Chapter 10: How to mob the mobsters.
It was the day before the ransom exchange. Harry now had eyes on the isolated castle, after the black widow herself had provided the location to the French. Harry and Hermione immediately dispatched drones to the house. The two girls were not hard to find – there was a large number of warm bodies that were clustered around the hostages. From the magical radar and the heartbeat sensors, both the French Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister were looking at the video feed.
"Is that them? How can we see them?" the Italian Minister of Magic asked.
"It is Lorenzo. They have an object that allows them to monitor far places. It is called a drone. They can be flown remotely and they can even apparate people. Mundanes have them, so they built their own version."
"And what next Guillaume?"
"The drones can do inter-continental apparition. They are coming directly here, Lorenzo."
"Apparate people? Like a portkey? Won't their wards stop that?"
"No. Their magic is more advanced. They can bypass most wards. I understand it is based on Phoenix magic and some custom innovations they have built. The kill team will transport them directly to this room after they cut the power. From there, after your children are safe, we will observe the rest of the mission. Then, they will be taking out the trash to borrow an expression from the mundanes."
"Guillaume, you have an entire room set up to monitor these Aurors? And they built these artefacts? Why are there so many items to see what these people are doing?" Lorenzo asked, with genuine curiosity.
"Aurors? God no, Lorenzo. As for why there are so many displays, you will see. They are properly equipped, not to worry. What I can say is that everything that you will see was built by themselves. They maintain their war gear?"
"War gear?" the Italian minister pondered.
Harry and Hermione were now inside their new armour, which was technically the old armour with many new components.
The first component was the muscle weave. It had been returned with Daphne's new algorithm. There were different profiles for running, punching, kicking and jumping. All of these profiles were applied as necessary depending on what the person needed, at the time. The next component was their "core armour" that resided over the muscle weave. The layer was assembled from many smaller pieces and it allowed them to reconfigure the armour shape, or even trade armour pieces on the battlefield. Now every hexagon on the suit of armour possessed the new emitter matrix material, and all of them were being controlled by the new magical transistor. While the initial development was for faster suit-up times, as a byproduct the shield's energy consumption was more efficient. Each piece could sense spells, projectiles or liquids and switch on a very tiny shield to counter that specific area. Now, they had patched the vulnerability that they experienced in the rainforest.
While they did not require robes, Harry and Hermione liked wearing 'bling' over their core armour. In comparison to their last public appearance, their robes had been redone as they had seen some growth. Now, the cloth hugged their body and the embellishments were present to complement the colours of the torso pieces. The short pieces of cloth had been tastefully done, and the pair was rocking the tech-mage and the tech-priestess look.
Now the Insignias and House markings were proudly on display purely on the main chest piece. The new House crests were set with a combination of powdered gems, engravings and illuminated crystals. The goblins had done the work, and they looked spectacular. Apart from the chest centrepiece, where the rest of the armour pieces were tinted with all types of stripes and camo patterns that Luna had designed. Harry had a patterned Phoenix outline across his pieces and Hermione had chosen a facsimile of Daffodil.
The armour was completed by the angular death masks with multiple illuminated eyesockets. The lower features of the mask included freely floating and overlapping plates and jawbones. They were all animated and twitched and reassembled themselves as the vocoder was used. They were even programmed to animate themselves to the emotional state of the wearers, and the brightness and illumination were changed appropriately.
The pistols, rifles, DMRs and Shotguns resided as angular components that floated along their legs. They could assemble themselves as long as their hands were extended. There was no need to carry separate weapons as the necessary parts were automatically summoned to create whatever was needed. Even the halberd could assemble itself from the pieces on Harry's back, and that made for a sight that could frighten any enemy. Hermione had upgraded her push daggers also – the pieces flew from her shoulder and elbow pieces to her hands.
All of it was operated from the spinal interface.
Harry and Hermione had a good laugh – the superconducting advancements had come from the recent prosthetic arm. Harry wanted the girl 'to have a cool arm that she was proud of' and many of the minor pieces from that project had been adapted creatively in their new design. Every time they helped someone, they always ended up with a component that guaranteed some type of deadly, tactical functionality. Their armour was equally a story of all the people they had helped, as it was a cutting-edge piece of magic and engineering.
Finally was the 'bling' which included small pieces of jewellery that floated all over their body, and the illusionary emitters which conjured smoke and all sorts of geometric figures and lines a person would associate with Warcraft spells. To top it off with a display of "maximum drip" as Harry had joked, Hermione had a completed crown. Harry had a centurion-styled crest on his helmet, and they both sported cloaks that had been directly ripped from Marvel's Thor, complete with their house heraldry, in black and blue respectively. Better yet, the cloaks retracted under combat conditions.
Remus had Sirius had taken exact copies of Harry's armour. The only difference was that Remus preferred Fiendfyre claws on his fingers. Each was tipped with retractable monomolecular pieces of gold-titanium alloy, where the emitter matrix had been woven into the steel. His Micro-cannon had been converted into a shoulder cannon and he had chosen a stylised wolf for his helmet piece, and a long fur coat for his regalia - He was out to protect his pack. Remus was just not the Demolition man for the operation. He was also a walking bulldozer, if necessary.
He was sporting a new flail chain that he could toss around with impunity to pulverise targets.
Sirius was fairly accomplished with the rifles and shotguns but still preferred his SMG and a wand. Harry had crafted him and Remus new wands with the improved methods, and Sirius was excited to take it for a "break-in". Harry had continued with the standard dagger tip for the wand, but now the profile and the length of the blade were controllable from the spinal interface. For his choice of melee weapon, he was equipped with thirty six medium sized kunai that could return automatically to his hand or his magnetic arm holders. Finally were his belt of thermobaric grenades, and his cobra shaped helmet, which had Gryffindor accents and traditional black colours.
Grace had not gotten away from the modifications either. She was covered in full polymer armour and possessed her 'pocket cannons', along with a few grenades. Her wings were now tipped with extendable fiendfyre blades, and she was sporting multiple thruster packs. Only her wing feathers were visible and they were protected by a two millimetre thick shield when she flew. With the armour, she flew with a combination of her wings along with trust from her tiny jetpack. She also possessed her own HUD, and this allowed her to coordinate with everyone else. She was not expected to fight – rather she would work to provide a second layer of recognisance from cloaked positions on the field.
