A/N - Hello everyone. It's time for a new chapter which I hope you will enjoy.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
"Normal Speech"
"Telepathy"
Quotes taken from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
27) THE SECOND TASK
Ororo went to Headmaster Pope's office and knocked on the door. It was Monday, February 20th, four days before the second task.
"Yes Ms. Munroe" asked Headmaster Pope after letting her into the office, "what can I do for you?"
"It's about the second task sir" she said, "you said on Saturday that I had been considered to be used in it but was not chosen. May I know why?"
Headmaster Pope looked at her and considered how much he could tell her about the task without giving away too much.
"What do you know about the second task so far?" he asked her. Ororo told him about what Harry had told her after solving the clue of the second egg.
"All right" the headmaster said, "so you know what the task consists of. The people who were chosen are hostages the champions have to rescue. We can't use you because of your royal status."
"Even if I volunteered?" Ororo asked.
"Not even then" was the reply, "there are safeguards that are being used to protect the hostages but nothing is perfect. If something happened to you it could cause a diplomatic crisis as almost happened last week." There wasn't anything Ororo could say to that as she knew it was true. Headmaster Pope advised her that the best thing she could do for Harry was simply to support him during the tournament. That was easy as she was already doing that and would continue doing so for the rest of the tournament.
On the day before the second task Harry again went to Hogwarts. This time, however, Headmaster Pope and the students from Ilvermorny who were coming to watch the task went with him. The reason was because the second task was going to happen in the morning after breakfast. No one at Ilvermorny wanted to get up at 3 AM to come to Hogwarts so it was decided that they would arrive the previous day and be housed in guest dormitories for the night while Harry stayed in the same room he had before.
They all arrived in the late afternoon just before dinner. Harry met Ron, Hermione, and Neville in the Great Hall. Ororo was with him. They all remembered her and greeted her cordially. From where she was sitting further down the table Ginny looked a little jealous of Ororo but she didn't say anything. Dinner was the usual lively affair made all the more lively by the anticipation of the next day's task. As he looked around the Great Hall Harry noticed something different. Ron and Hermione had both written to him about Snape's disappearance and Professor Xavier had told him about it as well but deep down he wasn't sure he really believed it. Not seeing him at the high table made it more real.
"Who's that woman sitting in Snape's place?" Harry asked his friends.
"That's Andromeda Tonks" said Ron.
"Oh, I've heard of her" said Harry, "she's Sirius' cousin."
"And she's a much better potions teacher than Snape" said Neville, "I haven't destroyed one cauldron in all the time she's been teaching us. She explains things better than Snape ever did, she doesn't bully me at all, and she doesn't let the Slytherins try to sabotage other students' work."
"All around she's a much better teacher" said Ron, "maybe we'll be lucky and Snape will never be found."
"Ron that's not nice" said Hermione.
"You were thinking the same" said Ron, "admit it."
"Maybe, but I wouldn't say it out loud" said Hermione with a sniff.
"Do you have any idea who my hostage will be tomorrow?" Harry asked changing the subject.
"Yes" said Ron leaning forward so only Harry and his friends could hear, "it's going to be me. Dumbledore asked me earlier today and get this, Hermione is going to be Krum's hostage."
"Really?" asked Harry looking at Hermione in surprise.
"Yes" said Hermione, "they asked me because I was his date at the Yule Ball."
"Ah" said Ororo, "that explains how my name might have come up for consideration." She looked at Ron.
"I'm sorry they're using you" she said to him, "I offered to do it but they wouldn't let me."
"It's fine" said Ron, "I don't mind at all."
"When are they going to take you?" asked Harry.
"Tomorrow after breakfast" said Hermione.
"I guess that's not too bad" said Harry.
After dinner was over Harry went looking for Luna. Along with his friends he found her outside on the lawn not far from the front doors. Several other girls were there, some whom Harry knew, and some whom he didn't. It looked like they were all laughing at her in a way that reminded him strongly of how Dudley and his gang used to treat him.
