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.

26. Irony Has Bite

I do not own Marvel (I would not be making an Avengers Civil War movie, most angsty arc ever) nor do I own Potter.

January sucked this year. Just, yeah, can't say it any other way. Not a lot of free time, computer issues, DNS issues, dental issues (which led to money issues), just rargh.

Let me say this right off the bat: I am pro-choice, I believe it is the woman's right to choose what to do with her baby, that it is a right of women right up there with the one that allows them to vote. I am not interested in opening up a political/religious debate on the issue, because this is not the forum for such a thing. What happens in this chapter has nothing to do with that belief, I try to make the characters as realistic as possible, and I hope I have done so.

Second, this chapter has not been entirely betaed. I promised in my author's note in Wild Wolf and Horse for the Force that I would have a chapter of this story done by the Super Bowl, and could not finish it in time to send it off to the beta reader. That's also why this chapter is only about half my normal ATP or WW chapters. Thanks go to Ultimaflar0 for doing what he could after I first posted this.

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Chapter 26: Irony Has Bite

For a moment Jean could only stare at the nurse, her eyes wide and shocked, even losing control of her telekinesis, lifting up several small objects from around the infirmary. Her emotions were cascading all over the place, from shock to anger to surprise to fear to, somewhat surprisingly when she realized it, joy and a sort of wonder. Though anger was beginning to become more prominent than the other emotions as she began to understand precisely what she had just been told. She must've mumbled something to Una's congratulations, but for the life of her Jean could never remember what afterward.

Susan noticed her astonishment, and frowned internally while smiling politely at Una as she took Jean's hand. After a few more moments she made some polite excuses and guided the still shocked Jean out into the corridor, where Susan turned to stare at Jean. "I take it this wasn't planned? Given your age I wouldn't have thought you would have planned something like this, but I also thought that you and Harry would at least be careful about pregnancy anyway."

Jean shook her head, her eyes still wide from the shock of the news. "W, we do, Harry has these spells he casts on himself and on me and Ororo, they are supposed to keep anything from happening! I can't think of a single time where he forgot them! He'd even taken the time between rounds to cast them."

"Little too much information there." Susan said shaking her head. "Maybe his spell went wrong somehow?"

"Oh it definitely went wrong, and I think I know the reason." Jean shook her head with a scowl now once again back in control of all her faculties. "If you'll excuse me Susan, I'm going back to my room. There's a certain immortal entity I need to have a talk with."

Susan's eyebrows rose. She and Reed had been told an abbreviated tale of what the Phoenix was and what it meant to Jean and her abilities but hadn't really made any kind of opinion on it. "You think the Phoenix could have interfered somehow?"

"Yes," Jean growled. "Yes I believe it did." Without another word she stalked off.

A crackling aura of telekinetic fire appearing around her for a moment causing Susan to shake her head. That is going to be an interesting discussion, glad I'm not a part of it. With that she smiled and turned away, heading towards the stateroom she shared with her husband.

Moments later Jean reached her room, stalking inside and slamming the automatic door behind her with a telekinetic pull that nearly ripped the door out of the wall rather than along its smooth rails. A part of her made a mental note to try and fix that, but the rest of her was just too angry to care at the moment.

With a growl she sat on the floor, crossing her legs under her in her normal meditative pose, closing her eyes not noticing that they were glimmering with red green fire as she did so. Instead of sending her thoughts out as she would if she was trying to connect telepathically with someone, Jean sent them inwards, finding and using the odd connection between her and the Phoenix. It wasn't supposed to let actual communication like this through, but Jean was too angry right now to care. "Phoenix! What the hell did you do!?"

A second later Jean, or rather her astral projection, stood in a plane of fire. This wasn't like any kind of normal fire, nor was it like that of a sun. This fire was all the colors of a rainbow, everywhere at once, carrying within each color images. Images of death and rebirth, new growth spring up from old, wars, what looked like parades, children at play, several alien couples (including a few races who Jean refused to look at closely lest she lose her lunch) making love, and thousands of other images covering the whole gamut of human or alien life, from beginning to end.

Out of that fire appeared the Phoenix, huge and majestic. It was so big that the word enormous didn't do it justice, a metaphor and reality all rolled into one somehow. Its wings were as wide as a planet, yet seemed also to span galaxies, its eyes were the size of islands, yet held within them the fire of thousands of suns.

"Were you any other mortal calling upon me in such a tone, I would have seared your soul and body to naught but ash." The Phoenix said though there was a smile on its' beak as it did so, leaning over Jean, who realized she probably looked almost miniscule in comparison. "But since it is you, dear Jean, I will allow your disrespect. What exactly are you accusing me of?"

Jean stared up at the massive Phoenix, the very power of life and rebirth, one of the eternal forces, and was unafraid. Here she could not call upon the powers the Phoenix gave her, it was all her, her telekinetic and telepathic abilities fueled only by her will, but even so, she stood her ground. "You know damn well what you did! You sabotaged Harry's spellwork so I'd become pregnant!"

The Phoenix seems to sigh, the breath of thousands of solar winds all rolled into one, before it started to shrink. A moment later a woman stood there, still taller than Jean and much broader, but generally speaking at least a humanoid figure. "And is that such a bad thing?" she asked, her voice no longer the booming thunder of planets crashing together, but still powerful.

"It takes away my choice so yes it's a bad thing! I'm a god-damn field agent! I have things to do I can't be out in the field if I'm pregnant, and I'm only 19!" She paused a moment and shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, going on 20 soon admittedly, but still I'm too damn young to be a mother. I won't deny I would have wanted children eventually, but this is too damn soon!"

The Phoenix cocked her head to one side then shook it slowly and when it replied, its mental tone was dry and sardonic. "You attribute to me a conscious act where there was none. I am the force of life and rebirth, from the seeds of the present are the future grown, from the ashes of the past new life springs up. That is what I am, who I am and what I will ever be."

"You are my avatar, and as such you not only partake in my power, but some of my essence. It was not a conscious act on my part that cancelled your mate's spellwork. When you lost control of my powers for a moment at the moment of climax, that outpouring of my energy did that on its own with no input from me."

She laughed, appealing sound of thunder. "I had thought you would've noticed it or realized this long since. But every time since then you called upon the abilities my power has given you, I realized you hadn't, and it amused me anew each time."

"I'm so glad I amuse you." Jean scowled, realizing in hindsight that it really should've been obvious. Then her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Are you saying that every time…I, I orgasm, I'll wipe out Harry's spellwork on my body and on his?"

"Not every time no, your normal control is good enough to keep such from happening for the most part, but that first time you could not have prevented it."

Jean continued to scowl, staring off into the distance of this odd plain her anger dribbling away slowly since it did not have a true target to waste itself on. She knew somehow that the Phoenix was not lying, it would serve no purpose. "I'm too young," She reiterated. "I'm too important as a team member! This isn't the right time for this kind of thing."

"Life flourishes where it can, not just where or when you want it to," The Phoenix said shrugging her shoulders philosophically. She was watching Jean intently however, and Jean turned from staring off into the distance to glare up at her. The two stared at one another, and the Phoenix frowned faintly, a bare outline in the eternal fire that made up her form. "I can read your thoughts; you are wondering if you should… the human term is abort the baby?"

Looking away from that knowing gaze, Jean remained silent for a moment before nodding sharply. Jean had been raised as a Christian, and abortion had been a very hot topic for many years, one which most Catholics believed was simply murder. Yet Jean had never really been that interested in all of the religious claptrap, and all of her previous arguments were still valid.

The Phoenix cocked its head thoughtfully staring down at the little human that had become it avatar, which had held a portion of the Phoenix's essence locked away under her own power for so long and whose life had become so precious to it. It wasn't supposed to have favorites of course a being such as it should never become emotionally tied to anything or anyone. But it had become so with Jean.

It could read Jean thoughts as easily as a book whatever Jean's mental defense to anyone else. Yes the reasons that Jean had stated were valid and part of what was driving her mental confusion. But the rest was simple fear. 'Will I be a good enough mother', 'I'm too young for this', 'how will the others react', 'am I strong enough to defend my child from the threats that are out there?' Having a baby like this would make Jean vulnerable and the baby in turn.

To the Phoenix's mind those last two thoughts were nonsense: it had a good enough read on her avatar's mate to understand his response to this event. That Jean did not was simply due to her emotional turmoil at the moment, which Jean would get over once she stopped and thought clearly about her pregnancy. And of course Jean had none of the other problems that many young mothers faced. She could easily look after the child, and Camelot was the safest place on the Earth, and the most hidden.

There was no material reason why Jean could not have this baby, and even the reasons about her team and responsibilities were specious ones in the Phoenix's opinion. But right now Jean was afraid, and people who are scared could commit acts that later they would be horrified by.

"Let me show you something." the Phoenix said, holding up its hand to gently touch Jean's stomach.

Suddenly in the air in front of Jean was a tiny flame, only about as big as her thumb. But just like the plain around her, this was no ordinary flame. It burned with all the kaleidoscope colors of the rainbow, of every rainbow ever conceived and billions of other colors that humanity had no words for.

Jean stared at it, her hands slowly moving up to cup it gently with her hands, her eyes wide as she realized what this was. "What… you can't be… this, this can't be…"

"Every life begins with endless possibilities." the Phoenix said. "It is up to the individual, its family, its fuel if you will, and its environment to impact what it becomes, if it becomes anything. Your life is your own but surely, this life deserves a chance?"

Jean wanted to glare at the Phoenix, wanted to shout and rant that she wasn't ready for this, but that would have simply been reiterating her previous argument, that she had duties and responsibilities. She could have said that it was impossible for a baby to already have a soul, for a baby to already be formed enough to have a soul a bare three weeks into the pregnancy.

But she couldn't. Not because this was the Phoenix, and therefore if anyone or anything knew when souls came into being it would be this entity. No, she couldn't say those things because she couldn't look away, dazzled by the small flame flickering in her hands. The tiny flame that she and Harry had brought into the world.

Staring at Jean's face for a moment the Phoenix smiled, reverting back to its bird form before dissolving gently into the ether of the dimension around them.

How long Jean stayed there staring into the small flame she didn't now, but Jean was roused from her meditation quite suddenly, a loud screeching sound pulling her senses back to her body. She looked up sharply to see Paige in her metal form pulling the warped doorway into her room aside, pushing it back into the wall. "Geez, what did you do to this thing?"

"I hadn't actually noticed," Jean said, shaking her head lightly as she came back to the here and now. "Was there something you two wanted?"

Behind Paige Danielle stood, looking a little diffident, but smiling all the same. Paige replied, "The nurse said you and Mrs. Richards were both pregnant! We came down to congratulate you, we should have a party!"

Jean winced, something that only Danielle saw as Paige was still wrestling with the door. The Cheyenne woman cocked an eyebrow at her teacher, and Jean waved her hand lightly in the air from side to side, indicating that she'd talk to her later. "That's nice I suppose, but right now I think I'd just like to sleep." Jean said aloud, looking at Paige. Paige had been raised as a staunch Catholic, and saw no problems with someone as young as Jean having a baby, though she would have a major problem with Jean if she brought up the idea of aborting it.

Kicking at the bottom of the door Paige finally forced the last portion of it into the slide before looking closely at Jean. Then she nodded her head slowly. "I guess it came as a shock to you, sorry I didn't think about that. Just promise me when we do through you a baby shower, Ah'm in charge of it!" Paige grinned, giving Jean a thumbs up. "And don't worry, when we order booze, I'll drink your portion for ya."

"Away, away with you." Jean laughed waving her hands at both of them. "Thank you for fixing my door Paige, but seriously not right now."

"I gotcha, and sorry." Paige shrugged, turning to leave, eager to get back to her room where she could change back to her skin and bones body in private. She'd got enough weird looks from the Kree among the crew, along with Douglas and Nikolai, as it was.

Dani however stayed behind, entering Jean's room and turning to watch as the door tried to close behind her. "You know, I think she just made it worse."

With a languid hand Jean sent a telekinetic burst of energy at the door, closing it with a thump. "I suppose you could call it an extra layer of security I guess."

Danielle laughed then looked at Jean coming over to stand in front of her. "This really was a surprise to you wasn't it? And not a happy one?"

"A surprise yes, as for the other…" Jean frowned, her eyes far away as she tried to balance what had happened in the Phoenix's realm with all her mortal concerns and worries. "That one's still up in the air."

"Want to talk about it?" Danielle asked. "I have a worry of my own. I was hoping to wait until we get back to Earth to talk to Harry, but I wondered if you had any advice about it to give right now."

Jean cocked her head thoughtfully as she looked to be younger girl. She nodded, then moved over to the bed, propping herself against the wall behind the bed as Danielle moved to use the footrest in the same manner. "Why don't you start? Your worry sounds a little more serious than mine, at least in a way."

Danielle nodded then relayed the dream she had after they left Earth, the one where she had apparently spirit walked into her own blood only to find Sigyn, an Asgardian and the wife of Loki Foolsbane hidden there.

While the Cheyenne girl spoke Jean remained silent, simply staring at her thoughtfully, gratefully putting aside her own worries for a moment.

What was interesting to Jean at first was that Dani's dream had occurred as they were exiting the solar system, but she had not had any similar dreams since. Surely Sigyn had more information to impart than could be done in that one dream. It was a leap of logic, but Jean felt that this probably meant that the Asgardians couldn't use many of their powers any real distance away from Earth. That was interesting, and might be important down the line.

After Dani finished she remained that way for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Harry's been worried about there being something going on with the Asgardians for a while now, so this doesn't exactly come as a great shock. There are some really odd undercurrents there from what you're saying. Did Sigyn ever ask you to start looking for her body for some reason?"

"No, and that was the other odd thing, she tried to hint at it, but it wasn't an implicit request for aid."

"Interesting." Jean frowned. Reverse psychology possibly

"I don't think so. I think she was telling me as much as she could."

"It sounds like some kind of geas." Jean said pulling the phrase from a few fantasy novels she'd read. She was more of a sci-fi fan than fantasy, but she'd learned enough about magic to understand it was possible to keep someone from talking about to something like that.

"I can only hope that Harry and Ororo and began to look into the Asgardians." she said aloud, shrugging her shoulders. "You gave me a lot of information to work from just now, and certainly information from the horse's own mouth will carry a lot more weight than any kind of record. The hint about Loki being Odin's brother for one is a major clue. And there is Harry's dealing with Hela, another way we could get more information. I'm just wondering how proactive we should be on this."

She cocked an eyebrow at Danielle, who took her cue but did not reply immediately. "I think…" she said slowly "I think that above and beyond being the right thing to do it might be the smart thing to do as well. I'm not an expert on mythology, but if enough of the mythology that survived from back then is real, well we might want to get the Asgardians more on our side after all. And possibly getting Loki Foolsbane into our debt would be a major advantage down the line."

"Allies are where you find them, though Loki, to say that the mythology send mixed singles about him is an understatement." Jean said with a nod. "Balder impressed Harry, and from what I remember from the news Thor's also impressed people. If those two are normal, the Asgardians could be a major ally." Jean smiled, reaching forward to grab Danielle's hand. "And," she said, smiling at the younger girl. "You're right about it being the right thing to do. Such a woman as you described Sigyn to be deserves better than to be locked in a cage, regardless of how gilded."

Danielle smiled back gripping the other woman's hands thankfully. Then she smirked, pulling one hand away to point a finger at Jean. "Now onto your issue."

Jean sighed having forgotten her pregnancy and the concerns there for a few moments. But she obediently conveyed her fears and concerns to the younger girl, who just as Jean did didn't speak up until Jean finished, then shook her head. "I understand where you're going about the age thing, and it is a concern, but are you really concerned about how Harry will react? You've seen the way he treats Melody and even the other kids."

The redhead shook her head slowly. "No, I'm not really worried about Harry's reaction, it's just… wouldn't this kind of sort of put pressure on him?"

"I think I understand what you're saying, but it's also ridiculous." Danielle said shaking her head. "You two are together, you might not be married in the eyes of law or religion, but that doesn't change what is. Given that and his love of the kids, this won't be a pressure to him, it will be a joy."

"As for your arguments about being a field agent and the team, I think those aren't important." She held up a hand as Jean made to object. "I'm not saying you're not a major help, I'm not saying you have skills and talents that could be easily replaced, that's all true, just look at this mission alone! But even so, the team can get by without your powers."

She smirked suddenly. "And while the Custodes might be one of your duties, it certainly isn't the only one you have. And all your other duties, chief Engineer for Magical Minds, head of the team's armory, part-time teacher, 24-7 sounding board for Harry, those you can all do even while pregnant. I think it comes down to whether or not this is something you want."

Jean frowned, staring down at her stomach thoughtfully. It would be weeks or possibly months yet before she began to show but that didn't matter considering the Phoenix's little display. "I think, I think while the final decision is mine, I need to talk to Harry about this before I say anything else."

Danielle rolled her eyes, knowing point blank what Harry's response would be and Jean did too if she was being honest with herself. But motherhood was such a daunting concept, especially to someone Jean's age and background, Dani knew her own parents had not exactly been the best at it, that Dani understood the underlying fear driving her indecisiveness.

With a sigh she stood up, patting Jean on the leg for a moment. "In the end, you're right when you say the final decision is yours." She leaned forward, exchanging a hug with the older redhead before pulling away slightly and nodding at her. "Sleep on it Jean, and then certainly, talk to Harry." She suddenly grinned. "Just make sure that I'm there when you do, I want to see his face!"

Jean rolled her eyes, and with a gesture of one hand summoned up a telekinetic wave throwing Danielle out of the room to land gently in the corridor, where she laughed.

OOOOOOO

Back on Earth Harry suddenly sneezed, holding up a handkerchief to his nose quickly. "I do apologize." He said staring over the table at his dining companion. "You were saying something?"

Sebastian merely nodded. "I was saying that it was interesting how Senator Kelly's rhetoric has not changed overmuch since that debacle up in Canada. People who cannot change how they think worry me. The Middle East is a prime example of what happens when lots of people are unwilling to change how they think or live their lives despite the world moving on around them. They tend to lash out and become irrational."

"I haven't been following American politics as much as I have Europe." Harry replied, "But I understand your point well enough. Am I correct when I say that he is going to be announcing his run for presidency at this upcoming rally of his? He does not seem the type of person anyone with enough of the… right kind of forethought... would want in the Oval Office."

The two Hellfire Club kings were actually not at the Hellfire Club at the moment, they were dining in a small restaurant in New York that Sebastian owned through one of his intermediaries. Every person who worked there was one of his people, and the place was regularly swept for bugs every half-hour. It had also been swept right before they began to sit down to eat, so was the safest environment they could contrive. But even so, and despite this being the tenth time they had met up like this, they remained on guard against a stray word.

"True enough and I am a little concerned about some of the people funding his campaign." Sebastian mused. "Among them there are several who might resort to extralegal means to make their point."

"Interesting." Harry said thoughtfully then he smiled grimly. "It makes me very happy to be a British citizen rather than an American one, that such a man has a chance of winning the most powerful position in the country. However," he went on. "Such could be opposed by others who are willing to work outside of the law to steer the future in the proper direction."

"And would you be one of those?" Sebastian asked.

"It depends on who is asking, and what they themselves can bring to the table." Harry replied, staring at Sebastian hard.

Sebastian raised a nap into his mouth to hide a smile, and nodded slightly. "I believe that on this issue we are of like mind then."

"On this issue yes." Harry replied with a nod. "But I have heard whispers that our fellow King does not stand with us, that he is in fact diametrically opposed?"

"That is fact, and I will submit some proofs to you about that now, indeed, that and more." Sebastian replied with a nod, gesturing to one of the guards nearby to hand over a portfolio to Harry containing what information Emma had passed on to him and what his own sources had found out about the Sentinel Program.

Harry took it, not looking through it at the moment, simply setting it aside. "I will look over this and get back to you."

Sebastian nodded, understanding that the meal was over. He stood up, reached across the table and shook the younger man's hand then both of them left, after paying the bill outside Sebastian commented complemented Harry on his car making small talk for a moment, then moved off to his limo smiling faintly.