Harry's continued use of the battle meditation skill had made him more efficient at it. That in combination with the spinal interface allowed them to often trade intuitions with each other. The team did not require any words as they packed the necessary supplies and guns into the new Thunderbolt-II. William and Augusta were sitting in the operations centre as he looked at the information. Today was a far more dangerous battle – the enemies had no problem using military hardware and they possessed APCs, Multiple machine gun emplacements, and two tanks. There was even a sniper nest, and this was puzzling. Mafia types usually preferred small concealable weapons.
"William? Is something wrong?" Augusta asked.
"I am looking at the hardware. The person who is running this operation is ex-military. Well organised, good perimeter. Multiple lines of sight, height advantage. I am considering the new railgun might demolish the tanks. That might be our ace in the hole. We will see how it performs. This kidnapping hints at something bigger."
Daphne and Luna were seeing Harry and Hermione off. Daphne had stayed to check the runes and some of the new modifications to RuneOS. Luna had stayed to keep Daphne company.
"You honestly look like royalty?" Daphne commented before she smiled at Harry. She honestly thought that he looked dashing and dreamy in his battle armour, even though she was quite aware that men would be splattered soon enough. But he was going to put a family back together, and that was something that he did fairly regularly. He was properly righteous, even when he was occasionally a killer, even when it haunted him. And she strangely was okay with that.
"Just imagine how you will look when your armour is done. You look like royalty in just your Hogwarts robes. That type of poise is hard to replicate." Harry replied innocently, as he turned his back and filled the Thunderbolt-II gas tank. While he was not flirting, Daphne's cheeks were pink and Luna and Hermione were hitting her ribs with their elbows.
"Alright, she is filled up. It is showtime!" Harry replied about five minutes later, as he and Hermione hugged the two girls. After the girls were transported away, William revised the plan of attack.
"As soon as we cut the power, apparate the girls out. Take the tanks out and then move hard and fast. Sirius and Remus will take the backdoor to deal with the APCs or any other secondary objectives. What did Lorna suggest that we do with Ms Zabini, daughter?"
"We aren't dealing with her unless she poses a threat. We are also to spare all the cleaners. Harry and I honestly suspect that Lorna has the gift of foresight, and she knows what actions to take to ensure the best outcomes. We haven't spoken to her yet, but we trust her. A lot of our success is not a coincidence." Hermione replied.
"Politics is her forte, and I can't argue with the results, as I look at both of you. Well, let us give them a show. Many of your opponents are carrying submachine guns and pistols. Only the more entrenched positions are carrying rifles and LMGs. After the initial attack on the tanks Hermione, you are going for the sniper nest. Stay cloaked and charge them. Meanwhile, Harry, your job will be to let loose and be a brawler on the main compound. Sirius will target the inside of the building and I want Remus to keep an eye on the perimeter." William explained.
After Hermione and Harry had a little chat with Remus and Sirius about the suggested plans, they all walked into then Thunderbolt-II. As they sat down the armour under their hamstrings and on their back partially disassembled. Hermione ran the preflight checklist and Harry got settled in the gunner seat and ran the checks on the new canon. They had managed some new improvements as they had eliminated all vacuum tube components, and Harry was honestly considering using the improved 80 km/s firing speed for the rail gun. Sirius was tasked to monitor the radar and the drones, and Remus was uplinking to the Ministers to give them a report. Invictus was on hand, to take over the autopilot when they all emptied from the gunship. Grace flew in as the last "person" as she docked into a cradle that was designed to help her with high-G burns.
"Love the selective disassembly, this is one of our more brilliant ideas. I am comfortable in the pilot chair, with my full armour!" Hermione laughed, as she finished the pre-flight check and prepared the jumpdrive. They were not flying to their location, as time was of the essence.
"Hey, creature comforts are important?" Harry replied as the video feed of the entire squad and some of the external cameras on the Thunderbolt were about to go live in the French Prime Minister's office.
"Priming for a jump to the Lyskamm mountain. The coordinates are in. Drive is priming. Jumping in three…two…one…" Hermione warned before the characteristic sound was heard.
ZAP!
The Thunderbolt was now hovering six kilometres from the coordinates and was fully cloaked.
"Challenge: Who is the best manufacturer of explosives?" Remus asked the French Minister.
"The ACME Corporation." The French Minister replied, as he unknowingly referenced the fictional company that was present in "The Road Runner Show". A lot of the passcode questions were odd pieces of pop culture, and this Harry reasoned was the best way to throw off magicals. It also didn't help that some of the answers were just hilarious and wrong.
The screens in the French Minister's office lit up.
"Passcode confirmed. Passcode cycle at mission end. Welcome Ministers. Today is the first time that the entire squad is being deployed on an official I.C.W Mission. We have our pilot and rabbit, Priestess. Artificer is our point man for the op. Cobra is our infiltrator and I, Wolf will be handling demolitions, bounty collection and funny enough, the odd jobs!" Remus replied.
The Italian Minister double blinked, as he could not believe his eyes.
The interior and the exterior of the Thunderbolt became visible on the multitude of screens. For Lorenzo, he was expecting Aurors in a trenchcoat and a hat. He was not expecting the armour, the masks and the distorted voices. And he was not expecting the aircraft either. The B.F.G had been redesigned and now it resided on an alcove at the top of the Thunderbolt. As it detached itself it began to give an entire aerial view of the area, as the information from all the other drones was sensor blended into a big map. The layout was projected in a hologram in the French office - scans of the buildings, the personnel, and even the heart rate of the girls were established.
Remus continued, "We are already in the Alps. We are going to begin the operation in the next minute. Confirm for the kill order on all enemy combatants?" Remus asked as the screen in the Minister's office highlighted his impassive wolf helmet.
"Confirmed." The French Minister replied as Luis and Aliénor arrived.
"Daughter what are you doing here?" her father asked.
"I want to see what those two look like on the battlefield. I want to see if they are talented as Fleur says?" she replied.
"Very well. I hope you can tolerate blood. I generally have to close my eyes. You will see enough!" he replied as his daughter took a seat next to him.
"Cutting power in 5..4.." Remus began to countdown.
The network of drones lined up their shots at all the spotlights and external generators. These had been placed far outside the ward, in order not to be affected by magic. This made the tanks and a lot of the other hardware easy targets. The Thunderbolt reactor was running hot and the rail cannon was charging. The faint whistling of the plasma streams could be heard in the background of the gunship. Harry has signalled Hermione over the ship-link that he wanted to run the railgun at 80km/s as even the engines and the entire avionics system was running far more evidently with the new magical transistors. Hermione opened up, with more power on the gyroscopic correction for the railgun.