"What's going on here?" he demanded as he walked up to the group followed by Ororo, Ron, and Hermione.
"Why do you care Potter?" asked one of the girls in a snide voice. Harry recognized her as Cho Chang.
"I care because Luna's my friend" said Harry before turning to her and seeing that her shoes were missing.
"Did they hurt you?" he asked. Luna just smiled.
"No" she said.
"Where are your shoes?" he asked.
"Oh, the Nargles took them" she said causing one of the other girls to roll her eyes."
"She's always saying stupid stuff like that" she said, "Nargles, Wrackspurts, Heliopaths, Blibbering Humdingers, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. For the last time they don't exist!" The other girls in the group all made similar noises causing Harry to frown.
"That's no reason to treat her like that" he said sternly, "besides, you're wrong. I don't know about the other creatures but the Crumple-Horned Snorkack is real. I've seen one."
There was a silence as the girls took in what he said. Luna looked excited while the others looked at Harry as if he was crazy.
"You actually believe it?" Cho asked.
"I don't have to believe it" said Harry, "I took a picture of it." He pulled out a copy of one of the photographs of the snorkack that he'd taken and handed it to Luna. She took one look at it and squealed in excitement.
"I knew it!" she said, "I knew they were real. I just knew it."
"Let me see that" said one of the other girls (Marietta something Harry thought her name was) as she grabbed the picture out of Luna's hand and looked at it before passing it to the others.
"I don't believe it" said Cho staring at the picture as if it would bite her, "where did you take this?"
"Yes Harry" said Luna sounding much happier than Cho, "where did you find it? My father and I have been looking for them for years and never found them before."
"I'm sorry" Harry said, "but I can't tell you that. The place is a protected area and its existence is kept secret. It was only luck that saw me and some friends stumble upon it." As he said this he looked sad about having to keep it secret but when Luna looked at him she saw him give her a quick wink that no one else saw.
"However" he continued, "now that you've seen that one of Luna's 'imaginary' creatures is real how do you know the others aren't?" The girls had nothing to say to that and soon they began to drift away although not before Harry told them that he expected Luna's shoes to be returned to her.
Once they were gone Luna looked at Harry.
"You can tell me where you found it, can't you?" she asked, "isn't that why you winked at me?"
"Yes" said Harry, "I can tell all four of you but I had to wait until we were alone as it's X-Men business."
"You know about the X-Men?" Hermione asked Ororo.
"Yes" said Ororo, "I found out last month." She didn't tell Harry's friends that she was a mutant too and Harry didn't tell them either as it was up to her to decide whom she wanted to know about that..
"The snorkack?" Luna prompted Harry. He walked further away from the front doors until they were far enough away from them so he could talk to his friends in peace. Once there he told his friends about the X-Men's trip to Antarctica and the strange land they'd found there. At first it looked like none of his friends except Luna believed much of the story (the snorkack picture notwithstanding) but that changed when he brought out the other pictures he had taken and passed them around. Hermione gasped when she saw pictures of actual living dinosaurs as well as some prehistoric mammals like the small horses.
Then they came to the photo of Lightning riding on Moltar's shoulders.
"Harry, this would only happen to you" said Ron as he looked at the picture of Lightning waving at the camera from the back of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"Yeah, Warren said the same thing" said Harry with a grin, "I hope you understand now why I couldn't tell those girls about this place. We all agreed that it needed to be kept secret."
"I agree" said Hermione, "I won't say anything." The others quickly agreed with Hermione although Luna said that she wanted to go there eventually.
"May I keep a picture of the snorkack?" she asked Harry.
"Yes" said Harry handing a copy to her, "I made an extra copy just for you."
"Thank you" said Luna, "you have no idea how much this means to me." She threw her arms around Harry and hugged him tightly. He, rather awkwardly, hugged her back.
