A/N – I have chapter stored on my drive, my muse seems to be willing to work, more or less, but mostly more so here is another chapter. As always read and review.
o-0-o
"They are all going to enjoy it, enjoy it a lot," Harry snickered as he stood with Rahne and Bobby in front of the class and waited for the rest of people to show up. They were watching those four wizards that were from the exchange programme.
"Yeah," Rahne nodded, impish smile on her lips. As Harry glanced at her he never expected her to have a more mischievous, evil side, "They don't even know what is going to happen to them and they might freak out when you will be fighting Wolverine."
"How is it that you can keep up with Wolverine?" Bobby asked, "He is older, much more experienced and faster than we are. I can do it when using my powers, but when limited to what a normal human can do, he still can beat me quiet easily."
Harry only chuckled at those words, making them look at him. "Sif sometimes asked some of my grandfather guards to help her in training us and they are fast, so Wolverine looks kind of slow compared to them."
"Ok, so what's not easy for you?"
"Remembering who is in charge or not being carefree berserker when in combat," Sean said from behind, "Also it seems that he can't spot when someone gets behind him."
"I can," Harry said as he rolled his eyes and turned to look at Sean, "It's just that I don't bother with it when Freki and Geri are calm."
"That can be your doom one day, as there are ways to trick even the most vigilant of guards and your enemies will attempt to use them," Sean said seriously, as Harry looked at him, he could tell that Sean had experienced it in the past. His eyes were dark and gone was usual happiness. "So I think that you better refresh those skills as otherwise it might end badly for you. Badly as in with your death."
"It won't get easy for me, will it," Harry sighed, "I came here to catch some breath away from Asgard and its noise and you won't let me live, will you?"
"No, you are supposed to learn things here and I'm your team leader," Sean smirked. " So don't expect me going easy on you, I want all of you to survive even the hairest missions and nothing will stop me from this goal. Today I will be fighting with you, not Wolverine, not anybody else as only I can teach you not to focus on attack.
Harry only glumly nodded and sighed.
"Good luck," Bobby said patting his shoulder. "He shouldn't be too hard on you."
"Yeah, sure," Harry snorted walking into the class and looked at the high ceiling, hoping that he would be able not to get completely embarrassed by Banshee. It was not that Harry didn't have a lot of respect for his team leader, he had, but he also hated his pride being damaged and this could be a moment when it was going to be torn to shreds.
It turned out not to be that bad as he was able to control his habits and didn't charge straight on at Banshee, instead he focused more on thinking and didn't fall for any of more obvious traps that were waiting there. Even if Harry was able to avoid falling for traps, he still received quite a lot of vicious strikes when he left huge holes in his defense, holes that were just asking for someone to punch through.
"How did you survive that kind of strikes?" One of Hogwarts students asked, his name was Charlie if he remembered correctly, "Most of them looked dangerous, even lethal."
"Experience," Harry grunted, wiping some blood from the side of his head. He knew that the wound was going to heal in a moment, but it still annoyed him. "I've been thrown at various things when training, so this was nothing new for me, also wings help."
"Nothing new?" Charlie frowned. "Where are children taught how to fight and are tough enough to survive such things?"
"He is a son of Thor," Rahne said in bored tone. "So he is supposed to know how to fight, and he is tough, really tough."
"Thank you, Rah," Harry smiled, tying his hair into a ponytail. "Now, about fighting, you didn't see some of my friends from Asgard."
"I don't think that I need," she said, "Your skills are impressive enough."
"Speaking about Asgard," he said, getting closer to her. "Would you like to see it as I will be coming there for a part of the Yule and I don't think that many will mind that will bring a couple of friends with me."
Harry only smiled when her eyes widened and gleaned with some sort of joy and excitement. "I would love to," she said enthusiastically. "It's boring in winter and at my mother house it is even more boring at wintertime."
"Asgard is certainly interesting and nice," he said with thoughtful expression on his face. "My friends might be a bit of a pain, but you should come to like them."
"A bit of a pain?"
"Ego the size of a planet, but other than that a perfectly nice people."
"It sounds familiar," Rahne said as they made their way through the school, trying to reach the classroom where they were going to the next class before the end of break. "What else should I expect?"
"That it is a nice place and you should come to like it," Harry smiled, taking his seat. "There is a reason why it is called a Jewel of the Nine Realms and the Realm Eternal."
"Isn't it only propaganda?"
"No, it's not," he smiled and tried not to groan when he saw White Queen enter the room, his relations with her could be only described as terrible and for most of the time he tried to stay out of her way and reach. However he could not skip classes with her, so he only groaned and focused on surviving it, he approved of her approach to the subject, but that was the extend of his warm
o-0-o
"Are they insane?" Wisdom asked as he looked at the purple-haired Agent Elizabeth Braddock, also known as Psylocke, "They won't get further than the border of the USA before they are get caught by SHIELD and MACUSA."