"3.."
The Italian Minister observed as the objects slowly approached his daughters. There was a small message that appeared on the displays.
"Apparition primed. Executing in ..2.."
Suddenly explosions were heard as the entire castle became dark.
"1..ZAP!"
The two girls appeared right next to Aliénor, fully bound in their chairs. Luis stood up and immediately used his wand to unbind the girls. Priya was summoned via her phone, and she was now walking to the operations room with Lorna. She was going to give both girls a check over. Lorna was just hanging around - she was Harry's weapons representative and she had made agreements with the Germans. She had decided that she wanted to see what all the humbug was about, with the pistols.
Hermione had deliberately made a slow uncloaked pass not too far off from Belinda's Zabini's position in the mountains, She wanted the woman to see the Thunderbolt-II, as it uncloaked. The woman immediately looked at the faint outline of the aircraft, and found herself shocked – she had travelled on many airplanes and this thing had to be magical. She could faintly see something extending from the bottom of the object. The object left her perplexed until she understood that the kill team were not Aurors.
"Is that a….cannon?" Belinda Zabini whispered to herself as she pointed her telescope at the ship.
At the Minister's office, the Italian Minister was relieved, and he could not believe his eyes. Whoever this group of people, their capability was impressive and….intimidating.
"Right Lorenzo, your daughters are safe, as promised." the French minister replied as the girls were bewildered. When they observed the screens, they began to reason that the strange looking wizards were responsible for the rescue. The Italian Prime Minister was now babbling quickly in Italian as he hugged his girls, and Priya continued with her diagnostics.
"Luis, Guillaume, evening. Hello to you too Aliénor. Just some bruising on the cheeks. I suppose they were slapped but nothing anywhere else, thank God." Priya replied before she sprayed the Medi-Spray on both of the girl's faces.
"Papa!" the older girl cried as she hugged her father, as soon as she was free of the diagnostics. Then the younger girl joined in, before the Italian Minister of Magic held both of their faces affectionately.
"Thank God both of you are alright. I owe Guillaume a big favour for your safety," Lorenzo replied.
"Papa, did…..they save us? They don't look like Aurors?" Gulia asked in English, as the older of the two daughters.
"No, they are not, child. Ah, they are up to the usual mischief. I might as well stay, let me see what my son gets up to?" Priya joked as Luis pulled a chair for her and yelled, "A coffee please. Milk, no sugar!" to the secretary in the other room.
"Your…son?" Giada, the younger of the daughter asked.
"Sure. That one in the second chair?" Priya replied with a small smile on her face. Luis was just about to introduce the world renowned healer to both of the girls before they heard Harry bark on the squad intercom.
"Priming Railgun. Target acquired."
A small holographic projector in the office setup showed an "Ascendancy Cannon" lining up on one of the tanks. The illusion displayed the projected flight part and even displayed the physics equation for the calculated force and trajectory. A firing force of sixty four megajoules was predicted, and most of the people were clueless. Priya guessed whatever it was, it had to be overboard – her son preferred everything outlandish.
"Firing!" Harry barked as an earth shattering roar was heard through the mountains. On one of the other mountains, a full avalanche was now in effect - Naturally, the round made its own sonic boom as it travelled to its target. For Belinda Zabini it sounded as if God had brought the thunder down from the heavens as the shot echoed in the valley. The projectile had travelled so fast that the fiction of the air rushing over it caused a small plasma stream. From one of the other drones that were floating far off, the Thunderbolt seemed to shake itself to pieces, as the jet engines corrected for the temporary forward wheelie and the sudden vibration. The entire cockpit jolted and Hermione had to shake her head as she adjusted the thrusters.
"Damn we built her strong!" Hermione yelled.
"Felt that feedback on the spinal interface," Harry replied as Sirius and Remus recovered.
"Good hit on the first target!" Invictus replied, as William looked at the tank which had exploded so violently, that the shrapnel had killed a lot of the men in the area. The entire group of people in the office looked on as the tank became absolutely nothing. Even the ammunition and the other rounds from the tank had exploded, as the secondary detonations killed everyone within the area.
"I have to admit William, the new cannon has a lot of bite on it?" Augusta commented.
"That is utterly ridiculous – they built that thing right in the corner over there. I can't believe my eyes. If any of those men knew what was good for them, they would run away." William explained, as he considered that breaching tanks into oblivion from six kilometres was no joke.
"With how fast your daughter can run William, they won't reach too far?" Augusta laughed.
"Oh…right…." Willam smiled as he watched the video feed.
"Priming for the second shot. Making corrections to the power flow. Target acquired. Eat lead jackasses….."
Harry shot off the second round, and everyone felt as he pushed the speed to 90 km/s. He had adjusted the power flow on the cannon to resemble how he would tune the energy flow for long range wanded spells. Now there was only a little vibration, as Hermione acknowledged the new optimisations. They had the equivalent firing power of two M777A2 Howitzers, and the rounds for these weapons could fit in their pockets.
In the pitch darkness, the men were screaming as the spotlights were damaged and the entire compound was in a panic. The girls had disappeared and on the radios, the men were struggling to find out what had taken out their two tanks. Now their machine guns were firing off into the dark and ammunition was being wasted as they shot at random places. Many of the men had died from the shrapnel of the second tank. The internal ammunition bays had exploded, and the immediate areas were full of corpses that had been ripped into pieces of meat. The skin was even burnt, as the energy from the round and the Aluminium plasma had emptied and splattered the hot steel of the liquified tank armour, over the men.
"Oh, so that is what that one does. I saw him working on it and I wondered, but I didn't ask." Priya replied casually.
Luis laughed and replied, "Guess you can't increase his allowance?"
"Not really Luis. He gives me an allowance to buy as many shoes as I want but I prefer to walk around barefooted these days. Helps me to pick up magic from the ground, good for the energy in my spine. And my mother cooks every day, so I am a happy camper as the Americans say…" she replied.
The two girls along with the Italian minister were staring dumb-mouthed at the screens. Aliénor was taking in the Thunderbolt-II and the cannons, and for some reason, she felt…..excited. She wanted to see how Harry Potter fought.
"That is pretty nasty. William just explained that the entire tank became hot liquified shrapnel. Instant death. The ammo compartment combusted and pitched bullets all over the place." Lorna replied as she ate a banana.
