meet outside the hellfire club, and go from there.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Remember this isn't the first time I've had to act out a role in public, Emma. I'm actually quite proud of my Weatherby persona and I even had to do that kind of thing back in my old dimension. Is there any new development with the Hellfire Club or with the public? I've been so busy lately getting Jean and Company ready for their mission, that I haven't been able to keep up with it, sorry we haven't had time to talk."

In fact he had been so busy on the spaceborne aspects of his work that he had been unable to keep up with anything dirtside. His companies were running well enough for now, but Harry knew he needed to make some decisions there, and in particular about the implications of Arc Technologies in the near future, specifically whether or not to run it like Saab, a self-sustaining company rather than an offshoot of Magical Minds. Would he be simply selling all the arc reactors like the first, or would he go into the energy business? Emma and Ororo both felt he should, but at the moment there was simply so much stuff that only Harry could do that stuff like that decision didn't seem important right now.

Harry hadn't even had time to read Dennis' reports lately, though Dennis hadn't been reporting much. He was too busy trying to hunt down two specific areas of interest to care about public opinion overmuch. One was backtracking Sabretooth and Forearm's activities before the attempted heist in Paris. He had found several safe-houses this way, and had alerted the local authorities to them considering the Custodes Mundi didn't have the manpower just now to take care of that on their own. But Dennis hadn't turned up any hint as to who had been giving them commands or connecting Sabretooth and Forearm to any larger cell.

The second was his ongoing search for whoever was instigating the more brutal clashes between human hate groups and mutants worldwide. There had been several clashes where mutants with offensive powers had defended themselves by killing their attackers before disappearing off the grid, and others where the human hate groups had beaten or even killed mutants. Dennis wasn't having much luck finding the instigator behind these clashes but he and Harry were now certain that there was someone behind it. Whether that was Magneto or someone else was the question, as was their goal. The mutants that had disappeared after being attacked were worrisome though.

"The public's opinion of you hasn't dipped since the interview here in America, worldwide is a different issue. I'm getting rumbles of anger in China as well as Russia because you won't sell to any of their hospitals let alone them because of your stance on human rights and there are lots of little countries out there who are pissed about it as well. That is causing some issues here in America as well, but not much, even when added to your thumbing your nose at the FDA, rejecting any more federal investigations into your potions. The government might care about its prerogative there, but the public is willing to accept the Brit's word on them, and hospitals countrywide are almost desperate to begin stocking them.

"In fact, there is a slow but growing push for the government to decide what to do about mutants, one way or another. Mind you, there is some backlash against you personally. Lots of people are saying that you must be a mutant because you are backing their rights, and that your potions are based off your power somehow. But your connection to the Fantastic Four and their popularity is winning you the benefit of the doubt despite what certain media outlets are trying to do to you." Emma replied.

"What they're trying to do to me?" Harry asked quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"You're foreign, pro-mutant and you're not a liberal, that is a double whammy for some of the news companies, and the rest don't like the fact you stated that the alien races the FF have faced would not be interested in diplomatic discussion." Emma replied dryly. "Trust me, the media outlets all have their positions in the range of politics, and will skew everything the way the position tell them to. However, Paris is still on your side, and has bluntly ordered her media companies to play it straight with you. Considering that playing it straight with you is precisely what we want, that's magnificent. So long as that remains the case we're golden. Though we might want to do some more public appearances, specifically you and one of your lady friends in a public setting, a dinner or something like that."

"Will that wait until after we've finished trapping Shaw?"

"Probably not." Emma replied after a moment smiling thoughtfully and sending that image through their connection. "I would recommend Ororo. Seeing Jean with you in public might cause issues not least of which her parents might recognize her as well as former friends. And before you think about using those spells of yours that mess with people's memories or anything like that, you want your lady to be recognizable. And while Ororo will have some issues if anyone recognizes her, her connection to the Institute is the only issue there."

"And as much as I hate to say it, Ororo has this air about her that neither Jean nor I can have. I can do coolly businesslike, coldly furious and unemotional, and well haughty and arrogant, but there is a difference between that and having every bone of your body scream out that you're royalty." Emma was just a little jealous about that actually. She was of course Queen of the Hellfire Club, but even Paris couldn't seem as regal or personally powerful as Ororo could.

"I don't think I could do that anyway not in public," Harry replied over the telepathic link, shaking his head slightly. He sped up his steps, waving aside several reporters who were hurrying toward him while he exited the airport, making his way quickly to the waiting limo.

After he gave the driver his instructions, Harry resumed the mental conversation. "The more people that are paying attention to you, well let's just say that the power behind that spell would be impossible to sustain for any stretch of time without exhausting myself. All right, that's the public aspect done with, remind me later to actually hire someone to handle my personal PR. I've got PR people for my companies of course, but not one for me personally, and it's not fair to you for me to have to rely on you for that."

"So noted." Emma replied dryly. "Thankfully however my companies are already set up to run by themselves, with me checking in on them only every other week or so." Of course, Emma owned several dozen companies large and small, so that still made for quite a bit of work but it didn't hold a candle to the amount of work Harry put in on a day-to-day basis on all of his various projects. "In other news, Edward Buckman is going to be at the Hellfire Club today, as well as Leyland."

"Interesting." Harry mused. "So which should be our priority? I mean, who should I try to ingratiate myself to?"

"None of them." Emma replied quickly. "Don't try to do anything, other than seem cool or even antagonistic toward me. Other than that, be yourself, draw them in naturally. I have no idea how Buckman is going to act towards you, given your relationship with the Fantastic Four. I have no idea his opinion on them, whether or not he sees them as jumped up unnatural mutants or something like that, but both he and Shaw would smell a rat if you tried to become too friendly with them."

"Very well." Harry replied with a nod. He was still sore about having been called away from taking out Shaw and his team before, not that he was unhappy to have rescued Cordelia but the timing had been horrible. If he had been able to do that then whatever Emma had said after about the long term consequences of such they still would've only had to deal with Buckman, which Harry was firmly of the opinion would've been a better option.

The two made telepathic small talk for time while their respective limos moved through New York, with Emma arriving half an hour before Harry thanks to setting out earlier. When Harry was ushered inside the club he stood a moment taking the interior in, shaking his head mentally. The London Branch was pretty much set up in the same manner, which amused him somewhat. That was especially humorous considering that several of the members of the London Branch were very much against the upstart New York branch, but it was pretty clear that their branch while old had been almost entirely superseded by this one.

He moved to the bar where he ordered a gin and tonic. A moment later he heard a very cool female voice behind him. "Mr. Potter you're rather late."

Harry turned to see Emma standing behind him, her face cold cool and distant which matched their public personas. Harry's face which had been smiling faintly, closed down slightly as he raised his glass to her. "Ms. Frost, I do apologize but I have yet to purchase a personal plane, I thought I sent you a memo about that. You refused to loan me yours."

"I gave you the loan of Frost Pharmaceutical's distribution network." she replied coolly. "You can afford to buy your own plane. Unless of course you blew all of your savings on that car of yours. If you would please follow me, you have to be announced formally to the… upper ranks."

"The Pagani was a magnificent purchase." Harry said standing up and moving towards her. "Just because you Americans seem to think that you need to kowtow to the lack of common sense among your populace is no reason for me not to have a fast car. Besides, every man must have one precious thing."

Emma scoffed a little, then without another word led him away towards the staircase and up onto the second level then into the meeting room of the inner circle. Shaw was sitting there already, though there was a marked space between him and Harry Leyland. Across from Shaw, Edward Buckman sat, with Paris by his side.

As the senior member, Edward stood up bowing his head slightly not in deference, but in respect to Harry Potter's position and wealth if not the man himself. "Welcome Mr. Potter to the Hellfire Club of New York. We… we welcome you as an equal and we… we rejoice in your taking your place as the Red King. Take your place at our table, and be welcome."

Over the next hour or so Harry talked with all of the inner circle, during which they all formed their own opinions of him. Shaw felt him a bit too idealistic, and far too much of a Samaritan, but personally capable, and confident, a veteran of a very nasty war by all accounts, which Sebastion pressed him on, receiving somewhat vague accounts of battles but gruesome details about the aftermath of said or raids by the 'Death Eaters'. This gave him a good idea of Harry's skills, but no hint as to whether he really was a mutant or not. Edward came to much the same conclusion, unable to decide if Harry was human and naïve or mutant and therefore a threat. Which was a shame considering the youth was competent, intelligent and witty, all of which Edward liked in allies. Yet until he could find out if Harry was a mutant, he would keep Harry at arm's length. No, his main concern was his own enterprises at present and what happened to Pierce and how he could profit from it.

Both Kings and even Leland realized there was some animosity between Harry and Emma however, which all three saw as a good sign. Edward reached the conclusion that the two of them were simply too alike, and too competent to enjoy being around one another. Emma and Harry were of an age after all, and Emma was not used to having other people her own age be even more successful than as she was, and that rubbed her the wrong way, exacerbated by Harry's personality and the swiftness of said success. After all, Emma didn't build the companies she owned, she inherited them, something Harry actually slyly pointed out during the discussion.

Shaw on the other hand saw their dislike for one another as an opportunity. When and how to take advantage of it however eluded him for the moment.

Only Paris knew the two were closer than they appeared, and while on the surface she didn't show anything, inside she was laughing fit to burst at how the two were trying to hook Shaw. Thus as Emma was retiring from the Club for the evening, well after Harry had already made his excuses, needing to head back to Britain immediately, Paris paused on her own way out to exchange a brief word. "Happy fishing my dear." She murmured as the two passed one another, her voice so low it wouldn't be picked up by any nearby listening device.

"Thank you, the fish does seem to have seen the bait." Emma replied in a similar volume then smiled at the other woman before the two separated.

OOOOOOO

It had taken him several weeks to realize that his Mistress was not paying attention to him not because she was busy elsewhere, but because something else was actively taking her attention, someone else. That could not be born. If someone else was trying to get Mistress Death's attention, that someone else would be 'silenced' with extreme prejudice. Thanos the Mad Titan was not one to allow such an effrontery. He could not after all discern who had taken her attention away from him. She was simply not paying attention at all to him, which did not let him gather further information.

So instead, he'd gone in search of ways to bring Mistress Death's attention back to him. One such way was brought to his attention several days past, when long-range sensors of the Skrull Empire detected an unusual energy source coming from a hitherto mostly unnoticed and largely unimportant system. Thanos had his ship's systems routinely piggybacked on such sensor nets, he didn't have the amount of industry the various empires did, even if none of them could match his intelligence, personal strength or technology.

The Skrull's sensor systems could only read it as an odd burst of energy carrying certain odd energy particles. But Thanos had long studied Mistress Death, and knew much about her counterpart as well. It was weaker than normal, certainly, but had some odd wavelengths to it, which his systems were eventually able to parse out as being telekinetic in nature, and there was a bit more that told him it was from an individual rather than the original.

This pointed to only one thing: the Phoenix Force had taken an avatar. That was excellent, it gave Thanos a suitable target. After all, killing the avatar of her alternate could not fail to gain him Mistress Death's attention once more.

He was utterly wrong about this. Lady Death could have emotions, and she was very technically female. But she was not in love with her own power. To her she was simply Death, the ending, you cannot woo the ultimate ending. Indeed, she was rather fascinated with life, though few knew it.

Thanos sent a probe he had slipped in, and it was able to find signs of the Phoenix Force as well as gather the two creatures he wished to turn to his own advantage. One was remarkably easy, the promise of a monetary payment after the job plus letting him watch the other one Thanos was going to use die after Thanos was done with him was enough for him.

The other however was much more difficult. His alter ego, a weak human was actually quite bright, and evaded the probes several times until he once again lost control. When he did, the probes moved in. In his more useful form the human didn't have enough mental acuity to fight the effects the probe had on its mind. Those effects were simple beyond making certain it didn't see Thanos or the other pawn as enemies. One effect was to keep the pawn in a permanent rage which would alas wear off after a day or two, and the other was to simply point him in the right direction.