"That's what Director Bones said," she said, her voice respectful and not showing a hint of emotion. "I can now understand what she means by saying that dealing with them is like dealing with children."
"Unfortunately, yes," he said and stood up, she looked at him, but he only motioned her to follow him. "There are some things that you need to know, things that are of great importance to those events, especially so that you can understand what is going through their minds."
"What is it?" she asked as they entered a lift. Wisdom pressed the button and with a quiet hum of an electrical motor it started its way up.
"History of one person and his status within the society of British wizards. He is the sole reason why they behave the way they do, they believe or want to believe that he is their national treasure and as such should be kept in their magical community."
"He doesn't want to be bound and his family is opposing any of such ideas?" She took a guess, katana on her back slipping into a more accessible position.
"Indeed and since his father is Thor..."
"He will protest loudly and violently," she finished with a predatory smile. "So they want to ignore Thor and kidnap his son, hoping to get away with it. Not that they are going to achieve it, X-Men and Xavier's are too bloody good for this one to work."
"Exactly," Wisdom smiled slyly. "It will give us a lot of room to breath, they don't have a lot of leverage against us and we will get a lot against them. I want you to go to the USA and make sure that all of those idiots are caught."
If they are as stupid as he is saying they are, it will be an easy and quick job, she thought and looked at Wisdom, he has something more on his mind, those wizards are just an outer layer of what he wants to achieve.
She nodded. "When am I supposed to get there?"
"Today, wizards are supposed to travel there tomorrow, but I want you to be there ahead of them and to make sure that a welcome committee is ready for it. Some of them are suspected to work with a dangerous group called Death Eaters."
"Aren't they gone?" She frowned. "I remember reading a report saying that the last one of them was caught and he was supposed to be put on a trial."
He laughed at those words, his laugher bitter and lacking any humor. "They were put on a trial, but excluding a couple of them, the most they got was a slap on their wrist and a fine to pay. So you should guess where they ended up."
"In the Ministry and any other organization that allows them get away with what they are doing," she said, "They are terrorists in disguise that are only waiting for their leader to return, aren't they."
"Yes," he said and smirked, "While I wouldn't yet dare to openly move against them in the UK, in the USA..."
"They don't have the whole government behind their back and Director Fury will help in covering our tracks in the whole mess," she finished as they stepped out of the lift on top of MI-13 HQ. She checked her gear and walked to the Quinjet that waiting for her. She could see its engines already being active and on standby.
o-0-o
"You, you are Harry Potter!" Cedric shouted as he looked at Harry, his scar now revealed and visible on his forehead.
"Yes, I am," Harry sighed, well, the cats are out and I won't do much about it, he thought and looked at the wizards that finally noticed his scar, why they couldn't wait some more time with this, they are seriously annoying and I actually came to like them.
"Is he the Boy-Who-Lived?" Charlie asked as he pushed his way through the crowd of students, most of them oblivious to what was going on.
Harry growled and immediately to his sides appeared his wolves, crouched and ready to pounce. Also some of mutants stopped and looked at him and later at the Hogwarts students that were the reason for wolves behavior. "Don't use this nickname for me, I was called worse, but this is a thing that I won't accept."
"But you killed You-Know-Who," Cedric said and Harry narrowed his eyes. "So you deserve this title."
"Did I? From what my uncle told me, he killed himself, I had nothing to do with it and I don't want you to use this nickname. He also has a name, name that you can pronounce as every other name."
Cedric seemed a bit shocked by those words and Harry only sighed internally, it is worse than my uncle told me it would be, he said that it was going to be bad, but not to this extreme. It seems that someone is seriously worshipping me for what I hadn't done, Hogwarts is going to be even less amusing than I originally thought.
"So how is it that you survived his spell?" Charlie asked
"I'm not a normal human, I'm half-blood Æsir and this spell only sent my father into a couple weeks of coma, nothing else," Harry stated and looked at them, his eyes cold and devoid of life. "So end of topic and let me live as I'm losing my patience and my wolves don't have a lot of patience." At those words they growled and bared their fangs, making Cedric and Charlie pull out their wands and take a couple of steps backwards.
"Lower your wands, now!" Nightcrawler said as he appeared to the side of Harry. "Order your wolves to behave."
"Peace," Harry said and his wolves calmed.
"Wands, hid them now!" Nightcrawler repeated as Hogwarts students seemed not willing to lower them, "You are guests here and you need to behave the way everybody behaves."
"Do it!" Nymphadora, who wanted to be called Tonks, said as she looked at the rest of wizards, "You provoked him, nobody likes to talk about death of his relatives, and Nightcrawler is a member of staff."