Harry needed a sleeping potion that night due to the time difference but he slept well because of it. The next morning he woke up feeling refreshed but also nervous as it was the day of the second task. He got up, did his morning exercises (without the running part though), showered, dressed, and went to breakfast. His friends were all there and they urged him to eat. Near the end of breakfast Professor McGonagall asked Ron and Hermione to go with her to see the headmaster. Knowing that it was about the task they did so. Not long afterwards breakfast ended and the announcement was made that the second task would start soon and the champions should get ready for it.
Harry went back to his room and changed into the wetsuit Warren had gotten for him. He picked up the pair of swimming goggles he had brought and stuffed it in his bag along with a large towel and headed down to the beach by the lake where a large set of stands had been set up for people to watch the task. What was more unusual, however, was the set of four large screens that had been set up in front of the stands. Each screen had one of the champion's names on it. Harry's was the on the right end of the row. He only took a few seconds to look at this before heading into the tent that had been set up next to the stands for the champions.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, you're here, good" Mr. Bagman greeted him as he entered the tent. Harry looked around and saw that he was the last of the champions to arrive.
"Am I late?" he asked.
"Not at all," was the reply as the man went to exit the tent, "you've got a few minutes to spare. I'll be back to give you all last minute information before it's time to start."
"Okay" said Harry who sat down on a chair, put his bag down and took a few deep breaths to center himself. Once he was done with that he looked up and checked out the other champions. Both Cedric and Viktor were wearing swim trunks while Fleur was wearing a one piece woman's bathing suit. None of them looked cold though.
"Liberal use of warming charms indeed" Harry murmured to himself as Bagman reentered the tent and called all of the champions over to him. He was carrying what looked like four wrist bands. As the champions came together Cedric looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow. Viktor's face was blank while Fleur's was nervous.
"Can you all hear me?" asked Bagman, "good. Now there's just a couple of things for me to go over with you before the task starts. First, I'm sure you all noticed the row of screens out in front of the stands?" The champions all nodded.
"Well those screens are there so that we, up on the shore, will be able to see what's going on with all of you down in the lake. Over the last weeks we placed a large number of magical cameras in the lake. The cameras are connected to the screens and will show whatever happens within their range. Now each of you has a screen on which your own progress can be watched. In order to make sure that your actions are directed to the right screen you'll each need to wear one of these."
He held up the wristbands.
"Each of these wristbands contains a unique magical signature synced up with the appropriate screen" he continued, "while you wear a wristband whenever you swim past a camera it will record the signature given off by your wrist band and send the images it takes of you to your screen. Let me give each one of you your band." He passed out the wristbands. Harry took his and put it on. It was a simple bracelet although he couldn't tell what it was made of. It didn't seem to be harming him so he let that go.
"Now there's one other thing" said Bagman and he gave them all a serious look, "this is important. I know that the clue you were given said that you had an hour to retrieve what was taken from you and if you didn't succeed you would lose it. We judges have talked it over and we feel it would be better if you knew the truth about this.
"Your hostages are in no danger. The clue was to give you a sense of urgency. You have one hour to complete the task however if you are unable to rescue your hostage during that time don't worry. Each hostage is wearing a portkey. At the end of the hour if any of the hostages have not been returned to the beach they will immediately be portkeyed there. The portkey will activate automatically at the end of the hour unless your hostage has been returned to the beach. It will also activate if you have rescued your hostage but have not made it back to shore. After that the amount of time it takes you to return to shore will be taken into account when your scores are decided.
"The only way to keep the portkey from activating is to return your hostage to the shore before the hour runs out. We've also done this so that no one tries to be a hero and rescue extra hostages because they think, for whatever reason, that any of the other champions might not be coming. I believe one or two of you have a history of this sort of thing?" Bagman gave Harry a sidelong look as he said this and Harry wanted to huff with annoyance but kept silent.
"In conclusion" said Bagman, "don't worry about your hostages, they'll be fine. Worry about yourselves instead. Are there any questions? No? Good. I'll call you all out in a minute for the start of the task." And he ducked out of the tent leaving the four champions alone. Harry noted that Fleur looked a lot happier than she had before while Viktor's expression remained unchanged."