"Enabling IR. Targeting via magical signatures. Courtyard only." Harry replied as the Thunderbolt-II cloaked and began to make a pass towards the castle. Now the rail gun had been repurposed. The same slugs were being shot at a decreased speed where it now counted as something much worse than a heavy machine gun. The hypersonic bullets at Mach 10 came like rain, as they cleared out the RPG areas and the entrenched machine guns. They were carrying thirteen times the energy of a 50-cal round and they dismembered men and tore through everything with oblivion. For this reason, Harry decided on selective burst fire on hotspots. The continuous sonic booms sounded unearthly as they realised that they would have to silence the air around the gun, as it was much too loud.
"BRRRRRRRTTT – BRRT -BBRRTTTT – BBT – BRT" the gun fired off as the gun only picked the men. From the drone surveillance, it seemed that the spotlight from the top floor had been redirected and men were running from the compound.
"Invictus take the controls and keep orbiting the castle. I am going to pick off the snipers. Any more HMG fire and we will tear the place into ribbons. Time to clean some house!" Hermione replied as the spinal interfaces disconnected from everyone. The hatch opened up and Remus and Sirius cloaked and jumped off. For the people who were watching on, music strangely began to play. Then Hermione jumped off, directly to descend on her first set of targets at the top of the castle. Harry sat in the pilot's seat and took over, as he flew in straight passes.
Battle Beast – Armageddon Clan was now coming through on the airwaves. Luis had to explain the jetpacks quickly for rest to understand that the armour could fly and they were doing a controlled drop. That alone was impossible for the assembled people to believe until Luis explained that Lord Peverell had designed the Typhoon, Morrigan, Rudra and the Stormbolt. He had merely refined the design and now it was back-mounted and controlled via their brains to keep their hands free to use weapons.
That explanation had left the Italian girls scratching their heads, as they observed when Remus landed off to the side of the castle at a locked outhouse. He then slashed the combination clock open with his claws before he sweeped for hidden rooms. He also scanned the weapon crates and tagged them. They were transported by spare drones to an abandoned site in France where Luis's men would check them for magical and electronic trackers. Then a few men entered the area as they were running away from the gunfire, and Remus merely made two controlled swipes as their heads were removed.
"Wait a moment..they are…ah…invisible?" Gulia asked.
"Correct. But they are not using invisibility cloaks. They have far more reliable items that can sustain the spell for longer periods?" Luis explained as Sirius came into view and Priya held her hands in anticipation. Lorna patted her shoulder and gave her a reassuring nod. In that little nod, Lorna conveyed much - Sirius had been trained well enough and he had promised to stand by Harry, and that would be enough to see him through. Priya nodded as she observed her fiance as he glided through a window.
Now, he was making his way, to where a room where the twenty older women were hiding. There were at least fifteen men between his target and himself. Sirius stayed under the cloak as he plunged his wand into the neck of the first guard, and then let off some of the darker Black magic from his grimoire – he boiled blood and turned stomachs inside out. Another spell crushed a man's spleen and kidney immediately. Sirius then threw his kunai and made no apologies about going for their jugulars with the FiendFyre enabled blades.
Sirius had changed – he was no longer the emaciated skull-like man from Azkaban. All of his previous tattoos had been removed. The only large tattoo he sported was Herald on his back. On his left hand was the date he had been broken out of Azkaban and on his right hand was the date when James, Lilly and Marlene had been killed. Now his arms were belted with muscles and Sirius continued to punch, kick and use standard hand-to-hand combat skills. The muscle weave allowed him to hit harder and in some cases smash through wood and other light materials easily. He did not hesitate to rip oil lamps out of the wall and hammer some of the other men by tossing the chandelier.
It sounded like a proper British bar fight and the crowd was laughing.
"Is everyone that talented with their hands at your place?" Guillaume asked Priya.
"Yes. Harry and Hermione are the best. Even Lorna and I know a fair bit." Priya replied before Sirius flared an extended blade from his wand and decapitated the last combatant. When Sirius opened the final door he threw a stun grenade in the room and all of the women were non-lethally disabled. The drones were summoned and they began to apparate all the cleaners to a special holding cell in France, where would be interrogated under Veritaserum.
"All the cleaners are safe and accounted for. I am going to deal with the APCs now," Sirius replied.
This mission was not Sirius's first kill, but there were knots in his stomach. He soldiered on as he felt Herald's approval of his actions from the Obsidian. Herald then flowed his magic through's Sirius body and he gave his acknowledgement as the snake helped to emotionally centre the man. Sirius remembered Diagon Alley, and told himself in his mind:
"For my Godson. For my Goddaughter. For my brother and Sister. For Marlene. For Pri. "
"Good" Herald whispered in his ears, as Sirius observed the two APCs pulling up on a small elevation. Sirius then primed a single Thermobaric grenade and tossed it with a perfect throw that doused the area in an explosive substance, before the secondary ignition snuffed out the air in the area. Now the men were screaming bloody murder as they crawled out of the area, completely on fire. Soon enough, they were all dead. Sirius had pinged Harry mentally, and he replied:
"Good Padfoot. Take the leader and his group. Stun grenades. Deploy the anti-apparition ward and the forcefield containment after you are done with those muppets…"
Harry and Hermione could have started the ground fight much earlier but they wanted to collect performance information on the HMG mode for the rail cannon. They opted to kill some time by taking multiple passes at the RPGs that were scattered. Harry continued to fly the ship, as he managed to pick some of the positions off by controlling both systems from the pilot's chair. Now that he was satisfied with the HMG mode, Harry prepared for his drop into the battlefield, as Invictus took over the Autopilot. Hermione continued to clear out the snipers. Harry then jetted down, as his eyesight became different hues of red, green and yellow. He was now standing next to Hermione.
"Overlaying sonar" Harry replied, as he combined the project that he had developed to map the Chamber of Secrets into his Mage sight and the visor augment. Daphne had worked on a clever trick to overlay the information from the armour systems into his magical capability. The Dragon Lung augment was active and Harry and Hermione were running a mild reflex sharpening potion from their armour into their poison augments.
"I will take out the far spots and the third floor. The second floor is all yours." Hermione suggested as she lifted her hands and the shoulder pieces disassembled and became her push daggers.