OOOOOOO

Later that day Emma and Harry met in Camelot, Emma having gotten away from her mansion for a few hours. Emma frowned thoughtfully, looking over the information Sebastian had passed on. "So he doesn't know about what the sentinels can do or their numbers, though I didn't get much of this." Emma frowned gesturing at some of the figures that Sebastian had procured, which were a list of electronic parts, a list of industrial equipment and metals along with some other industrial supplies. "I'm afraid his information network is a little better than my own outside of the realm of cyber warfare."

"What interests me is that Robert Kelly is definitely in on this. Your opinion of him?"

Emma smiled, squeezing Harry's hand at the absolute trust his voice. When planning an operation like this most people would have wanted to make their own opinion of their opponents. But Harry trusted her opinion enough to not need to make his own, and had even agreed with most of the plan she had thought up to deal with the Sentinels, Buckman, and Shaw. That was a compliment of the highest order.

"I think he's being used." she replied bluntly. "While he believes fervently that mutants are a threat to humanity and is able to rouse a crowd, he's not the sort of person anyone would trust with anything important. However if he becomes president, he'll have to be seen as an important player in the central project if it's supposed to become mainstream. I think that they will aim indeed for a showing at his campaign rally for several reasons. This will give us a shot if we're lucky."

The two of them looked at one another, mentally going over the plan that Emma had proposed a few weeks ago before Harry nodded. "I definitely need to talk to Charles then."

Before going over to the X-mansion Harry stopped in the hydroponics section of High Note. He talked to the head elf of High Note, Gordon, who informed him that the next crop of potion ingredients would be ready for harvest soon in the first farms he'd created. The crops in the more recently created areas were about two weeks behind. Once he had a full harvest, Harry would be able to almost meet the needs of Europe and Canada at the very least. And he would have enough to do a bit of a PR blitz. Half-price off for any veteran injured in the line of duty is going to be one hell of a carrot.

A moment later however Harry was in the mansion. He nodded to Scott who nodded back cordially, heading out the doorway with Rogue on what looked like a date. "Any of the other kids at home?" he asked as the two of them walked past him.

Scott paused for a moment as Rogue when ahead of him, taking a brief moment to glance down at her rear when she put a deliberate swing in her step before looking up at Harry's amused expression. He shrugged, and answered. "No, Evan's out with a few of his skater buddies enjoying the last of the summer, and Kitty's over at her parents for the day. Kurt's also out, helping our new live-in maid Moira McTaggart shopping for some furniture for her room and food. The second batch of students arrives next week, so we're stocking up."

Harry nodded, though he actually hadn't met the new live-in maid that Charles had brought in. Of course she wouldn't be an actual maid; Clare would be much put out by the very idea. But a female language teacher and den mother was a bit of a mouthful. "Is Charles upstairs?"

Turning from the doorway Rogue shook her head. "He's in the hospital area Mistah Potter, along with Xian, that girl that Kurt saved. They're trying to help that woman that Missus Braddock and Ororo brought in."

Having completely forgotten about Ms. Steed Harry simply nodded. Ororo had transported her to the mansion as a favor to Betsy, who thought that maybe another more powerful and experienced telepath could bring Steed out of whatever was afflicting her.

The couple left after that and Harry made his way into the infirmary, nodding at the Vietnamese girl who nodded back but kept her distance. She was still spooked around most men, with the sole exception of Charles.

Charles himself was by one of the medical tables, holding one hand on Emma Steed's forehead as his other held her wrist. Harry shrugged his shoulders, reached forward and took the man's cold coffee mug, before leaving for the kitchen and coming back with a warm one. He set it in front of Charles' face, letting the smell waft up under his nose then watched as Charles came out of his telepathic meditation. "Any progress?"

Charles looked up at him smiling faintly. "You're making a habit of bringing me coffee when I need it most Mr. Potter. As for progress, some. I have to deal with each nightmare defense as they come, using Ms. Steed's own memories to point out they are not real, and thus forcing them to dissipate. I'm hoping that if I can reach a tipping point in those they'll be able to share the information that her tormentor is gone, hopefully it'll get through and convince the small kernel of Ms. Steed's mind she somehow hid from this Selene woman to come back to the land of the living."

He shook his head slightly. "I hope it works, the very idea of being able to hide a portion of your psyche like that shows incredible intelligence and skill. Or perhaps just desperation, it would be interesting to see which frankly." After taking a sip from his cup, Charles went on staring up at Harry. "But you're not here to ask you about Ms. Steed and my progress or lack thereof. What can I do for you Harry?"

"I know that Ororo passed on some of our worries about what Emma found but did she mention the Sentinel project?" Charles nodded, and Harry went on to describe what Sandman had passed on to Emma.

"We're running out of time, but we come up with a scheme that might be able to get us the location of their base. The problem is, it's something we need your help with Charles, not the X-men, you. Because you're the one that has been invited down to that rally that Senator Kelly's organized at the end of the month."

"Oh, that." Charles grimaced a little. "I actually hadn't intended to go, there's only so much you can do with a crowd that will be as hostile as that one will no doubt be. But then rumors began to circulate that Kelly would have it both broadcasted live on the news, and that he would announce his upcoming race for presidency at it." He smiled thinly. "I believe his chances of taking the presidency would greatly diminish if those watching from home at least could be convinced he lost that debate."

Harry laughed. "An evil thought, and here's another one." From there Harry went on to describe their plan as such as it was. It wasn't in any way detailed considering how many times it would be possible for to go wrong. But Charles' part in it at least was certain.

Charles agreed to do his part. "I also have my own agent watching Sebastian Shaw. I have had her in place for years, watching Shaw while I waited until I thought the X-men were up to the task of stopping him." Harry's eyebrows rose at that, but it made sense considering how much resources Shaw could call upon. "Her name is Sage. I'll contact her in the usual manner and give her your telephone number if that's all right?"

"That's fine by me." Harry nodded. "Have her call the phone number on my cell phone, the one Reed built for me. Just in case."

"Agreed. I'll also make certain the X-men are ready to assist. Extra firepower is something you always should have on hand just in case. And since you will be fighting the Hellions as well as these Sentinels, I doubt I could keep Scott away." To say that Scott had been displeased to learn Alex had been somehow coerced to work with a mutant supremacist was to say the ocean was wet.

Harry nodded at that, clapping the other older man on the shoulder. "There is no such thing as overkill, there is just dead and not dead enough." With that he shook Charles his hand, exchanging nods once again with Xian before exiting.

OOOOOOO

That was just the first of several meetings Harry had today. Later that day Harry met with his think tanks one after another. First was the group that he had put together to look into what Harry had dubbed the 'Asgardian mystery'.

Doctor Vorlus was a somewhat short rotund man, who despite looking like a bowling ball had arms that were about three times the size of Harry's. He looked exactly like an old weightlifter gone badly to seed, but he spoke with the most erudite tone that Harry had ever heard, including Dr. Lefton, the sociologist that Reed had brought in to speak to the Kree prisoners.

He was also a follower of Odin, though at first Harry didn't realize the significance of this. "There are several points of interest to talk about already sir, though it will take us weeks to compile all of our evidence as well as information. But I understand that this is a preliminary meeting."

Harry nodded, sitting down across from the man in the small but very well furnished office that he and the rest of this think tank met in, which was set into a corner of Magical Mind's public headquarters. "I'm sorry to say that yes, I don't have time today for a long-term briefing, just tell me the highlights about the Asgardians, then tell me if you can sift fact from fiction."

"Very well," the older man said with a nod. "First I will cover facts, then we will cover supposition, which is in this area, ideas and wild guesses which we believe might be the case but have yet to find any evidence to support such. Then I will explain the means we use to tell fact from fiction in this instance."

Harry stared blankly at the man every inch of his being telling him to get on with it, and the former Doctor of Norwegian History chuckled dryly. "First of all, you have to understand..." From there the man went on to give Harry a decent enough overview of the two branches of Asgardians gods, as well as the Jotnar, who consistently married goddesses and gods, as well as those that were their enemies, giving a few important names of those and the tales that went with them.

"You could say that individual giants could be respected or even respectable. Tyr is the prime example of this. He was a mountain giant, yet he came to be among the most powerful and honored of the Aesir. He ruled over law, justice, honor and tradition. He became even more respected when he sacrificed his hand to Fenris, the beast who according to the Prose and Poetic Edda, is fated to eat Odin whole at Ragnarok."

At the name Fenris, Harry's eyes narrowed. Fenris was the name of the giant wolf that Dani ran into in her dream-walk, but to eat a god? he also didn't seem that antagonistic, or that powerful, when Dani described him. So is this Ragnarok event far in the future, or is something going to change soon to force him into such a mindset?

As a group though, the Jotnar were most certainly the enemy, either through their actions or their very nature. I am sure you have heard the old tale of the scorpion in the old tale about a scorpion and a fox crossing the river? Such examples of giants giving in to their base natures in many tales, and paying for it." Vorlus concluded.

"Now we get on to specific gods. The most famous are six, or possibly eight if you want to be pedantic about it, gods and goddesses that appear in more old tales than any of the other Aesir, or who have the most impact on their worshipers." He smiled faintly, then went on to describe Odin, Loki, Freya, Thor, Balder and the Norns.

While Harry had researched Odin and the others, he had not looked into the Norns. It was interesting to note however that they had apparently begun as simply observers of life, watchers whose pool sat at the roots of Yggdrasil. It was only alter when they were 'awarded' the power of being actual weavers of fate for mortals and gods alike. This was one of many differences that occurred over time.

"Yet while there is no single demarcation for when such changes began, some differences in how the gods were portrayed were easy to hunt down and prove false. Thor for instance is supposed to be red-haired. The blonde version came about during World War II from the Nazis. This is fact not conjecture. Hitler was very deeply involved in quasi-religious mystical claptrap at the time, including creating an entire division devoted to magic if you can believe it." The man smirked condescendingly, while Harry kept his own expression neutral.

"Of particular interest to the Nazi's was the Asgardian pantheon, and of course Thor in particular. Thor was the friend of the common man in the pantheon, defender, friend and leader, most physically powerful of the gods thanks to his gauntlets and belt, which allowed him to wield Mjöllnir."

"Do we have any images of the hammer you would trust? The belt and the gauntlets, I don't think Thor's been seen with, at least not from the news about him." Harry frowned, thinking back to what he had seen of Thor. Nothing I saw on him looked magical, not even his hammer.

"It is the hammer that but brings me to believe that the Thor in America is not the real one from Asgardians myth." Vorlus replied, sighing sadly. "Hair could be a thing of seeming. But Mjöllnir was supposed to be stone not steel, and it was supposed to be so heavy that no God or even teams of gods could lift it without the Gauntlets of Power. Gauntlets that this…imposter does not seem to have."

Harry watched in amusement as the man across from him actually cracked his knuckles in anger. Knuckles that, Harry noticed, looked scarred and gnarled, like that of an old boxer.

"That, and, well this is more supposition, but we have some evidence that Thor was married, and had children with Sif. Yet rumor states this blonde Thor has taken up with a human female. While other gods were known to stray occasionally, Thor was certainly not!"

But his hair did change to red, and got a massive power boost because of it… Harry thought internally. So, we have Thor who either doesn't have a family or willingly left them and who's missing all the tools he was supposed to have to make him so deadly. We have all of the other little indications that something happened to drive the Asgardians out of them Earth, and the fact they seem to be stuck into some kind of cycle. Joy.

"Leaving aside Thor for a moment, what can you tell me about Odin? He is the leader of the pantheon, that isn't hyperbole?"

"Not the leader of the pantheon, the King of the Asgardians." Vorlus replied firmly. "I already said that if Thor was physically stronger than any of the other gods, so unlike in the Greek pantheon pure power did not make you the chief. In fact, that is one of his titles, God of Kings. What does that tell you?"

The professor raised an eyebrow and Harry rolled his eyes again but answered readily. "He's not always going to be nice. He's not going to be straightforward. He will be devious at times and intelligent…" Harry said each word coming out slower as the implications of them sank in. "Someone who is as equally dangerous on the field of battle commanding men or at the negotiating table."

Maybe I didn't get as good a deal as I thought. Or maybe… maybe he had some other reason to open up a dialogue other than the obvious. Aloud he asked, "But how do you equate that to someone who would trick that giant who made the wall for his city?"

"Well there you have to look at whether the giant in question was honorable about making the deal in the first place, and what the actual wording of their agreement was. You see…"

That explanation went on for some time, but in the end Harry was satisfied. A king would always need to put the honor and needs of his people over his personal honor, so would indeed need to take actions that an individual might find beyond the pale. In this case, he used his foe's words and resources against him to protect one of his own. Can't say I would have done the same, but I can't say it was entirely dishonorable either.

Still, a definite cautonary tale to any agreement I make with the Asgardians. Best to assume Odin will get more out of any agreement we make in writing, and make certain that what they gain is something I can afford to lose.

He also understood where a lot of Tolkien's inspiration for Gandalf came from. An old man wandering around, yeah I'm definitely going to take any gifts I get from such. And do my damndest not to take on Odin if I don't have to. I might have greater magical strength, but in magic, knowledge counts for a hell of a lot more than pure power. And frankly Odin sounds a hell of a lot trickier than I am.

"In short." the man concluded hours later despite Harry wanting this meeting to be short, "there are many hundred discrepancies of what little remnants remain of actual religious text, and then the later mythology built up around it. The key I believe is Loki and of course Ragnarok. Something is wrong with the entire tale. For one thing, it is in the telling of Ragnarok that Loki who is brother to Odin suddenly becomes brother to Thor, and where he is suddenly cast out by the Aesir for breaking the rights of the guest in Odin's Hall."

"And being drunk and disorderly and saying such things as that would be well beyond the pale, something Loki, for all his silver tongue would know." Harry said nodding his head, referring to some of the things the professor had said mythology laid at Loki's feet during that fiasco. "And Ragnarok?"

"You are a former soldier are you not, Mr. Potter? Would you ever, in a thousand years, pin the result of a war entirely on a single over done battle?" Vorlus asked drolly. "That is what the Ragnarok is supposed to, all of the sources agree on it! A single battle to stop the fire giants in their attempt to destroy the world. Someone like Odin is supposed to have been would never allow such a thing, never allow himself to be backed into a corner where a single battle would mean life or death for his people."

He smiled thinly. "I am a follower of Odin, a Odinssman if you will. I like to think of myself as devious, meticulous, forward thinking, willing and able to make sacrifices. And I would never be backed into a corner like that."

Harry nodded, frowning thoughtfully. "All right, we'll go with your hunch then concentrate on the Ragnarok, then Odin, Loki, Freya and Thor in that order, but first I'd like a timeline if you can make me one, as well as descriptions of any of their magical items or powers. Ignore the Norns for now, and any of the other gods. Anything you can tell me will be helpful down the line."

OOOOOOO

Harry's next meeting was with Carol and her group, and it was more entertaining than his previous meeting from the get go. When he walked into the meeting room Carol stood up, sporting what looked at first like some kind of very futuristic diving suit, or perhaps the uniform of a robot driver from one of the anime shows Armor liked to watch. On the table in front of her and the rest of her team was a helmet, which looked like a normal astronaut's helmet, only smaller. And there was also what looked like a targeting reticule moving around on the interior of the helmet's glass/plastic following the directions from a joystick one of the men was using.

"It's our prototype spacesuit." Carol said gesturing at her body and the helmet. "We took the Kree suits and modified them with some of our own ideas, one of your little helpers, and Kitty. It's got an emergency portkey to the nearest asteroid, keyed to a safe word we can teach all of the future astronauts, right now this one's keyed to the word 'crabapple' for some reason."

Harry smiled widely, shaking his head in amusement. With the rest of their work slowing down now thanks to Jean not being here to trade ideas with and with no more arrays needed right now on the business side, Kitty had found herself with free time despite her desire to skip a grade this coming year. According to what Ororo had told him a few nights back that had turned out to be a lot easier than she thought, and Kitten was already slated to come in as a senior at Bayville in September.

"I've taken it out for a spin." Carol went on, gesturing Harry to sit at the front of the table as she sat to one side next to the man playing with his joystick. "It works very well. The range of movement in the suit is incredible, especially in comparison to the bulky shit NASA was still using! We've even begun to incorporate armor segments into some of our blueprints. I figured those would do for space-based combat."

A man further down the table spoke up, a short wiry man who exuded the sort of frenetic energy normally seen in ferrets, gesturing and shifting in his seat as if he didn't like sitting still. "Yet despite the 'magic' we've put into these we'll run into a lot of casualties if we just toss people out into the wide beyond. Space will kill you if you're stupid for even a second, which is why we've written up an instructional manual. It's almost done." He said holding up a very thick book made out of loose bits of paper.

His name was George Paire, and he, like many of the others, had been brought in by Carol to work with her on this think tank, and he led a team of others. He was a former NASA man too, and had taken to the work, and the secrecy, like a duck to water. Magic however still bothered him at times, despite the patently obvious fact of its existence. Of the hundred and seventy men and women Harry and Carol had brought in on this initially, about half remained, the others not having passed Harry's trust-check array, or simply unable to deal with magic being real.

"Try to keep the wording simple, and cut down on that size." Harry said pointing at the book. "That thing's a little intimidating as it is. Maybe we should bring in a noncom as part of this group, get his or her opinion on what should be set down in law and what should be passed on by word of mouth in order to get across better."

"Not a bad idea." Carol said, while the others around the table looked a little confused or dismissive at the idea of bringing in a noncom. "A Master Chief or Gunny would also help me go through scenarios, which would enlarge the lesson plan for the class in space maneuvers and safety."

"How soon do you think you'll be able to take in students?" Harry asked.

"We'd like to do it in stages, get the students used to working underwater first, that'll teach them the importance of suit pressure and air. Then we'd take them up into space to teach them how to move in Zero-G in one of the asteroids before letting them loose in actual space. We can start the first portion the moment we have students, it wouldn't even be hard to keep things on the down low considering. The lessons for the rest are almost done too."

Harry nodded. "Alright, I'll start to put together a hiring department then. Hmm… might even start up another company entirely. On the surface it would be supposed to look into, oh, underwater industry or something. Then later after the students pass the first segment, bring them into the big secret."

"We also have solved some of the issues you're running into in making the asteroid bases. For that, I'll turn over this meeting to Jerry, Dorothy and Agda, whose work with their teams has been amazing." Carol went on, gesturing to the other side of the table to two Swedish ship designers who had been brought in by Harry at Carol's behest and a former submarine designer who had worked on the Seawolf submarine design for General Dynamics Electric Boat, the prime design company for American submarines.

Harry nodded agreeably, and the two of them pulled out several dozen large blueprints all of which were based on the asteroid bases, the Ravenspires, that Harry had begun to hollow out. Dorothy dealt with the living quarters, refectory and accompanying food distribution and storage, the small hydroponics section, and the heating and air distribution/renewal system. She described the problems they had dealt with, such as heating the interior of the asteroid while dissipating exterior heat, making each asteroid able to survive cut off from Earth for a few weeks minimum, and other issues.

In contrast the plans Jerry came up with were much less complete, and of a 'fill in the blanks' variety. The weapons the Ravenspire would itself carry were still being discussed, and would continue to be until Reed and Jean came back, so there was little on that front he could do. He had come up with several designs, one based off a carrier concept, one based off the Ravenspires holding weapons based off gauss technology, another based off energy weapons.

Each system of course would have different problems. Energy weapons would require heat distribution systems. This was something Dorothy approved of since they could then internalize some of that heat for the living quarters, and gauss technology would require a reload system. His designs showed ways to solve those issues, and incorporated a Shielding design which would be included regardless.

Hours later Harry came away from the meeting impressed both by the amount of work Carol and the other team leaders had produced and by the enthusiasm for the projects everyone seemed to have. Humanity was going to go into space in a big way of any of them had a say in it.