Hogwarts students looked at her, but nodded and slowly hid their wands, but they still looked at Harry's wolves with some worry, as if they would attack them. He looked at them and they almost immediately calmed, ears laying flat against their heads and fangs hidden. "Good," he whispered, patting them, his fingers burrowed in their hard outer layer of fur.
He turned around and walked out of the corridor, his wolves following him, he stopped walking when he got away from the main crowd and in the part of the mansion used by the X-Men. He leaned against the wall inside of it, breathing heavily he tried to relax, he looked at the wall, his gaze unfocused and running madly, wolves laying at his feet.
"What am I supposed to do?" He asked, nobody in particular, he wanted to have fun and relax, not to deal with wizards and their ideas. He slide onto the floor and his hand on the neck of Freki who turned to look at its master. Moving closer and curling into a ball around him, its eyes looking for troubles.
"You need to deal with it," said calm voice, Harry's head whipped in its direction and he saw Professor X coming towards him. "Running away from it will give you nothing than the frustration that further anger and angst. Anger, might drive you mad and quickly can lead to things that you won't control."
"They started it," Harry growled, fur on the backs of his wolves bristling as they sensed change of his mood. "They knew that I won't like it and I don't care about the future."
Professor X sighed and looked at him. "Do you know the value of backing off, of showing a better side than being angered at everything that you don't like it. I watched you during your so far short stay and while you are an exceptional person, there is arrogance and anger in you. One that you hid well and buried deep, but it is still there and you seem not eager to deal with it."
"He deserves every single ounce of my anger," Harry spat viciously. "He murdered my mother and forced me to live with people that treated me like a thing, not a human being."
"They were still your family and no matter what they did, they still cared about you," Professor X said and Harry glared at him, if Harry's gaze could kill, Professor X would have been dead. "I do not mean that they were the best people, but they gave you home and food. Even if you do not like them, think about them for a moment."
"There is nothing to think about!" Harry shouted as he clenched his fists, bones creaking. His voice was flat and devoid of any emotions, while his wolves bared their fangs and their muscles tensed.
"Harry, I've lived for more than you lived and I had seen much more. I saw your mother, her sister and her cousins, I knew them, even well and I want you to consider one thing for a moment. Your mother had luck when she married your father and, Warren, he also had a lot of luck, while Petunia was stuck with a man that she didn't love and didn't turned out to be one she thought him to be." Professor X said and Harry looked at him. "She was jealous of your mother's luck and she never was able to deal with the grudge they had, I think that you know where am I going."
"Yes, I think I know," Harry said, calming a bit, he sighed and looked at the ceiling, "It doesn't still give them a reason to treat me the way they did."
"Harry, I want you to understand one thing," Professor X said, his voice calm, full of compassion and warmth. "I don't expect you to love, or even like them, but I want you to come to terms with your past. It will otherwise haunt you, I know that you didn't have an easy time as a child, but I think that even you can tell that humans aren't always bad." Harry looked into his eyes and saw compassion and understanding in them, "They are also loving beings, one that care about other without any interest and will do it because they love each other."
Harry nodded. "So what am I supposed to do?"
"Accept the past the way it was and build the future on the things that you cherish the most. While vengeance is a thing that everybody harbors at one point, you need to learn how to control it and do not let it control you."
"Why should I do it?"
"Vengeance can turn even a loving man into a creature that doesn't resemble a human or in your case Æsir," Professor said, his voice calm and warm. "Did you hear about Magneto?"
"Yes." Harry was curious where Professor was going with his line of thoughts.
"You both are so alike, yet you are so different. He only saw the cruel side of humanity, you also saw a good side and you know that they are not monsters." Professor winced. "True, there are some terrible examples of humans, but each species has some bad apples in it. But I think that you can already tell that we aren't all monsters, are we?"
"No," Harry said and shook his head. "I've always been taught not to generalize, especially when looking at other races and species, but here it is so hard to do."
"You had wise teachers," Professor smiled. "You need to try, are you going to control yourself?"
"I think that I will," Harry said, some tears swelling in his eyes. "I'm sorry for my outburst, but they angered me and touched an old wounds."
"I didn't came here to tell you that you did a wrong thing," Professor said. "I came so that I could help you come to terms with it, not to berate you for it. I think that you see a difference."
"Yes, thank you, Professor."
"No problem, Harry." Professor smiled. "I created this place to help mutants in any way they need."
"Still, thank you," Harry said as he stroked fur of Freki, he stood up, dusted off his clothes and walked to join the rest of the school for their classes.
o-0-o
"What's going on with you?" Bobby asked as he looked at Harry who seemed to be fully focused on solving equations and didn't seem to acknowledge that he was not alone. Bobby frowned as he looked at his friend, he heard about the confrontation earlier that day, but he didn't think it was that serious, but this change made him worried.