"Deal," Harry replied as he lifted his hand and the new pulse rifle automatically assembled from the floating components over his body. Harry commanded, "Enable DMR mode. Shredder ammo!" and the weapon switched in a far longer barrel and another attachment, as the scope for the rifle fed directly into his HUD.
"Pri, did you see that? Their guns build themselves now? Where did that come from?" Lorna replied as Harry took a concealed position behind a tree after jetting across the courtyard.
"Lorna, I have given up. I take it as it comes. Wait, isn't the man behind the wall unless…."
Harry had blasted a hole through the wall with the plasma. The man was now sporting an impressive hole in his head. In comparison to the old gun, these rifles seemed to kick as the floating barrel rocked back under the immense recoil, and repositioned after it let off the shot.
"Well Pri, looks like he made them with a lot more punch through power. He has been keeping busy?" Lorna wondered as Harry's speed began to increase exponentially. His reflexes were running on full throttle and he seemed able to do at least four targets a second, while occasionally running and repositioning regularly. His scope feed looked like a video game, as it never stayed long enough on a target to see a body as it collapsed. However the kill counter and the battlefield radar showed as the opposition was snuffed out, and the deaths were climbing exponentially. It was thirty seconds in, and twenty-five were already dead as Harry repositioned regularly around the compound – the running from one place to another took the majority of the time.
While the strike force was invisible, it seemed that some type of presence detecting spell had been used. The remaining men were beginning to target the correct spots as they used their local equivalents to the killing spells, bombardas, and reductos. The locations had been relayed and the snipers were squeezing off lucky shots that were getting close to Harry's location.
"I am building a bloody EMP for the next mission. No radio communication for these fuck faces!" Harry replied to himself.
Hermione was quite frightening. Some sniper alcoves were away from the castle and she had activated the snowshoe mode on her boots, as she ran like a cheetah towards the tagged signatures in her HUD.
"Is she running at eighty kilometres per hour, Master Healer Singh?" Aliénor asked.
"Just Priya is a fine sweetie. Yes, she literally outran a centaur. That is another story for another day." Priya replied as Hermione leapt into the air after one minute of constant running while cloaked and threw a cryo grenade in the sniper nest. As the men struggled under the sudden flash freezing of their skin, Hermione used her dagger and her Wing-Chung strikes to remove the heads of both men. She then ran off to the other sniper nests as she put Daphne's running algorithm to use. The muscle weave began to prioritise certain muscle groups and her speed climbed as it learnt her patterns. Hermione with the muscle weave was running on the snow almost as if she was on the ground, and with the Dragon Lung augments working to compensate for the altitude, she was now bursting to 100 kph.
Remus on the other hand was not engaged in combat as he came across an area that was full of exotic creatures. Suddenly a big cat jumped out of a cage, and Remus was thankful that Harry usually planned for the apocalypse. Remus was now wrestling with a Nundu, and when it realised that Remus was not edible, he began to spread his toxin ridden breath all over Remus. The armour detected the contamination immediately, and Remus was now on an internal oxygen tank that was reserved for underwater operations. Remus considered that he could charge into the creature with modified apparition and kill it, but it was an endangered species and he decided to harmlessly put it down.
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Harry yelled as he saw Remus who was doing a fairly good job of wrestling the Nundu. The muscle weave and Remus' titanic strength were being put to use as he was able to throw off the paws. Remus had flipped around with all of the agility exercises he had practised, and he began to choke the Nundu out.
"Time for kitty to go to sleep!" Remus snarled and everyone realised that Remus had gained enough control of himself to let the werewolf come out to play. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as one of the drones prioritised the video feed from the tall strapping man. His grunts were animalistic and raw and unearthly, but one could see that the man was definitely in control. The leopard began to trash around before he was out cold. Invictus then used one of the containment protocols and locked off the beast in an airtight protego field. Remus ran the decontamination protocols as Harry's modified Evanesco cleaned the armour and the area, after Invictus had taken a magical reading of the toxins and bacteria from the creature's breath.
"Papa, did that man just choke a Nundu to sleep?" Aliénor asked.
"I guess so. Is that really a Nundu? I have never seen one?" Guillaume replied.
"Is he a werewolf? He has to be!" the Italian minister asked.
"He is indeed. He is the first recorded case of a man who has been able to control the ability and channel it partially without the full moon. Between that and the armour's ability to amplify strength, he managed. He has immense discipline as a man." Priya commented as Remus was now looking at a Quintaped that had jumped up to the topmost floor.
"Cobra get your ass down here. We have an escaped zoo! Don't kill the creature!" Remus roared.
Now a loose Quintaped was chasing Sirius, who had uncloaked to lead the creature away to the courtyard where they could contain it. Sirus did not want to get boxed in, with such a large creature trailing him. It wasn't that he would be damaged – rather he would not be able to assist anyone else if he was needed.
"Delicious man-meat! A mighty fine snack!" the creature yelled, as Sirius took a detour that would lead both of them to an open window. Hermione who had cleared out the last sniper nest was now jetpacking to the courtyard to deal with the first floor. Remus who knew that Sirius was on his way, primed his shoulder cannon and lined up the shot on the tagged animal. As soon as it jumped off the window, he would hit the creature stunner that would empty one of his primary reserve crystals.
"Well, Hagrid would love this place!" Hermione commented as Lorna and Priya laughed.
Harry had decided to put away the gun now that he was pleased with the performance. He broke into a run, and he began to charge into the remaining enemies.
"Rahhhhhh!" He screamed as the men were splattered like flies.
Luis once again had to explain that the group had modified the apparition process so that they could smash into people with large amounts of force – Then their shields provided a hard surface that would deliver the energy to the target. That explanation had caused Aliénor's eyebrows to raise as she stared at how the men were pulverised and disassembled before her eyes. Hermione had joined in and they continued to work through the castle, room by room.
Sirius had burnt the Quintaped with his gauntlet blade after the stun cannon, and that had slowed the creature down enough. The creature had folded up its legs and tucked in his head, as it did not want to experience any more pain. Invictus had summoned another containment module, and now the creature was trapped. Other various animals were flying off into the wild and there was a heavy, rustling noise that was heard in the other part of the caged area. Sirius and Remus uncloaked and slowly approached the area with Sirius and Remus holding their wands.
"We might have to upgrade the radar to identify creatures. None of them are showing up?" Sirius commented.
"As we find the exploits, they will fix them?" Remus suggested as they heard some strange type of roaring in the distance.