That was the last meeting he had that day thankfully, and Harry went home to Camelot looking forward to spending some time with the kids. As he walked down the stairs from the headmaster's office however, having stopped by to get out of his suit -Emma had bought it for him, and would not have been pleased to hear he had transfigured an Armani suit to his regular jeans and shirt -, Harry felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket.

Growling irritably Harry pulled it out but seeing the caller calmed him down and when he spoke his tone was formal without being cold or demanding. "Dr. Doom? To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I have been looking into your interesting problem about not being able to predict where a ship would exit hyperspace," Doom began without preamble. "And I may have found a solution."

Harry's eyebrows rose and he halted his progress down the corridor, moving over to a wall, leaning against it. "Already, that's excellent, tell me more."

"As you no doubt know, there are places, areas of space which have been too warped by local gravity to allow hyperspace jumps in or out. Planets have very small gravitic shadows, suns far larger, black holes of course distort gravity so much it effects everything else around them. What I essentially propose is to build a device that will be able to create artificial gravity, the gravity of the sun for example and project it into hyperspace. Any ship that hit this gravity bubble would be forced to drop out or explode due to catastrophic engine failure. They would then drop out where we wish them to appear."

Harry scratched his chin thoughtfully. "That sounds exactly what we need, so what's the catch?"

"It is not the kind of defense we would be able to run all the time. From the work I've done so far, I can tell you it takes far too much energy to power up, and even more to keep it on for an extended length of time. Worse, even if we are only projecting the gravity well into hyperspace, over time it will start to impact the normal universe. I trust I don't have to paint a picture of what the effect will be of dropping the equivalent of another sun's gravity well into our own solar system?"

"I can paint that picture myself, thank you." Harry replied dryly. "So not a perfect solution, but it could allow us ambush anything we know is coming? Perhaps use it in conjunction with some way of monitoring hyperspace on the outer edge of the solar system?"

"A good idea, but such sensors would be next to impossible to create with our current industrial capacity. Space around the solar system is vast Harry Potter, far larger than most people are able to visualize."

"So don't try to cover the entire system, however how about the inner planets, would that be workable?"

"Again not with our industrial capacity and we are still talking about a monstrous amount of space Potter. No, unless we find the Kree or some other race has designed a sensor system that can let you see information in real time over lightyears we cannot see an attack coming like that. Though, I predict that they simply use groups of patrol ships on the outer edge of systems as an early warning system."

Harry frowned, but after a moment nodded. "If technology cannot serve magic might. I'll think about it, possibly some kind of intent based spell, though even magic would have trouble covering the sheer amount of space we're talking about, and the power to start up such a spell, unless there are space-based leylines... hmm… Anyway, for the artificial gravity well, how power consumptive are we talking about?"

"So much so that you have to devote at least two of your arc reactors to it, possibly four if you want the gravitic bubble to come online faster. I will be able to produce a prototype of the device in question in a few months time, would you be willing to create the arc reactors for it by that point?"

"And not incidentally let you take a look at the technology and magic behind them?" Harry asked dryly to which Doom simply chuckled, an odd sound coming both through his mask and the phone. "Yes that's doable I think. Maybe by then I'll have come up with a magic-based solution that could let us see them coming from further out. Stranger things have happened, haven't they?"

"Practically every day Potter." Doom said drolly. "Practically every day. And with that I will leave you, I have other demands on my time as you well know." Harry nodded, and Doom hung up.

Harry chuckled, shaking his head as he thought about the semi-clandestine war being waged in the former Soviet Union countries as well as in Germany now if he remembered the news correctly. The Red Skull was losing base after base, but it was costing doom troops on the ground as well time and some amount of international goodwill. Each time his men were seen in a country that didn't share a border with Latveria another cry went up in the UN decrying his actions, only for that cry to stop abruptly when it was revealed he had hit a HYDRA or allied terrorist base. Overmatched though he was the Red Skull wasn't willing to go down without a fight, though why he was fighting at all rather than simply letting HYDRA take the fall for him and disappearing was something Harry wondered about as he continued his walk through the hallways of Camelot.

"Not my problem" Harry said to himself, shaking his head. "Let Doom handle him, so long as it's in a permanent fashion I'm not going to complain and it's not as if Doom's the only one breaking international laws in order to hammer a terrorist group."

Harry didn't know how, but SHIELD had somehow been able to find and attack every AIM base, training center, or research lab in the Americas and Canada over the past week. Several joint exercises has been launched after them making the news, though those newsreels were remarkably lacking in actual details such as losses, who was doing the actual fighting, and more importantly in Harry's mind the weapons used by both sides. He didn't like the little that he'd heard from Sir Dennis about AIM, the kind of weapons thousands of mad scientists could come up with were a little horrifying to think about. But SHIELD seemed to have them well in hand, and with both Hydra and AIM taking such massive losses what Harry thought of as the super-terrorist groups were now obviously in decline.

Shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts, Harry continued his walk, heading outside where all the kids, even several of the teens, were involved in a very muddy game of soccer. He idly noticed that Ororo wasn't there, though all the teachers were, but since Ororo had her own meetings today didn't think much of it, simply moving forward to take part in the game.

As the sun went down Harry led the kids back inside, taking Melody and the other kids up to the family bathhouse, where he handed them over to a few house-elves for cleaning. After speaking to the teachers for a bit, he made his way down to the dining hall, only to stop outside its doors, watching as they opened to reveal Ororo, Betsy, Piotr and Amara. All of them were in their uniforms and looked and smelled as if they had just gone 10 rounds with the Mud Monster and its cousin the Stink Bomb. He wafted one hand in front of his nose before, pinching it quickly. "What have you lot been up to?"

"Don't ask." They all said in a chorus, looking at one another and shaking their heads.

Harry watched in amusement as dozens of house elves suddenly appeared all around the quartet, declaiming angrily about the amount of mess they had left behind in their steps through the castle, and the smell. Swiftly the house elves went to work, popping away the grime and mud before popping all of them off to get cleaned up.

"There's a story behind this." he mused to himself, looking up the staircase towards the headmaster's office where he assumed Ororo would have been popped to. "And I think it's going to be a good one." He chuckled, nodding at a few of the elves who had remained behind to try and fumigate the area before heading after her.

OOOOOOO

When Harry had left that morning on his circuit of meetings Storm had her own meetings to attend, mostly involving hiring new workers for SAAB, Elemental Energies, and filling in the losses Magical Minds had taken to get EE off the ground. After that she had a nice lunch with Madame Harkness and Franklin, then a training session with Gaea, one of the last such she would need.

After that, Storm stopped by to talk to Father Garnoff, talking about the students and if Rahne had become more comfortable with him around before going over some information with him about the names in the Big Book of Students. Piotr and Amara were out today, bringing in a student from Greece whose name had flared into the red that morning.

The two of them were wondering what had happened there, while the stretching of the pen went on behind them, adding another few names to the list. Storm suddenly frowned, watching as one name in Australia suddenly went from green to red and then straight to black in the space of a single blank.

While Ororo was still gaping in shock, Father Garnoff sighed sadly. "A car accident or something similar perhaps," he said, reaching forward with a gentle hand to touch the name that was still on the board for a moment, though it was fading even as he did so. He mumbled a prayer in Russian, while Ororo did the same to Gaea, shaking her head at the vagaries of fate.

I've seen people die, children too occasionally on the streets of Cairo and later on during my time being worshiped as a goddess, it shouldn't hit me so, she thought. But, but there's something very dramatic about watching that name disappear like that. "Does that happen often?"

"Not with that kind of suddenness." Garnoff replied honestly. "We've been very damn good, and lucky, when it comes to getting kids out of potential danger areas. But as that just showed, we can't do everything, and chance and fate play a role."

"I dislike the idea that such things are fate." Ororo said sharply, glaring at the man who backed away slightly at the sudden heat in her voice. "Chance yes, fate no." She stopped then, watching as two names from the safe green color to the orange of danger. "And does that happen often as well?" She asked, pointing at the changing color.

Garnoff turned to the book, reading off the address, both of which were in Los Angeles and shook his head. "Considering the address just changed from their homes to 'blacked out minivan' and 'underground', I don't think so."

As Garnoff watched the second address faded out, as if the area the youth was in couldn't be termed a specific address. The first however remained. "Honestly, sometimes I think the sentience or what-have-you that Harry's mentioned a time or two as growing in the castle has impacted the spells on Book of Students at times, it sometimes gives much more information about the address than it should be able to, like this one."

"I wouldn't be surprised, magic is, is tricky, and the effects of a lot of magic in one place can vary widely beyond what anyone can predict." Ororo frowned still staring at the, then nodded. "Nessy?"

Nessy appeared in front of her, bowing quickly. "Yes mistress?"

"Are there any other Custodes still in the castle?"

"Only Ms. Betsy mistress. Piotr and 'Mara is not back yet, nor is the master."

Staring at the names which were still glowing a baleful orange Ororo nodded. "Could you get me a phone, then find Betsy and bring her here? Something seems to be going on in Los Angeles."

Betsy arrived dressed in her Custodes uniform. It was a purple and matte black skinsuit that covered her from head to toe, with a helmet that looked something like Danielle's, complete with an armored area in the back for her hair. She also carried a rifle on her shoulder, though it was noticeably missing the sniper scope, and a longsword at her waist. While Betsy was a decent shot at midrange she didn't have the eye to be a sniper.

When the issue was explained to her, Betsy nodded, though inside she was a little leery about how stretched the team was becoming. Deciding to bring that up, she asked, "I understand the problem, but why don't we just send this information to the X-men? Aren't they supposed to be up to handling any issues like this that pop up in America?"

"I already attempted to call the mansion, and then sent Nessy to talk to Clare. Charles is out with the new language teacher, Moira, and the X-men are on a mission somewhere in Ohio. That leaves us to handle this. I'll teleport us to land somewhere nearby where these two vans are moving and we can make further plans then. Don't worry, if we need to call in more aid we can do so easily." She said tapping her headdress from which hung an in small microphone. Betsy had another one built into her helmet, both of which connected to the castle. "I've already told Sir Dennis where we're going, and once they get back Amara and Piotr will both be available to help out at need."

Psylocke nodded, though the worry the Custodes were spreading themselves to thin would not go away. She moved forward to clasp hands with Storm, who first covered them with an illusion spell, then teleported them to Los Angeles, both spells being ones she had learned from Gaea. The Earth Goddess' teleportation spell was simply better by far than Harry's when dealing with places on Earth.

A bare second after leaving Camelot the two women appeared on a small rooftop in Los Angeles, only then remembering that LA was eight hours behind Scotland. While it was near sundown in Scotland, it was only a little after noon here. Looking over the side Psylocke noticed it was some kind of eatery, surrounded by equally small and innocuous shops and office buildings in a suburb of LA. She turned as Storm held up a hand, balancing a small piece of concrete on it. "Point me Kevin Goldstein."

Storm moved to join Psylocke at the edge of the roof, watching as the piece of arrow-shaped concrete pointed down and to the left slightly at a van with darkened windows that was passing by on the street below. "Is it just me, or do the vans and limos that have darkened windows like that always look a little suspicious?" Psylocke quipped staring down at the van as it made a turn.

"It's not just you." Storm replied, lifting into the air and pulling Psylocke up next to her to hover there for a moment, using her control over the wind so adroitly that while Psylocke hovered weightless in the air the people on the street directly below didn't even feel a breeze.

They trailed the van through the city out into the suburbs around it, only to stop in surprise after the van continued on after stopping at a red light. The pointer remained pointing down for a moment before moving in an entirely different direction while the van continued on its way. "What the?" Storm muttered frowning thoughtfully as she stared at the pointer then at the van which was even now turning around and heading back into the city proper. "Someone interfering with my spell?"

"Could that spell be tricked by somehow, I don't know, putting the 'magical scent' or whatever onto something else?" Psylocke asked, staring down as well from where she was hovering next to Storm, fighting off a feeling of irritation. She did not like being completely dependent on the other woman's mutant power to remain in the air like this.

While Psylocke remained there, Storm flew around the intersection where the spell seemed to have gone wrong, frowning then shuddering a little as realization dawned. She gestured with one hand, and the wind holding Psylocke up pulled her close. "I don't think so."

A moment later, Psylocke got it, staring at a manhole cover directly under where the spell seemed to have gone wonky. She nodded thoughtfully. "So the van parked directly over a manhole cover, probably it had some kind of trick bottom to it or something. They open up the bottom of the car, remove the manhole cover and lower the kidnapped kid into the sewer."

It was only when she stopped talking to look at her fellow Custodes that Psylocke realized that Storm was beginning to shake a little. "Storm? What's wrong?"

Storm growled angrily, folding her arms around herself. "I have an extreme case of claustrophobia. Sewers like that are very tough for me."

Psylocke reached over, grabbing the other woman some shoulder comfortingly. "If it's any consolation, I have a bit of an issue flying under someone else's power like this. That and rats, bloody disgusting little creatures, those tails, ugh!"

"Nobody likes rats." Storm said with a laugh, and if it was a little shaky Psylocke didn't comment.

The two of them continued to follow the trail led by the stick, though Storm's mind really wasn't on the trail itself any longer but how she was going to handle being in the sewers. I don't know any spells that would change my perception and anyway that would be rather dangerous wouldn't it? I'm just going to have to hope the sewers are large enough that I don't collapse into a panic attack. Or, hmm, could a cheering charm help? Something to try I suppose.

The two women continued to follow the trail for another 45 minutes unseen by any below them thanks to the illusion spell Storm cast back in Camelot until they lost it underneath a large and seemingly rundown factory of some kind. Oh, I hope they are actually holding the girl in the building itself rather than in the sewer Storm thought, though she did not really believe that she'd get that lucky.

Unfortunately when the two passed through a large open section of the roof they did not discover anyone in the building itself. Fantastic. Storm growled internally, before looking at Psylocke. "Search around for any manhole cover or any other entrance to the basement or the sewers."

They didn't find any, and had to retrace their steps to the nearest manhole cover. Luckily this area of the city didn't have much in the way of traffic at the moment. Storm was able to lift the manhole cover out of its hole, and Psylocke leaped down, her telekinetic blade lighting up the sewer as she landed down below. "Clear!"

Storm nodded, then grit her teeth and lowered herself slowly into the sewers, leaving the manhole cover where it was for a moment, though covering the area in a small Notice-me-not spell so no one would notice what was going on.

The stench of one sewer is rather like any other, and Storm had smelled worse. But as the two of them moved down and away from their entrance into the subterranean world, the close confines began to bother Storm just as much as she had feared. Every step going forward became harder, and she was twitching nervously, staring at shadows here and there.

Psylocke took the lead, unlimbering her rifle from her shoulder. They quickly came to an intersection, and Storm shakily pointed down one of the passages. Psylocke however turned and stared at her. "Are you sure you're going to be up to anything down here Storm, you don't look good."

Storm smiled grimly, gesturing around them. "I, I'm using my powers of over air to keep a flow going around me, that's helping somewhat, but the, the walls and the fact we're underground, that is an issue."

She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes for a moment. "Wait a moment, there is one thing I want to try." With that Storm cast a cheering charm on herself, and much of her worries faded, though so did some of her ability to concentrate. "I'm alright now, but be on the lookout, I'm not certain I'm going to be much good at spotting traps or anything of that nature.

With Psylocke once more in the lead the two women made their way through the sewers, cautiously now. They came to another intersection this one with a metal ladder heading further underground. Storm sighed, but the two of them headed down, since the pointer was once again pointing at a diagonal downwards. Now they were well beyond any of the light from their entrance, and Storm applied a spell Harry had taught her to both of them, giving their eyesight the same properties as that of a cat, allowing them to continue on.

This continued for a while, but then Storm paused suddenly, reaching forward to grip Psylocke's shoulder. "I'm hearing something from behind us." She murmured, pulling the other woman aside until they were both flush against one of the walls, with Psylocke holding her rifle in front of her flat against her chest.

From behind them came six figures, moving purposefully through the sewers, seemingly unmindful of the smell or the water of the bottom of the sewer. Two of them were carrying torches, allowing them to see. They wore misshapen cloaks, which looked rough to the touch, and seemed to be equally unkempt. One had a large hump on one side of his shoulder. Another had an albino face, briefly seen as his hood moved to one side. Another walked one without a cloak on him, and looked like a bodybuilder dressed like a reject from the circus, complete with massive muscles and bald head.

What was interesting to Storm however was that they were carrying a small, squirming bundle, from which muffled shouts could be barely be heard. Laying her head against Psylocke's helmet, she murmured, making certain to keep her voice low despite the two of them being covered by an Illusion. "That must be the other child, follow them, they might lead us to the second one."

Psylocke nodded, but added a caveat. "We need to check in with Dennis periodically, make certain we can call for backup if we need to, the radios might not work further below ground."

"Even if they don't we can still call in aid another way, don't worry." Storm replied, then gestured the other woman forward.

They followed the six figures marching deeper, and, Psylocke noticed, further downwards most of the time, for about an hour, during which Storm had to stop and recast her cheering charm. Then they began to see what looked like torchlight down the passage. A second later, the chattering of many voices mingled together reached them, and as one the two women skirted backwards toward the last intersection they had passed. Psylocke raised her hand to her helmet, activating her radio, only to receive static back.

When she looked at Storm however, the other woman merely smiled, then said "Cory?"

A second later the master popper appeared, gasping for air. He stood for a moment, his hands on his knees before looking up, his ears straight out as he beamed happily at first, but looking around his face segued quickly into happily determined. "Oooo, popping deeps into earth like that be tough. Wow, is mistress asking Cory to clean this place?"

"No Cory I'm afraid we need your popping skills, not your cleaning ones. Could you pop back to Hogwarts, I think we need to call in some help."

Not a moment later Magma and Colossus were there, looking around intently, while Cory lay gasping for a moment on the ground before jumping to his feet, his smile so wide it looked like that of jack-o-lantern. Colossus nodded at the two women, and Magma smiled, her energy form flickering on and lighting the sewers around them. "Well, we were having a pretty normal day. You know the kid down in Greece, the one who was in danger? Turns out he's got an uncle who's abusive who had moved in with the family this morning."

Colossus nodded, taking up the tale as he peered around the corner of the intersection down toward the torchlight. "We arrived as he was beating the boy, whose name is Babak, stopped him, then only had to wait around for the parents. They are actually supportive of Babak. His power by the way is limited flight, more of an enhanced hopping ability really. At any rate, the father, who is the older of the two, threw his brother out of the house, and promised to be on guard in the future."

"Then we come home and have a bare five minutes to grab something to eat, before Cory pops in telling us you two need help. So, what's going on?" Magma asked.

Storm filled them in on what was happening then issued orders, taking the moment to once more hit herself with a cheering charm, noting that the last one had only worked for about two-thirds of the time of the first one. Not good, need to end this now. "I'll go forward under cover of my Illusion, see what sort of opposition we're dealing with, you three stand by here. If a fight starts, Psylocke will remain here to guard our escape, while Magma and Colossus head forward to back me up."

All three of them nodded, though Psylocke scowled inside her helmet, unhappy about needing to remain where she was, greatly preferring to mix it up in close quarters with her telepathic blades rather than use her rifle. Still, that's why you brought it along you bloody fool. "Good luck Storm."

After redoing the spells on her, Storm strode forward down the passage. Soon the passage began to widen, ending in what looked like an underground bunker, possibly left over from WW2. It was large about four stories tall and the size of a subway station with small alcoves here and there built into the walls. Several shanty buildings stood here and there, though they looked sturdier than the normal variety.

Everywhere Storm looked there were mutants with physical deformities, at least a hundred of them, maybe more. Most of them were adults which was the surprising thing, and they truly came in all varieties. Storm saw several of them that had heavy muscles, and saw one small fairy creature flitting around. Dozens of them had scales or bits and pieces of fur, and many had what looked like strangely melted features. At least two of them looked like werecats of some kind. How in the world has this place remained hidden from Charles and Cerebro!? By the goddess, how did they all come together like this?