"Nothing," Harry said, not even stopping focusing on equation in front of him, "Just some events today shook me a bit."
"I saw it," Bobby chuckled, "It was hard not to notice it, half of the school is talking about it and second half soon will, you know that gossips and stories tend to spread like a wildfire."
Harry sighed. "Let's just say that they started to poke the wrong wound at the wrong time."
"Oh," Bobby said when he realized what Harry really meant. "No wonders you are so antsy at the moment."
"Can you not mention it?" Harry asked, his eyes pleading.
"Yes, sure," Bobby smiled. "I'm not a nasty person, at least not to people that I know and care about."
"And I guess that I'm on the list,"
"Yup."
"Good, now don't be an annoying person and let me finish what I was doing," Harry said.
"Fine," Bobby smiled and ruffling Harry's hair left him alone and focused on his own homework.
o-0-o
"This is amusing," Huginn said as he landed on a tree outside of Xavier's.
"What? Harald's mood swings?" Muminn asked. "Or something else."
"That and one that watches him, from the shadows for a moment, but he might change it for a more open approach or one that was caught by Freyr?"
"One caught by Freyr and Harald's mood swings," Huginn said. "I wonder if he knows one that was responsible for his suffering is in our captivity."
"Most likely not, not even Thor knows about him being caught, though his godmother knows, but she won't tell him. Loki also won't do it as he isn't stupid and knows too well that the last thing we want is Harald getting even more angry than he is now." Muminn winced. "His rage is calm for a moment, but if he learns about Tom Riddle being caught, it might be too much. On the other hand if she learns that we hid things from him, she might be a bigger pain."
"She is scary and I think that someone will discover it really soon."
"They?" Muminn asked, some amusement in his voice.
"Aye, they, but they just asked for it to happen to them," Huginn said and looked at the sky, "I have thought that they had more manners, than to be so arrogant to cross one of the most powerful ward lines and do that without asking for being invited."
"Manners are dying out and only we, gods, remember about the old rules of conduct and tradition that almost all wizards and sorcerers used to live by."
"Odin's decision to cut our ties with Midgard was a stupid one," Huginn said, his eyes shining in the sparse light of the evening. "Humans while brilliant at times and creative, still need our guiding hand to lead them, or at least so that they do not wake up wrong kind of evil beasts."
"It was it or a total war with other pantheons," Muminn pointed out. "And the last thing we want is another war when forces of nature are fighting against each other, last such war waged by Asgard caused changes in landscape and climate of Earth, Sahara being the best example of letting Hermóðr and Valkyries go wild."
"It was not that he had a lot of choices, it was it or retreating into Asgard and launching offensive when enemy was waiting for it," Huginn said. "But the point still stands, Midgard is too important world to be ignored and we need to watch it, even if that wizard is going to throw a fit because of it."
"One disliked by Loki that wants to manipulate people to do his bidding and is well past his expiration date?"
"Same one," Huginn said as his gaze swept over nearby trees, looking for troubles. "He doesn't understand what kind of troubles he can wake up if he pokes the wrong tree."
"But his is useful, too useful to deal with, also he knows a lot and hopefully he will change thanks to subtle hints dropped by Loki," Muminn said and made Huginn chuckle.
"We both know that it is hard to change habits that are caused by years of politics and thinking that nothing will pose a danger to you."
"Let's just hope that he will heed warnings that he will receive," Muminn said. "But that's not why we came here, or at least Odin wanted something else."
"He wants data about his grandson, to be exact about what powers he is going to develop," Huginn said and croaked. "But Harald is more of an enigma than we thought, we watched him for last few years and he is still a mystery."
"It's obvious that he will get something from his father domain, but there is more to him than that," Muminn said and Huginn could see that his brother eyes getting wide. "We didn't have a God of Fire in a long time."
"As well as a God of Earth, Light and several other things, though most of them is filled by minor nobles," Huginn said and frowned, "He will be powerful, his presence here might have woken up something in his cousin, something that he had in himself, yet it never revealed itself."
"I thought that they were extinct, weren't they?"
Huginn was silent for a moment, only sound being rustling of leaves and howls of wolves that were looking for prey. "They were thought to be, yet he might be one of the new generation of them, if this is the case, Midgard got much more interesting. Not to mention that she is quite a handful and for her age she is quite good at what she does, she can get a lot better, but even now she is good."
"And her empathy is just a first stage of her powers, isn't it?"
"Most likely it is, she is getting into this age when she might show them and than she will get scary and even now she can read us really good." Huginn shuddered. "No wonders that Hera is so scared of her, she will be strong and she will be a good companion for him."