OOOOOOO

Harry looked at Piotr as he stood in front of him in the entrance hall, shaking his head in amusement. "It looks as if Illyana's magical powers are coming along quite a bit faster than I had expected. Did she do that as part of a prank, or did you do something to irritate her?"

"A little bit of both I'm afraid," Piotr said ignoring the snickering going on around them. That was caused by the fact that Piotr had various paint colors splashed all over him, except it wasn't actually paint. Instead the effect was as if his body had been changed via a color change charm applied to various areas to look like a rainbow.

"Outside of the two of us working on helping to reorganize the Castle and moving me out of the dormitory tower Illyana and I haven't spent much time together lately and I was forced to turn her down this morning when she asked if she and I could go for a nature walk." Piotr went on. "Illyana knows mornings are for training, so she shouldn't have been that irritated, but then she did this to me, so I don't know if she really was irritated, or if this was indeed just a prank and Illyana felt the timing was right for it."

"Probably a little of both." Ororo said holding up one hand to hide her smile from the temporarily technicolor Russian. "I wonder," she said a moment later cocking her head to one side "If the colors would carry over to your metal form?"

"I am not wishful to see if so!" Piotr said with feeling causing Harry and Ororo to laugh.

After moment however Harry got control of himself enough to hit the large Russian youth with a Finite Incantatum. The colors gradually disappeared, causing a 'AWWWW' to go around rest of the team. "We don't have anything planned for the team this evening so I think you should take the time to hang out with her tonight. Even as a prank this was a call for brotherly attention, best to respond before it escalates. In fact, why don't you find our copy of the musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat? I think it's rather appropriate, and I bet you'll get an apology at the end."

Of course Murphy's Law demanded that such a presumption be answered in the appropriate manner. So seconds later a house-elf popped in next to them bowing his head politely. "Masters, Mr. Denny asks you to join him in his office, he says there is being something going on hes wishes you to be seeing."

"When am I going to learn not to tempt fate?" Harry murmured shaking his head as the feeling congealed inside of him that the shoe he had been fearing since Jean left Friday was just about to drop. However when he spoke to the team his voice was serious. "Get your gear everyone, and Piotr, that includes the Colossus armor. Just in case."

It was the difference between plate and chain mail really. The Juggernaut armor was heavy plate mail of the highest quality and in Colossus' case it was plate mail over plate mail. The suits most of the team wore were lined with the equivalent of chain mail, tiny discs of Balthakk's version of the armor, which was lighter in itself then the red of Cyttorak, not quite as tough but much lighter which allowed for more movement. Colossus had been practicing with the Juggernaut armor however and the weight of the armor didn't bother him a bit, so it made sense to give the team's strongman more durability.

About 20 minutes later they all congregated in the spymaster's room, and Colossus wasn't the only one to start as he saw Harry wearing his magical crisis suit out in the open rather than covered by an illusion. On his back was the mask of it, which had a microphone like the rest of the team, and he also wore the original plate and vambraces of Balthakk, the plate having been repaired long since from the damage it had taken fighting Mephisto. "You really are worried about this aren't you?" Amara asked.

"I am." Harry said with a nod. "Things have been going too well lately, and we're understrength." Before anyone could ask how anyone would be able to know that, the Harry held up a hand. "I know that there is no way that any of our various enemies out there could know about that, but chance and ill luck play a factor, and Murphy's Law has always had it in for me." With that he turned to look at Dennis. "What've you got for us?"

Something beyond puzzling." The older man replied, turning his computer's rather old-fashioned screen to face them. He didn't like using the hard light systems, claiming they bothered him because their controls didn't click under his fingers. "This is a live broadcast. It's from the outskirts of Montreal."

On the screen was the monster that Harry recognized as the Hulk. He was rampaging through what looked like a suburb while police desperately tried to evacuate people from around it. He was fighting some kind of orange-furred beast, who apparently was losing badly judging by the way he was being thrown around, along with someone else flying around in a suit that looked vaguely like the Red Guardians, only with the colors of the Canadian Maple leaf. There were at least two bodies in the rubble wearing other spandex suits that seemed to imply that they had been a part of some superhero team, though Harry had never heard of any of them.

"Alpha Flight." Dennis said promptly at Harry's look, shaking his head. "There have been rumors of their creation but I barely knew that there was more to it than their code-names before this. I wanted to finish compiling a list of all their members and powers at least before sharing it with you. But that's beside the point now."

Harry nodded slightly understanding his point. "All right, this looks bad, but…" he paused as another green skinned monstrosity appeared in the camera, flinging aside the battered and almost certainly dead body of another superhero. "Who is that?"

"The Abomination is his name in the media. Formerly Emil Blonsky, he was a Special Forces operative assigned to the Hulkbusters. He was given a formula to create a soldier that could fight the Hulk on even terms by General 'Thunderbolt' Ross. It didn't work and was one of the reasons why Ross was removed from command then quietly retired recently."

Harry's cocked his head, staring at Dennis. "I presume that's why you're calling us, the fact that these two were working together?" While Harry was all for helping out other people, and would certainly be willing to fight the Hulk if he had to defend civilian lives, it wasn't something he wanted to go out of his way to do, and with all he'd seen from the Hulk if Alpha Flight could lead it away from the city then the Hulk wouldn't bother with searching out people.

"They hate each other." Dennis replied with a nod. "But they're working together here, which is astonishing. Worse, the Hulk almost never enters cities, Banner tries to stay away from them, but here he is trying to actually assault Montreal."

Ororo frowned. "Does the Hulk have any kind of mental defenses?" Then she shook her head. "Stupid question, how are we supposed to know the answer to that one? Sorry Dennis."

As they watched, the cameraman was smashed to one side by some flying debris, and the camera cut off. Everyone turned to look at Harry who frowned thinking hard. Either one of them would be tough, but together they are a very potent threat, which doesn't count whoever is controlling them and forcing them to work together. Despite a certain amount of reluctance to get it stuck in with these two until said puppeteer showed himself Harry knew they had to get involved. "All right, Ororo call the Baxter building,Ben will wish to join us at least, and Johnny might be able to help as well."

"What about the X-Men?" Ororo asked.

Harry shook his head. "You can call Scott, but I doubt it. Charles asked me to send over a batch of potions the other night, apparently the X-men ran into some issue down in New Orleans and had a major set to in a swamp near there. I doubt they're in any condition to help us."

He was right about that, the only one who was even partially capable of joining them was Rogue. The others were all busy convalescing. The X-men had gone down to New Orleans to try to talk to a young mutant there, a very young boy who could change his senses into that of different animals. He had joined up with the local thieves Guild, only to run into several other mutants who had done the same, along with getting involved in a feud between said Guild and the assassins.

The assassins Guild however was now defunct, having lost more than two thirds of its members to the team, most of the thieves in question were in custody of the police thanks to dumping them outside the police precinct with a lot of their stolen goods, and the young teleporter had agreed to join them here in the mansion, though had no interest in joining the X-men. Success, but at a physical cost to the team that had most of them laying up for one reason or another.

"Meanwhile I'll head down to Balder and tell him we won't be able to start trading today." This would be first time the Asgardians and Harry got together to trade as per their treaty, but this was more important. "Maybe I can convince him to join in." It turned out this was far easier that Harry had predicted. Balder was eager to fight the Hulk, and test his mettle against the green behemoth, who reminded him of the Giants and trolls of his homeland.

Nor was he the only Asgardian who was interested in what was occurring.

OOOOOOO

The dream began with nothingness, but with sound. 'Ring, clang,' and then the sound of a 'thump' as a body hit the ground heavily. "Don't just hack it things ******!" Thor's own voice bellowed, though there was more than remonstration in his tone, there was affection. That last wasn't quite the right word, there was something else there, something more than mere affection that Thor's sleeping mind couldn't quite grasp. Much like some of the words that were being spoken, yet his mind could not grasp them. "You watch your ******, see what he does."

There was another series of what Thor knew to be the exchange of sword or possibly axe blows, with Thor's voice giving a running commentary, interspersed with a young boys, no, not young, almost on the cusp of manhood but not quite there, voice responding. It ended the same way as the initial one, with a 'thump' of a body hitting the ground at this time Thor laughed boisterously as was his wont. "Well done! Now if only you could grow a beard as well as you can wield a sword I could almost call you a man!"

There were sounds of grumbling no doubt coming from the older boy while the younger laughed. "I'll get there eventually, I swear I'll make you proud of me ******." Those pauses were loud and profound, blocking something, something that was important, yet for the life of him Thor couldn't grasp them.

A third voice shouted from afar. This voice however was that of a young girl. "*******,******* says she'd like your help with the goats!"

Thor's shouted back "I'll be right there ******."

The voices faded away, replaced by an image this time of a hall. It was not his father's hall, this was much more homely, much more present and personal. There seemed to be carousing going on along the sides of the hall, but not at the center. There Thor himself was at the head of a table gazing out over the rest. Directly in front of his table were two men who were pointedly not looking at one another instead staring straight ahead. All around the hall were warriors, not Asgardians but men, simple warriors yet true and honest. Thor felt a sense of camaraderie with these men, and it was obvious they trusted him as they looked to him in that image for something.

This image didn't have any sound, it was simply an image, a replay of a visual memory maybe with no accompanying sound. Thor felt himself point at one of the men, then at the other and he seemed to say something which most of the men there agreed with if their smiling shouts were anything to go by. Then Thor said something else which made one man scowl but all the other men nodded agreement with. Then Thor felt himself stand up shouting then men and women carrying food came in.

The image flickered. Now it was as if Thor was finishing a journey. He was being welcomed into a village somewhere by simple rustic folk. Fathers, sons, wives, daughters all came out to greet him with laughs and smiles.

Then there was another image, one which carried overtones of extreme embarrassment and anger, but which at least had sound. "Why must I do this again?"

"How else will you be able to enter Thyrm's hall?" Said a laughing voice, and Thor felt himself turn, staring at a man who he knew to be his brother Loki, though he looked much older for some reason. His hair was streaked with gray rather than dark brown, though his eyes were as lively and intelligent as ever, his fingers where they were clasped on a belt buckle still seemed to be dexterous and nimble. Nimble seemed to be a good word to describe Loki in any event, but here his eyes were sparkling in a way that Thor hadn't seen in far too long. "Besides, you look so pretty."

"Don't make me thump you." said Thor, though some of the anger had leached out of his voice at the commiserating tone despite the words. It came back however when he felt his body being turned gently back to face a mirror. The mirror showed Thor dressed up in a woman's dress, his hair, which was blanked out for some reason, pressed down to cover his eyes and face somewhat, but the rest of it was done up in an intricate braid down his back. "This will never work!" Thor said in a whining tone of voice, though he would thump anyone who said it. "What about my beard? That will give the game away!"

"You've never heard of bearded women?" said Freya, shaking her head, her necklace the Brinsingamen rattling gently in its place on her bosom. To say the Vanir goddess of beauty and fertility had a lot to lose if this ruse didn't work was an understatement. Thus she was leading the girls who were helping Thor get ready, a laugh in her voice much like all the others around them. "Besides, we can shave that easily enough."

"Never!" Thor bellowed leaning back but he felt two pairs of hands on his shoulders.

"Calmly my son." said a deep voice and he turned to find his father standing there, only a faint smile showing his own amusement. Still there was a seriousness in his one eye, and he nodded over at Loki. "Loki here will put a glamour on your face, which will hide your actual features, that plus the bridal veil will cover even your beard. Alas it cannot cover your entire body, else there would be no reason for you to go through this charade. But giants never look too closely at faces in any event, they simply notice the body type. You are…" Odin paused and went on more delicately "rather large for a woman, but that'll be all to the good for them."