"No, no, no! Take me back home, where's my mom and dad!" A loud shrill voice shouted, obviously the voice of a child.

Storm quickly made her way through the crowd toward that voice, calling over her head set. "Colossus, Magma move in to the outskirts of what seems to be a bunker of some kind. Psylocke go with them, prepare to fire down range on my signal, but not before."

Moving carefully so she didn't bump into anyone Storm wended her way through the crowd, not noticing that several of the mutants around her had stopped what they were doing and were sniffing the air. While her illusion covered Storm's body, and the Muffilatio covered any noise she made, Storm had neglected to hide her scent. The two possible werecats in particular moved toward where the new scent was coming from, confused as their other senses couldn't tell them anything.

Storm quickly came to slightly larger, stone hovel at the far back of the bunker. In front of it were the six people she and Psylocke had trailed here, two children, and two other adults, both women. One child was an obvious mutant, his skin green, and his eyes wide and yellow colored. The other was a boy in glasses and, admittedly, a rather hideous t-shirt and suspender combination. Both children clung to one another, staring around in trepidation, but it was the one in glasses that had spoken. It was only his fingers, which seemed to have little tiny tendrils coming out of the fingers, which marked him as a mutant.

One woman was thin and wiry, dressed in biker leathers complete with a choker around her throat, a black eyepatch over one eye and short black hair spiked in every direction. She was flipping a dagger up and down in one hand and seemed to radiate a sort of dangerous energy.

The other woman looked like a storybook version of a grandmother. She was somewhat overweight, with a wide, friendly face and small glasses perched on her nose. She wore a yellow apron over a rather clean looking blouse considering where they were, and wore a natural-seeming smile on her face. "Now dearie, you'll like living here with us. No one's going to look at you strangely or call you names down here. You'll fit right in with the Morlocks. Old Annalee will take care of you."

The boy didn't seem to agree, hugging the green-skinned boy to him and staring around at these strange adults fearfully. The other woman scoffed, catching her dagger by its tip for a moment. "Hah, I wonder if you've met your match Anny, these two don't seem too impressed. Well whatever, once Masque gets through with that one, he'll fit in just as much as the green boy, then we can have Beautiful Dreamer alter their memories to fit."

"We've talked about that before Callisto." The one named Annalee replied, her voice losing some of its sweetness. "I don't want that, that man near any of the children, I don't care if you think it promotes solidarity to have us all deformed somehow, it's not right!"

The word deformed thankfully went right over the two kid's heads, but Storm caught it, and was angered by the implication. Before she could decide on what to do however one of the six she had trailed here, the albino with the emaciated appearance and the fangs turned staring right toward Storm despite the illusion covering her. "Someone unknown is here, Caliban can sense it!"

The one addressed as Callisto turned quickly, her knife up for throwing and the others that Storm had trailed here also reacted, turning quickly, ready for violence. Knowing the jig was up Ororo canceled the illusion on her, lifting herself into the air of the bunker to be out of grabbing range before barking crisply, even as she deftly caught the thrown dagger in a small eddy of wind. "Colossus, Magma, reveal yourselves, Psylocke, one round over their heads!"

Firing from her position near the entrance to the bunker Psylocke fire a round that slammed into the far side of the bunker. Psylocke's chosen weapon was a plasma rifle rather than a gauss, and the "FZZARK!" was loud and powerful in the enclosed space. The impact on the far wall scorched and melted the concrete under it's touch.

At the same time Colossus and Magma revealed themselves. Colossus was close to where a few of the surrounding Morlocks had smelt Storm. The two werecats, both female, immediately attacked him, but he calmly smacked them aside, their claws unable to injure him, and their strength nowhere near his own. A few of the others looked as if they were about to attack Magma as well, but staring at her energy form thought better of it.

"What the hell!?" Callisto growled, turning to one of the six, the one whose features looked somewhat melted. "Masque, you were followed!?" Snarling she turned to sneer up at Storm. "I don't know who you or your followers are woman, but you've picked a fight with the wrong gang. Morlocks attack!"

"How many of your followers are you prepared to lose?" Ororo growled, then intoned a quick spell she had learned from Harry, immobilizing several dozen of the Morlocks around her, while a cold mist began to appear all among the small community, noticing that the cheering spells she had cast on herself were beginning to interfere with her ability to concentrate enough to call on her magical abilities. "We have come for the children you kidnapped, nothing more. Give them to us, and we can all walk away from this."

The one called Masque stared up at Storm with undisguised hate in his ravaged face. Masque had been born with his face and body ravaged by disease, and though his power gave him the ability to alters others appearance, it did not allow him to alter his own. Because of this he hated anyone who could be called beautiful, and Storm was both beautiful and powerful, making him hater her at first sight. "Don't listen to the pretty little bitch! There's only three or four of them, we can take them!"

"Seeing as we're underground, and my power gives me control of tectonic forces, I really doubt it. Unless you're all somehow immune to lava?" Magma said, smiling grimly.

She wasn't bluffing about her ability. Here in California, with two huge tectonic plates clashing so close by, she could easily create a fissure right here and flood the caverns with lava. Even stopping it would be easier than normal.

What Magma was bluffing about was her willingness to actually do that. She had burned Sabertooth alive like that. He had been a monster in the truest sense of the word, and still his death had haunted her. She had no desire to do the same to these people, regardless of their crimes.

"She's bluffing." Scoffed the bald man dressed like a body-builder.

Callisto glared at the woman hovering in the air of her bunker, then over the crowd toward the energy creature who had just threatened them with death. Then she stared up at the floating woman again. "No, I don't think they are. But still, I ain't about to let the kids go without a fight bitch. These kids are ours; they're mutants just like us! There's no life for them up top, there never will be!"

"You haven't been following the news lately have you?" Storm said dryly. "And they aren't yours, you kidnapped them from their homes, where they had been safe, to live down here, like this?" She gestured around her, not contemptuously, but dismissively. "You might have made a life for yourselves down here, but you have no right to force others to live like that."

"They might've been safe for now, but that never lasts!" Callisto snapped back. "It doesn't matter what anyone says, mutants will always be outcasts. Better to embrace it, to wear it like a badge and make our own lives here on the fringe than be forced out or worse!"

There was a murmuring of approval from the crowd of Morlocks all around, but Storm shook her head. The cold mist was still rising all around, and more than one Morlock shivered as the temperature under Storm's control continued to drop. "I am not going to debate this with you. Let the children go, or else."

"Or else what?" Masque scoffed. "If you were fine with killing us, you would've attacked already. No, you're bluffing."

"Just because we don't wish to kill you doesn't mean we don't we lack the will or means to do so." Storm replied coldly, concentrating briefly and extending the area of effect paralysis spell to include most of the crowd below her. "You are out of your league here,

Masque moved faster than Storm had thought he could, his hand darting down to hover over the boy in glasses, who with the other child had sat silent, watching the proceedings. "Do it! But before you do, I'll rearrange this boy's features so much he'll never be able to live above ground again! My power lets me mold the physical appearance of anyone I touch like clay, and I'm the only one who can reverse the process!"

"No!" Annalee yelled making to rush forward. And there was more than one voice added to hers in protest from the Morlocks, who despite not being able to move thanks to Ororo's spellwork, could still speak.

Realizing this was a losing proposition, Callisto spoke up quickly. "Wait Masque! I never said you could go that far! Sunder, watch him!"

The big body builder nodded, moving over to behind Masque. "You know you can't do anything to me before I smash your head in Masque, listen to Callisto."

Masque growled, but Callisto had already turned to Storm. "Like I said I can't just let you take them. This is our turf, they were brought here on my orders! What kind of leader would I be if I let someone else roll into our territory and order us around? But we don't all have to fight either."

She smirked, stretching her arms above her head, cracking her neck before pulling out another dagger. "How about this White-eyes, you and I fight, one on one. None of my people'll interfere. You win you and yours walk out of here with the kids. I win, we keep the kids, but you still walk out of here. Not a bad deal eh?" Unspoken was the message that if Storm was so certain they could take the Morlocks, then she could afford to raise the stakes a little more.

"My name is Storm." Storm said, smiling thinly. With a wave of her hands she cleared the Morlocks away from an area right in front of the stone house which probably belonged to Callisto. "And I accept."

She grasped the knife Callisto had hurled at her out of the air where it had continued to spin as the 'discussion' went on, then floated down to stand across from Callisto. She noticed that Masque was still standing too near the kids for her liking and tapped her microphone lightly, speaking in a low tone. "Psylocke, if Masque moves to touch either of the two kids, take him out. Cory, be ready to pop both kids over to Psylocke if I tell you."

The house elf did not reply, seemingly understanding he shouldn't show himself to do so even for a moment. Psylocke did respond, moving forward to take up a position along one wall, still covered by Storm's illusion spell, until she was so close even she couldn't miss. With the Morlocks concentrated on Storm, Magma and Colossus, she went unnoticed for now.

Callisto stepped forward quickly, twirling her dagger as she stared across at Ororo. "First blood on the chest or face wins the match, agreed?"

"Agreed." Storm replied calmly, unclasping her cape and letting it fall behind her, holding the knife in her hand, her body turned to the side of her opponent, one leg forward.

Standing to one side, Sunder raised a fist. "Ready, fight!"

With that Callisto raced forward, knife extending for a feint then dodging to one side, bringing it around in a slash toward Storm's legs. Intending to follow this up with a kick, she instead took one which caught her in the chest, throwing her backwards slightly as Storm stepped into her real assault, not having been fooled by the feint. She then had to roll desperately away from Storm's own assault. Pushing off the ground with both feet Callisto launched herself backwards and away, coming up ready to defend herself but Storm didn't press her for a moment.

The two of them circled one another, feinting and slashing at one another as Callisto slowly realized Storm was fighting her on an even footing. Callisto's mutant powers gave her a fantastic healing power, heightened strength, speed and endurance, but Storm seemed to be just that little bit better with a knife than she was. She seemed able to anticipate Callisto's attacks, whereas the reverse was not true.

The two came together once more, their daggers flashing against one another, while Callisto tried to punch Storm. But Storm dodged it, taking a small gash on her arm from Callisto's knife before her knee came up, smashing into Callisto's stomach with pile-driving force.

Callisto felt herself lifted slightly off the ground from the force of the blow, and couldn't dodge the punch that caught her in the side of her jaw. She dodged backward, lashing out again, forcing Storm back in turn and putting Storm off balance.

But when Callisto tried to lunge forward again, putting all her body weight behind a murderous stab, Storm dodged to one side as smoothly as a dancer, her own dagger coming up to slash underhand right below Callisto's armpit, opening up a gash there that began to bleed profusely before her healing power went to work.

Within one second and the next the wound disappeared, but the blood was still visible on her shirt, and Sunder spoke up quickly, his voice and face showing his shock. "First blood on the body! The, the invader wins."

Storm backed away, but Callisto growled, making to rush forward. She stopped as she saw Storm's hand glowing yellow, crackling lightly with electrical potential. "I wouldn't."

As Callisto came to a halt, her survival instincts at wear with her pride, Masque scowled angrily. "No, I won't let the pretty bitch win! At least I'll deny you your prize!" With that he lunged forward, pushing the startled Annalee to one side, his hands outstretched for the boy with the glasses.

Yet before his hands could touch the boy with glasses the two children disappeared with a loud pop. A moment later a "FZZARK!" rang out, and he knew no more. Masque's head exploded under the power of the plasma round from Psylocke's rifle, his body collapsing to the floor of the bunker.

Some of the Morlocks cried out in anger or shock, but Callisto, coming back to her sense now, bellowed them into silence. "Enough, Storm won the fight fair and square, and besides, you all saw Masque, he wasn't attacker her, he was gonna take it out on the kids because he wasn't strong enough to take her on, and he knew it!"

Besides the bastard's been chaffing under my leadership for months now, always wanting us to recruit mutants by force and letting him disfigure them with his power. We're better without that kind of crap, it's not like we'll ever run out of recruits after all.

She turned to stare to where the shot had come from, not seeing anything but knowing that didn't matter much. Then she glared at Storm. "Take the brats and go."

"And you won't be trying to kidnap anymore? Trust me, we'll know if you do, and if we have to come back again you won't be happy with the consequences." Storm replied her eyes locked on Callisto's. They honestly had a two out of three chance at spotting kids in the area going missing or suddenly being in danger, but now that they knew Los Angeles was especially dangerous, they would watch any names that popped up there closely.

Callisto glared back, but after watching Masque get gunned down like that, and witnessing Storm's own powers in action, she had no wish to press the issue now. "No, we won't, it's not like we ever needed to bolster our numbers like that, we were taking them away for their own good! Humans will never accept mutants, especially not ones like us! You may be able to blend in, go unnoticed, but the moment they know about your powers, humans will turn on you in a second!"

All of the Morlocks around them muttered or shouted agreement to that idea, but Storm merely smiled. "Possibly, possibly not. For now however, these children need to be getting home." Turning without another word Storm made her way toward the entrance where the two boys were waiting beside Cory, holding the little house elf's hands, hoping that this was the last time she would see the Morlocks. But feeling Callisto's hate filled glare on her back, Storm would not have been willing to bet on that.

OOOOOOO

"Soon after that, i had to renew the cheering charm on myself, but afterward i felt unable to concentrate enough to teleport us to the surface. So we were forced to make our way to the surface the same way we had come down, a very muddy, smelly, dirty trek, that got worse for me becasue i had to cast the cheering charm twice more before we reached the surface. Luckily I was able to recover quickly after that."

"I'm happy to report we got both of the boys back to their houses safely. Betsy was a godsend there, calming the parents down, and not incidentally making certain both sets of parents would continue to be supportive of their child. The boy with green skin, Gregory, might have some problems down the line, but for now all's well at least on that front."

Harry had indeed found Ororo up to the headmaster's quarters in their personal bathroom. Joining her, he began to pamper Ororo while she told him what had happened to them, from beginning to end. He smiled proudly at the bravery Ororo showed, facing her fear of enclosed spaces in order to hunt down the kidnappers, though he made a vow to help her find a more permanent defense against it if she ever asked. Right now however he was worried about the Morlocks in general. "Do you think this Callisto will ever change her mind?"

"Doubtful." Ororo murmured, leaning forward allowing Harry to rinse her hair out as one hand gently stroked down his chest. "She's quite arrogant about her ability to defend them, and almost contemptuous of us and most 'surface dwellers' as she calls us. But honestly, I'm uncertain how well any of the Morlock's would fit in here. Most of them are adults, all of them see themselves as willing outcasts, and don't want to fit in anywhere above ground. Callisto and Masque have twisted them all too much for the idea of acceptance to be appealing to them. Worse, I don't think Callisto would ever be willing to follow someone else, and the Morlock's will probably follow her, at least in the short term."

"That's rather depressing." Harry said with a shake of his head. Then his thoughts cut off abruptly as Ororo's hand reached its destination, pulling and tugging.

"I think." she said softly, twisting around but still retaining her new handhold, moving back until her rear was touching Harry's crotch and his now turgid cock. "That I've had enough of serious matters for now…"

Later as they lay in bed and Ororo nuzzled into his chest murmuring happily, Harry waved his free arm using a wordless Accio spell to pull a box up from underneath the bed. The box was about as big as both of his fists side to side, made of oak and of simple design. Leaning forward Harry opened the box, revealing that what was inside nestled on a bed of velvet was not nearly as simple. Two pieces of jewelry lay there.

One was a Panja ring and bracelet. The panja was an Indian jewelry design which was also popular in Egypt where a bracelet was connected to one or more rings by small chains of gold or other precious metals. Here the chain and bracelet was made of silver, the ring of gold, with fine runes worked into the bracelet. A single blue diamond sat on the bracelet where the chain leading down to the ring intersected it, and another, smaller one, set into the ring.

In comparison to that piece, the ring was much smaller, but the design of it was just as magnificent. Intertwined bands of gold and platinum surrounded what looked like a single, perfect, ruby. The surface of the band of silver and platinum were etched with incredibly tiny marks, which could only be a series of runes, much the same as the bracelet, only even more delicate.

Having felt Harry's movement Ororo looked up, gasping quietly as she saw the jewelry in the box. "H-Harry?"

Harry didn't replied, slowly disengaging from her in order to kneel on the bed beside her, pulling out the panja ring-bracelet holding it out to her in one hand. He coughed for a moment, closing his eyes then opened them, staring seriously into Ororo's light blue eyes. "Ororo Munroe, though we have known each other for a little less than a year, I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you, and whatever happens from here on I want us to face it, hand in hand. Will you marry me?" Then he suddenly smiled, waggling his eyebrows. "I told you I'd ask you more romantically once I had rings."

Ororo slowly raised a hand, holding it out to Harry and allowing him to clasp the bracelet around her wrist, then fit the ring onto her ring finger. She held it up to her face, gently turning her hand this way and that admiring the work of it, before quickly reaching forward and grabbing Harry's head, pulling him down into a deep kiss, then rolling the both of them over so that she was on top of him now. "You foolish, foolish loving man! You didn't have to do this my love, I would have married you regardless!" With that she leaned down again, kissing him ardently.

Even later, she murmured. "The ring, would that be for Jean?"

"Yes." Harry said with a nod. "Does that, I mean, I know we've talked about it before, but marriage is supposed…"

"The so called normal way of marriage is one man and one woman yes, but remember that I was not raised in such an environment, and we have talked about this before. Moreover, it would be incredibly petty of me to wants to keep our marriage to myself, when I have feelings for Jean and for Emma and know you do as well." She smiled suddenly, leaning up to kisses lightly before staring into his emerald eyes. "So, are you planning separate weddings for all of us, or just one big wedding? Jean and I talked about that you know, so separate might be the way to go."

"Hadn't thought that far ahead honestly," Harry said with a frown. "And remember Emma doesn't wants to marry me, or us I suppose, since if she marries me, she'll obviously also be marrying you and Jean. She wants to remain independent."

"I remember that but I think she'll come around in time. Especially after we bring the remaining Hellfire Clubs to heel." She frowned then abruptly changed the subject, or seemed to anyway. "Do you think Jean will be back in time for the battle against the Sentinels?"

"I don't think so, my gut is telling me that something will have held her up for better or worse." Harry said with a sigh. "And while you two might have talked about weddings, I never broached the subject with Jean before. I don't, I don't think she'll say no, though she might. Like Emma, Jean likes her independence, so…"

"Not that much no," Ororo replied dryly, chuckling at Harry's bit of naïveté when it came to the female mind. "Trust me Harry, Jean will be over the moon."

OOOOOOO

The battered and mauled fleet of derelicts came out of hyperspace for a second time in a system that Reed estimated wouldn't have any life, or even any planets if they were lucky. They were, the red dwarf not having anything but a large asteroid field spread out between where a few planets might once have been. As the other ships popped into realspace around the Hellion Jean frowned as she saw the numbers. "We lost two more frigates, and… one of the heavy cruisers I think in hyperspace."

Reed and Mar'vel looked over the Sensors then nodded. "One of the heavy cruisers," Mar'vel confirmed. "We're still doing better than I expected honestly, these ships have all seen better days, it's a miracle they withstood a single hyperspace jump."

"Are you trying to become the master of understatement?" Reed quipped, shaking his head. "Honestly when we began this little jaunt the only ship I expected to reach Earth was the Doom Bringer, that ship can take a whole lot of punishment."

"How are all the power ratings Douglas?" Jean asked.

At one of the other Sensor stations Douglas and Paige were working, scrolling through the stream of information from each of the ships around them. "Well, I think we're going to have to leave at least one of the battleships behind, I don't think it's got enough mass in its reactor to get it to Earth."

"One of the light cruisers'n one of the frigates're also running on fumes." Paige said, scrolling further down while Douglas talked. "If we siphon off the fuel from those three ships though, the rest of the fleet should be able to get back to Earth."

Jean nodded, knowing that even 29 ships would be a massive aid in Earth creating its own space fleet. She closed her eyes, sending her telepathic senses out. Frowning slightly she opened her eyes, narrowing them in thought. "Mar'vel, I want you and Douglas on the sensors at all times, I know this is supposed to be an uninhabited and incredibly uninteresting system, but let's not take any chances. I'm sensing… something I don't know what, interest I suppose, but I can't localize it for some reason."