'Wow' Harry thought to himself, 'they really are trying to make this task safer, at least for the hostages.'
"Harry" said Cedric, "what are you wearing?"
"This is a wetsuit" said Harry, "lots of people use them in the muggle world. It helps keep you warm in the water. With it I won't have to cast so many warming charms. It's February you know." Cedric looked like he wanted to say something to that but before he could they all heard Bagman's magnified voice from outside.
"Ladies and gentlemen" Bagman's voice boomed, "welcome to the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. At this time we asked that our four champions please come forward and take their places!"
The four champions nodded at each other and they all left the tent and headed to the beach. A helper directed each one to a spot on the shore. There was about ten feet of space between each of them. Harry went to his spot, took out his swimming goggles and the gillyweed he was going to use, and dropped his bag on the sand. He quickly removed his shoes, put his goggles on over his forehead and then glanced back at the stands. They were quite crowded despite the cold. Standing around the edges of the stands were several aurors. The capture of Macnair and Yaxley had caused security to be ramped up both at the ministry and at Hogwarts for the tournament.
"Jean" he sent, "are you and the team here?"
"Yes Harry, we're here" Jean sent back. She sounded rather grumpy which didn't surprise Harry at all. Unlike himself and the Ilvermorny students his classmates had not come to Hogwarts the previous day. Instead they arrived just before the task was scheduled to start. That meant that they'd all had to get up around 3 AM back home to get here on time. None of them were very happy about that.
"Yeah, sorry you had to get up so early" said Harry, "but I appreciate your being here."
"I would hope so" said Jean, "oh, Bobby wanted me to tell you that you'd better win this task or he's going to freeze you to your bed the first chance he gets."
"Yikes" said Harry, not liking the sound of that at all. He would have said more but Bagman was talking again.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task" he said, "which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"
Bagman blew the whistle to signal the beginning of the task. Harry didn't turn to see what the other champions were doing. He focused on what he had to do instead. He put the gillyweed into his mouth, chewed it and swallowed it. During the few seconds he had before it took effect he pulled his goggles down over his eyes and stepped into the water. A few seconds later the gillyweed took effect. Harry ran as fast as he could out into the water and dived into the lake. Once fully underwater he took a second to make sure his new gills were working properly and that his hands and feet had become webbed and flipper-like so he could move more quickly through the water. The water didn't feel so cold now under the influence of the gillyweed and his wetsuit also helped him stay warmer with only a light warming charm added for extra warmth. Once he'd checked out that everything was how it was supposed to be he set out in earnest to find his hostage.
At first he could see well enough because the light from above penetrated the water to some depth but he knew that the deeper he went the darker it would get and he would need light at least some of the way. Presumably the mermish village had light of some sort unless the inhabitants could see in darkness without it but he would have to get there first. He cast a wandless lumos charm using his left hand (saving his right hand to use his wand) and put more power than usual into it. As a result the light that came streaming out of his left hand was brighter than usual and it allowed him to see what was up ahead pretty well.
After a shallow sloping beginning the bottom of the lake began to slope down at a steep angle. Harry looked ahead and marked how the slope went. Mostly it went down but here and there were ridges that went up again although none of them got close to the lake's surface. The bottom of the lake was thick with seaweed once he was far enough from the shore and he made sure to stay well above it as Sirius had told him that grindylows infested the seaweed covered areas. He had no desire to deal with those little beasts and did his best to stay out of their attack range.
Down and down he went with the water getting darker and darker outside of his area of light. He saw no sign of his fellow champions and briefly wondered where they were but put it out of his mind in order to concentrate on his task. Here and there fish passed him. Some gave him a look but none stayed. There was also no sign of the giant squid.
He didn't know how far down he'd gone in the lake but up ahead he saw a glow of light. He swam toward it knowing it was most likely the mervillage. A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides and Harry knew he was right. He extinguished the light in his left hand since he no longer needed it for the moment. Now he just had to find where his hostage was.
The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.
Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.
A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square...and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
As Harry sped toward the statue one merman swam out of the crowd and barred his way.