Thor nodded, mollified somewhat and Odin left the hall where Thor was being prepared for this bit of subterfuge. Loki came forward, gently tapping out an intricate tattoo on Thor's face as his illusion based magic went to work. "You'll thump me will you?" He murmured wickedly. "You'd have to catch me first, and the last time I looked, I'm still faster and far cagier than you, -."

"Ahh, but I'd only have to catch you the once." Thor laughed, clapping the older, slighter man on the shoulder.

Loki smirked back, then nodded his head seriously. "When we get in there, let me do the talking until the time comes. We'll only get one shot at reclaiming Mjöllnir, we can't afford to fail because of a wrong word said at the wrong time. And well I know the strength of your arm Thor, but…" and here Loki's eyes glimmered slightly with seriousness. "Make sure that your blow strikes true."

A moment later Thor awoke as someone shook him by the shoulder. "What?" he looked around shaking his head, the words and images of his dreams fading rapidly so that he could not have recalled them five minutes later. "Jane? What's wrong?"

"The Hulk's on the news." she said tersely. "I know you wanted to be told if he showed up again, but this is something different." She gestured over to where her TV was showing the news from Montreal. "They need you up there Thor."

Thor watched for a few moments, then nodded grimly. "Aye, I think you're right."

OOOOOOO

Nick Fury too had seen what was going on, and right now he was grateful (for the first time) his new body didn't have any hair, else he'd be pulling it out. "God damnit, you can't just waive the 'out of our jurisdiction card' for this! The Hulk is our jurisdiction and people are dying out there while you sit there and order me and mine to remain out of it!? What kind of fucked up thought process can justify that!"

The shadowy men and women in the com screens that surrounded him leaned back slightly startled by his vehemence. Yet when one of them spoke, his voice was firm. "Canada has specifically told SHIELD it cannot enter its sovereign territory without the direct invitation of its Prime Minister. Until we get that, you are to remain on standby."

"Fine, then I'm fucking moving the helacarrier to the Canadian border near as I can to Montreal. And I'm recalling Hawkeye and Black Widow. Maybe she can bring Stark along…"

"Negative." Another 'councilor' said firmly. "You may move the helacarrier, but you are not authorized to send in any land forces. Judging from the reports, the Abomination and Hulk are tearing into any forces that try to stand up to them, and you don't have anything yet that can stand up to either of them. If this had happened a few months down the line, we'd authorize your assault now, Canada's demand be damned. It would make a magnificent show of SHIELD's abilities, but as it is…" The shadowy figure shook his head.

"Then what, councilors, are you telling me you want SHIELD to do?" Fury asked grimly, his mouth set in a thin line.

"If push comes to shove, you'll be able to aid the evacuation of the city. After that, we'll authorize a nuclear strike. Better that than throwing good money after bad." Another councilor said, causing Fury to pale in shock.

OOOOOOO

By the time Thor was in motion Harry had assembled his team. Colossus, Magma, Storm, Psylocke, the Human Torch, the Thing and himself. Hisako and Illyich had both wanted to volunteer for this, citing the fact that Custodes Mundi was understaffed at present, but Harry had shot them all down. They were both too young to let him willingly bring either into battle, especially one like this. They were up in High Note as he moved across the orbit of Earth, to right above Montreal from where they would fly down.

Harry had used the time wisely, going over several plans with the team as to what they would be doing once they landed, as well as how they were going to have to deal with the civilians in the area, since by this point the battle had reached the city proper.

That would be Storm's first task, getting all of the civilians anywhere around them away from the battle to someplace deeper into the city, along with the police and any other regular forces. The only other part of the plan that was similar in each was the need to get the Abomination and Hulk away from the city.

"Dennis says the one wearing a suit like a giant Canadian Flag is the one probably in charge, so I'll liaison with him to make certain the locals know not to shoot at us." Harry finished.

"Not like that'll be a big deal Guardian." Thing growled, looking at the news feed. Another cameraman had rushed forward, and the team could once again see what was going on, and the carnage was huge. As they watched a tank company, which had foolishly entered the city, possibly on order from a particularly idiotic politician, was buried under a skyscraper after the Hulk smashed through it from one end to another, taking out its entire ground floor.

"Damn it, I thought Banner had a little more control than this." Torch muttered, exchanging glances with Ben. "He hasn't ever attacked a city like this before. Been turned while passing through one, sure, but he's… he's really trying to cause some damage here." That was said in response to the image of the hulk smashing a car through the air into a group of fleeing men and women further down the street. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph…"

"Forsooth, the beasts do seem to be rampaging more than any troll or Giant I've ever heard of." Balder murmured, watching the news as he honed the edge of his blade, his eyes grim.

A gong sounded, signaling they had arrived above Montreal in Harry nodded grimly at them all. "Good luck, and remember, there's almost certainly someone else behind all this, what reason they're doing this we don't know, but keep your eyes and ears open just in case."

With that Harry gestured, casting an enlarged version of the Bubblehead charm which grew all around them. A moment later he teleported them down into the Earth's atmosphere, then raced further down toward the city.

OOOOOOO

Sasquatch was not having a good day. Oh, it had started out nicely enough, he had finally reconstructed this amazing blend of coffee that he had tasted once in Ontario at a small hole in the wall place that he could never find again. But after that, things had gone downhill rapidly. The news that the Hulk was heading towards Montreal was bad enough, the fact that it was tearing apart the landscape as it came was worse, because it was so out of character. Yes, the Hulk wasn't exactly gentle to the landscape, but purposefully ripping up trees, tossing them through buildings that it were well out of his line of advance, that was definitely out of character.

Then came the news that it was travelling with the Abomination, which was unheard of and worrying. Sasquatch knew how strong he was, and on his best day he couldn't match the Hulk. Not even the Wendigo could do that, and the Wendigo had been badly thrashed the last time it'd faced the Hulk. The Abomination was of by all accounts supposedly stronger than Hulk's base form, as it were, but Hulk seemed to gain strength the longer the fight went on, which was never a good thing for his opponent.

Sasquatch, Vindicator and the rest of the team had gone out after the two monsters when it became clear they were heading in a straight line for Montreal hoping to divert them. It had been a slaughter. The Abomination wasn't a mindless beast, Emil Blonsky retained his intelligence and training while the Hulk was simply a mindless killing machine now for some reason yet was willing to work with him, which was equally astonishing. Sasquatch would never forget watching the two animals rip Northstar apart as if he had been made of so much paper. And show as much interest afterwards as if he had simply been a wad of paper, tossing his body aside like trash.

He shook himself, pushing off the rubble of the apartment building he had been thrown into sighing faintly as he moved. His own durability was taking a major hit here, and the few moments he had laid there recovering and letting his body heal had been a necessity.

Above him in the air Vindicator, or James Hudson to his friends, was busy blasting out energy blasts at Abomination, taking his attention away from the downed Sasquatch. He was also thanking god that his wife was in Quebec her own powered suit nowhere near completion. That meant whatever else happened she would be safe, unlike the rest of his team who had simply not been ready for this. He was also cursing the fact he had urged the government to not allow Nick Fury's SHIELD access to Canadian soil. They certainly… well they might just have added more men to the slaughter but still, some backup would be really fucking nice.

Nearby Northstar's grieving sister Aurora was trying to do the same to the Hulk but wasn't having much luck. She was using her super speed and durability to perform hit and run attacks on the beast, which was keeping him from continuing to attack the populace, but that was all. Neither flyer was able to do enough damage to the green monsters to put them down or even turn them aside from their course further into the city. And the soldiers who had arrived to try and help were simply armed victims, none of their weapons did more than annoy either of the attackers.

Sasquatch was the only one who was even close to being at the proper weight class to take either of these monsters out, and right now he was feeling a little put upon. He resolutely did not look at the body of Shaman further down the street where he had fallen trying to defend a group of civilians, or the rubble of the restaurant where Snowbird had been thrown before the Hulk smashed the entire building to rubble.

At that moment, Abomination smacked Vindicator out of the sky for a moment, charging forward. "There you are you orange furred bastard! This time I'm going to break your neck freak!"

Grimly Sasquatch set himself to receive Abomination's charge, but they were interrupted by a voice from above them. "Hey ugly, Flame On!"

A bright lance of fire, almost white in its intensity, slammed into the Abomination. The green-scaled beast screamed in pain while the impact hurled him away from Sasquatch. Johnny Storm landed nodding politely to the Canadian. "Afternoon Sassy, we saw in the news that you all could use some help, so decided to stop by."

Nearby Guardian smirked from where he stood hidden at the moment by a heap of rubble as he looked over at Storm who was kneeling on the ground, her hands together as she began to create her magical area of control. "How long?"

"Done." she murmured, her eyes crackling not just with the normal white lightning of her mutant power but a deep gold as she used her magical abilities. "I've begun to transport the civilians away, mostly to the other side of the city and to a hospital at the far end of my range. It will take some time though, there are thousands of civilians in the area, and I am… I'm trying to prioritize the young and injured, but even that is draining me…." Tears began to form in Stom's eyes at the number of dead and dying she felt. There must have been hundreds of them.

"You have a few Pepper-up potions use them if you have to. Now it's time for me to do my part." Guardian said with a nod, leaping over the rubble his hands already weaving an incantation, specifically an illusion. He murmured into his walkie-talkie. "Torch, fall back out of the city to the north, but keep hitting both greenies when you can, I'm covering you and the rest of the team with an illusion now. Let's see how far away from the city I can get them chasing my mirages."

Those illusions were of Ben, Johnny and Reed armed with a large, futuristic looking laser beam, attacking the two monsters and then moving away, obviously leading them away from the city. The Abomination apparently didn't care so much about the city any longer, he wanted Torch. The fact that his surface scales were only now beginning to heal from the Torch's initial attack might point to his motivating factor there.

While Harry was being busy with that, Magma quickly made her way through the rubble of the city to talk to the man in the Canadian flag, who had moved over to join a girl wearing a white and black uniform plus the one the Human Torch had called Sasquatch. "We are the Custodes Mundi, my name's Magma, do you need any more help?"

Despite having been saved Vindicator was somewhat leery of being saved out of the blue like this, even with the Fantastic Four involved. "Who are you, and what are you doing on Canadian soil?"

"Saving Canadian lives!" Storm said sharply, from where she was still concentrating on teleporting civilians out of danger. She had just teleported a family who had been buried in their own apartment a moment ago, and she had felt how badly the two youngest of them were injured while she did. Thus she was not in the mood do deal with officious paranoid assholes. "Or are you saying you were doing fine a moment ago? If you think you can handle those two, we'll be happy to leave you to it as soon as we get them out of the city!"

He glared angrily back at her, the day's events getting to him but Sasquatch laid a huge hand on his shoulder. "Calm down." he ordered.

Vindicator glared up at him, but Sasquatch shook him lightly, or lightly for him, repeating, "Calm down. You'll have to excuse my leader Miss, we've lost several comrades today, and who knows how many lives those two monsters have taken. We do appreciate the help, trust us."

Storm huffed, going back to her work, while Magma nodded, reclaiming control of the conversation. "Are you to able to continue and what are your codenames please?" She glanced over at the woman in the white and black suit. She looked almost shocky, her hands trembling which seemed to gravitate up and down her entire body. It wasn't fear, Magma could tell, grief maybe?

Sasquatch gently put his arm around the girl's shoulder, hugging her lightly. He looked over at Guardian, who nodded, his eyes and shoulders drooping. "I think I'm the only one that's physically up for more," he said, shaking his mangy head. "If you think you can handle it from here be our guest. We've got friends to find… and bury."

"I'm sorry for your losses." Storm said, looking up again, shaking her head as she got up from where she had been kneeling. "And even more sorry about the civilian deaths. I teleported all of the civilians out of the area in a block wide radius around us and in the direction the illusions are leading those two. I think you would be best served in making certain that the civilians are organized and getting their wounded seen two, maybe call in more military aid for that. We might not have much warning if those two beasts try to turn back and head into the city again."