Reed and the others shared glances, but didn't interrupt as Jean went on. "Nikolai, pick out a crew from the Kree volunteers, you and Reed are going to be in charge of siphoning off that mass for the rest of the ships. I'm going to see if I can figure out what I'm feeling…" Jean would be unsuccessful in this while the rest of the crew concentrated on their own duties over the next few hours, something that irritated her no end.

Despite her concern however, for once this mission actually didn't spring any surprises on them. The siphoning operation went off without a hitch, and the Hellion and its accompanying fleet jumped to hyperspace, heading for Earth now without any further attempts to confuse any followers.

Behind them as the last ship jumped out they left a star system silent once more, with the ships they had been forced to leave behind slowly continuing on their way around the red dwarf star. Then, after about a local hour, a small but extremely streamlined ship moved out from behind one of the asteroids deeper in the system

Any Kree, Shi'ar or Skrull would have recognized the ship as being of Shi'ar design, following their belief that speed and striking power was more important than size or armor. The ship had four wing-shaped nacelles spaced equidistant around its hull, which in turn was a long cylinder, the prow of which held numerous heavy weapons, all of whom were the same size that a Kree battlecruiser would have boasted. But rather than have them spread out, this design concentrated all that firepower on one target. The only other weapons it boasted were a few small weapons spread out on the nacelles, more antipersonnel weapons than anything that could harm a ship.

The man sitting in the central seat in the bridge was a human, something that would have astonished Jean and her companions. He was an older man with a trim goatee, wearing what looked like a traditional pirate's getup, including a sword with a basket hilt, and two large pistols, though all three looked more sci-fi than medieval.

Standing next to him was a woman with albino skin and hair and strangely catlike features, though her tail more closely resembled that of a skunk. A giant lizard alien, easily as tall or even taller than Piotr in his Colossus form and even wider in the shoulders, was sitting at one of the bridge stations. Another alien with pointed ears, a cyborg arm and eye was sitting at another station. A long red topknot lead from the back of his bald head stuck out like that a Mongol warrior might have worn.

For a moment after the badly battered Kree fleet jumped out, all of them were silent. Then the human spoke, his voice jovial. "Well, it looks as if they didn't find our hiding place after all."

The woman rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath about foolish bravado, and stalked off the bridge. "Still," the human said as he sat down, gesturing the helmsman, the alien with the topknot, to take them towards the few ships that had been left behind, hoping there would be something there they could cannibalize or sell. "I wonder what all that was about?"

OOOOOOO

A few days after Harry talked to Charles, Emma set the plan in motion, calling Sebastian in order to pass on the information Sandman had discovered. The leader of the Hellions was just finishing up a business meeting when his personal secretary, Sage, came in. As the last of his managers were walking out, she leaned in, whispering into his ear. "A phone call for you sir, it's Ms. Frost on her secure line, the one that's untraceable. She's calling from her mansion however."

Sebastian's eyebrow rose in surprise, not at what Sage had said, rather that Emma was calling him at all. While they were still loosely allied, their relationship hadn't been very amicable in some time, and most of their communication was at the Hellfire Club, and usually at his instigation. Although since her attempt to find an ally of her own has backfired so spectacularly Emma's choices have been limited to say the least. And despite my plans to eliminate Emma, she is still useful.

"Your thoughts?" He asked, buying time while he finished some of the paperwork from the recent meeting. Though it also was because he wanted to make Emma wait a bit before talking to her, just to rub it in that she had sought him out in the first place.

"Her voice and tone is as always controlled, but judging from slight changes in inflection, and the phrase 'mutual business' which she used multiple times after I answered the phone, I believe this will have something to do with the Sentinel project. The odds of Ms. Frost has found something else to worry her as much that would also interest us is below 12%, while the odds of her having found something out about the Sentinel Project we do not already know is hovering around 72%, plus or minus 5%. The odds of this all being some kind of overture towards reconciliation however is only about 50%, though that number is greatly dependent on the first two variable I mentioned." Sage replied instantly.

Chuckling quietly Sebastian wrote out his signature on a final piece of paper before looking up at his secretary. Tall, lithe with fair skin, a beautiful face and dark black hair which made her light skin tone stand out even more, many dismissed Sage and her place as his secretary as Sebastian simply acting like the lecher he often was. But Sage wasn't just a pretty face, and indeed Sebastian had never really thought of bedding her.

Because Sage was a mutant with a particularly useful skillset for someone like him: she was blessed with incredible advanced intellectual capabilities, her mind working like a computer with unlimited storage capacity, yet without losing the processing capability of the human brain. She could instantly recall specific information with incredible speed and accuracy, making her an incredible analyst, organizer, and strategist. Sage had helped make Sebastian's fortune in the stock market, and was almost always right in any 'prediction' she made. She lacked a human touch with others at times, and was very standoffish with those she didn't see as near her own intellectual level, but those were small issues in comparison to her abilities.

"Interesting, thank you Sage." As the last paper was set aside and a small screen on his desk showed the last of his managers leaving the series of rooms Sage, Sebastian and his secretaries used here in his head office, he nodded to her, pressing a button and activating a sound dampening system in the walls of his office. "Put her on speaker phone, I might need your insight on what she has to say."

A moment later Emma's voice spoke up from a small speaker set into his desk. "Shaw, I have information on the Sentinel Project. My bodyguard Sandman was able to tail Buckman to a meeting…"

Sage and Sebastian listened, with Sebastian asking questions at certain points to clear up bits and pieces of information. The total package however was very ugly, and as Emma finished he said so. "Five hundred killer robots of indeterminate size and designed with the ability to hunt down mutants from an undisclosed location, lovely."

To his surprise however, Emma replied. "I actually have a plan, one that would need you and yours. It's based off the idea that these things will show up to Senator Kelly's rally. I think we can place a tracer on the robots or Kelly, and trail it back to their headquarters, construction site, or whatever you wish to call it. But your Hellions will need to provide the necessary firepower to shut them down. And if we destroy this first batch, they won't be able to make any more, letting us hunt down and destroy any information pertaining to them. The sensor package and programming for said is probably the most important part of that."

"Yes…" Sebastian murmured, thinking hard. And afterwards, your own usefulness will be at an end my dear. "I think that sounds doable, though I will also be bringing my own newest… acquaintance into this." Potter once mentioned having a few team members of his own, that could allow me to evaluate not just him but his allies.

Sebastian could almost hear Emma raising an eyebrow in surprise at that, but rather than ask who he meant (which probably meant that she had an idea of it already but just didn't want to ask) she said. "Very well, I'll see you at the rally then."

"You'll be there personally from the start?" Sebastian asked, surprised.

"I think so yes. If push comes to shove and we can't get a tracker on one of the Sentinels after they show up, I'll take any information I can get from Kelly's mind."

After the call disconnected, Sebastian turned to Sage who replied without prompting. "She's telling the truth on everything, no change in tone or inflection in comparison to times she certainly or even possibly lied in the past I have seen or heard. It's also a good plan, 89% change of succeeding if you can get a tracker on one of the robots, 42% chance of it working without that tracker."

"Emma's idea of taking the knowledge from Kelly's mind?"

"9% chance of working in regards to the Sentinel program, 100% certainty she would find something personally incriminating on the man." Sage replied, smiling faintly. "Kelly's a politician, enough said in regards to both odds."

Sebastian nodded, but then his eyes narrowed. "Call in Fitzroy and Roehm, and get Leland on the line. As much as he'll bitch about it, we're going to need all hands on deck for this. Then clear my schedule for tomorrow, Potter and I are going to come to an agreement to work together right damn now."

OOOOOOO

Over the next few days after that first spate of meetings Harry trained with Ororo, Amara and Piotr under the direction Shiang Chi, mostly in hand to hand, an area where he lagged behind the rest of the team badly, during the mornings. The afternoons he would spend with the kids, and the evenings working on his own projects. Elemental Energies was now set up entirely independent of Magical Minds, ready to start work on the next few generators, with Harry, Jean, Ororo and only a few others in those companies having access to one another. Harry's own distribution network was good to go as well, though it still leaned heavily on Frost Pharmaceuticals for everything outside of Britain and France.

At the same time, information had leaked from SAAB about its newest project. Not a lot, but enough to have the public learning about the hover ambulance concept. There were already some overtures from various militaries the world over, and of course spies trying to get in to see if that rumor had anything substantive behind it. They weren't going to have much luck however. With all the magical defenses Harry and Kitty had put on that idea no one could talk about it much. All of the computers with any information about it were disconnected from the Internet, and the factories themselves were protected by various intent-based wards, which Kitty and Harry had thrown together in a single night a few weeks back. All that Saab's reps would say officially was that they were working with technology purchased from Reed Richards, and that their new owner had gotten the company in touch with the reclusive scientist.

Politically, things kept moving in that week and a half. Italy had finalized their mutant protection laws, and opened dialogue with Harry's group for if they ran into any mutant that needed training in how to control his or her powers like France, Britain and Ireland. In return, Harry's potions were once more making their way to hospitals in Italy.

Sweden, Norway, Greece, and several other countries, though notably not Germany, had also begun to look into creating similar laws, and more importantly, opening up dialogue with Harry Potter of Magical Minds for his 'aid in dealing with those mutants whose powers represent a threat to themselves and others if not controlled'. Though Harry's new political analyst, an older woman who he had hired away from a job on the British PM's staff, said that only Norway would be willing to do more than talk. Greece would promise the moon and do nothing, the government too corrupt and too mired in social projects already that crippled its budget. Sweden had too many other issues at home, and wouldn't be able to take the hard line against violence towards mutants that Ireland and Britain, and Norway once they were onboard, could.

There was one snag during the week leading up to Kelly's rally however. Someone had attempted to attack one of Frost Pharmaceuticals cargo ships:

Harry and Emma hid underneath a Notice-me-not spell on the roof of a warehouse in Genova Italy, watching as the barely able to float ship was nudged gently into the harbor. "Pirates, really? That heavily armed and in these waters? Someone either thinks we're idiots, or just isn't very good at subtlety."

Emma scowled angrily, her arm linked with Harry. "15 of my company's employees dead, numerous other injuries among the crew and the ship is a total write off. They might not have been good at subtlety, but they certainly made up for it in brute force. Energy weapons, at least one weapon that sounds like a plasma weapon of some kind, a few dozen heavy assault rifles and SAWs in the hands of what sounds like nameless goons. None of my cargo ships have the defenses that can stand up to something like that."

"If your injured can be transferred to hospitals in France, I'll make certain that they have access to my potions if they need them." Harry replied. "But despite their brute force approach, they didn't actually get anything from this attack and I hope that shows whoever was actually behind it that they won't have any more luck in the future." Kitty's emergency teleportation array had worked as advertised, emptying all of the cargo containers of potions the moment those cargo containers were opened when they weren't yet at their designated destination.

"That will work very well from a PR standpoint as well." Emma said with a nod. "As for the cost of the ship, well my company's ships and trucks are all insured as heavily as possible. That at least will help defray the cost. Are you going to do anything to find out who was behind this?"

"I'd rather keep Mystique on her current job, and Dennis has his hands full coordinating our intelligence resources as it is." Harry replied with a shake of his head. "My company's corporate espionage programs aren't exactly anything to write home yet. Good enough on the defensive given all of our home field advantages shall we say?" He smirked at her, and Emma laughed, though she still didn't take your eyes away from the ship being pushed into port. "But I just don't have the resources available to hunt whoever was behind this down."

"In that case, we might want to make an overture to the British Navy. This is after all sort of their backyard." Even decades after the collapse of the British Empire, the British Navy was still the most professional and powerful navy in European waters, and the third most powerful, in terms of experience, training and tech if not in numbers, worldwide. "I would assume they would take a very dim view of pirate activity."

"Not a bad idea." Harry said with a nod, turning away from the view. "How goes your work with the Hulk?"

"Poorly," Emma replied, scowling. "With things with the Sentinel program coming to a head and needing to put pieces into place to move instantly against Sebastian Shaw and Buckman without seeming to, I haven't had much time. Despite Paris' recent estrangement with the man I have no wish to seem too eager to move against him. Banner and I have had only two sessions, and I have to say it hasn't gone very well. Dr. Banner's mind is…"

She paused to think of the word. Despite being a telepath she didn't actually have any training in psychology after all. "Fragmented," she said after a moment. "For some very strange reason he has compartmentalized his emotions and feelings to a degree that is just unhealthy.

Flashback:

Emma's mental avatar walked down a long dingy corridor that looked much like some kind of castle's dungeon, complete with barred doors spread out on either side of her moving down the hallway away from her current position. From some of them there were growling noises, from others silence.

She walked up to the nearest one, then quickly stepped back when a massive clawed hand reached through the bars at her. Mental avatar or no Emma didn't want to find out if she could be hurt here in Banner's mind. She stared at the creature inside, frowning thoughtfully. "And what exactly are you supposed to represent?"

"Fear" the creature screamed, compelled by Emma's telepathy to answer. It stood taller and broader yet somehow more emaciated than the normal Hulk, and it had spikes and claws and dripping fangs. "I am the one he sees in the dark, when his eyes are closed! I am the one that everything else fears."

"Interesting." Emma replied dryly then moved on ignoring the creature's shrieking behind her. After all, he didn't represent her fears. The next cage held a red Hulk, not the kind of spiked clawed monstrosity that fear was but an actual Hulk with a simple color change. "And you?" The thing didn't reply, simply smashing against the bars trying to get had her. She looked at it thoughtfully, then walked away shaking her head. "Anger I suppose."

The cages continued. Sloth, envy, jealousy, hate, even ego though ego was quite a bit smaller and seemed weaker than the others. After staring into each cage in turn Emma returned to her starting point, staring thoughtfully at what could only be Dr. Banner's mental image of his perfect self.

The body itself was incased in crystal, which was not a good sign in a mind so distorted. It showed a rigidity of thought and a desire to keep Bruce's mental image of himself unchanging. The Bruce Banner inside did not look as he did in real life. He looked scrawnier, younger almost but not quite. He was obviously a scientist of some kind, judging by the computer he held in one hand. His eyes to, even captured in Crystal looked incredibly bright and energetic behind coke bottle glasses, which Bruce himself certainly did not need.

"Well, this is not going to be easy." Emma said with a frown.

End flashback

"Honestly, Bruce Banner doesn't need a telepath, he needs a psychologist! One who could devote hour long sessions every day for years to get to the bottom of why he thought that kind of stupidity was a good idea."

Harry hummed thoughtfully. "You're certain that process began before he became the Hulk?"

"Yes," Emma said with a nod. "It's hard to put into words, but I get the impression that at least some of those cages, in particular fear and jealousy have been there for a long time, certainly longer than the Hulk's been active. Anger might be older too, I can't tell with that one. And let's not forget his mental image of his perfect self, that's not healthy!"

"So what would you recommend?"

"I'll keep working with him for now when I can, but I think this is another task we'll have to get Charles to do if I'm honest." As a trained psychologist as well a telepath of even greater strength then Emma or Jean, Charles was far better than either of them at delving into other people's minds and getting to the root of issues there.

"It'll have to wait a few months, let the X-Men get their new kids settled into the mansion, let Charles finish with Ms. Steed, and possibly help that Vietnamese girl he and Kurt saved get over her fear of men before tossing another problem his way. Let alone his part in the Sentinel issue.

Emma nodded, then linked her arm with Harry's as they made their way out of the dock areas and towards a nearby restaurant.

OOOOOOO

Even with Harry slowly delegating more and more of the business side of things to his managers, the next week passed quickly. Harry remained in America the day before the rally, doing some local recruitment and setting up further recruitment lines so that when Carol and her team finalized a training regimen for future spacers, military or industrial, he could start hiring workers quickly.

After that Harry drove from where he had been hiring in Georgia to Houston with Ororo, at times covered with a Notice-me-not spell. Emma joined them one night on the road they spent in the hotel, before teleporting back to her home and taking her personal plane to Houston. Ororo also left Harry at that point heading up to meet Piotr and Amara in High Note.

The three of them had showcased their powers in Montréal, and so couldn't be part of Harry's visible addition to this plan, since even covered with spells their powers would be enough to tell anyone who they were. They would wait up in High Note for Harry's signal to join the coming battle. The idea was to let Sebastian Shaw and his group weaken themselves against the Sentinels and vice versa before coming in and taking out both groups. The timing would be tricky as well as the battle itself but Harry had full confidence in the Custodes Mundi.

Nor was Harry alone. Wyatt in his Coyote suit accompanied Harry when the he arrived at the mansion Sebastian Shaw owned on the outskirts of Houston, as was Carol, done up in a similar suit. She had volunteered to join them on this operation, and indeed was not the only one who had. Many of the students, hearing what was going on from Piotr and Amara, who hadn't yet realized they shouldn't be talking about such things in front of them, had volunteered to join in, including Armor. Harry had refused however, he was not willing to take any of them into a fight like this, or any fight at all really. They were too young, too idealistic, and frankly even though many of them had begun to train with the Shiang Chi and the others at times, untrained.

He could have also brought Mystique in on this, but she was somewhere up in Alaska at present. She was hunting down a rumor of some kind of black market supply route of parts, materials and foodstuffs that she said could be heading towards what Magneto had referred to once as his 'base of last resort'. That was important enough that Harry didn't want to pull her off it despite how much help she could have been to this mission.

Harry was quickly allowed into the mansion's grounds and he met Harry Leyland and Sebastian Shaw in the garage. "Harry, you of course know Harry." Sebastian said smirking as the two men rolled their eyes at him. "I do apologize for that bit of humor, but I've wanted to say something like that for weeks now."

"Leyland." Harry said with a nod.

Leyland however was staring yet again at Harry's car shaking his head. "That is a magnificent car Mr. Potter, I don't suppose I could interest you in letting me have a go with it after this?"

"Possibly," Harry said courteously, though his tone clearly indicated it would be a cold day in hell before that happened, then he looked at Sebastian. "Do you have anything that would stop the teleporter from getting in here?"

"Your additions to this mission I suppose?" Sebastian asked, before shaking his head. "No, I don't."

Harry nodded, and spoke into a small communicator that he had pulled out of the car with him. "Good to go, home in on me."

A moment later, Wyatt and Carol teleported in, using a slightly longer-range version of the teleportation device that Wyatt commonly used in his Guardian persona. "May I present Coyote and Ame-no-Uzume, or Uzume for short. They are twins whose powers are symbiotic when used together."

"Do tell?" asked Sebastian, looking them over carefully. Both of them were heavily armed, with weapons that looked rather futuristic and very powerful slung over their shoulders, heavy armor and helmets that covered their entire heads.

Both of them however removed their helmets as Sebastian led the way inside the mansion, revealing Asiatic features that indeed greatly resembled one another. What he didn't know was that those features were carefully contrived holograms, made by an image inducer like the one Kurt used.

"My sister is a tracker, who can track, or home in on, other people." Coyote replied once his helmet was off. "Only other people however, and only those she touches. I am a teleporter. The two of us can work together to teleport in on someone else so long as we're within a set range, using a mental connection we can form while touching one another. Both of us are snipers for preference, and are well equipped to back up Flare in the field."

"Interesting." Sebastian murmured, recalling that Flare was the name Harry had told him he used as a codename in the field. He also remembered Emma once saying that she had her older sister's power couldn't work on one another, so he wondered if siblings who were mutants would normally have that issue or be symbiotic in. Something to think about when we move against the X-Men he thought, smiling sardonically.

"And yourself?" Leyland asked politely.

"That's right I haven't told you about my own power yet have I?" Harry mused. "I am an energy manipulator, I can produce and direct various types of energy, electrical, plasma, light, and I am also immune to energy based attacks, though that can be overwhelmed, and the amount of power I can use at one go is also limited."