"Let them live," Muminn said, slamming his wing against Huginn's head. "They are young and still have time to change their mind a couple of times."
"Fine," Huginn said and smirked. "We better get moving or we are going to miss a nice show of wizards getting surprised by things they should have known about."
Muminn nodded and with a pop they were gone from Xavier's, nobody even noticed their little trip.
o-0-o
Wanda drew a circle in chalk, placed candles in five points of it, even intervals between each other and wrote three further circles outside of it. Instead of even lines she used runes to make them. She dusted off her clothes, stood up and took a look around the ritual room of Sanctum Sanctorum, making sure that everything was in order.
"Tracking ritual?" she head someone ask and she smiled when she saw that it was Loki.
"Yes," she nodded. "This wraith needs to be killed for good and this ritual should give me a pretty good idea of where are remaining shards of his soul."
"Not bad," Loki commented pacing along the outer edge of the circle. "But you should write one more circle, in runes and in the middle of the whole construction." she arched an eyebrow at him. "While this one works and does what it is supposed to do quite well, it won't give you pinpoint accuracy and I fear that without it, you will get nothing of use."
"Why? I used it more than a dozen of times and it always worked."
"Our friend can obstruct or at least weaken Heimdall's vision and that is a feat almost impossible to achieve, at least for a normal wizard," Loki said and snapped his fingers, causing for a circle to appear in the middle and moving runes in the rest of them. "I improved it and made it more focused, he will have a nasty surprise with this spell as if I'm right it will get you a pinpoint accuracy."
"Thank you," she smiled wearily. "I've seen a lot of things, but I have never seen a God of Magic help me with a tracking ritual."
"I'm a practical man and we have a common enemy, also you are a godmother of my nephew and a good friend of Thor," Loki smiled slyly. "So why should I do it on my own when I can use you to do the thing."
"True." She picked up a glass jar with a part of the soul she brought with her from Asgard and placed it in the middle of the circle. She then lit candles placed on one of the circles and sent a bit of magic into the middle of the contraption. It was enough to finish preparations and activate the ritual.
Jar with the soul flew into the air and started to spin, with each moment faster and faster. It took it a moment to stop spinning and when it came to halt, it was pointing in some rand direction and runes that formed four circles moved. Previously random runes, now created words.
"That's pinpoint accuracy?" She snorted looking at the words. "Those are only general parts of England and quite large ones."
"Well, it seems that one is in Scotland," Loki said kneeling to her side. "And I only know one magical place in Scotland that would have gotten his attention."
"Hogwarts," she finished with a smile and winced looking at the other. "But the rest is a huge chunk of land to search."
"It is, but it is still better than the whole world and if we get more pieces of his soul or possession, we will be able to get a more precise data," Loki frowned and scratched something on the floor, she didn't manage to see what it was. "If you get one more piece of soul there is a good chance that we will be able to triangulate where are other parts of his soul."
"Triangulation?" she frowned. "From what I know a pretty risky set of rituals, you need three sorcerers to do it and they need to begin them at the same time as otherwise it will get nasty."
Loki nodded and summoned to himself her jar with Voldemort's soul. "That's the most basic version of it, there are few more that can be performed and I'm curious why Stephen didn't show them to you. I know that he holds a lot of cards close to his chest, but this is a thing that you should already know."
He holds a lot of things close to his chest and doesn't want to reveal them, she thought, but this one he should reveal as of Loki is right it might solve a lot of our problems. Unless he needs Voldemort in the world for few more months or years so that his master plan works. Though he normally isn't that mysterious and usually he is more open.
"I will speak with him about the ritual," she finally said, her voice as hard as steel and Loki winced as he heard her. "He should show it to me and if not, well, than you can do it."
"Than I bid you a good day and fruitful search, I'm going back to Asgard to have some fun with Voldemort." When Loki said those words she shuddered as she saw a predatory look in his eyes, look that she didn't want to wake up. She knew for certain one thing, that Voldemort was for a whole new world of pain, pain that he wouldn't be able to escape and pain that he well deserved. He was responsible for so much of her pain and suffering that she didn't mind him getting some of it back.
o-0-o
Psylocke stood with a couple of SHIELD agents and waited for a portkey to activate, they were in one of buildings belonging to MACUSA and only needed to wait as every portket, excluding a couple of special ones was forced to go through them.
"It will be here in a minute," one of wizards said. "Around thirty people is coming."
She nodded and with a soft click drew her sword from its scabbard. "Get ready," she said and saw as other agents reached out for their guns and wizards for their wands, welcoming guests with weapon to the face wasn't a polite thing, but worked well.
There was a loud pop and into the floor of the building crashed a group of thirty people, they were disorganised and looked around. She smiled when she realized that they didn't expect to land in such room.