Harry then took out his halberd as it assembled itself. In true brawler style, he screamed at the top of his voice. The haunting digitised voice that came from his vocoder along with his invisibility terrorised the remaining men. To them, it seemed as if a poltergeist or some type of unknown magical creature was attacking them. As Harry threw his lightning, he coordinated his lunges and his attacks. Now the men were firing wildly into empty air, based on where the lightning had come from and Harry had taken a fair amount of bullets. The shield had stopped everything, as the new design even shrugged off a man carrying an LMG.
Harry sliced, beheaded and converted many of the bodies into bloody ribbons. He disrupted the ground with earth-shattering stomps and used a combination of wandless throws and pushes. Hermione was on the opposite side of the corridor and she summoned her water tentacle. She held some of the men in the water as she drowned them. Then she withdrew the water into the air, formed it into ice and threw the shards.
"Is that wandless magic? Is he summoning lightning? And she can summon water?" Gulia asked.
"Correct, they have been practising and training for hours for a very long time." Priya replied as the Italian minister and his daughters looked on at the combat occasionally when they could manage to keep their eyes open. There was a shuffling motion as suddenly a loud roar was heard in the background. Harry and Hermione were finished with all of the men in the area and they stopped to take a breath.
"Priestess, is that what I think it is?" Harry asked.
"No. I know what dragon roar sounds like. That sounds a bit er, chicken-ish?" Hermione wondered. As Remus's surprise came over the battle link, Harry exclaimed.
"Ah, feck. Well, what do you know? The Cockatrice has arrived. The battle will be legendary!" Harry joked Harry and Hermione jetted over instead of charging in, to get a small break before another round of fighting.
"Sirius and I have this covered," Remus replied as the scary flail chain was now in his hand. The strapping man was now running towards the massive beast. Sirius withdrew his kunai and aimed for the creature's eyes. As the monomolecular daggers embedded themselves into the eyesockets, the creature hissed and trashed in pain – it was now blind. Then, Sirius went mercilessly for the neck and the heart of the creature as he forcefully threw all of the rest of the blades. Blood spurted like an open garden hose, and Remus was lining up for a final, terminating strike on the animal.
Harry and Hermione had arrived, but they already knew through the battle link that the other two men had won the fight. Remus had hit the creature hard enough blow to crack its skull. The head of the creature was completely bashed in and resembled roadkill on the highway. Sirius pressed a rune and all thirty-six of his blades returned to him from all over the compound. The Nundu who was looking on seemed to be anxious as he realised that he had met his match. Now instead of being imposing, he seemed to be stretching in a position that was reminiscent of Crookshanks – he even seemed friendly now.
"Op-control, any hostiles in the area?" Harry asked.
"All terminated, besides the muppets upstairs," William replied.
"Well, that was easy. The mission in the forest was much longer than this?" Harry commented.
"Yeah, we got the girls out and that was nice. I wonder what parts of a Cockatrice can be used for potions?" Hermione asked.
"Second public mission, but first official mission on I.C.W business. How does it feel Cobra and Wolf?" Harry asked.
"I will remember that Quintaped the rest of my life. It wasn't the most threatening thing, but to have something lick its lips and call you delicious? That is a little too much!" Sirius replied, as he suddenly burst into laughter.
"Gramps, mission summary?" Harry asked.
"Combined two hundred and twelve kills. Priestess made ninety eight. You made eighty seven. Cobra made twenty five and Wolf bagged two, excluding the animals. Total time of fourteen minutes." Invictus replied as the people who were looking at the carnage from the office were astounded.
"So one kill every four seconds, on average. Not bad with all the running we had to do. We spent a lot of time testing our guns and the grenades. I deliberately chose to run to push the new algorithm. I occasionally made 100kph!" Hermione beamed.
"Yes, that was pretty brilliant. The weave helped me with targeting. Somebody is getting a raise! We can check the castle for any hidden pockets or enchantments. Time to interrogate the next fifteen of them. The guns were pretty angry, nailed a couple of them through the wall. That magical transistor is performing like nobody's business!" Harry commented.
"I got a lot of knife work in. Grace is running surveillance up top. She isn't seeing anything. Nor is the drone." Hermione replied. Harry buzzed Grace mentally and commanded her to cloak, apparate and follow Belinda Zabini. The entire group jetpacked to the top floor, to find all of the men who were in containment, cold out.
"Remus and Sirius take every scrap of evidence. Hermione and I are going to toss this lot in the back of the Thunderbolt. You can apparate directly to the Minister's office. Hermione and I have some high acceleration manoeuvres planned for sleeping beauty and his gang."
"We can stay. We want to get a laugh?" Sirius replied as Remus nodded.
"Oh, excellent!" Hermione replied as she planned on some of the more ridiculous flying manoeuvres.
Harry and the rest turned off their cloak and one of the external drone feeds displayed the four people standing in their full battle armour. Remus and Sirius were laughing as Invictus landed the Thunderbolt and opened up the hatch. Hermione got settled in as the cables snapped into her armour and the camera switched to the men who were being strapped into the floating chairs after Harry emptied the containment module. The drone provided a spotlight, as the place was pitch dark otherwise. For the people who were looking on, the cloaks and the facemasks along with the floating armour pieces looked intimidating. Now the Italian minister was looking upon the group, as they walked and he quite forcefully said:
"Guillaume? I must meet these people. Under any condition. They have saved my two girls. And not only have they done that, but they have also stabilised my country. This is the most notorious insurgency group and they are completely gone! They must receive special awards for their services!"
"I understand why you are insistent Lorenzo. However, Magical England is on its way to civil war. So he will not accept any public awards as he is keeping a low profile, and he is preparing." Guillaume replied. Lorenzo was now scratching his chin as he considered all the facts and connected them. He then asked, "What is the cause of this approaching civil war?"
"The boy lost his biological parents as a child in the last English Wizarding War. A lot of their equipment is prepared to deal with a Dark Wizard. We believe he delved into the Dark Arts to become somewhat immortal. Necromancy. His name is Lord Voldemort."
"Wait…Lord Voldemort? He was so feared that we heard about him in Italy! Only Dumbledore could take him on! But after seeing all this? I think they could manage?" Lorenzo replied.
"There is a new form of warfare now, and Artificer Peverell and Priestess Granger are the creators and the practitioners. Let me see what I can do, in terms of getting a meeting. They are very secretive, and from what you have seen do you blame them?"
There was a small pause, as Guillaume prepared to request for the team to come by for a small meet and greet.