"If you wish to reach your hostage" the merman said, "you must get past me however you can." The merman got in a defensive stance as if he expected Harry to charge at him. Harry took one look at the merman and brought out his wand. He waved it and appeared to say something silently but that was just for show in order to hide what he really did. To the people watching up on the shore it looked like he used a spell to move the merman out of the way. Actually he grabbed the merman with his telekinesis and threw him into the crowd before heading to the statue to free Ron. He was sure his friends and teammates would realize the truth but nobody else would, with the exception of Dumbledore who would probably figure it out.
(He was right. Up in the stands Bobby leaned over and asked Warren "did he just pull an Indiana Jones move?"
"Yes, I think he did" replied Warren thinking about the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the hero faced a challenge from a skilled swordsman and responded by shooting him.
"Well that's one way to avoid a fight" said Bobby as he turned back to the screen to watch Harry)
Harry swam up to Ron and looked at the rope binding him to the statue. Ron was tied securely and tightly but not so tightly that Harry couldn't move the rope at all. This gave Harry an idea. He grabbed the rope at the place where the knot was tied to secure Ron to the statue and pulled the rope so that it came away from Ron's body just enough that Harry could cast a severing charm without much risk of cutting Ron. He pulled out his wand and cast the charm and when the rope parted he pulled Ron away from the statue. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water. Harry didn't wait. He grabbed Ron and began swimming back the way he came. He considered swimming straight up but decided against it. He had been told that Ron would wake up as soon as his head broke the surface of the water. Harry decided it would be better if that happened as close to shore as possible.
As he swam away from the merpeople's village the water darkened again so he cast the lumos charm again to see his way forward. As he did so he saw Cedric swimming toward him. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched. The Hogwarts champion looked at him in amazement. Harry simply pointed back toward where he had come from. Cedric nodded and swam toward the village.
Harry continued swimming back the way he came. The water began to get light as he drew near the surface but it wasn't until the steep slope of the lake bottom curved back into the flatter part near the shallows and the seaweed disappeared exposing the sandy bottom that Harry finally decided to surface.
He swam until he reached a place where he knew that he could stand up and his head would be above water so he did, pulling Ron up with him. As soon as Ron's head broke the surface he woke up.
"Whoa" he said as he looked around and saw where he was "how did I get here?" He turned and saw Harry.
"Harry?" he said. Harry nodded and then ducked below the water for a second before carefully raising his head above the water but only to his chin so his neck stayed below the surface. Ron gave him a weird look.
"I still have gills" said Harry, "I have to stay here until the gillyweed wears off."
"Oh, right" said Ron.
"Why don't you head to shore?" said Harry, "I'll follow as soon as I can. I'm all right. There's no need for you to stay here." Ron nodded and headed to the shore where Percy hurried out to meet him. He grabbed his brother and pulled him off to the side to see Madame Pomfrey despite Ron's protests that he was all right.
"Harry" Jean called, "why don't you get out of the water?"
"Gillyweed hasn't worn off yet" he sent back.
"I see" was the reply, "Bobby said you don't have to worry about being frozen to your bed now."
"Oh that's nice" said Harry a bit sarcastically. He moved closer to the beach to where the water was shallow enough to allow him to sit on the lake bottom with his head just above the water but not his neck. From this relatively comfortable position he waited for the change back while watching to see if the other champions returned on time.
The first one to return was Fleur which Harry thought was odd because he hadn't seen her when he was swimming. He thought it would be Cedric and indeed Cedric showed up right as Fleur was stepping on to the beach. She was carrying the young girl in her arms. The girl was now awake and was talking very quickly to Fleur in French. Meanwhile Cedric escorted Cho to the shore where she took a moment to kiss him on the cheek (to the cheers of the crowd) before Madame Pomfrey came over to check them both over for possible injuries.
Harry felt the effects of the gillyweed beginning to wear off so he stood up. Just as he began to head to the shore Krum surfaced with Hermione and quickly swam toward him. Harry waited for them to arrive and greeted them both when they reached him and stood up themselves.