"Where are we?" One of them asked.
"In a place where you should be," One of MACUSA wizards said. "You entered into our lands without any invitation and came in force. What were you planning to achieve with such move?"
"That's none of your business, we do not answer to your government and you have not a single right to order us around. You are still forced to obey us, you are a part of our colony that we didn't acknowledge losing."
"But it is my business," Psylocke smiled as she stepped from behind agents, "I'm an officer of Her Majesty's MI-13 and want answers from you. Answers that you will better give me or it will get pretty unpleasant for you."
"MI-13? We do not answer to Muggles and their law enforcement."
"Fine," she smirked and reached out to them with her telepathic powers, easily slamming through shields protecting their minds, in the process smashing them to pieces. She could see them wince in pain, but she didn't care, after something that felt like hours she pulled out of their minds and looked at the nearest MACUSA wizard. "They came here to kidnap one of your wizards and a son of Thor."
Wizard's eyes narrowed at those words and his gaze landed on aurors. "Well than, not only trespassing, but also kidnapping. I have thought that a human being had more honor than this," he looked at the other wizards, "Stun them and throw them into cells."
"What-" One of aurors managed to say.
"Stupefy!" wizards shouted and few dozens beams of red light flew through the room, hitting aurors before they even had a chance to react and raise their wands in defense.
"Good work," Psylocke smiled. "Director Wisdom wants all of them tied and delivered to MI-13 for interrogation, so that we can learn as much as possible. We will give them back once we get all of that data out of their minds."
"Fury doesn't really care how soon he has them, but he would like to get at least some in two weeks time," Agent of SHIELD said
"Okay," She said, slid her katana into its scabbard and walked out of the room, she didn't want to spend any more time than necessary with those wizards. She opened her phone and found the number of Director Wisdom. "It's done," she said, "All caught and stunned, we will have them in a couple of hours."
"Good work, get back to the UK as soon as possible, the Ministry will be in uproar and I want you out of sight as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," she said, ending the call and walking to an awaiting Quinjet.
o-0-o
Harry dodged a hail of energy bolts and crouched behind a thick stone pillar, trying to catch his breath. He heard a couple more of them slam into the pillar, but he didn't pay any attention to them. They were training in Danger Room and yet again they got scattered and the town in which they were was a maze. He looked out and saw a couple of robots move through the street in front of him, throwing a lot of dust and sand into the air.
He had an idea where Mirage and Wolfsbane were as he saw a flash of brown on the other side of the street and Mirage was on the second floor of the house in which he was hiding. Only question was where Banshee was.
"Banshee, where are you?" he whispered into his earpiece and checked his options, which he didn't have too many of.
"In the building to your right and on the other side of the street, Sentinels are between us," Banshee's voice sounded in his ear, "Also there are mercenaries coming towards me, so Sentinels are your task."
"Okay," Harry nodded and looked out to see where was the nearest Sentinel and almost immediately was forced to hide as a hail of gunfire zipped past his head. He picked up a small piece of debris that was laying on the ground and using his knife he drew a couple of runes on the surface of it.
He channeled a bit of magic into the stone and jumped out from behind the cover. He threw it into the nearest Sentinel and dropped into roll. Bolts of energy were hitting all around him and even some hit him. He came to stop behind another pillar and than the explosion happened.
It was a loud bang, followed by a rain of pieces of Sentinels. Harry looked out and saw that three of them were gone. Their pieces were scattered all over the place and walls of surrounding buildings were cracked. He smiled when he saw the amount of destruction he caused.
"What was that?" Mirage asked over the net.
"Runic magic at work," he said with a smile, "It did even better than I expected it to." Harry jumped out from behind the cover and charged at the nearest Sentinel. His sword flashed and the head of robot rolled onto the street.
His gaze swept over the road. "Clear," he said and walked onto the other side of the street. Doors leading into the building were thrown inside and smashed against the wall.
"Be careful," Banshee said and Harry could hear a burst of gunfire in the background, followed by a scream of pain, "There are some mercenaries in the building and they might surprise you."
He acknowledged the warning and slipped Tyrfing into its scabbard and pulled out his saxe knife. He knew from his experience that it was a better weapon for such place, it was easier to maneuver and as deadly as the sword would be.
He slipped into the building and looked around, his gaze slipped over bare walls and three sets of doors, each leading into different room. For a moment he focused on his sense of smell and sniffed the air, trying to find place where Banshee was lurking.
He was almost overwhelmed by the amount and intensity of new data that hit him. He knew that he had keen senses, but he didn't realize it until now. He could smell where Wolfsbane was and where Mirage was crouched. But even stronger was metallic smell of blood and bitter smell of sweat.