Belinda Zabini was now sweating quite cold. Her ability to do work via subterfuge also depended on being a spy. It was not uncommon for her to glamour herself and use a combination of cosmetics and wigs and her magic to sleep with powerful men. Then she would often drain the men of their secrets via the mind arts. It had taken her years of work to set up the right kind of circumstances, as she was planning to eventually run for the position of Minister of Magic of Italy.
Now all her political dreams were nonexistent.
She was the ring leader – it was she who had orchestrated the kidnapping. The leaked information was never based on the premise of a successful rescue. Rather, Belinda had hoped that the Alpha Kill-Team would perish and there would be no long term threat to her operations. She had heard the rumours about the South American operation, and now she tucked her hair behind her ears as she wondered who could threaten this group of mercenaries.
"No, there must not be any Guild. It was only them. They support their operations from domestic products which means…." she whispered to herself, as she considered the implications. Belinda realised that these people had to be the same group of English wizards who had taken the global market, all of a sudden. That meant that they had a global reach and possibly millions of galleons.
The entire operation had been planned to collect enough money to fund a political campaign that would allow her to become the Minister of Magic of Italy. She had planned to assassinate her political rivals and slowly install her people, who would raid the treasury dry. Now, most of her political collaborators were dead, and the Aurors would soon arrive to claim all of her investments which were strewn all over the compound.
She suddenly screamed as she confessed her involvement.
"I should have killed those those bitches myself that day in the restaurant! I worked so hard to set up their kidnapping. Years of manipulation and sharing the bed of so many pigs. And then what? I lost all of my hard work in fifteen minutes! I am going to ruin these mercenaries!"
The translators who were listening to her whispering passed the message along to Guillaume in a hushed ear conversation in under thirty seconds.
"Artificer, Belinda Zabini was responsible for orchestrating the kidnapping," Guillaume explained, as Lorenzo immediately began to curse. He knew the name well enough.
"Grace bring that bitch over here, let me teach her a lesson," Harry replied.
Grace who heard the command on her earpiece then landed on Belinda's shoulder while cloaked at the hideout, and apparated her to right in front of Harry. Before the disoriented woman could even get wind of her bearings, Harry had hit her with such a hard punch that he knocked out her front teeth. Then a titanium handcuff was placed on her and something unfolded on her head as she could no longer see anything. A small needle was plunged into her shoulder. Belinda immediately understood that whatever this substance was, it was suppressing her magic.
"Well, Harry?" Hermione asked privately.
"The serum seems to be working. She has this weird magical field around her, I could feel my sex drive getting worked up. And that is with the pacifier in my system, go figure. So getting them horny is her skill? What a sad use of wandless magic. Although it could be useful for…skanky types." Harry laughed.
"Well good on me then for reworking Bella's poison. So she is a slag too. Wonderful! The modification to the titanium nanoparticles worked." Hermione laughed, as Harry addressed Belinda Zabini directly through the hood.
"So you are Blaise's mother. No wonder he is a narcissist. You should have hugged the little fuck more often."
Belinda became deathly afraid. Worse yet, when she attempted to scream, it almost seemed like nobody could hear her. The pain from her missing teeth was enough but worse, she was behind a silencing ward. She did not have any of her weapons at her disposal and her hands were locked, and she could not draw upon her magic. Worse, these were no eyes to make contact with – the woman understood that she was dealing with her superiors. She could hear them, but her groans reverberated inside the object that they had put on her head. And they knew her son?
"Now that we have the donkeys loaded up, and everything is bagged and tagged for tracking, I hope this lot enjoy their flight," Hermione replied as they secured the black widow and they closed the hatch.
It did not take even a minute for all of the men to awake from their stupor, as the acceleration put their bodies under stress. Most of the men and Belinda were screaming as many of them blacked out without any device to assist them with the blood pressure in their legs. All of them were hooded, and they believed that they were all alone. Hermione was only flying at 3G's and while it was not fast for her, it was a horror show for the blindfolded men and the singular woman. They certainly had enough drones to send them directly to jail cells in France, but since they had been spared from experiencing pain, Harry and Hermione decided to give them a memorable experience.
"The Italian minister and his daughters insist that he must meet you and your family. Will that be agreeable?" Guillaume asked.
"As long as he gives you an oath to keep our information secret under the intelligence mandate. Also explain that I don't appreciate people I don't know in my personal space, particularly women. So no doe eyes from the girls." Harry replied firmly.
"That is agreeable," Luis replied as he smiled at Guillaume.
Luis had explained to the Italian girls that Harry was decent with women he met, and never openly gaped at anyone. Aliénor who understood some English was able to figure out the boy's request as Lorenzo explained to his daughters that they needed to behave when their visitor arrived.
Only half hour later, there was a roar that occurred in the skies. Suddenly Hermione hit the thrust and a sonic boom was heard against the darkness of the sky. While it was not necessary, Hermione sometimes liked to troll the populace – she thought it was funny that she could annoy people in the neighbourhood. When Hermione was behind the controls, she was the top-gun bravado type of pilot.
Hermione made another slower pass and disabled the cloak and slowly hovered far over the assembled party before she spun the ship around, on the lawn. For the assembled group it was one thing to see the Thunderbolt from far. But to see it from close? Particularly the detached wings and engines? Along with the auto tracking guns and floating central pod? And unlike the Mark I Thunderbolt this one had been doubled in size. With a twenty five meter wing span and a thirty meter length, it honestly classed as a personal bomber and transport rather than a small nimble fighter. Now the ship had landed in the small patch of worn grass, and the coolant was being vented. Luis appreciated that the new Thunderbolt was twice as big, as the noise from the superconducting landing gear was heard. The ramp lowered slowly, and Hermione walked out of the gunship, followed by Harry. The entire group walked forward to meet them.
It was a sight to behold. Their cloaks fluttered in the wind, and Luis concluded that they had dressed to impress. There seemed to be a blue hazy smoke that was emitted from Hermione's levitating crown. Harry had chosen a black-red shadowy fire effect, and the crest of his helmet swayed in the breeze. Luis only needed one look to understand that some advancements had been made. The armour seemed far more fluid and the weapon holsters were gone.