Sasquatch nodded his head, glad that she hadn't called his bluff. He was exhausted, it was all he could do to maintain his Sasquatch form at the moment.

Elsewhere, the Reed illusion had faded after the Hulk threw a concrete boulder that had shattered in midair a, its bits covering so wide an area the illusion couldn't dodge and both monsters had turned back to head further into the city. Before they could however Guardian's voice cracked out in a voice of stern command. "Colossus, Thing do it!"

Harry's illusions hadn't just been of the FF, it also covered the landscape, subtly altering it and covering the rest of the team as they moved into position.

Now at his shout Colossus and Thing raced forward, grabbing Hulk's arms from behind and then with a joint count of "One, two, Now!" flung him away from the city before the Thing bounced after him. "Let's rock!" Colossus couldn't jump nearly as far as the other two, but he followed after immediately.

The operation was called divide and conquer. It was the second of the five ideas Guardian had thought up to take the two beasts out. While the two strongest and most durable engaged the Hulk, the rest along with Guardian would take on the Abomination. Psylocke started the party by racing up from behind the scaled monster and slashing at his knees.

It was only the Abomination's previous training as a human that had enabled him to dodge the second blow but even so she had sliced deep into him with the first slash. He howled, hopping in one place for a moment as the pain of that shot hit him but then didn't have any time to do anything else as a huge fist of stone slammed into his face, throwing him several hundred yards through the air.

Guardian had conjured up that huge fist to hammer Abomination away while he stayed back for now, wanting to get a better handle on the Abomination's durability in terms of magic. A few mid and low level Cutting and piercing spells hit Blonsky, but he didn't even notice them, causing Guardian to frown.

Balder too moved forward, shield on one arm and sword in the other hand. "Have at thee, you son of a troll!"

The green-scaled beast was only able to shake his head for a moment before a madman with a sword and shield of all things was on him. However when the shield hammered into him like a blow from the Sasquatch and the sword took his ear off he screamed, then began to take Balder much more seriously even as his ear healed.

While Balder was used to fighting enemies that were stronger than him, and knew to rely on his speed and training, the Abomination was also trained, unlike most of those giants or trolls Balder had fought. He feinted at a blow to Balder's midriff, causing him to move his shield in that direction then kicked out landing a blow on Balder's leg which caused him to stumble slightly, enough to be open for another at head height, only for Psylocke to try to carve in his side. "Damn Bitch!"

"That's Ms. Bitch to you scaly!" Psylocke shouted, doing a split to duck underneath a roundhouse blow while lashing out at the Abomination's knee with her blade.

He jumped back, and might have caught her with another punch but Balder swiftly raised his blade, catching the Abomination's arm and slicing deep into its underside redirecting the blow. The Abomination scowled, but his elbow came up nearly clipping Balder on the side of the head, with Balder dodging by going into a roll. "Damn you stay still you little bitch-!"

When the Abomination turned to try and smash at Balder again, he saw a giant golem about three times his own height bringing down his fists in a hammer blow but the Abomination matched it with a punch that caught its fists, shattering the concrete and rock formation utterly.

"Latinium Malleus!" At that shout the Abomination had to dodge a massive hammer composed of lightning and something else which slammed into his previous position. "What the hell! First a reject from the medieval ages, then a golem, now lightning! What the fuck are you lot?"

"Custodes Mundi!" Psylocke shouted, slashing in along with Torch, who caught the Abomination in the back with a flame blast, though he shook it off. "We guard the world from arseholes like you!"

A second later still under a disillusion spell Guardian came around the wreckage of a gas station thrust out a hand, pointing at the ground underneath the Abomination. "Terra Hasta!" Instead of the normal dozen smaller spikes one giant spike spire of concrete and earth rose up from below the Abomination heaving upwards.

Abomination dodged backwards one step, one foot flashing out to smash the spikes before he grabbed up several bits of it hurling them at where Guardian was. They sailed straight through his body, showing that Guardian had been an illusion.

The Abomination leapt forward, covering the distance between himself and the illusion a in a single bound, his fist flashing out through the caricature. "And someone who can do illusions?"

"Now that would be telling." Guardian said, gesturing with his hands and several more spears of Earth shot up all around the Abomination. Still Blonsky dodged them all, jumping up and out of them easily enough then throwing a piece of a huge sign of some kind at where the voice had come from, which did nothing.

Despite retaining his intelligence Abomination was having trouble discerning which of his attackers was illusion and which ones were real. Even Magma and Storm were covered with similar illusions, their blasts joining a multitude of others that appeared real right up until they hit him and didn't do anything. Balder and Psylocke were racing along waiting for the Abomination to stop jumping around and they too were also covered with illusions, dozens of copies moving every which way.

The only problem was that occasionally an illusion didn't move quite as well as it should, or a spark from a downed power line or something of that nature would go through one, showing them as mere mirages. And sometimes bad guys get lucky just like the good guys.

Guardian was forced to duck a telephone pole then had to apparate away from another the fact that he had to dodge having told the Abomination that he that Guardian was the real one. Guardian returned fire however with several hundred Drills of Light.

Whatever durability the Abomination was gifted with it certainly wasn't up to stopping their grinding assault. "GAHHHH!" He screamed as he lost an arm from the shoulder down, though he was able to get out of the way of many of the drills.

Yet as Guardian watched, the wound began to slowly regenerate. Within moments his arm was back, and he used the newly regrown arm to grab Balder who had tried to stab him in the back as he reeled away from Guardian's assault. He caught the Asgardian by the wrist holding him still for a moment, a massive fist slamming into Baldur's face breaking his nose and throwing him backward through a house whose denizens had thankfully already been evacuated.

"Odin's blood, that beast packs a punch!" Balder shook his head trying to clear his face from blood, then had to duck aside as Abomination jumped at him again, breaking through the wall of the house to avoid the green-scaled monstrosities rush.

To give their ally some cover fire Magma rushed forward, flinging several small balls of fire, while the Human Torch raced down doing the same, burning through the roof of the house and bringing it down on the Abomination. When Blonsky burst out of the house's ruins Guardian and Storm joined in pounding Abomination throwing him backwards and away from Balder and not incidentally away from heading further into Montreal.

Around them people began to come back, including several newsies who didn't understand the concept of 'self-preservation' very well. Others however were on a much more noble mission, ambulance, firemen and regular people searching the wreckage for injured. They would find however, that Storm had been extremely thorough in the radius of a block of the battle. That was not to say there were no casualties of course, many families and communities in Montreal would be mourning this day's catastrophe, but it would have been far worse without the Custodes Mundi.

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere the battle wasn't going nearly as well. The plan had been to isolate the Abomination, who was seen as the easier target considering that he for some reason didn't get stronger as the fight went on like the Hulk was known to, while keeping just enough men fighting the Hulk to keep him away from the Abomination or from heading further into a populated area.

The Thing had fought the Hulk a few times before this, and knew, or thought he knew, what to expect. But this wasn't the Hulk that the Thing was used to. Most of the time if Banner Hulked out he would smash everything nearby then simply jump away from everything, having just enough of Bruce Banner to know not to attack noncombatants unless they got in the way in some fashion. From the live broadcasts the Thing had known that this wasn't the case now, but he hadn't figured on how much stronger the Hulk would be.

The Thing knew he had never really been as strong as the Hulk, except maybe right after the Hulk transformed. But his durability, training and agility normally was able to keep the fight even. Now he was questioning that, considering he had just been smashed through a large granite outcrop, and he had lost a tooth to the blow that landed him there. "Dammit what the fuck! The Hulk's never been this strong before!"

Luckily the initial part of the plan, throwing the Hulk away from the city had worked. They had landed in a bit of a natural reserve in the suburbs, not a large one but large enough to contain their fight for now.

Colossus used this to his advantage, ducking behind a tree and then down as the tree exploded under a punch from the Hulk, before rolling out to grab the Hulk's knee and using a hold from Sambo, pulling the green beast's leg out from under his body and sending the Hulk to the ground as he twisted the leg up and behind the Hulk's back, trying to wrench the knee out of its socket.

However this didn't work nearly as well on the Hulk as it would have on someone of similar strength. The Hulk however was far stronger than Colossus, and was able to lift himself up off the ground with one arm while trying to smack Colossus away with the other.

"Blyad'!" Colossus ducked away releasing his hold and rolling in the ground. Then he came in again, his fist flashing out to slam into the Hulk's jaw.

In reply the Hulk's arm lashed out, faster than Colossus had anticipated grabbing his arm and holding him in place for a hammer blow to slam into his body. Colossus gasped in pain, he had felt that even through his Juggernaut armor and metal form! Still he lashed out with the kick, catching the Hulk in the side and sending him off-balance slightly, but the Hulk quickly regained his equilibrium and roared. "RAOOGHH!"

That roar was almost a physical force, and Colossus backed away slightly but not far and then charged forward meeting the Hulk body to body as the Thing pushed himself out from the rubble of the granite outcropping. "Kid! Get out of there!"

Colossus did so, grabbing the Hulk's arms for a moment then jumped up, propelling himself with both feet off the Hulk's body throwing himself out of the way of the huge piece of granite that the Thing had just thrown at the Hulk. The Hulk lashed out however smashing the boulder to flinders. "ROAGHH!"

"It's Clobberin' Time!" He didn't duck the Thing however who had jumped up immediately after the boulder he had thrown using it as cover. He slammed both his fists down on the back of the Hulk's head sending him down to the ground again.

But instead of staying there the Hulk roared again, barreling up and into the Thing bodily as he came up off the ground again, his arms going around the Thing's waist whereupon he began to slam the Thing into the ground like a drop hammer. The Thing punched out with his fists pounding on the Hulk's head and upper body, but it took Colossus slamming into them with all the momentum of a freight train to get the Hulk to loosen his grip.

After that initial contact Colossus had grabbed the Hulk's arm in another grapple taken from Sanbo, then quickly twirled in place still using his momentum to his advantage to hurl the Hulk further into the woods.

The Thing groggily shook his head, dazed from the dozens of the impacts it'd he'd taken on the ground where his rock covered face had made several large cracks and gouges. "He's never been this strong before, what the hell's going on? And why does he keep on trying to get back into the city! That's not like the Hulk at all as much as I don't like the guy. It's as if…"

At that point they didn't have time for more words because the Hulk had just jumped back from where Colossus had flung him, smashing into the ground with enough force to crack it in a wide area all around, throwing the Thing and Colossus into the air momentarily. Colossus found himself grabbed and then brought in for a blow to the face. His Juggernaut armor however turned most of the blow thankfully, but he still reeled away.

Before the Hulk could press his advantage, a hammer crashed into his back throwing him forward with a cry of agony. That hammer was of ancient design, its short shaft of metal covered in leather, its head looking like a strange combination of rock and steel, somehow yet not quite both yet also either at the same time. It gave off a feeling of weight, and certainly seemed to strike like it if the furrow the Hulk's body made when it landed several hundred yards away was any indication.

"Hail friends!" said a loud voice as Thor arrived, flying out of the air to land next to the Thing who he had seen once or twice on the TV. "You I know my rock encrusted friend as a hero true, though I question where the rest of your team Fantastic is, and who your metal clad companion is. His armor seems familiar, yet in times as this, any who wilt stand with me is welcome!"

"Colossus." said the Russian, pushing himself to his feet. "Pleased to meet you Thor, but we don't have time for more detailed introductions." Indeed a second later the Hulk emerged from the gouge in the ground he'd made, hurling himself forward against Thor.

OOOOOOO

Back with the rest of the team Abomination had at last succeeded in closing the distance with the real Magma, while at the same time knocking Psylocke backwards and through a window of an Acme. He punched out at Magma's head only to scream as his flesh and blood hand met her tectonic energy form. Abomination's hand sizzled and burned, but Magma flew backward with a cry of agony. Despite her energy form, she was still technically human, and impacts like that still got through. She flew away through the air from the impetus of the blow, landing heavily several yards away. Seconds later without her mind awake to power it, her energy form began to fade.