Shaking his head Harry walked forward, shield in one hand, while in second he was gripping his saxe knife.
He pushed open doors in front of him. Instinctively raised his shield and he heard three loud explosions, followed by objects slamming into the shield, force pushing him backwards. He stumbled as he didn't expect it happen. He regained his balance and with a grin determination walked forward.
Saxe knife that he was holding flashed in the sparse light as his hand shot forward and it was followed by a sound ripping and tearing, and by a loud scream. Harry pulled it out and on its blade were visible crimson stains. A body crashed onto the floor and he stepped over it, spreading his senses in every direction, trying to find Banshee.
It took a moment for him to locate him in a room not far away from his position.
o-0-o
Sean moved out of the way of an attacker that felt brave and slammed his leg into his chest, breaking multiple ribs and sending him crashing into the wall. Before any of the two that were in the room could react they were met by Sean's deadly scream, so powerful that they were turned into bloody mist and a good part of the wall behind them was turned into dust.
For one last time he looked around and tapped his earpiece, activating it. "Black Eagle where are you?" he asked, keeping an eye for surroundings. He could see Wolfsbane and Mirage on the other side of the street.
"Here," Black Eagle said walking into the room, carrying a shield and the biggest knife Sean saw in a long time. "Tracking you down wasn't easy."
"As it wasn't supposed to be." He patted Black Eagle's arm and indicated the hole. "They are on the other side of it, I've set the simulation to end once we are together and we retrieve the thing we need."
"I guess that you have the thing."
"Yes," Sean said jumping out of the hole and running across the street, even if he knew that it was relatively safe, he was not getting cocky or reckless. Once was bad enough for him. He looked at the street and saw Black Eagle join him. They walked into the building and walked upstairs where were waiting for them girls.
Sean nodded in approval when he felt large claws touch back of his neck, ready to severe the connection between brain and the rest of the body if answer given by him wasn't satisfactory. "You can lower your claws, Wolfsbane, good idea, but I felt you slip behind me."
Wolfsbane lowered her claws and came into the view. "How did you see me?" she asked.
"You are good, but not good enough for it to work on me," he said and watched as the simulation ended, "You did good, meet me in the briefing room in let's say half an hour. Get cleaned and dressed into something more comfortable."
o-0-o
"This time it was much better than the last time," Banshee said as all of them were in briefing room, "You stayed with contact with each other and actually can think when doing things. There are still some things that need to be corrected, but today you did acceptably."
"Than how what is a good performance in your opinion?" Harry asked as he looked at the blade of his saxe as he polished its surface, "I've thought we have done quite well."
"Quite well you did, but you could have done better."
"You will accept only perfection, won't you?" Danielle asked
"Yes," Sean smiled, making them groan, "I want you to know one thing, I have seen much more than you had seen and I know one think, you are either really good or you die. It's simple as that and even if now the world is tiny, tiny bit safer and your troubles are less dangerous than ones that I had faced, they are still dangerous. So I'm driving you so hard so that you will be able to live and survive. Do you understand?"
"I guess so," Harry said, he slid saxe knife into its scabbard and looked at Sean, "I know what you try to achieve and why, but still, let us live and don't make them so hellishly dangerous."
"There is no easy way to achieve perfection and this is probably the least painful way that leads there."
Harry sighed, but nodded, he felt an edge in Sean's voice, one that told him not to test how far he could get. On Asgard he got used to Sif being demanding, but even she didn't drive them that hard as Sean did.
"Since that is settled," Sean said and they looked at him, "Than let's down to the details of the whole exercise." He brought up on a screen behind him a footage from the cameras placed around the Danger Room. "Let's start with what Harry did good and wrong, I asked you to be more considerate when in fight and you actually did it." Harry smiled at those words and promptly slumped. "But there are things that still need to be fixed..."
o-0-o
Harry looked curiously as Banshee walked to him after the girls left the room. He was kind of curious what the older mutant was going to say to him about the exercise.
"I saw that you started to pay some attention to your fighting style," Banshee said, "While carefree and happy berserker kind of style works in some cases, it doesn't work every time and I'm happy that you actually pay some attention to it."
"Is it praise?"
"Indeed, I do not give it often, but compared to how you had fought during your first exercise and how you had fought today, you changed a lot. I know that you are an Æsir, one that is basically designed for war, but even you can be killed and you should pay some attention to your defense."
"I will, I promise," Harry said and after a nod from Banshee, he walked out of the room.
o-0-o
"Who is this Banshee?" Harry asked as he looked at Warren and Bobby, both of whom moved uncomfortably, as if they didn't like the topic.
"One of the very first X-Men," Warren finally said, "His daughter is at the Institute and has as dangerous voice as he has. He helped me to learn how to be a leader, but I don't know that much about him." He moved uncomfortably. "If you want to know more about him, you need to ask him and I doubt that he will tell you much about the past."