"Glad you made it back in time" Harry said to them.
"So am I" said Krum. Hermione gave Harry a quick hug and ran out of the water to where Madame Pomfrey was waiting for her. Harry and Krum both followed and were accorded the same treatment by the Hogwarts nurse.
The scores were almost anticlimactic. All of the champions had done the task without any problems and all of them had returned within the time limit, a fact that was borne out by none of the hostages being portkeyed back to shore. Krum had only just made it, but he made it. As a result all of the champions received full marks. Even Karkaroff, biased as he was in his student's favor, couldn't find a reason to penalize any of the champions. Harry was still in first place by the same number of points as after the first task. Bagman announced the scores with his usual energy.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
There was a lunch time party in the Gryffindor common room and Harry was there along with Ororo and some of the Ilvermorny students whom Harry invited along. His teammates did not stay for it. They had all left as soon as they'd congratulated Harry on his performance and Harry had the feeling that at least one or two of them (most likely Bobby and Warren) would be heading back to bed when they reached the mansion. It was some time between 5 and 6 AM in the States so Harry thought that was reasonable.
In the cold evening after the Second Task Draco Malfoy walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He was brooding. He was often alone these days but not because he had been held back a year. No, what he was brooding over had nothing to do with that. It was much worse.
Draco Malfoy was not a happy wizard. His whole world view had been challenged a lot in the last year but that wasn't why he was so unhappy and scared right now.
At the beginning of February his father had summoned him home for a weekend claiming it was a family emergency. Malfoy had gone home wondering if his parents were all right. They were but other than that when Draco arrived at Malfoy Manor he was dropped into a nightmare he now couldn't get out of.
Voldemort was back and Lucius had summoned Draco home to present him to the Dark Lord. This had been fine as far as Draco was concerned. He had grown up on stories of how great the Dark Lord was and how everything would be wonderful when he returned and the purebloods were undisputably in charge over the country. That his father was a member of Voldemort's inner circle had always been a point of pride for him and he had hoped to someday be in that inner circle himself.
Unfortunately that weekend at Malfoy Manor had brought home to him just what it would mean to be a Death Eater. After meeting and watching Voldemort for the weekend he now knew that the man was absolutely crazy. He'd been present at one of the Death Eater meetings of those Death Eater who hadn't gone to Azkaban either in 1981 or after the Quidditch World Cup. He saw how easily the Dark Lord cast the Cruciatus curse on anyone who told him things he didn't like. He even saw one of the junior DE's get killed for – well he didn't understand exactly what the poor bastard had done to be hit with the killing curse but Voldemort had killed him as easily as if he'd been making small talk at a garden party.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be, Draco thought. Voldemort was supposed to lead them to a new golden age of pureblood supremacy. He wasn't supposed to kill purebloods too.
Then he'd seen something that had shocked him to the core and made him want to run far away from Voldemort and anything to do with the Death Eater cause. Unfortunately before he went back to Hogwarts he'd been told that he would be marked as soon as he came of age. Also he was warned very strongly not to tell anyone what he had seen that weekend. If he did he would regret it oh so very, very much. To drive the point even further home Voldemort had briefly subjected him to the torture curse. It was only five seconds but it was the longest five second of his life.
Now he was back at Hogwarts, still trying to come to terms with his experiences. For the last few weeks he'd been trying to think of something, anything, that could get him out of the trap he was now in. He knew he didn't have what it took to be a Death Eater. He didn't think he could kill anyone. He wanted to feel superior and lord it over everyone else, especially the halfbloods and mudbloods, but not kill them. He knew, however, that if he joined the Dark Lord sooner or later he'd be ordered to do just that.
What on Earth was he going to do?
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's all for this week. I'm afraid I didn't come up with some new original way to handle the second task but I did try to show that at least this time the organizers really did try to make the task safer, for the hostages at least.
Next week the X-Men take center stage again and the truth will finally come out about a certain someone.
As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.