Balder tried desperately to get between the green beast and the young maiden, but Abomination turned into his blow, lashing out with a knee into Baldur's crotch. As the Asgardian gasped, he found himself lifted into the air and used as a makeshift shield against several magical attacks from Storm and Guardian in one hand. Both of them reluctantly canceled their attacks rather than hit their ally, and Blonsky took advantage of that, reaching down to grab a piece of metal pipe then spearing downwards with it at Magma's still groggy form.

Right before it landed however, Magma disappeared, Guardian apparating her away. Abomination looked up in rage even as Balder kicked out, breaking his grip then rolling away. "Damn teleporter!"

Then Abomination ate a mouth full of lightning from Storm. Above them clouds gathered, and lightning began to stream out of the sky like a sheet, slamming into the Abomination and the area all around him.

Guardian looked down at Magma, feeling at her throat then breathing a sigh of relief finding a pulse while behind him Storm stalked forward, her magic lashing out in bursts of purple and blue blasts even as her mutant ability hammered him with hurricane winds and ice and lightning blasts. With a faint whisper of power, Guardian apparated Magma up to High Note, then turned back, his dark emerald eyes blazing. He gathered his power, then thrust out one hand with a shout "Gaudete vento urente!"

Thousands of hand-sized bits of colored light lanced out in every direction before homing in on Abomination even as he tried to dodge. The green-scaled monster screamed under this assault, losing scales all over his body, blasted and burnt off him. His self-control and confidence finally frayed by how the magical assaults got through his body's armor Blonsky jumped away, hoping to link up with the Hulk again.

But four of his five remaining attackers could fly, and kept with him even as he tried to jump towards where the Hulk was battling the others. Guardian also knew what he was doing, and called ahead. "Psylocke, stay here for now and liaise with the locals. Colossus, Thing, Blonksy's trying to hook up with Hulk again, we're coming at you from north, northwest. Toss the Hulk further away!"

Just then however, a new wrinkle was added to the battle. A deep booming voice spoke from out of the air above the battlefield. "You just can't get good help these days!" A beam of some sort of energy lanced out from what had previously been empty air, deep orange and blue in color.

The blast caught the Human Torch in the side and Johnny screamed in agony as he was tossed out of the air to slam into the ground. Upon impact he created a long furrow in the ground, in which bits and pieces of grass and roots burned from his fire aura. The Torch's own fire however guttered out as he lost consciousness, much like Magma.

OOOOOOO

Sitting upon her throne Hela was watching events on Midgard, having been alerted by her scrying spell that Potter was throwing around more magic then normal outside the bounds of the incredibly scary wards of his castle. She looked up in shocked fury as she felt someone appear nearby, but that quickly gave way to simple shock. "Who da… my Lady!"

Lady Death stood, her hooded face turned slightly away from Hela, gazing into the scrying pool. Then she looked around, as if taking in the scene. That gaze was not on anything Hela could see, or perhaps was not allowed to see. Yet if there were any ears to hear it, screams of fear would have been heard as something retreated from this portion of the Asgardian's realms.

"My Lady, you do me much honor coming here." Hela got up from her throne, bowing deeply to the manifestation of the end of all things. "But, But may I ask why you have come here? I, normally when you require me my Lady you summon me to your realm, I have, I've never…"

Death now looked at Hela, bowing her head slightly as a guest would to the master of a house then gestured slightly with one hand towards the scrying table. It enlarged instantly to be larger than either of their current physical forms.

Understanding now the reason for her Lady's presence if not the why Hela sent more power through the scrying pool, strengthening the signal so to speak, while at the same time gesturing at her throne, which enlarged to allow the two to sit comfortably. As Lady Death sat down beside her however Hela could not help but ask. "Yet even so my lady, may I ask why you came here rather than watching the events through your own abilities?"

Death was silent for a moment then pointed at the newcomer to the battle occurring. "He thinks himself my suitor, and he would feel it if I turned mine own attention on him." Her tone, dust dry as always yet acerbic, dismissive and layered with a smattering of contempt said everything else that was necessary, and Hela nodded, satisfied.

OOOOOOO

A cloaking device was shut off, and above the battlefield there hovered a throne of metal, holding someone Guardian had never seen in any news broadcast. He was huge, easily as tall as the Hulk, though not as wide across the shoulders. He seemed to have purple skin and a huge jutting jaw that had wrinkles going down it, and a mouth twisted in a superior sneer. His red glowing eyes were deep set. He wore a suit of blue and gold, with flanged shoulders, large gauntlets colored gold, and on his head he wore a headpiece of gold and blue. "I had hoped that my two chosen creature would have been able to bring out the Phoenix avatar, but needs must. If I have to slaughter this planet's denizens for a while before forcing it out, so be it."

Guardian growled at that, as well as the realization that all of this had been planned to bring out Jean for some reason. He clapped his hands together and shouting out "Terra Hasta!" but this was only a diversion. The spell shot a huge spire of Earth into the air after the alien, while Guardian apparated from the place he had been flying, reappearing directly behind the alien, his hands lashing out with a lightning spell "Fulgur plumbum!"

However the alien simply pushed himself off of his throne which disappeared, teleporting away as he turned in midair. Grabbing Guardian by the legs he hurled him downwards.

Guardian cast an Aressto Momentum spell on himself, halting his flight downwards to glare up at the alien. He then threw up with a shield, halting another blast of power like the one that had taken out the Torch, returning fire with his own while Storm did the same, strafing the alien with several bolts of lightning and mid-level cutting spells which he simply ignored. Guardian's magic attacks also were ignored, and he almost gaped in shock. Whoever this was, his magical resistance was the highest Guardian had ever seen, even higher than Mephisto's!

Then Guardian grunted as the beings beam smashed through his shield, impacting his chest. His crisis suit was able to handle the blow, but he was still flung backwards. He righted himself in midair, and began to fire out other spells, illusions, golems, and spells designed to attack the senses while all the while teleporting here and there keeping the alien's attention firmly on him so as to allow his team and friends to fight the two green beasts without further interference. He gave orders to Storm, Balder and Psylocke, who had caught up to them by hijacking a motorcycle to that effect. "Stick to the plan, take out the Abomination and then gang up on the Hulk, I'll keep the newcomer busy!"

Storm scowled, but nodded, racing down with Balder to rejoin the battle against the two green monsters. While they had been engaged with the newcomer The Thing and Colossus had been tossed away for a moment, allowing the two green beasts to concentrate on Thor for a moment.

While stronger than either of his allies, Thor wasn't as durable as Colossus nor quite as quick as The Thing. He grunted under a hammer blow to the chest that lifted him off the ground as Abomination joined the battle then grunted again as another blow slammed into his chest with enough force to crack one of his mighty ribs from the Hulk.

"Forsooth you are a magnificent beast, but ever will such as you fall before the might of Thor!" The long haired Asgardian shouted, slamming Mjöllnir into the side of the Hulk's head. That below should have thrown the beast away, but it didn't, only throwing him back slightly and even so the Hulk was able to reach up grabbing Thor's arm before he could recover from his swing.

Thor's eyes widened, then widened further as he felt another blow slam into his chest from the Abomination. He felt another rib go, then gasped as the Hulk head-butted him with such force that Thor flew backwards, his nose and cheekbone broken. He slumped against the grand where he lay, dazed.

The Hulk stood over him, roaring in triumph and about to bring down his clenched fist in a blow to cave-in Thor's head. But then the Hulk was body-slammed by Colossus, who he'd sent flying away a moment before. He picked up the Hulk, barreling on with him in his arms to slam into a rocky outcropping nearby, then even as the Hulk turned in his grip, began to pummel the Hulk's ribs.

Having jumped after them the Thing landed nearby and began to kick and pummel the Hulk as well. "Something's wrong!" He grunted once again. "The Hulk's never usually this strong! I fought him for days on end, and he was never this strong!"

"You said that before!" Colossus grunted, as he tried once more to grab the Hulk in the grip to twist his body around. The Hulk however simply refused to be turned, instead flinging colossus aside. He landed rolling with it, are coming up and charging back as the Hulk began to trade blows with Thing. "Unless you have some way of breaking him out of whenever whatever fugue he's in, I don't see how it matters!"

Unfortunately, no one had ever made the connection between the Hulk's ability to get stronger as a fight goes on to how angry he was. If they had, this fight would have been much simpler given a few spells Harry had at his disposal that could affect emotions. But the team had to work with what was known, which alas wasn't much.

Behind the three battling behemoths the Abomination had turned to race after them, but Balder and Storm attacked, taking his attention away from the others.

Storm kept her distance, flying or teleporting as she could, while flinging out magical blasts as well as gusts of tornado wind force and ice along with her signature lightning blasts.

Balder closed with the scaled one, using all the skill and speed up in his possession. But Abomination's healing ability was up to most blows he could land his shield was riven, his helmet smashed from his head. He was slowly but surely being battered into submission.

Falling back from of another blow from Abomination he tripped, rolling frantically to avoid a follow on stomp by the skin of his teeth coming up with his sword swinging. He caught the green monstrosity behind the knee, slicing deeply into it and sending the Abomination to his knees for a moment. But his blade caught, and the Abomination reached out grabbing him and pulling him in. "Got you now pretty boy, whaWHAGGGGGG!"

With his concentration solely on Balder for a moment Storm had taken a chance, teleporting directly behind Abomination, her hands held out on either side of his head. Her eyes crackled with her mutant power as she yelled to the heavens in her native tongue. Between her two hands, there suddenly appeared… there really wasn't a word for it. It wasn't a hurricane or tornado, those were natural phenomenon, no matter how fast the wind in them went, this was something more, far more. This was the force of the wind taken so far beyond those terms it was as if it was something else entirely, turning it into a force out of nightmares beyond anything found in the normal world.

The Abomination had heretofore taken several hurricane force blasts from Storm, and had even walked away from one of her spiraling tornado assaults. But this dwarfed those in speed and power. It completely overwhelmed his durability factor, ripping, tearing and shredding at his head with such force that bits of a bone and blood flew everywhere as his head was reduced to nothing.

The Abomination's headless corpse fell to the side as Storm gasped, falling back. Her hands fell to her side as she nearly went to her knees, almost utterly exhausted from the force she had just called forth and had to control, which was always the toughest part.

"I thank thee my lady." Balder said pushing himself to his feet. Just to make certain however he stood above the creature's corpse, driving his blade down into Abomination's heart. "That beast was most deadly, indeed I was about to be overwhelmed."

Storm nodded, exhaustion filling her. She had never before had to use so much magic before, and using both her magical and mutant powers while at the same time taking part in the front of the battle had drained her far beyond anything she had felt in practice or even against the Sentry. Her situational awareness was shot to hell as well, which was why she didn't dodge when an errant tree trunk from the battle going on between Thing, Colossus and Hulk slammed into her back throwing her forward. Luckily her body armor was able to stop the blow from breaking her spine, but she was still flung forward with a cry of agony. "GAH!"

Storm hit the ground, rolling with the blow before coming up, her entire body drooping wearily but unwilling to simply give in. With a growl Storm pushed herself into the air, gathering what powers she could call upon in her still exhausted state, and began to attack the purple man along with Guardian.

The alien had closed the distance with Guardian somehow, anticipating where Guardian was teleporting and getting there first. A blast of energy caught Guardian as he came out of his apparition, flinging him down towards the Hulk, who saw him coming.

"Magia Erebea 90%!" Guardian barely had a moment to mentally divert more of his magical power to his magical strengthening spell and conjure up a protective shield before the Hulk's fist caught him right in the face. The shield shattered, and Guardian was flung aside through several trees to land uninjured but dazed several hundred yards away. Damn, if not for my Magia Erebea that would have taken me out, hell it might've killed me! Guardian thought as he pushed himself to his feet. He reached up to his face, feeling that the mask was alright for now but that the runic arrays worked into it had disappeared instead, their power expended as they tried to block that punch.