Harry and Emma had come up with this cover for his magic, figuring it would allow him to use a lot of his magical attacks without actually coming out and admitting they were magic. Even so, Harry intended to not use any of the spells he might have been seen using in Montreal, just in case. He had no idea about who the Lord Cardinal or Wolfman were, and didn't want to give the game away just in case they were somehow magically sensitive or immune to any illusion spell he tried to use.

Well pleased with this information, Sebastian smiled thinly. Harry had hinted at this when he shared his codename but knowing that Harry's powers would be utterly useless against Sebastian's own filled him with a grim joy. There'll never be a question of which of us is the king the leader, unlike with Emma. I wonder if Harry would enjoy knowing about what Emma's fate will be after this battle…

"Tell me will our fellow king be in attendance in this meeting, or the activity afterwards?" Harry asked as they continued through the mansion, his two teammates silently following behind them.

"No, unfortunately Edward has decided to remain up in New York. Though with how much of his liquid capital he's used to fund this project, and with the bread trails that will no doubt lead from this project back to him, we might not actually have to move against Buckman ourselves. Simply dropping the word that Buckman has been involved in creating his own personal robot army in the right ear and letting the government catch up to him might be the best idea all around."

Harry frowned thoughtfully, then nodded. "That works, though we might wish to make certain that he isn't able to escape the country before that hammer falls on him."

"I have done this before Potter." Sebastian replied dryly and Harry laughed, holding up a hand like a fencer signaling a point.

Soon after that they had reached the sitting room, where four other people rose as they entered. Two of them were men Harry had not met previously, dressed in colonial era suits much like Sebastian and Leyland, as befitted members of the Hellfire Club. One was a tall, blond haired man with the build of a boxer and a short very well trimmed goatee under a thin, somewhat cruel looking mouth. There were lines around his mouth and eyes that denoted some age, but that was the only hint that he might be older than he first appeared.

The other man was a brown haired fellow, shorter a far squatter then the former, indeed he was almost fat, with eyes that seemed almost lupine in nature. He too was dressed in a colonial era suit, though it did not nearly fit him as well as that of the first man. This person was a thug dressed up in a suit, the other man carried himself like a person of wealth and means.

The last two individuals were Emma and her bodyguard Sandman. Emma and Harry had talked about bringing Starfire in on this, but both of them had decided that she was too young and not nearly well enough trained to bring into a fight like this, much like the teens in Camelot. Her powers would've been a major help, but not enough of one for either to want to risk her, even if she could be trusted to stay silent afterwards about the Custodes without magical 'assistance'. Sandman on the other hand had already proven himself, had more experience than most of the people already on Harry's team, and had a stake in this battle, wanting to help in shutting down the Sentinels anyway he could. He had even agreed to have a modified Fidelius placed on him, so he could not inadvertently let the secret of the Custodes out.

"You did not inform me that Potter would be involved in this Shaw" Emma said coldly, keeping up the game as she glared at Harry, who glared back. Behind him his two teammates brought hands over their shoulders to their rifles, while Sandman aggressively stood forward, his hands morphing into massive hammers.

"We are all in this together." said Sebastian sharply. "The Sentinels would hunt us all down if they're allowed to get the project off the ground. Whatever your enmity with one another, I expect you to work together on this."

The two younger people both subsided, turning away from one another and Sebastian smiled, a heady feeling of power rising within him. Both powerful, driven individuals, and they had acceded to his wishes! Sebastian once again knew that he was the leader here, and that feeling was good.

He waved a hand to the two other men in the room, introducing them. "This is my Lord Cardinal, Trevor Fitzroy, and Freidrich Rome, or Wolfman. I have another associate, but she is far too valuable to risk in combat situations, and frankly her power isn't one that lends itself to that arena either. She will instead be dealing with hunting down and destroying any information on the Sentinel program after we have taken its base of operations."

"I can understand that," Harry said with a nod, knowing that Sebastian was probably referring to Sage, Charles' spy. "However, I have to say that I'm feeling far less confident about the outcome of the battle if it is just the nine of us going in against what might be 500 killer robots."

"It won't be." Sebastian said with a thin smile, knowing once again that he was in control here simply the resources he could bring to the table. "I have three companies of my own security forces, each 250 men strong waiting in a plane nearby along with a team of young mutants I've been training up cop called the Hellions. Once we have the location of the central production center, we'll call them in as well. Have you made good on your promise?"

"There is a small shipment's worth of Magical Mind's medicine ready for afterwards. I also have a few drones ready to follow the tracking signal if the Sentinels take to the air too quickly for us to physically follow." Harry said shaking Trevor's hand as the man came forward, noticing but not commenting on the man's frown as he did so.

Trevor Fitzroy was a sort of energy vampire, he was able to absorb the biological energy from other people and animals, using it to power energy blasts, shields, or even his own body, strengthening it in proportion to the energy he took in. But with Harry he couldn't get anything out of the handshake, which he'd normally would be able to. He didn't even try with the two people that had followed Harry into the room, since they were covered from head to toe in some kind of armor suit, which would negate his powers. "Interesting. You must tell us where you come up with the medicines Mr. Potter."

It actually wasn't Harry himself that blocked Trevor's attempt to steal some of his biological energy. Harry was wearing a hologram over his crisis suit at the moment, as was normal, and the crisis suit came complete with gloves. "Perhaps someday."

Sebastian spoke up from next to him as he moved past the duo towards the small bar set against one wall, fixing himself a gin and tonic. "Mr. Potter is an energy user such as yourself Trevor, he should be a major aid in the battle."

Trevor scowled slightly, dropping Harry's hand and moving off. He did not like being around other energy users, especially those that could block his own powers.

"Those companies of yours are armed with Cold Steel weapons Shaw, do remember that." Emma said, sitting down and crossing one leg languidly over the other smirking internally as Wolfman and Trevor both followed the movement for a moment before Trevor turned away quickly. "And my agent is ready to go as soon as the debate begins. If the Sentinels show up, he'll know to tag one of them with the tracking device. Indeed, he has such devices on him, and may just tag everyone he can, just in case."

She kept on speaking to Harry mentally. "Harry, all of them are wearing anti-telepath devices. I'd still be able to get into their minds but I wouldn't be able to do it without them knowing. We really will have to wait until they're all involved in the battle itself to give me an opening."

"Don't worry about it love," Harry said back to her along the same link as he moved to follow Sebastian to the bar. "That was what the plan was anyway."

OOOOOOO

While Trask had called Kelly's rally an anti-mutant one, the reality was this political rally had been designed from the get-go to be a debate, one which pit Kelly and other proponents of the anti-mutant, or as Kelly called it these days 'the superpower registration act' against Charles and several other outspoken proponents of the other side of the debate. The local crowd was made up of Kelly's supporters, but those watching the debate via CNN and NBC, both of which were covering this, would of course have a more mixed view.

Charles had been invited personally by Kelly, who he had met occasionally in the past socially. He also knew several of his fellow debaters, having exchanged emails or otherwise talked to practically all of them in the past.

As the debate controller began to warm up the crowd by introducing them all to the crowd and the video cameras, the ten men all exchanged handshakes, and Charles smiled as he reached up to grasp Kelly's arm. "Robert."

"Charles, good of you to come, this should be interesting, we've never actually met in a debate before have we?" Robert Kelly smiled thinly down at the invalid, letting none of his disdain for the other man's naïve social agenda color his voice.

Charles was a well-respected war veteran, a phycologist with over two dozen extremely popular books to his name and a public speaker. His words carried a lot of weight in political and intellectual circles. Kelly knew neither of them would win a debate, their beliefs were simply too different, but simply holding his own against the other man would win him points from the anti-mutant groups and even the neutrals, which would help him hugely when he ran for president as an independent.

"I don't believe we have, no, and I agree this should be interesting." Charles replied with a nod, nothing in his face or body showing any hint that the handshake had been anything more. But a miniscule tracer, designed by Emma's best tech geeks, had just passed from under Charles' sleeve onto Kelly's sleeve.

The two of them moved on continuing to shake hands before moving to take their seats at the two tables set facing one another, then soon the debate began, the announcer, a woman who was a local reporter starting it off. "Ladies and gentlemen, while there are many crises, many problems and points of division facing humanity, the one that is most talked about most divisive in many ways, is the so-called mutant question."

"America, like many other countries hasn't yet decided what course we should take. Should we, like China, make mutants register themselves the moment their mutations become apparent, should we give them special protection under the law, or should we simply ignore the issue in terms of law, and let the social situation sort itself out however it occurs? Senator Kelly, as the organizer of this debate we'll begin with you."

"Thank you Rachel. First let me say that there is a vast difference between mutates and mutants. Mutates are those sad, ostracized individuals whose physical deformities give them no added strength, no powers, only simply serving to make them seem different, and unfortunately many men will react with violence against those who are physically different."

Kelly was a master orator and politician, he knew that he could not be seen to be on the same side as the Friends of Humanity, who targeted any mutant they found, regardless of their powers or where they were found. Gang violence like that was not popular at all in most of America, at least on the surface. So he used the new terms being bandied about to make his 'new' position clear.

"But mutants, the so-called homo-superior, are not mutates. They are different from us, just look at the very name! They might look like humanity, might well pass themselves off as normal, but they aren't. Again, look at the very name, the arrogance in calling yourself superior, and separate from homo-sapiens. We have had dozens, hundreds of examples that mutants feel themselves above the laws we mere humans have agreed to follow. Mutant supremacists like the terrorist Magneto."

He waited for the shouts of hate from the crowds to die down. Magneto had sunk several American submarines a few years ago, and more than one family here in this room had lost family members to that or his other attacks. "Yet they are not so far beyond humanity as they think. After all, it is also human nature to believe that something that makes us special, even if it's just a strange genetic flaw, sets us apart sets us above our fellow man. Magneto and others like him believe they are a separate species.

"Are we, humanity, to believe therefore that they are the Cro-Magnon to our Neanderthal then? Because when one species evolves in the same place as another, there is inevitable conflict, we see this all the time in nature. It is only natural to believe that there will be conflict between us, and the only way to stop that is to make certain that mutants cannot act out against humanity however we can."

"Thank you Senator. Your rebuttal sirs?"

Sitting in his wheelchair at his place at the table, Charles frowned faintly. He recognized some of that argument from a paper that had been written by a scientist who worked with Magneto at some point in the past. What was his name again, Nathanial something?

Next to Charles, Dr. Forsythe, a doctor from Georgia Tech who Charles sincerely respected despite his somewhat warhawk views when it came to the Middle East, replied. "While your point about perception and in particular that madman Magneto's actions is well taken, you are working on false data when you try to say that mutants are a separate species. As I believe Mr. Potter of Magical Minds said a few weeks back, there certainly isn't enough difference in our DNA to say mutants and normal humans are separate species."

"Indeed, when talking about mutants I think we should leave aside the idea of species entirely. It is, biologically speaking a bit of a mine field. After all, dogs and wolves are very different animals, but by the definition of species, that being: a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding, they are exactly the same."

That had come out a little too dry and scientific for the locals, something Kelly realized. He subtly signaled one of his fellows, who spoke up next.

He began by speaking about what had happened in China recently, an entire city blown up like it had been struck by a hydrogen bomb when a mutant lost control of his powers. "Why doesn't matter, only the outcome: Mutants are dangerous, they must be regulated, controlled, and if they still believe their powers make them better than normal people, eliminated."

The man went on this vein for some time, hitting on a few known mutant criminals. The men further down the table from Charles responded with the names of several dozen more criminals whose exploits were equal or worse and were not mutants. "You cannot use a few examples to paint the picture for an entire sub-group!"

"Indeed when you say mutants are dangerous you are simply speaking in generalities, something you can never do that when it comes to humanity." Charles said. "Words have power Senator, which is something I should not need to remind a politician of."

From there Charles launched into a passionate speech, likening racism against mutants or from mutants towards normal humans as nothing but bigotry. He railed against both extremes, saying that coexistence could only benefit everyone, whereas if hate was allowed to rule, no one won but the crows. His voice in that moment was so passionate and so certain that he silenced even the antagonistic crowd in front of him.

OOOOOOO

"That was quite an impassioned speech." Sebastian said mildly, sipping at his gin and tonic. There is a reason that Charles has been able to put together his X-Men team, best to remember that, he thought.

"Yes," Harry said musingly. "That man, Charles was it? He's a rather talented speaker, but in the end I don't think he swayed the local crowd."

As the camera panned over the crowd their faces showed Harry was correct. Now that Charles had stopped speaking the crowd had come back to itself, and there were a lot of sneers and shaking heads there. One wiseass was even caught on the sound recorder as shouting "No human I know has scales or a tail!" Whatever Kelly might've said in his beginning speech, far too many people were willing to paint all mutants with the same brush, it was so much easier to hate them that way.

As they watched Robert took advantage of that, reiterating his position that mutants, or superpowered individuals as he put it, had to be regulated by their local governments, and then through the UN. This was because no one could trust the Chinese or the Russians not to put their own government sanctioned superpowered teams together and then use them against their neighbors.

That won him some cheers, and he began to take over the debate, his fellow team members no longer speaking allowing him to take center stage in what was no doubt a choreographed maneuver. Something which every member of the hellfire club in that room commented on in derisive tones.

Again and again Kelly hit on the point that mutants represented a clear and present threat to the status quo and that many of them thought their powers set them apart. And that historically speaking whatever his opponents said when a new species evolved in place of the old they always tended to push out the older one. Robert also made a few small concessions, stating that so long as mutants did not actually fight the process they could simply be segregated from the rest of humanity peaceably rather than outright killed. And that said segregation itself did not need to be a violent process.

Charles tried to take the debate back several times, trying to go back to Kelly's own point about most mutants not actually being superpowered at all, simply people with physical deformities. But his attempt to liken the anti-mutant hysteria to simple racism, anti-Semitism or like simple bullying in many cases did not work.

At least not with the local audience. Harry wasn't certain but hoped it had worked better with people watching at home. It's a sad day when hate of those that were different from you overcomes the understanding that everyone is different and should not be attacked for those differences.

Kelly even attacked Harry, personally, causing everyone in the room to turn to him, to which Harry simply smiled sardonically. Robert pontificated that it was unfair and a sign of a new social agenda riven economic warfare that Magical Minds refused to sell his potions at a reasonable price to those nations that did not meet his demands on the mutant issue. "I can feel the hate." Harry said thoughtfully, sipping at his whiskey. "It's nice."

The others laughed and they continued to watch. "You know…" Sebastian said staring over at Emma "If it turns out that the Sentinels won't be showing up to this, this will have been a costly waste of time."

"They'll show up," Emma replied, refusing to show any nervousness about that issue.

About 20 minutes later, one of the debate moderators asked Kelly a question yet even how she asked that sounded to the discerning ear that she had been chosen for this job because of her own opinions on the matter. "Robert Kelly, it sounds like you have an excellent long term goal to deal with the mutant problem, but I for one would not wish to pay more taxes than I already do to fund some kind of reallocation program as you describe. Furthermore, as you've pointed out many mutants, in particular the superpowered variety, are able to blend in with normal people. How exactly are you going to find them?"

While neither of those questions were part of the topic for the debate, no one save those trying to speak for mutant rights seemed to care. Several of them shook their heads angrily, and one man at the far end of the table from Charles actually stood up and walked off shaking his head. As Robert Kelly began to answer the question that man's voice could be heard in the background "I refuse to take part in this farce anymore! It was supposed to be an open debate, not a way for Robert-fucking Kelly to air his grievances or begin his so-called campaign!"

Again Harry wondered how this all was being taken by the viewers watching it on TV rather than in person. Thinking about his lessons in politics, he thought that Kelly might just have gone too far in stacking the deck, making the entire thing more sad and overbearing than anything. But that was beside the point right now. Now if that question doesn't…

"I'm glad you asked that Stacy, because I have been working with various scientists computer technicians, weapons developers, and geneticists in order to answer that very question! One of them came up with a solution over a year ago, but it has taken this long to put it into production. Now I can't say…" his went on as a rumbling sound reached the crowd from the sky above them. "That they are inexpensive, but with these bad boys on humanity's side, the war against the mutants will never even start!"

Two gigantic robots suddenly came down out of the sky to land on either side of the raised dais where the debaters were sitting facing one another. They stood at least five stories tall, massively built across the shoulders with bullet shaped heads and flat, only vaguely humanoid faces, and were painted in dark purple and pink. Their hands were fully articulated, though as they landed Harry noticed apertures in their palms which were no doubt some kind of weapon.

"Behold the Sentinels!" Robert Kelly shouted, waving his hands at them. "Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to the mutant problem!"

OOOOOOO

Harry and the Hellfire Club were not the only ones watching. Nick Fury was watching as well, having heard rumors that Robert Kelly was going to formally announce his run for president and wanting to see what his agenda was beyond the mutant issue, something he had not learned just yet. Of course he still hadn't, but those thoughts went out of his mind the moment those giant robots showed up.

"How… the… fuck…" he said in a calm, controlled voice that somehow sent every person in the hela-carriers bridge, most of whom weren't even aware of what was going on that had their boss so incensed, to shiver in fear. Several of them flinched, looking longingly towards the door. "How… the… fuck… could someone create those things without us knowing?"

His personal assistant shrugged her shoulders. "We never even heard rumors someone was building robots like that, commander."

"Exactly," said Nick in that still calm, icy tone, a sign he had passed straight through rage and out the other side. "We are SHIELD, we are supposed to know about this kind of thing. We are supposed to know every individual who could come up with something like that!" He said standing up abruptly and causing more than one person nearby to flinch away as he stabbed angrily at the view screen in front of him.

"So now what we have here is someone backing Kelly, who has created at least two robots that look like they could go a few rounds with the Fantastic Four that we didn't know about! Find out, now!" Nick growled, and the men nearby turned as one to their computers, bringing up any history of Robert Kelly, anyone who even had remotely agreed with his point of view on the mutant question, anyone who had donated money to his campaign for Senator, or who had come out in approval of his upcoming presidential campaign. Assumed names were found, and traced. Dummy corporations were discovered, and backtracked. All of it after the fact, and Fury felt possibly too late to stop this genie from escaping the bottle. All he could do now was watch, and pray to a god he didn't believe in that these killer robots would prove to be paper tigers.

OOOOOOO

"So that's them," said Harry blandly, staring at the robots and interest.

"That is a horrible color scheme." Emma replied the other mental connection, physically however she remained silent simply staring at the large TV screen.

Shaw frowned angrily. "I didn't expect them to be that large to be honest."

"Doesn't matter, the bigger they are the harder they'll far." Harry said tapping his fingers together thoughtfully. "Besides, just because their big doesn't mean they're durable, or even very powerful. Power to a point is more important than overall size."

"True." said Trevor nodding his head thoughtfully as he pulled it his goatee. "And I doubt they have come up with any armor that could withstand plasma attacks or any weapons that could harm you Sebastian." Sebastian nodded, and they all continued to watch the events on the TV avidly.

OOOOOOO

"Warning," said one of the Sentinels, staring into the crowd. "Scans indicate three individuals with 75% chance of containing mutation."

Kelly stopped, gaping up at the thing that had just interrupted his speech which Robert had been giving because the crowd had not reacted as well as he had hoped to the Sentinels arrival. More than one person had shrieked when they had landed, and many of the crowd were now looking at them fearfully rather than with elation. They were quite a bit more intimidating in person than Kelly had anticipated, but surely that meant they would be better at protecting the common man from mutants?

"What do you mean?" he asked, turning from the Sentinel to stare out over the crowd.

"Scans indicate three individuals with 42-75% chance of containing mutations. Neutralizing." Said one of the Sentinels, moving forward and leaning down, his huge hand moving into the crowd. Screams abounded, as the crowd try to run away, but the Sentinel's hand quickly moved through it, smacking several people aside and picking up a young man who looked utterly terrified as he was hoisted into the air, the giant fist holding him as if he was a small doll.