Aliénor and the rest who were staring at the Thunderbolt did not fail to notice the Union Jack painted on both sides of the aircraft. Also stamped in large letters was "PEVERELL-BLACK INDUSTRIES" followed by "GRANGER-BLACK PHARMACEUTICALS". Then there was an overlapped atom that shared an orbit with a cell, and both of them were animated with the seven arithmantic points of magic. Finally in the back was a faded nine-headed cobra, which slivered its tongues individually. It looked unearthly, magical and very corporate at the same time. Now the Italian minister was staring at the Thunderbolt-II, and he was fascinated by the House insignias. For everyone, nothing about their appearance made sense. Illusion casting had almost become a dead art, and Hogwarts was famous for its only illusionary ceiling in the entire world. The young women and Lorenzo honestly thought that real smoke and fire were present on their helmets.
"Goodnight Caelian Artificer Lord Peverell and Vesta-Priestess Lady Granger." the French Minister greeted as he outstretched his hand. The entire crowd was surprised when Hermione stretched her hand forwards and the gloves seemed to disassemble themselves and present their real hand. Now the effects and even the jewellery pieces had collapsed and become almost unnoticeable. Harry's crest had retracted and disappeared. Luis smiled as he considered it to be a nice touch. The French Minister shook Hermione's hand, and then Luis followed, as they switched to Harry.
"French Minister of Magic, Head Auror, a pleasure once again. Aliénor, hello." Harry replied through the robotic vocoder.
Sirius and Remus had followed down the ramp after rechecking the prisoners. Harry and Hermione already had made an impression, but when the armour pieces reconfigured themselves and the helmet slowly disassembled itself, Hermione grinned at the stylish algorithms that she had included. Sirius and Remus followed, and now the faces of everyone were present.
"Lord Black, and Mr Lupin, a pleasure. I know of both of you but this is the first time I am meeting you." Guillaume replied as he shook both of their hands.
He continued, "I suppose these are the people who insisted that they meet all of you. This is Lorenzo Gentiloni, Italian Minister of magic and his daughters Gulia and Giada." Guillaume explained.
"Artificer, Priestess, Lord Black and Mr Lupin, Good evening. I insisted that I had to meet you. You saved my two girls, how can I ever thank you?" Lorenzo asked.
"Give us your nonna's top secret pasta recipes?" Hermione replied immediately, and suddenly Lorenzo was in a full belly laugh along with everyone else. Harry like any Pureblood Lord had shook the man's hand firmly, and instead of a kiss on the knuckles, he decided to keep it formal for all of the girls. At that moment Gulia who had her eyes set on the boy realised that Lord Peverell did not give a flying fuck about her, and he openly stared at her in a manner that more or less signalled:
"I dare you to flirt with me. Try it you wench."
The girls did not like Hermione much – she seemed to be too beautiful, too physically fit, too intelligent and too brave at the same time. However, they did not bother to show any distaste on their face. Under all of the conflicted feelings, there was a dose of genuine respect for her. As the entire group walked into the building, they found Priya and Lorna waiting with four huge bags that had come from the I.C.U cafeteria.
"Nice cannon, son?" Priya laughed.
"You should have seen how much giggling occurred when we were building the thing. We broke down an entire wall!" Hermione laughed as Harry hugged his mother. Hermione followed before Priya hugged Remus and finally planted a kiss on Sirius' forehead. Lorna hugged everyone as she handed off the sandwiches. The bags crinkled and Harry and Hemione were now tearing into everything.
"Hey Pri, you are embarrassing me?" Sirius grinned.
"No, I am not. My family went out to fight and they returned safely. You cannot expect me to worry." Priya replied firmly.
"Not to worry, I promise to babysit?" Remus replied before Priya smiled and nodded.
"Well Ministers, we got the whole lot of them. And we have Ms Zabini. I can see magical fields and imagine my surprise when this woman seems to have a fair amount of capability with wandless magic. Her choice of skill is to seduce you, and to make your sex drive go through the roof." Harry replied.
"Oh, Mio Dio! It was rumoured that there was such a woman like that. But to find out that she is that person. Some used to call her the red dress shrew!" Lorenzo replied.
"We injected her with a potion that nullifies magic. She won't be able to project her magic outwards or apparate. It is a new experimental item that we are testing. So she will not be a threat. Keep all of them in handcuffs. And if Ms Zabini does not cooperate, remind her that I will personally come by and shred her brain piece by piece." Harry casually replied.
"Noted. You will be taking the captured weapons, yes?" Luis asked.
"We already took them. We left the drugs and some of the other contraband around. Remus tagged the items. I want to see where it will go. Lord Greengrass thinks that another mob might be connected to this set. Ndrangheta in Calabria, I believe. They might be the ticket for human trafficking and other disgusting things. Tonight was only military hardware and narcotics." Hermione replied.
"As soon as you have enough actionable intelligence, I will clear you for another operation," Guillaume replied.
Lorenzo agreed to have his nonna show Molly Weasley any of the choice pasta recipes that she desired to learn. Gulia as the older of the two sisters had no problem staring at Harry's formidable muscles and legs which seemed to be ripped. And the open display of wandless magic to open doors for them like a gentleman was very suave and flashy at the same time.
"I think my grandmother will love to meet some of your family. She fell sick when she heard about our missing daughters. I sent a message to her and I am sure she is already cooking for all of us. While I cannot publicly award you, please do come for a tour of Italy when you aren't busy. Bring your family too." Lorenzo insisted.
"Oh, we would love that. That would be welcome!" Harry replied as Aliénor and the two girls examined his weapons under Hermione's supervision. For the girls, suddenly a lot of things made sense – the design while flashy served a tactical purpose. Aliénor loved Hermione's choice of small slashing daggers and asked if she could buy one.
"Oh, you don't have to buy one. I can make one for you, as long as you take the necessary oaths. Ask Fleur to bring you. You can meet my dragon too?" Hermione smiled, as Aliénor warmed up to her.
"Merci!" she replied as the other Aurors moved the entire group of captured criminals into high-security cells that Harry had designed. They were all titanium bars and were built with every type of charm and protection that Harry and Hermione could conceive. The group walked back to the Thunderbolt-II, got seated and gently took off. Gulia complained to Aliénor softly, as they departed.
"Too bad he is busy. He is so handsome. I would be willing to share him with you."
"His loss. He could have had the two of us at the same time. One witch would not be enough for him. I suppose he has saved so many people because he is boring but honourable. But we need him, " Aliénor replied as she decided that even if she was not under oath, she would not have told her friends about the group.
No, they needed to stay secret, and they needed to continue to win.