Then he felt a huge hand grab him from behind, a deep gravelly voice behind him. "Interesting, you seem to be able to strengthen yourself to a certain degree to offset physical punishment. Let's find the upper limit of that, shall we?"

Psylocke however had other ideas, springing down from a tree to try and stab the alien in the back of his skull with her telekinetic blade. He dodged this, returning a blow that nearly caught the purple-haired woman, but she dodged it at the last second, while Guardian rolled away from him.

"20%!" Guardian gasped, as he righted himself then began to attack both the purple skinned alien and the Hulk with mid-level spells. The Hulk still didn't have any ability to tell illusion from reality, so that was what Guardian concentrated on with them, but the purple haired man seemed able to see straight through his illusions, and had a battle awareness that Guardian had seldom seen before.

As he summoned up a dozen golems to attack the alien, he looked around shaking his head grimly. Magma still hadn't returned from High Note, which meant she wasn't up to snuff. Storm was dead in the air, exhausted but still gamely fighting. Watching her Guardian felt a rush of respect and appreciation for his lady, there was no give in her at all.

As he watched however, the purple haired man blasted back at her, and Guardian quickly teleported her away. She hadn't even had the strength to conjure up her own shield, or dodge.

As this was going on the purple haired alien turned, glancing up at where his throne was stationed, once again hidden under it'sits cloaking field, communicating telepathically with the interface of his ship, Sanctuary. "Repeat that."

"Energy scan of the planet complete, no signature of Phoenix/inherent life seed found. Trace is there, but old, at least 2 to 3 local planetary cycles.

Thanos frowned, then moved aside when Guardian teleported in front of him, his hands filled with a cutting spells. "Kesmek!"

Cursing Thanos dodged the spell by a bare inch before it could take him in the eyes. He grabbed Guardian's outstretched arms throwing him away for a moment before turning heading deeper into the human city. "If the Phoenix avatar is no longer here, then it must be coerced to return, and I think slaughtering the populace of this city will make a good start!"

Harry cursed. "Storm, grab some Pepper-up Potions for yourself and get Thor up and moving, then finish off the Hulk and come after us!" With that, he blasted through the air after the alien. Behind him, Baldur wearily pushed himself into the air, unwilling to let his comrade face the unknown alien being alone.

OOOOOOO

The dream was different this time, it wasn't a happy home scene or happy anything scene, nor even an embarrassing one. No, this was the scene of a battle, a battle that stretched as far as Thor's eyes could see. On one side was an army of jötnar, trolls and even Múspellsmegir, with their Lord Surtr at its head. For some reason Loki stood with them as well.

All around Thor stood the ranks of the Asgardians. Both groups were there, the more peaceful Vanir and the warlike Æsir all decked out in their finest armor. This included two young boys around Thor himself, who strangely enough looked like him in some fashion. As Thor looked at them they both smiled, raising their blades in respect and nodding their heads at him.

The image changed, and the battle was joined, dead and dying on both sides piled up as Thor barreled his way forward, heading toward where he could see Surtr's banner, a bright flame on a gold background flying from a giant pole. Nearby Thor heard the howl of a wolf, then a snarling and a gasp going through the ranks.

Something was wrong, something had changed, though Thor couldn't figure out what. It was the sense of, it was almost as if before that moment the battle had only been in play, but now was real. He heard a shout, and turned, seeing one of the young boys, the oldest, going down, a fire jötnar bearing him to earth with a spear tipped with flame into the boy's guts.

Thor jumped forward and Mjöllnir caught the fire giant in the head, but it was too late. The boy died, staring up at Thor, his eyes glazing over in death. Though even in the dream Thor could not grasp his connection to the boy, his dream-self howled aloud in anguish, and began to lay about him, each blow of Mjöllnir shattering a chest or caving in a skull as he wreaked a bloody havoc on the enemy until the hammer's haft was blocked by a blade of Æsir design.

Thor looked across at his new enemy only to see the though formerly friendly face of Loki scowling angrily and shouting something, tears falling down his face. Thor couldn't make out the words, they came out as a jumble of words. "Nearly… falling…. Necessity…. My wife, my Sigyn! you… chance to… and when you strike, make it true!"

Thor jolted awake, startling Storm as she had only gotten a single drop of the Pepper-Up potion into his mouth. Then she watched in puzzlement as his long blond hair changed color to red, not the deep, fiery red that Jean had, but still noticeably red. Not even looking at her Thor grabbed up his hammer and charged forward, bellowing a warcry. "I live yet you son of a Skræling, have at thee!"

Hulk, who had just bent Colossus' arm back, twisting his metal arm into an unnatural angle, turned, roaring in turn before jumping forward. Thor met him in midair, dodging the first punch before deflecting the next, come in under the Hulk's outstretched arms, Mjöllnir coming up to smash into the green monster's ribs. Hulk howled in agony as he felt a rib give way before his healing ability kicked in.

He stumbled back, and Thor pressed him, Mjöllnir once again coming around to slam into Hulk's head from the side. Any troll or giant would have fallen from that blow, even the mightiest of champions, but the hulk merely staggered, his eyes going cross-eyed for a moment. Undaunted Thor swung again, hammering once, twice, thrice. "FALL, by the breath of the wyrm, fall!"

Even Hulk's durability had an upper limit. Taking four blows to the cranium, each of them stronger than any blow he had ever taken before, went beyond that limit. Hulk first slumped to his knees, then upon another blow slammed into his head and Hulk finally collapsed to the ground unconscious. Almost immediately he began to shrink, changing back to Bruce Banner.

"Valhol!" Thor shouted, raising Mjöllnir above his head. Then, as his hair began to change color Thor slumped, inexplicably weary, the memories once more disappearing from his mind.

Before he could hit the ground however a rocky arm was under his shoulders. "Damn hammer-boy, remind me not to get on your bad side! Still ya did it." Thor looked to his side, seeing Thing standing beside him looking much the worse for wear. "Come on, the battle's not over yet, you can rest when yer dead!"

Thor nodded wearily straightening up and jumping up into the air as the Thing and Colossus both moved off in pursuit of the instigator of all this. Behind them, Storm glared at Bruce Banner's body then moved over to stand above it, calling out for Clare to bring her a bottle of the Draught of Living Death. I'm afraid after this day's events your right to keep trying to solve the Hulk issue on your own is one the world can no longer afford to allow you, Dr. Banner.

With that done she looked over at the Abomination's body, frowning heavily. "Clare, could you take that somewhere, we might need to bring it out later to show the authorities, but I don't want anyone to be able to study it or anything. Two monsters like the Hulk are more than enough."

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere the alien and Guardian were exchanging blasts of magic and energy, but Guardian was held back because there were few high end spells he could use in a populated area, and the alien had gotten beyond the area of the city Storm had evacuated previously. This also forced him to play defender as well, along with Sasquatch and Vindicator, who had rejoined the battle when the alien began to attack the city.

"Protego Maximo!" A large magical shield appeared as the alien turned one of his fists towards an apartment building wherein Guardian could see hundreds of people watching from where they cowered by their windows. His shield spell covered the front of the building, blocking the beam of power.

"You continue to try and protect them!" the alien laughied loudly. "Hah, that is almost insulting, to think you can face Thanos while hobbling yourself thus. I wonder how long you can last?" With that he turned and blasted at Guardian, who apparated away, letting the beam of energy slam into the road where he had been standing.

"Long enough!" Guardian said grimly, thinking hard while Sasquatch tried again to close the distance with Thanos before being smacked aside, his strength nothing to the alien, who apparently was called Thanos.

At the same time Psylocke came around the street, jumping up onto a parked car so that she was a mere twenty feet from Thanos. She immediately began to fire from the hip with the gauss rifle that was part of her team gear, each shot wizzing out with the "FZZARRK!" of the gauss shots as fast as she could fire it. She wasn't that good a shot, hence why she didn't use it in combat before this, but at point blank range Psylocke could hardly miss. And the high speed rounds were doing precisely nothing. The gauss rounds hit with enough force to each take out a tank, but they merely staggered Thanos, that was all.

She ducked aside as Thanos turned one of his fists on her, blasting another beam of plasma out at her. Even the shockwave from it was enough to throw her aside, she didn't have super strength or anything else, though thankfully her suit was able to withstand the impact with the rubble behind her. Behind Psylocke more soldiers and police came up, blasting away from the far end of the street at the purple-skinned alien, but he ignored them, their weapons not even enough to register.

Balder however did register as a threat. He leaped up from the crater where a previous blow had place him, his sword up and thrusting for the alien's thigh. Thanos dodged, though his armor on the side of his leg was torn. He then kicked out, catching the Asgardian in the side, throwing him backwards, before hammering him with an energy blast. Balder cried out in agony as the blast struck, hurling him into a thankfully abandoned dress shop. Inside he finally slumped, his body unable to carry on.

Before Thanos could finish Balder off Harry hit him with a "Gaudete vento urente!" followed by a "Sectumpsempra!" The energy bolts slammed into Thanos, but even that mid-to high level spell barely staggered him, and the cutting spell Severus Snape had delighted in using simply dissipated harmlessly. His magical resistance was insanely high, and Harry couldn't hit him with anything more powerful, and it was beginning to get to him.

The two of them exchanged blasts, with Harry both defending himself and the buildings around him in which the civilians of the city cowered, until more help arrived in the form of Thor, coming out of the air to slam into Thanos "Have at thee!" Mjöllnir caught him in the shoulder, shattering the flange of his armor there while Thing's fist clipped Thanos upside the ear.

If both of them had been fresh, the battle might well have begun to turn against Thanos there. But they weren't. Thanos reeled backwards for just a moment before his fist shot forward catching Thor in the face and throwing him away to slam into a hotel across the street, while the Thing was blasted away through the air by a blast of energy from the alien's other hand.

Storm had caught up with Thor, being much faster in the air, and when Thanos moved forward once more she joined Harry in hammering him. "Hulk?" Guardian asked, while another dozen 'Kesmek' cutting spells flew out, still doing no damage but getting Thanos' attention.

"Fell unconscious and transformed back to Banner. I put him under with a Draught and asked Clare to take him up to High Note." Storm replied grimly over the team com. "I also took a Pepper-Up potion, but it isn't doing much for me right now, there appear to be limits to what they can offset."

Guardian could tell the rest of the team wasn't any better off. The battle against Abomination and Hulk had drained them all beyond the point of endurance. He needed to get this purple skinned alien away, away to a place where he could fight him without needing to worry about civilians. The team was too damn battered to help, even Guardian was feeling it somewhat by this point, having to throw out protective spells to defend the city's populace like they were going out of style as well as attack. Suddenly a thought occurred to and he smiled grimly under his mask. I wonder if his body will react in the same manner as the Kree do with this trick. He tapped his breastplate muttering "Portus."

"Storm," he said looking over at her. "Cover me."

His beautiful, courageous lady nodded, her eyes almost drooping with weariness despite the Pepper-Up potion. But still she stood there, unbowed and unbroken glaring defiance at the alien who had caused so much carnage. She raised her hands over her head, her eyes once again lighting up with her power as she shot lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Thanos, mixing them up with hurricane force winds.

Those Thanos at least seemed to feel and he turned his attention from trying to tear Thor's arms out of his sockets to start towards her, one hand raising to form an energy shield around him, as his eyes began to glow. "Foolish child, your powers are nothing to my might!"

At the same time Guardian rushed forward, teleporting from cover to cover. Psylocke joined in, her gauss rifle banging out shots as she tried to aim for the eyes and mouth, but she wasn't a good enough shot even so.

"All of this is only delaying the inevitable! I will kill all of you, then I will sacrifice this whole world to my lady! When the avatar of the Phoenix returns she will find me on a mountain of skulls, and then when I sacrifice her in turn, my lady will finally give me her favor! You cannot win here!"