The Sentinel stood back up, while its fellow moved into the crowd as the crowd now thoroughly spooked tried to run away, mostly getting in one another's way due to how packed the park had been. "Stop!" Kelly shouted, "Just stop! You're not supposed to…"

Another robot leaned down grabbing up Charles in his wheelchair, causing him to shout aloud staring down at Kelly. "Is this how you silence your political opponents?"!?

"No!" Kelly shouted back. "This isn't how it's supposed to, something must have gone wrong. They're supposed to obey my voice. Damnit, stop!"

"Negative. Apprehension, detention and segregation of mutants is top priority." Said one of the robots. "All civilians hold position. Any attempt to" SPANG!

One of the security guards for the debate had pulled out his handgun by this point firing at one of the robot's face, trying to put out its eye. The bullet spanged uselessly off its metal casing, and the robot raised its free hand. "Aggression detected. Neutralizing." From its palm shot a small blast of what looked like plasma, which slammed into the man vaporizing him instantly.

"No!" Kelly shouted again over the main's dying scream. Now its last vestige of control broken the crowd stampeded, crushing one another in their haste to get away. Other security men began to fire at the Sentinels, and were vaporized in turn.

OOOOOOO

"Oh dear." Emma said shaking her head. "I'm getting flashbacks of the Terminator movies for some reason."

"So am I, and it is glorious. There goes any public support for the Sentinel program, and the best part is we had nothing to do with it!" Shaw said with a smile.

He had noticed the weapons on the Sentinels, and knew now that whatever their numbers none of them had anything that could bother him personally. If they had, he might have decided to call off the entire plan, especially considering the bad showing Kelly and the Sentinels were having right now. But with that in mind, and with his own plan of hopefully taking control of the project rather than simply destroying it outright, it was well worth the risk.

Trevor Fitzroy frowned thoughtfully, still unhappy about the size of the robots, as was the Wolfman, but neither of them were willing to back away from at this point. Shaw held their leashes too tight, and frankly even if regular weaponry didn't work on the Sentinels they didn't see any reason why their own abilities couldn't.

In keeping with that thought Trevor turned to the silent bodyguards that Harry had brought along. "Will your weapons work on them?"

One of them nodded, patting the rifle on his back, but it was Harry who answered verbally. "We've tested those guns on armor that was rated for the American Abrams battle tank, and even a suit of armor that I was assured by the scientists who came up with it had the same armor rating as that used by Tony Stark. They'll work."

"Good because I think it's about time for us to start tracking them." Shaw said.

That brought all of their attention back to the TV screen, where indeed the drama had reached a crescendo.

OOOOOOO

The crowd had thinned by this point but now Robert had joined Charles in being held up in the air by one of the Sentinels. One of the others also had its hands full of supposed mutants, while the other two were retaliating against the security guards and the police who had shown up, vaporizing them one after another.

"What are you doing!?" Kelly shouted, not for the first time in the past few moments. "Why are you doing this!?"

"Specify query." The Sentinel who was holding him replied.

"What!?" Kelly shouted, thoroughly frazzled by this turn of events.

Charles sighed faintly, shaking his head at the man. "I think it's asking for clarification on what it is doing that is so troubling you." He said dryly. "What's the matter Robert, your creations getting away from you?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Robert shouted back angrily, staring at the bald man across from him, astonished at how calm he was. Then he calmed himself a little hoping to get control of the situation. His dreams of presidency were going up in flames all around him in the bodies of the security guards, but hopefully he could still talk his way out of actual jail time for being involved in this. "Sentinels, why are you attacking the crowd, and why are you trying apparently to kidnap me?"

"Priority one is always to be given to the apprehension of mutants regardless of place or time. Casualties among the civilian population are acceptable."

"But there aren't any mutants here!"

"Correction, there are not any visible mutations present. Kelly, Robert A. should know this does not mean that there are no mutants present. If a genetic scan indicates the presence of a possible mutation in this generation or the next, that individual must be apprehended and if necessary terminated at a later date."

"But this, this is idiotic! No one's developed a way to say which parents will be able to produce a mutant child!"

"Incorrect. If a chance exists above 42.56% then that individual will be apprehended."

Kelly gaped at the robot, and Charles had to fight to keep a smile off his face despite the chaos around them or his own possible fate. The Sentinels were obviously out of control, having taken a point of view to its logical conclusion, which was obviously far beyond where any kind of common sense could've taken it, moving far beyond what their creators had designed them to do.

"But then what about me?" Robert said, his face white after having watched as another security guard was turned into a burning corpse. He was no longer able to think of his political career, or even his freedom. He just wanted to get out of here alive.

"Kelly, Robert A. has been termed a security risk. You will be sequestered for your own protection."

OOOOOOO

Despite the TV newscasters and many of the cameramen having run away, the cameras themselves were still in position, and Kelly and Charles both had the small microphones that they had been fitted with before the debate began. As such the robots words had carried over into the live feed, meaning that the Hellfire Club had heard every word.

"So the Sentinels are out of control, big surprise." Shaw scoffed looking as if he was about to spit to one side but was too genteel to do so. "Robots, I bet they even tried to use some kind of AI too."

That's rich coming from someone who's created his own part-cyborg soldiers and fitted them and his regular troops with kill buttons. Harry thought drolly, looking over at him.

Emma let her eyes pass over Harry to Shaw for a brief second, before turning to stare back into the TV screen. "Do you think I should assault Kelly's mind now?"

Harry thought about it for a moment then shook his head. "No, we don't know anything about the Sentinel's scanners; they might be able to detect the change in his brainwaves. Though my question is how the hell are they supposed to be able to scan someone's genetics simply by looking at them? Frankly the idea they could detect your intrusion is a lot more believable than that. And they might take it out on their supposed mutant captives thinking it was one of them."

"The X-Men will not be happy with Charles being placed in harm's way like this."

"Scott and the others will understand." Harry replied.

Sebastian stood up. "I believe it's time for us to head to our planes. Will you be joining me on my personal plane Potter?"

Harry nodded. "That suits me fine thank you, though from now on please use my code name." As he stood up in turn the connection between him and Emma was still open. "Get in touch with Ororo, make certain the Custodes and the X-Men ready."

As they walked out, Fitzroy turned to Sebastian, leaning in to whisper a question, one strangely close to that topic. "Do you think the X-men will show up to try and rescue Xavier?"

"Doubtful, they won't be able to track the Sentinels, and I would assume the Sentinels would knock Charles out, so he wouldn't be able to lead them to him. We might be able to kill three birds with one stone here." Sebastian replied, laughing quietly.

Harry smiled thinly, loving the irony of that statement. Behind them on the TV the Sentinels lifted off, with Kelly still shouting at them to leave him behind to put him down, to stop this! Irony has also bitten that man on the ass, and it's going to get even worse soon, Harry thought, smiling grimly.

OOOOOOO

"Track them! God damn it, track them! We need to know where the Sentinels are heading!" Fury bellowed, veins standing out in his neck.

"We're not getting any reading on the Sentinels themselves sir, not even on regular radar." Said one of the hela-carriers sensor specialists, frowning thoughtfully. He looked up, gulping a little as Fury stalked toward him. "I, I think it's interference, though I, I can't tell if it's from them or..."

The man trailed off, and Fury growled angrily. "Or from our end? As in someone's input a bug that blocks us from seeing the Sentinels?"

"Could be both," said another specialist, his fingers flying over his control board. "But we are getting some kind of intermittent radio signal. If I had to guess, I'd say Kelly has a tracker on him already. But if he did, whose is it?"

The first specialist frowned, looking over the second's shoulder, his fear of the director abating for a moment. "It's not powerful enough signal sir, were going to lose it in seconds here."

"Do we have anything in the area that can track them?" Fury glared around, staring hard at the two air patrol officers.

"Sorry sir, most of our independent air assets are still down in South America trying to hunt down the last AIM base down there with the Avengers. We've been relying on the American military radar and lidar coverage here in America for weeks now. We could get one of the nearby airfield places to scramble a few jets, but by the time they do…"

One of the sensor techs shook his head. "We already lost the signal, damn it."

"See if you can figure out any possible destination in a 45 degree cone of the track they were following when we lost the signal." Fury growled, then frowned thoughtfully. "Then, see if there's any civilian traffic in the area going in the same direction."

I don't think Kelly would have a tracker on him, I think someone else did. And if Charles does have a tracker on him, maybe we can follow the X-men to the Sentinels.

He turned to his aid. "Pick out three random security techs, I want them to go over our sensor programs with a fine tooth comb, one after another. I would them all to check each other's work, and I want 24 seven monitoring of all three. If whatever is blocking us from tracking those Sentinels is here in our own systems, I want it found, deleted, and whoever could have implanted it found!"

OOOOOOO

Kelly and Charles were knocked out with some kind of gas-based weapon emanating from the thumb of their captor a few moments after the Sentinels had lifted off. But even if he had been awake for the journey Charles would have had no idea where they were when they landed. It was someplace very mountainous and out of the way seeming, with what looked like a dense forest everywhere he looked. This made him wonder how the Sentinels could have been created out here. Surely something as large as the Sentinels are needs an equally large industrial base.

This question was answered when a portion of the mountain in front of the Sentinels carrying him and the other prisoners began to open up, revealing a massive underground hangar inside. Some old secret military installation? Still doesn't explain how they brought in any of the material without a road nearby. Airdrops perhaps? And then they constructed all the machinery here? If so, these people take secrecy seriously.

A moment later the hanger bay's doors were open wide enough to let the Sentinels walk through. As they walked in Charles looked around avidly. Along either wall were hundreds of Sentinels, stacked two high in the 15 story tall hanger. Gantries, walkways, and hundreds of thousands of unrecognizable devices could be seen along those walls, some of them working on a few of the Sentinels even as Charles was carried inside. The second story gantry led to the back of the hanger, and seemed to have some kind of conveyor belt on it, because the sentinels on that level moved slowly away from the back of the hangar toward the front.

Yet even the Sentinels were dwarfed by what lay at the back of the hangar. Sitting there on what looked like a giant throne with several hundred smaller robots, including two Sentinels working on open panels in its massive sides and feet, the gantries leading into its back where it seemed imbedded into the throne, was what looked like a Sentinel in shape, but it was larger by far, barely able to fit into the hanger. Its head too had been massively enlarged so that it stuck out to either side of its shoulders.

And also unlike the other Sentinels it had what looked like some kind of relay systems stuck on its head leading into the walls, presumably control runs which allowed it to direct the smaller construction robots everywhere in the hangar. Charles wondered if it was simply a side effect or if that control system had been deliberately designed to look like a crown.

"Master Mold!" Said the Sentinel carrying Charles and Robert Kelly. "We have returned with the security risk. Furthermore we have found and detained three possible mutants."

"Well done." Sentinel Master Mold replied. "Place the security risk Kelly, Robert A. next to our Creator. The three possible mutants will be submitted to full genetic scans, and if proven to be mutants, terminated."

Charles frowned, tempted to try telepathy and see what he could come up with against these robots, but decided against it. It would probably be futile, cyborgs had some kind of minds he could grab onto, robots in his limited experience with such, did not. And they might detect the attempt in any event best to lie possum for now.

At the massive android's command Robert Kelly was dropped in front of the Master Mold next to another man who was strapped into a chair. He too was wearing some kind of relay systems stuck on his head, which lead into one of the Master Mold's feet by his side. Yet in his case, it looked like a torture device, not a crown.

"Bolivar!" Robert growled as he saw the man, while behind him Charles was taken toward a small tunnel leading off the man cavern. "What the hell is going on?! You promised me that the Sentinels would be completely under your control, did you go back on your word, did you try to set up some fucking AI system!?"

Bolivar Trask had originally been a small but extremely fit man, who routinely exercised by sprinting or taking part in runs even after leaving the military. His normal sparse frame however was now emaciated. His eyes, which were normally sharp and clear, were filled with horror, and seemed to stare through Robert rather than at him. "A full AI? No, nothing of the kind. We just, it was super simple programming error, a, a problem taken to its logical conclusion."

"Indeed Kelly, Robert A." The Master Mold boomed from above him.

Robert turned in that direction glaring angrily up at the out-of-control android. Two of the smaller construction droids moved towards him, grabbing his arms and hoisted him up before a chair was placed underneath him, whereupon he was tied in as Bolivar had already been. "You and your allies and our creator were correct. Mutants are a clear and present danger to humanity. But you did not take that conclusion to the logical outcome. Mutants have arisen from humanity. Therefore humanity is a threat to itself. We need to not only terminate all known mutants and those superpowered individuals who have tampered willingly with their own DNA, we need to make certain that no further mutations will arise. To do so we will take control of humanity, segregate those who have a higher than 50% chance of seeding a mutant and make certain they do not breed, in order to erase the mutant threat forever."

"That's impossible!" Robert gasped. "Humanity will never stand for it!"

"We will begin with America." said the Master Mold. "With America under our control, we will extend our influence slowly."

"Didn't you hear me you fucking bucket of bolts!" Robert growled anger overcoming his fear for the moment. "I said America will never stand for it!"

"They will not have a choice. My Sentinels will this very day begin to take over nearby industrial sectors to convert them to our use. We will also launch an electronic program into various defense agencies, taking them over from the inside. This process has already begun. If America concedes peaceably, that will be the extent of what we will do. If we are met with violence, then violence will be our response. How can humanity expect to deal with the issue of mutants without dealing with the root cause? The logic is inescapable, and will become apparent when we deal with…"

That was as far as the Master Mold got before turning its attention to alarms that began to blare throughout the hanger bay. "All Sentinels are to power up, mutant signatures detected outside."

OOOOOOO

Thanks to the speed of his personal jet Sebastian and his team arrived on the heels of the Sentinels carrying Charles and Kelly, putting down a good mile away from where Emma guided them. Unbeknownst to the others however, she had stopped using the tracker almost immediately, the Sentinels having found it within moments. Instead she followed the sense of Charles' mind, which even unconscious she could track. Regardless they had found the secret of the Sentinels.

Sebastian's regular troops took longer to arrive and while they waited, Harry took a moment to look over the Hellions. Domino was there of course, armed with what looked like some kind of massive rifle, assorted handguns, and a backpack whose content Harry could not discern. Havok, Polaris, and even Sunspot were also there, fully healed from the battle against Pierce's Reavers. Random looked much the same as he always did, while Catseye was sporting what looked like a laser cannon where her hand had been taken off during that battle.

Moments later Shaw's other men arrived, giving them 750 assorted men ready to go, plus the mutants themselves. Most of the men were the normal sort but about fifty of them were the heavy bruisers, the buffed up cyborgs that Shaw had devised. They wore the dark purple and blue the men the X-men had run into in Kentucky had, but their weapons had been somewhat upgraded. The Bruisers all carried what were obviously energy weapons and the others carried machine guns given to them by Cold Steel.

As the attackers moved through the woods, Emma remained behind with the jet. Her personal combat skills weren't exactly high, especially against robots that she couldn't attack telepathically. Her task would be to make certain that none of the scientists, workers or anyone else who knew anything about the Sentinel program were allowed to leave with that knowledge.

However as they were moving into position around the hanger bay's entrance, she sent a telepathic signal to Harry. "Harry, there are only about ten minds down there, but one of them is Charles. He's awake and says he and the other potential mutants are being carried deeper into the fortress, apparently they're going to undergo some kind of genetic full genetic scan, to prove or disprove the Sentinel's onboard sensors."

"I still don't understand how that's even possible," Harry's replied, sending the image of him shrugging his shoulders irritably down the link Emma had created. "Is Trask one of the others?" Even as he talked mentally to Emma, Harry pulled on a helmet, made in the same mold as Wyatt's, though in his case it looked like that of an Owl rather than a coyote.

"Yes, and he doesn't have any kind of anti-telepath defense on him for some reason. I'm using Robert's eyes at the moment, and he's hooked up to some kind of brain scan device possibly? Whatever that is, it's obvious he isn't in control, the man looks half dead."

A moment later Emma cursed. "They know something's going on, I think they must've sensed my using Robert's eyes, or maybe your presence, not certain. Orders are going out to the Sentinels guarding the prisoners, and others are heading towards the doors."

Harry was standing next the Sandman while beside him is two teammates were standing waiting. The Hellions were getting themselves sorted out, teams of two being placed with each of the companies, when Sebastian turned at Harry's shout. "The doors opening! I think they know we're here!"

Domino spat to one side. "Of course they know are here, there's too many of us to move around quietly."

"Get ready!" Sebastian shouted, throwing off his jacket, standing there in pants with no shirt on as was his wont in combat, to keep his clothing intact. Next to him Fitzroy and Wolfman also prepared themselves, while the Hellions did the same, Havok and Polaris sharing a hug before turning their attention towards the rapidly opening doorway as Sunspot took to the sky.

A moment later the doors shot open and over a dozen Sentinels boiled out of the entrance into the underground cavern, hands already raised to fire their energy blasts. They came under fire immediately from Sebastian's security teams, most of whose weapons whoever didn't seem to do much damage. But they also came under attack from Havok and the other Hellions along with the Sandman. Two Sentinels fell back their chests gaping open from assaults from Havok and Sunspot, and another was picked up and smashed into a second, their heads smashing together with so much force that they collapsed thanks to Polaris

Another Sentinel collapsed, one of its eyes missing and the back of its head exploding outwards thanks to a gauss rifle shot from Coyote, and another lost his hand from a shot from Uzume. "Holy hell, Flare, I do love your toys!" Uzume shouted into her microphone, causing Harry to stop and laugh a moment before joining the battle.

As he did so a Sentinel rushing along the ground lost its legs from a shearing assault from the Sandman, then as it fell it fell into a giant sand pool and was crushed utterly. Seconds later Sandman's upper body reformed and he sent out a massive hammer of sand to slam into another Sentinel while his powers continually converted the ground all around them to stand for his use.

That first group of Sentinels went down relatively quickly, but hundreds more were boiling out of the hangar Bay, firing as they came. "Eliminate all mutants and their compatriots. Terminate, terminate!"

Moments later that first defensive cordon around the hangar bay broke under the weight of the Sentinel's fire. Dozens of Shaw's men died from their hand blasters, and several other Sentinels showed a new weapon: eye beams, which they used to fry several men. Leland became the first real casualty, screaming as his lower body disappeared under the touch of a Sentinel's plasma beam.

They even almost got Domino, who had taken up position directly above the hanger bays entrance on the mountain side. But her luck power activated, saving her, tripping a man to one side to fall into the beam, while she rolled and fired with her rifle.

Even as she did so she shook her head. Damn, I have got to get me one of those snipers rifles that Coyote and Uzume are using. The gauss rounds ripped through the Sentinel's armor and the slugs moved so fast they couldn't be dodged.

Coyote and Uzume on the other hand could dodge the fire sent their way by the Sentinels. They were hopping around everywhere behind the defensive line Shaw's people were trying to defend around the entrance to the hanger bay, laying down heavy sniper fire and taking a toll on the Sentinels.

The regular cyborgs and the brutes however were not doing nearly as well, and Sebastian scowled angrily as he noticed they'd already lost half a company's worth of men within a few moments of the battle truly beginning at least He nodded over at the rest of the Hellions. "Get in close and see if you can force the robot's to spilt their attention! Flare, Fitzroy, with me!"

"Roger!" Random replied, laying down heavy cover fire while Polaris took to the sky to join Sunspot and Havok raced forward, heading to one side of the entrance where more than a few of the bruisers had gone down. Random's bio-energy blasts didn't seem to do much damage to the Sentinels however, and he gave it up, racing forward as his arm shifted into a heavy maul.

Harry joined the battle now, pointing his hands ahead of himself dramatically as if he had to use the same aiming technique that Havok had to, sending out cutting spells silently, dozens of the small purple half-moon shaped slices of energy that cut into and through the Sentinels they hit. Whatever durability the Sentinel's had against regular energy attacks or even physical impacts did not avail them anything against magical assault.

Fitzroy's energy blasts were much more concentrated than Random's, though they technically were powered from the same source. Several Sentinels went down with small, fist sized holes through them, and the reinforcement of his own body allowed Fitzroy to survive their return assaults. Though the impact of them still knocked him back a ways.