"You just need to know that he is a good person, one that will support you and one that won't stab a dagger into your back when you will not be paying attention to him and what he is doing," Bobby added, "But as Warren said, even if he is an often guest here, we do not know much about him, one thing that you should keep in mind. Do. Not. Get. Him. Mad."
"Or what will happen?" Harry asked.
"You really want to know it?" Warren asked.
"Yes."
"For your knowledge when one of terrorist organisations kidnapped and killed his wife, he hunted them down, each and every one of them. He killed all of them and in a manner that from what I heard makes Fury afraid of him," Warren said and as Harry looked into his cousin's eyes, he could tell that Warren was not joking.
"Wow," Harry whistled. "No wonders he seems so cold at times and I can see why he is pushing us so hard."
"Yes, he doesn't want to lose more members of any team that he leads. He will be hard, he will drive you into the ground and repeat it until you perform as well as he expects you to."
"I've felt it when he mentioned a whole lot of mistakes that we had done."
"And there is second, much longer list of things that he didn't mention as it would most likely sent all of you into depression," Sunspot said with a smile.
"Thank you," Harry glared at Sunspot. "Remind me to introduce you to certain person on Asgard, one that you will love," Harry smirked and saw Sunspot gulp.
"Who is it?" Warren asked.
"Who is she," Harry corrected with a smile. "If you want to know, she is a Goddess of War and Knows-It-All when it comes to warfare. She taught me and my friends how to fight and basics of tactics and strategy."
"O-Okay," Bobby said. "How awesome or scary is Asgard?"
"Extremely awesome and you should love it and it is less than two months before you can see it." Harry said and paused, "Do you want to discover Asgard on your own or do you want to know something first? No matter what I will tell you, you will be still shocked and surprised by it."
"I've read a couple of things about Asgard, so I want to see it without any spoilers," Warren said.
"Are you aware that those things were written in a way that the mind of a person from middle ages would understand and comprehend them?" Harry asked and Warren looked at him, wondering where he was going with it, "And I assure you that the mind of such person wouldn't wrap itself around such things and concepts as energy weapons, robots and space travel."
"Still, I think that I will have some idea of what's going on."
"If you say so," Harry smiled. "Just don't get surprised by sheer awesomeness of Asgard, how advanced it is and how many artifacts there are."
"Artifacts?" Bobby frowned. "What kinds of them?"
"You will see, officially known list ends at around thousand of them, unofficial one doesn't have an end. Grandfather and his ancestors hoarded an awful lot of artifacts and various other things, other family members and marriages brought their fair share."
"Wow," Warren loudly whistled. "It seems even better than it seemed."
"You will see," Harry smiled. "You wanted to see it on your own and you will see it."
"I think it was a better idea to ask you," Bobby said.
"Well, Warren chose to see it for himself and I'm not going to reveal it for you," Harry said yawned. "Night, I'm going to bed as Banshee knows how to tire out."
"He knows that," Warren said as Harry stood up and walked to his room. He was tired and needed rest, also he wanted to clear out his mind. Even if this incident with wizards happened yesterday, he was still rattled by it.
o-0-o
A/N – Thing about marriages, marriage inside of a royal family is usually a thing discussed by almost everybody and while love is nice and wanted, more often than not desired is something else – political alliance, making sure that someone will behave and so on. So marriage between Thor and Jane happened mostly because of two things, Odin wanted to show nobles where is their rightful place and because Thor has such a strong position that undermining it is nearly impossible.
Harry on the other hand doesn't have that strong of a position and he is second person in line to the throne. Nobody is really assuming that he will ascend to it soon, but he is still a person that many will try to force into one sort of betrothal agreement or another. In a way it is one of reasons why he is so often on Earth, it gives nobles less of an opportunity to be a nuisance to him and his family. Out of sight, out of mind works beautifully when it comes to politics.
One thing that is working in his favor is the fact that he is so far the only child of Thor and a lot of nobles won't even dare to approach Odin about any negotiations about potential marriage. In short, from political point of view sound would be a marriage for him with someone of equal, higher or slightly lower rank and there is one such person on Asgard.
It doesn't mean that he won't flirt with people all over the place, but he will be expected by nobles to find and marry person of substantial importance. But the one that has to say the most here is his grandfather, as he can tell nobles in a very simple manner to shut up and stay silent or they will have a meeting with executioner or spend a couple of centuries on some forsaken ball of mud on the other side of the galaxy.
Reviews:
shugokage – both forms are correct, communication is let's say more scientific as it is mainly used in Geography.
H.P. Birdman – I'm not a native speaker of English so my writing won't be perfect, I will try to write good, but it won't be perfect.