"Then I think it's time we change the battlefield." Guardian said, shooting out from the last bit of cover crossing the distance between them in an instant while a small gold and white stag raced over to Storm. Grabbing onto Thanos' arm, he shouted "Activate!" There was a moment where both their bodies seemed to distort, then with a huge inrush of air both Guardian and Thanos were gone.

There was a moment of silence, then Psylocke leaned against a wall, shaking her head. "Where'd Guardian take him do you think?"

Storm frowned, staring off into the distance as the Patronus disappeared next to her. "Somewhere where he can go all out, but right now that's out of our hands. For now, let's see what we can do for Colossus and the Thing, then the Asgardians, after that…" She paused, then shook her head. "After that I think we should probably stay and help the civilian efforts for now."

"You're not worried?" Psylocke asked in disbelief.

"I am incredibly worried." Storm growled, almost glaring at the younger woman. But then she shook her head. "But Guardian was right, we were in no condition to continue that fight. You and I are the only ones still on our feet."

"Not exactly lady!" said the Thing, jumping down from the top of a skyscraper where he had landed moments ago after jumping through the city. One arm was held at his side in what looked like a very makeshift sling, and his face despite its craggy features covered in jagged cracks and purple bruises, but he was glaring around fiercely. "Where is that purple skinned asshole?"

"I have no idea." Storm replied wearily. "Cory?"

The popping specialist appeared nearby, hiding from the onlookers in a small pile of rubble. "Mistress?"

"Can you feel where Guardian is?"

The house elf grabbed his ears, shaking his head. "He's be well beyond my range mistress. I think…" the little creature paused for a moment then nodded. "I think he bes on another planet. Like he was when Clare was serving you, miss flame hair and the other miss dinner."

Storm's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in contemplation nodding slowly as she realized what Guardian was up to, while Balder and Thor, both battered came up leaning on one another, wide smiles on their face despite their injuries and weariness. This kind of a battle was one the skalds would make into song. "In that case, I think it's time for me to see if my powers extend to space. Get me a few more Pepper Up potion's, I'll help the locals get anyone trapped under the rubble out, but after that…"

OOOOOOO

Thanos had never felt something like this before. He had teleported himself and been teleported before by others, both mechanical and directed by another being, but never so far, nor was the teleportation of the magic user the same as anything he had felt before. His stomach rebelled at suddenly finding itself light minutes away from its previous position with understandable results. Thanos threw up, going down to his knees not even noticing where he was for a moment.

Unfortunately Guardian wasn't in any shape to take advantage at that point. He too was dealing with being sick to his stomach, though he wasn't nearly as bad off as Thanos. Even a wizard's body wasn't meant to travel that far in one go, and the effect was far worse than he had feared. He collapsed to the side, rolling away and holding his stomach even while trying to get out of the immediate range of Thanos's hands and feet.

However Guardian's mind also was still able to think and he was going through his spells rapidly, coming up with the ones that he thought would work on Thanos, and the ones he hoped he wouldn't have to use. No illusions, he sees right through them, blinding spells only worked for a short time before his eyes adjusted, sonic attacks don't work, full-bore magical attacks don't work up to the high level, we'll try high-level spells, transfiguration and conjuration then. And if I have to, well I didn't have any plans that included coming back to Mars at any point anyway.

That was what Guardian had done, he had used a portkey to transport both himself and Thanos to Olympus Mons on Mars, where he and Jean had their date, a place Harry had remembered vividly enough to create the portkey even over light-minutes of distance. With Thanos' stated desire of killing everyone on the planet in order to sacrifice them to some kind of lady or other plus he his magical resistance Guardian didn't want to face him anywhere where there was any chance of him finding other people around. If push came to shove, Guardian was more than willing to sacrifice a planet to stop this bastard, he was simply too dangerous too damn too powerful and apparently intelligent given his ability to manipulate the Abomination and Hulk to let him walk away.

Still on his hands and knees, Guardian sent a spell through the ground, conjuring up a giant golem which began to hammer at Thanos. Thanos merely grunted, taking the blows, his stomach still rebelling so much he couldn't respond. Guardian stood up, weaving crazily on his feet for a moment then began to cast spells on himself reinforcing his crisis suit. The mask had a breather in it, which could magically convert the air around him to something he could breathe, but it never hurt to make certain.

Then, while his giant golem was still pounding the unresponsive Thanos he picked up a rock, transfiguring into a metal rod. Holding one hand in front of the one holding the rod he shouted "Railgun!" Shooting it out and as it passed his other hand cast an engorgement charm on it enlarging the rock to the rod to the size of a ballista bolt as it continued on its way breaking the speed of sound before it slammed into Thanos.

Thanos groaned, flung aside by the blast yet not actually very injured. His stomach was finally coming under control, and now he could think again, rage and hate further empowering his self-control. One hand flickered for a moment, then an energy blast shot out catching the golem and smashing it to so many pebbles. His eyes glowed with crimson energy and he glared at Guardian. "You! It is you! I can feel it!"

Guardian did reply, not wishing to bandy words with the madman. Instead he shot forward, one hand holding the sword of Gryffindor now in the other. Creating a spire of rock from the ground rock he heaved it up at Thanos as fast as he could imagine it going, slamming into the mad Titan with even more force than the railgun round.

Even so it simply blew Thanos backwards, it didn't even penetrate his armor, only denting it slightly. "It is you! You have taken my lady's attention from me! I can feel her power on you, just as much as that of the Life giver! I will kill you, and then my lady will finally acknowledge me!"

"I don't know who your lady is, and I don't care." Guardian said coldly shooting out several high-level attack spells mixed in with pure magical attacks. "Aeris Hasta! Caesus Foro! Fulgur Plumbum Maximo!" The massive beam of light and lightning magic clipped Thanos even as he dodged the others. Finally his attack spells were getting through, and Harry watched as Thanos' ear was ripped from his head along with gouging a chunk of flesh out of his cheek.

"DIE!" The mad Titan yelled, returning fire with an energy blast that nearly caught Guardian despite his dodging around. Then he closed the distance, reaching out to grab Guardian's shoulder before he could right himself. Guardian teleported away, but even here on Mars somehow Thanos was able to figure out where he was teleporting to, and turned rapidly, bringing both of his hands and blasting out with his energy bolts catching Guardian in the center of his chest.

Guardian hit the dirt several yards behind his previous position but rolled with the impact, coming up and blasting at Thanos again with several more high-level spells but Thanos had closed the distance once more grabbing at Guardian. He caught Guardian's arm, pulling him in and slamming a punch into Guardian's mask covered face. Guardian could feel most of the protective spells on his head shatter under the force of that blow, leaving only his crysis suit.

Desperately he diverted all his magical core's power to his magical strengthening spell. "Magia Erebea 100%!" The next blow landed, wrenching his face around but he returned a punch that caught Thanos on the chin smashing his teeth together. Then he kicked out, catching Thanos in the chest and flinging him backwards enough to break his grip on Guardian. "20%." After that he began to fire again, keeping his distance for now.

This forced Thanos to use his own energy abilities to shield himself from Guardian's spells, hoping to let the humanoid exhaust himself before closing again. He grunted in agony as one spell got through, catching him on the knee and ripping his armor apart there before cutting edge deep into its side. Still the knee was strong enough to hold his weight, and he ignored the pain not talking any longer simply grimly taking everything Guardian could throw at him.

However Guardian could do this all day, something Thanos realized when he lost a finger to another blast that got through his shield. Thankfully for Thanos his hover-throne had caught up to them by that point, and with that his own teleportation ability. "Throne, teleport me directly at my opponent, and keep doing it if he tries to teleport himself away."

"Acknowledged." The throne's computer replied, remaining where it was, cloaked in the upper atmosphere.

Guardian gasped as suddenly Thanos teleported from his previous position directly in front of Guardian. A hammer blow came down, crashing into Guardian's head and throwing him to the ground with enough force to shatter all of his remaining defensive spells covering his mask. He rolled desperately dodging a stomp, shooting back with over 1000 Drills of Light, while at the same time transfiguring the ground around Thanos so that it came up to grasp his lower legs.

As the drills of light, magic and lightning impacted his chest Thanos growled as it tore away chunks of his armor yet doing no further damage. While Guardian quickly redid did the defensive spells on his head and the rest of his body Thanos kicked his way out of the transfigured metal that had now grabbed his lower legs.

"Such interesting abilities you have wizard, transfiguration and attack spells well above anything I've seen before. In any other circumstances it would be a pity to kill you. In this, it makes it all the sweeter. To kill someone so unique, so singular, is a fantastic honor, above and beyond your taking my Lady's attention from me!" With that he charged forward against the still seemingly dazed wizard.

Guardian summoned the sword of Gryffindor which he had lost moments ago back to his hand, holding it close to his body. Then Thanos was on him, and he reacted quickly, thrusting it up as quickly as he could. "Magia Erebea 100%!" The blade intersected Thanos' forearm, and with the power of the mad Titan thrusting downwards on to it pierced his arm straight through.

Stumbling back for a moment Thanos sent to kick at Guardian, which caught him in the side and sent him backwards again as he pulled the blade out of his arm, feeling a momentary disorientation, but that was all the basilisk venom in the sword did to the mad titan. "An interesting toy! I seldom take trophies, but in this case…"

That was as far as he got before he had to dodge another spell that would've he impacted his head, the sword disappearing from his hand at the same time. He raised his free hand blasting at Guardian with an energy blast but Guardian conjured up a shield which took the blow causing an explosion of light to occur. When it cleared, Guardian was gone. Thanos looked around angrily, knowing that the human hadn't retreated entirely. A moment later he spotted him several meters away, his hands up and conjuring something. Then he brought them together.

Thanos grunted as the ground underneath and all around him suddenly formed into two giant steel jaws, coming at him from either side. He reached out grabbing them and holding them. "Again!" He bellowed, forgetting for just a moment to communicate via his telepathic connection with the hover throne, causing Guardian to wonder who he was talking to.

Unfortunately Guardian didn't have time to wonder because suddenly Thanos was no longer there but in Guardian's face. Guardian cursed, teleporting away only to find Thanos had teleported with him, his fist coming around to punch Guardian directly in the gut. Once more Guardian felt the armor he had taken from Balthakk shatter under a physical blow, but his crysis suit and Magia Erebea held.

He grabbed Thanos' arm with one of his own then flicked his finger up in front of the mad Titan's face. "Sol occidit interfectos diripiet!" This spell, a very high level penetrating spell almost hit, but Thanos had teleported away again before coming back grabbing Guardian from behind in a bear hug as he crushed the life out of them.

Guardian grunted, then began to try and break out of his opponent's bearhug, once again diverting all his magic to his body strengthening technique. "Magia Erebea 100%!" But even with all of his magical power augmenting his strength he didn't have enough leverage to break Thanos' grip. However when Thanos lifted him off the ground his knees came level with Guardian's legs, and Guardian kicked backwards hard catching Thanos on his already wounded knee.

His grip loosened just enough for Guardian to turn around, bringing up his hands between their bodies to grab Thanos' head then rearing back his own and slamming a headbutt into the mad Titan's face, which shattered Thanos' nose.

Thanos reared back, letting go, yet even as he did his fist caught Guardian on the shoulder tossing him away. Decreasing his Magia Erebea once more Guardian began again to hurl out spells at Thanos, while the mad titan shook his head groggily. Thanos grimaced in agony as he felt two of his ribs give way under some kind of massive below, and the skin over the shoulder whose armor Thor had shattered was badly burned.

Wiping away the blood that had been blocking his view however he again brought his own fists up and began to fire energy blasts at Guardian, shouting commands to his command throne. "Teleport me whenever you detect magical energy coming my way from my opponent!"

With that command Thanos began to press Guardian hard, forcing Guardian to devote time to his own defense rather than look around for the person or thing Thanos was shouting at. For the next hour and a half or two hours, Guardian wasn't certain, the two of them exchanged blasts after blast, neither of them in any hurry to once again close the distance for now, their assault rearranging the landscape around them. The top of the mountain became gouged by tremendous, huge furrows here and there, and its face was cracked, blown apart, burned or shattered.