With the two of them, the Hellion's now engaging more closely, and Shaw powered up enough to toss the Sentinels around like toys, the battle for the entrance slowly began to turn against the Sentinels. The attackers were simply able to bring more power to bare in the narrow confines of the hanger bay doors than the Sentinels could. An instant after that occurred to Harry however, the Sentinels also seemed to realize it, and began to fall back.

"Press them!" Sebastian shouted, then as he the Hellions and his security teams pressed forward, slowly gained control of the entrance, he grabbed Wolfman. "Don't engage in the main battle, take Catseye and sneak around the edges! I want Charles Xavier dead, see to that and capture Trask, then get him out of here! With him under our control, we'll be able to re-create anything about this program we want to later on."

"Sufficient input has been accumulated, analyzing." Said all of the Sentinels suddenly.

A second later one of Sunspot's blasts hit one of them, and did only a little damage rather than blast straight through him. "What the!" That Sentinel blasted back and Sunspot dodged automatically.

At the same time, Harry noticed that the heavy weapons of the Bruisers suddenly didn't seem to be doing as much damage. "Armor coating has been adapted to deal with this attack."

Worse as the company had entered the hangar bay there was more room which allowed the Sentinels to use more of their numbers against them. Men began to fall everywhere and Random became the first casualty. A blast from a Sentinel took his head clean off. "GAHHH!"

Fitzroy stood forward, grabbing two of Sebastian's men and draining their bioenergy utterly in a second, before blasting away at several of the Sentinels driving them backwards from one side of the cavern. He pointed at a few of the nearby bruisers . "You lot, get up onto that gantry up there and try to lay down some cover fire!"

On the other side of the cavern Domino did the same, and the heavy weapons started to more damage again, able to aim at the heads and backs of the Sentinels now. Yet even so, the main battle was slowly turning against the invaders.

The attackers did not have enough of a numerical superiority to overcome the Sentinel's advantages as Sebastian been led to believe would be the case. And while Sebastian charged on, utterly immune to anything the Sentinels could do to them his men were not. While Random remained the only casualty the Hellions had taken so, their men were taking a pounding, and were now down to a bare over-strength company from the previous three, and the Sentinels were still learning. Dozens of them were now using the cover of their downed fellows to protect themselves from Havok Polaris or the others, whose assaults their armor had not yet adapted to.

Polaris was wreaking chaos among them however, ripping and shredding the Sentinels apart with her magnetic powers, the metal of one flying apart with enough speed to resemble the gauss rifle shots from Coyote and Uzume, only as if it was a shotgun blast rather than sniper round. Those two had remained outside, using their rifles range to good effect.

While Havok remained near where Polaris and Sunspot were flying near the entrance, Harry joined Shaw in pressing forward, moving further and further away from the rest of their troops. Now in the distance the two of them could see the Master Mold, and made for it, while over the sounds of battle a howling sort of shout could be heard, someone hysterically shouting at the Sentinels to protect him ,to kill the mutants.

Okay, so someone has really gone over the deep end, Harry thought, dodging behind a downed Sentinel, using it as cover from the attacks of several more. And it doesn't sound like Kelly, so it must be Trask. Does he fear mutants so much that even what Emma described is preferable? Scary.

Near the entrance way, several unfinished Sentinels on the gantry had come online. Some of them attacked down it while others leapt into the fray occurring on the ground below, shattering what little remaining organist ion Shaw's men had. Then they all spoke as one once more. "Sufficient data inputted, anti-magnetic shields activated."

Polaris gaped at a Sentinel that she had tried to tear apart only for only one of its arms to been torn off rather than all of its limbs. It's other hand came up, blasting away at her with the energy weapon embedded in its palm, and it was only Harry throwing up an energy shield in front of her that defended her. Even so, the green haired girl was slammed backwards, smashing her head against the far wall of the hangar knocking her out.

Harry's actions had not gone unnoticed, Trevor Fitzroy had seen it and he frowned, wondering if Sebastian knew about Harry's ability to create energy shields not just attacks. He also didn't like the way Harry's two compatriots and Sandman were staying by the doorway and outside rather than charging inside with the rest of them. They were still doing a lot of damage, Sandman in particular was keeping many of this Sentinels from closing the entrance to keep them from escaping if need be, and the two snipers were incredibly dangerous.

Yet they are not truly endangering themselves like the rest of us. Something to watch out for. Perhaps I should think of pulling back, this battle could go either way at this point. He did so, take up position on the right side of the gantry, laying down covering fire which broke the assault coming at them along the gantry.

By this point most of the regular troops were down. Only the Bruisers were able to take even a single blast from the Sentinels and keep moving, and were the only ones with heavy enough weapons to do anything against the Sentinels, while the other troops had been forced to aim for eyes or wait for a Sentinel to become damaged in some fashion before doing any harm.

Cat's-eye went down, her head sheared off by a backhanded slap from one of the Sentinels at the same moment Sunfire collapsed to the floor of the cavern, hit from several sides at once from eye blasts, though his power might have saved him from instant death, Harry couldn't tell. Thanks to her power Domino was still alive, but she was limping, her legs having taken some shrapnel from a construction robot she'd been using as cover blowing up from one of the energy blasts from a Sentinel. Havok had also fallen back, defending Polaris where she had fallen rather than pressing forward.

Hundreds of the Sentinels had fallen, but more and more were coming online to replace their losses.

It was time, Harry decided. While Wolfman was nowhere to be seen he saw Fitzroy, and Sebastian was too far in front of his remaining allies. He was tossing Sentinels around, smashing them apart with blows that hit like a punch from the Hulk, without a care in the world. Everything they tried to do to him only empowered Shaw further thanks to his mutant power and Harry had seen enough to decide what it was: the ability to transform any physical impact no matter how small into physical strength and durability.

Against the Sentinels it was obviously working very well, but against Harry and Emma? Worse, it had given Sebastian a sense of invincibility, and he had lost sight of the overall battle. No, it was better to strike now before the Sentinels could overwhelm the others and then focus solely on the newcomers. "Emma, call in Storm and the others. Then shut down Shaw, permanently."

Through their mental connection Harry felt Emma's happiness at the idea, her mental voice almost purring like a cat. "With pleasure Harry." Back on the plane, closed her eyes slightly, a wide vicious smile on her face.

Sebastian l frowned suddenly as a voice went off inside of his head. "Hello Sebastian and goodbye."

"GAHHHHH!" He cried out in agony his hands going up to his head as he shouted but by the time his hands touched his head, it was too late.

Emma's telepathic assault struck his mind with all the force of an atomic bomb. In mere milliseconds she ruthlessly shred his defenses which he had thought so strong so capable, before going on, ripping and tearing his brain apart with no thought as to being caught out at it. Which, as the last of his consciousness faded forever, Sebastian Shaw realized was the real reason Emma had never done it before. Not that Emma couldn't but that Emma had decided it wasn't worth being discovered doing so before this. That thought galled him like fire for the few more seconds remaining to the mind of the Black King, and then there was nothing.

A second later Shaw's body collapsed boneless to the ground, and Storm and the rest of the Custodes along with the X-Men blasted into the hangar bay. Storm hovered outside, her hands outstretched as she began to throw magical spells into the interior, alternating those attacks with some via her mutant power. Sentinels were picked up and thrown around like toys in the winds of a hurricane, others were blasted apart by magical spells or frozen solid by sudden drops in temperature, their armor cracking off allowing their innards to be seen for a moment before they too succumbed.

Of the X-men Cyclops barreled in first, his eye-beams blasting out at full power straight down the center of the hangar Bay. After blowing through the center of remaining troopers' location, his attack speared through several Sentinels at a time blowing them to pieces then he was beside his brother, nodding at him. "Hello Havok, we're going to have a long talk about keeping secrets brother."

Havok glanced up at him, blasting away at the Sentinels were trying to attack them. "Scott! What are you doing here, wait you're a mutant too?"

Cyclops frowned, realizing that the damage done to Alex's mind to make him join the Hellions was worse than Harry had thought, but having no time now to address that issue. "We'll talk later." He said aloud and then turned his attention to the rest of the battle. "Rogue get up there!" He said pointing to the left, "Spike join Colossus! Nightcrawler you're on rescue duty!"

Behind him Nightcrawler nodded from where he had been by the doorway, having just taken out a few of the stragglers from Sebastian's security teams. Colossus, Magma, and Spike charged straight down the center of the cavern, with Magma throwing small balls of magma at any Sentinel to either side of them while Colossus smashed into and through and robot in their way, his strength and durability allowing him to handle the Sentinels with the same ease Shaw had previously.

Spike had a harder time of it, though his bone armor allowed him to weather the Sentinel's energy blasts. His offense however also couldn't pierce the robot's armor, and he was forced to aim for the eyes or the energy collators in the Sentinel's hands instead. Still, Spike had trained in precision assaults like that, and did so fairly well, finishing off the last few troopers remaining on the hanger floor and taking out a few Sentinels.

While those three were pressing forward hard, smashing the Sentinels on the floor back and further back, Rogue had met up with Domino on the gantry to the left of the cavern. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and knowing that she had no weapon capable of taking Rogue on, Domino laid down cover fire for the girl, allowing her to charge forward.

By this point there were only about five Bruisers remaining from those security teams, all of them huddled around Fitzroy's position on the top of the gantry to the right of the entrance. Watching the newcomers and recognizing both teams, Trevor realized that Harry had performed a double cross, playing Shaw and possibly Emma for fools. Knowing the outcome of this battle could only be against him, he leaped down from his position, making his way toward the entranceway as unseen as he could. Behind him the last of the bruisers were cut down by Physlocke, who began to use her rifle in close to destroy the last of the construction droids and Sentinels along the gantry.

But to get out of the cavern Trevor had to brave the sandpit Sandman had created across its entrance. When he tried to fly above it Storm attacked, tornado winds and lightning raining down on top of him, driving the blonde man down into the sand. He stood there for a second, blasting away at Storm with his bio energy fueled attacks, which she blocked negligently with a magical shield. They worked much better however when Sandman attempted to attack him, blasting Sandman into pieces as he tried to form fists, hands or hammers to attack him.

With the last 50 or so Sentinels now in full retreat back towards the Master Mold, who was screaming out orders in an attempt to delay the inevitable, Storm could turn her full attention to Trevor. A spell lanced out, and unlike the electricity-based lightning bolts that had struck him before this spell didn't contain any energy he could turn to his own devices. The sleep spell hit him, causing him to fall to his knees, almost overwhelming him.

Only his hand resting upon a downed yet still alive trooper allowed him to retain his senses, the man's waning bio-energy surging through him like a shot of caffeine. "No, you'll not win so easily weather witch!" He blasted back with a bioenergy assault, but Storm moved out of the way.

"Perhaps not, but the outcome is the same." With that Storm levitated Trevor into the air with another spell before grimly slamming a full power cyclone's straight into his face. It was the same attack that had killed the Abomination, and it worked just as well on Trevor who came apart at the seams, blood and viscera spreading everywhere. Storm winced, shaking her head at the grisly death, but feeling little remorse at killing the man. While Harry and Emma had been busy, Dennis and Storm had looked up what they could of Freidrich Roehm and Fitzroy once they had their names, and both had been the worst sort of murderers and rapists long before they had come under Shaw's control, though both had kept their mutant powers secret up until now.

Glancing over the overall battle, Storm nodded at Scott twitching her head towards Havok and Domino, the only two members of the Hellions that were still on their feet. Scott nodded back, and Storm quickly cast sleep spells on both of them. Scott caught Havok in his arms, lowering him down to the ground gently next to Polaris, who he looked at interestedly. Judging by what Guardian passed on and how my brother was defending you miss, I think you and I should get to know one another in the future.

By this point Rogue had finished destroying the last few Sentinels on the gantry, joining the others on the cavern floor as they pressed the last few Sentinels back. With Spike and Rogue watching Colossus' back, Magma cut off to one side, heading down a corridor in one of the cavern's walls, heading to where Emma directed her towards where the telepath could sense human minds, though they weren't the prisoners.

These were the workers who had helped Trask develop the Sentinels, only to be captured by their own creations. Dozens of them had died through questioning from the Sentinels or through simple neglect, but even so, Emma took no chances. With Shaw now a husk, she entered each of their minds in turn, learning what she could of the Sentinels before erasing any information she found which dealt with their mysterious sensing ability.

Back in the main battle Colossus and Harry made their way towards the Master Mold, the Sentinel unable to come up with weapons that could stop the two of them now. Harry's crisis suit was at 80% power, and he dealt with all of the attacks coming his way easily. Colossus was a little burnt around the edges as was Rogue, but the juggernaut-based armor the two of them wore plus their natural durability had seen them through the brief but sharp fight relatively unscathed.

"You can only delay the inevitable!" the Master Mold shouted as his last Sentinel went down. "Our programs are infinite, someone will create us again, and logic will always prevail. Mutants will fall!"

"Not today I think." Colossus said, nodding over at Harry who picked him up with a levitation spell and hurled him up at the Master Mold's face. Colossus slammed into the face, gripping its eyes with his hands and ripping to either side, tearing the Master Mold's head in two as it screamed, almost like it was actually alive, before falling silent.

For a moment the battlefield fell quiet, the only sounds made from bits and pieces of destroyed Sentinels still sparking with electricity. Then Magma came back, idly throwing a small ball of tectonic energy in her hands, her energy form glowing slightly, while the former prisoners followed her, then raced out towards the entrance. After a nod from Harry Psylocke followed them, making certain they stuck around for now.

"I've sealed off that passage, and I've found a nearby stream of magma I can bring up. It shouldn't take too long to bury this place. Oh, and the White Queen says that those prisoners can be released." She leaned forward, whispering despite no one not on the team being within hearing range. "She already erased all the information they had on the Sentinel's tracking system, though according to her it wasn't much."

Harry nodded, powering down his crisis suit and breathing a sigh of relief as he felt all that magical energy flowing back into them. "Professor X?"

"Here." said Charles, surprisingly over near the slowly reforming Sandman by the entrance to the underground cavern. "Nightcrawler got me out a few moments ago. I've put the other three prisoners to sleep, until we decide what to do here."

"I think this will be another Guardian moment, but good thinking anyway." said Harry with a nod.

He looked over at Kelly, who Emma had knocked out at the same moment she ruined Sebastian Shaw's mind, and Trask who was unconscious as well though in his case it was because Harry had knocked out magically a few moments ago.

The man had been screaming the entire fight, ordering the Master Mold to do better, to defend him against the mutants. That kind of reaction was bizarre, and Harry wondered idly what had occurred to the man to make him fear mutants so much. In the end though it didn't matter, and he smiled thinly as he saw Emma walking towards him from the entrance way. "White Queen, well done on Sebastian."

"Thank you." She said with a nod. "With Fitzroy and Wolfman here, that only leaves Sage from Shaw's group, and I understand that she is on our side?"

"Yes, she's been working with me for years." said Charles nodding his head. "What kind of cleanup are we going to be doing here?"

Emma replied before Harry could. "The only thing that made the Sentinels more dangerous than any other robots was secrecy, their numbers, and their tracking system. That system was all Bolivar Trask's doing, and I'll be ripping that out of his mind soon enough. I also want to make certain that he doesn't have any copies anywhere else on any computers squirrelled away elsewhere. If so hunting those down will be up to Sage."

"Ripping?" Charles asked mildly.

"Yes Professor, I'm going to leave him a fucking vegetable." Emma replied tartly. "The man is too damn dangerous, and too rabid a mutant hater for my sense of mind."

Charles opened his mouth to protest, but Harry held up his hand. "Our operation Professor X, our rules. And for the record with I agree with White Queen. If we leave him alive, he'll probably try this same thing again, simply assuming it was some kind of mistake in the programming that allowed the Master Mold to go out of control like that. You didn't see him in the battle."

He looked over at Emma who nodded. "Before the fight he was as horrified of by the Master Mold's taking over as anyone, but the moment the fight began and he saw that mutants were attacking, that went out the window and he tried to shout orders and suggestion to the Master Mold after that. Mindless hate like that isn't something that's going to just go away."

After a moment Charles sighed. "I wish I could disagree. Very well, do what you must."

"Wolfman?" Harry asked, looking around as he suddenly realized he couldn't see the little bastard anywhere.

"Dead,' said Magma, having walked down the last corridor leading off the main hanger, pointing over her shoulder. "Down there somewhere. Professor X did something, he was attacking the walls and ceilings and everything else but Professor X when I arrived, and he kept on doing it even as, as…" Magma faltered a little looking away.

Harry nodded, putting an arm around the younger girl's shoulder in a commiserating hug before Colossus dropped from the Master Mold, moving away to let him take control of her. Killing someone in that manner, burning someone alive via magma, was not something anyone should ever get used to.

"When you're in his mind my queen," Harry went on, turning back to Bolivar and Emma who was kneeling in front of him. "See if he can pull up any of the information about the robot's construction as well, in particular the droids he used to actually make the Sentinels in the first place. Without the programming to hunt down mutants they might be useful in the future."

Emma nodded, while Charles frowned faintly, not at home with the idea of anyone controlling that kind of a force. Still, it was better that Harry and his team have that power than anyone else.

Storm had remained by the entrance, and she turned when she began to hear the noise of incoming planes. She looked down at Coyote and asked "Can you see what those planes are?"

"We have SHIELD incoming." Coyote said a moment later over the radio. "They must've figured out a way to track the Sentinels somehow."

"All right folks, let's get out of here. White Queen, finish your work on Trask, then leave him, is the plane we came in hidden enough to not worry about SHIELD spotting it?" Even as Emma nodded Harry went on. "Storm, grab the remaining Hellions, I'll take Shaw's body. I want to make certain there's no coming back for him from what The White Queen did to him, and I don't know if his body could survive what's going to happen here. Magma, close everything up behind us."

A moment later as the last of them left Magma opened up a fissure in the ground through which lava came up , slowly burning and burying the cavern under its searing pulsing heat. As the SHIELD ships came close enough for the naked eye to see Storm set the surviving workers and Robert Kelly down on the ground.

Kelly had been awake for most of the battle, and now Emma quickly went to work, modifying his memories slightly, winnowing away anything that could hint at the Custodes identity, and though leaving enough behind to allow the man to remember that he had been saved by the X-men, a band of mutants. She thought that was a last serving of delicious irony to the bombastic fool's day.

With that done, Coyote teleported to the plane they had arrived in, setting it to self-destruct. Then the team left Kelly and the others nearby, out of the way of the lava now flowing out of the hanger bay's open doors, but near enough that the arriving SHIELD agents would find them. With that done, Harry waited until the first ship touched down, waving slightly when he saw Fury personally leading a team of heavily armed agents out of the plane before teleporting everyone away.

Behind them, Fury glared at the disappearing group, then turned to stare at first the prisoners and then what had obviously been an underground base of some kind. Well, that's just fucking fantastic, no Sentinels in sight, the Custodes and the X-men disappearing, a former base spewing out lava, and Kelly, the other kidnap victims and some random people left behind without a clue as to what happened here. Why do I think I'm not going to get any of my questions about this day's business answered? And why do I think it might just be better that way?

End chapter

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Yes, I know the Morlocks are supposed to be under Manhattan. Again, I spread them out like the FF and others because I wanted to spread out the marvel characters, not everything can happen in one city no matter how large. And yes, Masque and all the other people who died in this chapter will stay dead. Barring special, like BELIEVEABLE godly intervention, no one I kill off in my story will ever come back. Shaw's body will be dealt with next chapter. He too is a non-issue now, while Buckman… well, he'll have been watching the news too. We'll see where I decide to go with him. As for the Sentinels, this was the first variety of Sentinels, they were not nearly as durable or as powerful here as they might have later become. And of course, the Custodes came in loaded for bear.

So, this is basically 2/3s of the chapter I hoped to share with you all this time. January sucked, nuff said. This will be the last chapter of ATP I put out until after Wild Wolf is done. Sorry, but that story is nearly finished so you won't wait long.