Eventually a blast from Thanos caught Guardian in the chest, finishing the work his earlier punch had done on Balthakk's chest plate shattering it utterly. He gasped, but teleported away even so, responding with a spell he hadn't yet used in this fight, one he had learned from a grimoire Steven had given him, only magnified to a level even most sorcerers could have matched. "Diosca Gearradh Trom!"

This sent out a spinning, swirling blaze of cutting magic. Thanos dodged it by a whisker tip, and it sliced into the mountain top below him, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. Even as Thanos teleported away again down to the plains below the top of Olympus Mons crumbled, half of it sloughing off to tumble down to the surface of Mars far, far below.

Guardian went after him, pressing his advantage and tossing out two more discs, though a smaller width. One spell impacted the ground right next to Thanos, cutting deep into the crust of Mars, while Thanos swiftly gathered his own energy around one hand creating multiple layers of shields around it before he thrust it forward smashing into the next assault spell shattering the cutting disc. Still spinning he mentally commanded, "Teleport me above him now!"

Guardian was still looking down at his previous position when Thanos appeared in the air above him, his hands bunched together. Guardian turned, but only so he could catch the blow on the chest. The defensive arrays on his crysis suit failed and Guardian felt at least four of his ribs crack under that blow, the impetus of which hurled him down towards the ground. He groaned in agony, but still had enough presence of mind to slap himself with an Arresto Momentum to halt himself before he impacted the ground.

Concentrating for a brief moment, he cast a disillusion spell over himself, not with any great hope that it would stop Thanos from finding him, just to give him a bit of a breather. With his magic already working to heal himself, Guardian gauged his magic powers. He was down to barely a third of his strength he estimated, and Thanos was still going strong. I need to find whatever the hell Thanos is using to teleport around, he talked to something, which means it isn't on his body, and besides, he doesn't have any pouches or anything.

With that thought Guardian cast an echolocation spell. It was so slight and so dispersed he hoped it would go unnoticed. A moment later he got a hit from something about a mile directly above him in the air. Good now I just….

That was as far as Guardian could think before Thanos landed on the ground next to him and kicked out hard, trying to catch Guardian in the side having seen through his disillusion spell. But Guardian dodged aside, coming up with another cutting spell that nearly took Thanos' arm off at the elbow. If still cut deeply into his forearm, doing even more injury than his sword had done earlier which had hit Thanos in that same arm. Thanos' arm fell useless to his side.

But Thanos ignored the pain, lashing out with another kick that this time caught Guardian in the side, causing him to grunt in agony as his slowly healing ribs were further abused, one shard of them cutting deep into something inside him, a lung probably as Guardian could hear his breath becoming labored. That moment of pain cost him as Thanos' fist caught him on the side of the head nearly breaking his crysis suit's mask. In fact the eyepiece on that side of his face did shatter, though the skin of the masked didn't.

Guardian responded. "Fragor unda fortitudine!" the massive beam of barely shaped magical energy slammed into Thanos picking him up and flinging him backwards, shattering the last remnants of his armor and searing away the undergarment he had worn underneath, while also breaking a few of his ribs.

Even with his ribs cracked under that blow Thanos stood proudly, his purple chest barred, showing a network of old scars and the marks of war. "Still you fight, making reclaiming Mistress Death's attention all the sweeter." He laughed hollowly, knowing he was winning this war of attrition. "Now!"

Guardian had only a moment to divert most of his magical energy back into his Magia Erebea before Thanos teleported again. Even as Guardian tried to teleport away himself Thanos moved with him, the computer of his throne able to pick out the faint dispersion of air that occurred as Guardian teleported around. Guardian found his neck being grabbed in a grip of iron as he was lifted off the ground.

"You are good, but not good enough. You may take heart before you die however knowing that you hurt me more than any other opponent has since I slew my father and wiped out my own race." Thanos spoke solemnly, then laughed staring into Guardian's mask. "What, no last-minute quip? Pity."

Guardian feebly held up a hand, almost as if about to protest but then Thanos felt something moving through the air behind him he looked behind him and then swiftly dodged out of the way letting go of Guardian in the process while the sword of Gryffindor came rocketing through the space he had previously been inhabiting. A moment later there was a booming sound through the air signifying that the sword had been going nearly Mach 2.

But Thanos, having proven he was immune to the blade's venom, hadn't actually been Guardian's targets. His throne had been. "Warning warCRASSSH!" The sword hit and pierced straight through the throne, heading further out into space.

"Damn you!" Thanos bellowed, his one working arm coming up and an energy blast shooting out. Guardian barely dodged to one side only being clipped by the blast before he teleported away.

Cradling his now broken arm Guardian realized with a sinking heart that he had taken too much damage, too much of his magic was now caught up in healing his various wounds, to try and use hit and run tactics against Thanos, who apparently was still a going concern. So be it, I knew coming up here this was a possibility. Gathering his magical power he raised his hand. "Ignite."

It was a simple yet power intensive spell, just a transfiguration really, transforming a bit of the air around him into another element. A few molecules that was all, which burned hotter than anything magical or found in nature outside the interior of a sun, and from there it would spread, those first molecules changing their fellows. It would spread and spread and it would interact with the rest of the elements of the atmosphere with a very simple result: Fire. A blaze so intense, so hot, it would burn and sear the entire planet's surface clean of all life. It was one of Harry's Bloody Insane spells, and by far the easiest to cast, which in his opinion made it scarier.

From Guardian's outstretched hand fire rocket out, not heading only towards Thanos but everywhere, shooting in every direction faster than Thanos could blink.

Then Guardian concentrated again "Fiendfyre!" he shouted, conjuring up the deadly magical flame. This spell impacted the 'more normal' fire all around Harry, and quickly changed its property somewhat, adding a magical element to the heat of the flame, which was beyond that of even Fiendfyre. That magical element, powered by the heat of the hotter than anything fire would let the flames break through Thanos' magical and physical durability.

Thanos stared in shock at the massive storm of fire that was shooting his way. He brought up his energy shields, not realizing what his opponent had done, then shouted in rage and pain when his shield shattered under a shield breaking spell from Harry. "Oh no you don't!"

Thanos stared down at his hand which had been caught by the strangely alive flames and been burned to the bone in that brief instant before he could raise another shield. Then Thanos looked around wildly realizing now what was going on. He tried to leap into the air, only to find his boots and legs encased not in steel, but in diamond. Harry had caught him with that when Thanos had been in shock from the loss of his hand.

Quickly he wrenched his other arm, which was only barely healed from the damage it had taken up over his head, engulfing his body in a shield. But he could already see it flickering, and he forced more of his body's energy into it, while also trying to kick his way out of the diamond engulfing his lower body and keeping him from escaping. But the diamond was too tight for him to get up enough leverage to do so. "Damn you human, face me!"

Ignoring this Guardian flung himself up into the air, desperately zooming out of the atmosphere of the planet as fast as his flight array could carry him, while behind him the Bloody Insane spell continued its horrible work. Looking back he could see the sphere of flame spreading across the entire planet so fast it was astonishing. It utterly engulfed his former position, and Thanos along with it. "DAMN YOU!"

Guardian broke out of Mars atmosphere out into space, hastily conjuring a bubblehead charm up over his head at the last minute before he turned. His whole body dropped wearily, his arm flopping uselessly in the weightlessness of space, his one eye covered with blood, his other hand over his shattered ribs, which were only very slowly healing, especially the damage to his lung, and one of his legs was twanging with pain from something or other. He wearily stared back down into the planet's atmosphere, hoping that was enough, but yet ready to continue if it wasn't.

Hours later the spell had finished its deadly work. Every scrap of atmosphere was boiled away leaving Mars a dead hulk, its surface glassed, every piece of dust and sand converted into ugly glass from the heat. Warily floating down, Guardian frowned heavily, landing on the truly barren surface of the planet, searching for any evidence of Thanos. Of course after that spell there shouldn't be anything, but I... He looked up quickly as he heard a shout somehow hearing a sound in what was now simply space. "Guardian!"

From the direction of Earth came Storm, flying through space, using her power to manipulate the thermal and electromagnetic energy patterns all through space. She wouldn't be able to do anything but fly through it however, and it was only because of her use of a Bubblehead charm that let her survive in space. Behind her came Thor and Balder, both of them still looking much the worse for wear yet game.

Storm looked as if she had imbibed on several more Pepper-up potions, but even as Harry watched, her hands shook, and despite her self-control her shoulders were drooping from exhaustion of flying through space on top of her exertions during the battle. Even so, her eyes were locked on him worriedly. "Guardian, are you…"

"Battered and bruised but alive, everything else is secondary." Harry said, taking Ororo in his arms, extending his own bubblehead charm over them both, though even that simple expansion spell took a noticeable amount of his remaining magical strength.

"Didst thou finish the mad alien off Guardian?" said Thor looking at him respectfully. "Wouldst be an amazing deed if so, he was most powerful even when matched against Balder and I, Æsir both."

"I hope so," Harry murmured. "I damn well hope so." After a moment he shook off his fear on that score, smiling at Ororo touching her cheek tenderly even as his insides twanged, telling him he was nowhere near healed yet. "Come on, let's get back to Earth. You can fill me in on what I missed on the way. I'm afraid, I'm way too magically exhausted to try and teleport us."

As the quartet of heroes flew through space back to the blue-white marble they called home on the outskirts of the solar system a ship began to move. Its name was Sanctuary, the personal ship of Thanos, created by the Titans and then enhanced further by Thanos himself. At present all of its inner workings were devoted to keeping its master alive. Third degree burns on his arms and legs, one arm almost entirely a write-off because of that, third degree burns along his back, along with the numerous injuries he had taking fighting Guardian before that last ditch assault. But despite this Thanos was alive, and he would remember the one who had brought him to such an ignoble state.

End chapter

Yeah, Harry and co had a very busy week and a bit, and OOWEE, lots of combat. I didn't actually intend to show Pierce and Shaw's showdown like this right away, but then I looked over what I could find of Donald Pierce's personality, and felt he would be someone who would lash out if cornered rather than simply try to escape and fight another day.

As for the fight with Thanos, this is not Infinity Gauntlet Thanos, or Mistress Death blessed Thanos, or whatever the hell happens to him later. Still by far the deadliest foe Harry had faced thus far. As for the diamond sheath at the end, note he couldn't move his legs at all, no matter how strong you are if you can't move at all, you can't break out of something like that. And I know diamond isn't the hardest substance man can make, or even Harry, but those are all compounds, and no way could Harry transfigure them as quickly as he could diamond in order to catch Thanos. Yes, he will be back for the Chitauri invasion, which is about a year or so off in-story time down the line, but the events of the Avengers movie will be VERY different than in canon.

I know I will be asked this, so I will state it now: Yes, Sabretooth is very dead. His regeneration ability can't stand up to being dumped in a pool of lava. And yes, Pierce and co. are also very dead. There is no chance of either showing up again. Same with Abomination and those that died on the other side of those fights, good and bad, sorry.

Now, the question is, what should I do about Banner/Hulk? No, I'm not going to wave the magic card and have Harry figure out a way to separate them or get rid of the Hulk, Banner is going to have to take some responsibility for his green-sides actions, no more running away from everyone friend and foe alike. But how hard should Harry be on him? My opinion is Harry's response will be dependent on how hard Banner is on himself, and how willing to accept aid. I look forward to your opinions, but back up your opinions please.

I might have the next chapter sometime late August, in which we will see Harry and the world dealing with the aftershocks of this assault, what Ororo was up to during his battle on Mars, Harry going on a hiring binge while finishing up a lot of projects and business issues, some much needed downtime, and of course the crew of the Hellion and their adventures. Needless to say there will be some surprises along the way.