Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Marvel. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Note: For reference on what the suit is supposed to look like, I based it off of Tony's suit design in the Superior Iron Man.

Note: My research into the Symbiotes and their abilities led to some pretty epic discoveries. Did you know they can absorb and mimic pretty much anything they come into contact with, even firearms? Don't believe me, look up Edge of the Venomverse and the Punisher Venom.

Chapter Ten - Building The Suit

Harry smiled gleefully down at the table in his lab that held all the pieces of his dreams and began to rub his hand together like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. Honestly it took all of his willpower not to let loose with a 'Excellllleeeennnntttt.' Illyana had fallen in love with the show and demanded he and Laura join her for her nightly marathon viewings.

Beside him Perenelle was merely curious. "You know," she began, "I have been around for over two thousand years and even I do not recognize these substances. Can you explain?"

"Of course." After all the powerful woman had shown and taught him, the prince felt honored to be the teacher for once. "These are the elements that shall make up my armor now that we have finally alchemically adjusted them enough to be viable with each other. In their base state these two metals at least are diametrically opposed so you can understand why it took so much work to get here." He held up two slabs of metal in his hands. "These are vibranium and adamantium. One nullifies kinetic force, and the other is completely unbreakable. Seriously, they've tried everything imaginable and nothing known to man can break it."

"In short, you would make yourself an unbreakable and immovable object."

"If it all works as I intend." Harry nodded before moving over to the next items. These were more mechanical in nature. "Here we have a neural mechanical exoskeleton with endoskeletal connectors. Basically, this will offset the weight of the armor itself to make it near weightless for me while also making it react to the barest impulses of my nervous system. Ergo, I will be able to move and react as fast as my thought processes."

"Which are indeed quite precise." Perenelle smiled down at her protege. It was always a joy to see him get excited about his projects.

"Of course."

"Why not just use runes as your father does?"

"Because I want my armor to be infinitely adaptable and open to change based on my needs. Dad already achieved perfection with his initial design. However, if he wants to change anything he has to forge a new piece to replace the old. I think he likes doing that though. It gives him an excuse to work with his hands."

"These things all make sense, but what in the gods' names is that thing?" She pointed one long finger at a glass display. Within it was a writhing mass of black that appeared to be both a liquid and a solid simultaneously.

"Near as I can tell it is an alien species best referred to as a Symbiote. The Life Foundation has been studying them in space for the last two years and a recent observation station accident led to a handful of them crashing to earth, though I'm pretty sure the incident was intentional considering the testing facility that already existed below their San Francisco office. I found this all out through the multi-viewer and I just knew they could be made to fit my uses."

Penny raised an interested eyebrow and crossed her bare arms. She never wore sleeves inside the lab. "How is that?"

"Based on the research I 'acquired' and the scientific notes dad 'bought'" he used air quotes for both words, "the Symbiotes require a host to exist outside of the vacuum of their homeworld. That glass display this one is currently in mimics their home environment, and the others in the caves below have similar artificial environments prepared. Ergo, once I let it go it will need to bond with someone, and I will be the only one there when it is released. It offers its bonded enhanced strength, agility, and senses at the offset, and typically more advantages would follow, but I will only make use of those three at first."

"That makes little sense, Harry. Why not take all of its advantages?"

"Because as it exists now, the Symbiote has various levels of compatibility with its host. Unless the bond is perfect off the bat then use of the greater abilities would further the host body degradation."

"Degradation?"

"The parasite would essentially consume me."

Penny gasped, "You cannot use it then at all. The risk is too great."

"Under normal circumstances it would be." Harry agreed as he reached back to the table and grabbed a small, flat, mechanical orb the size of a quarter. "Which is why I asked dad to meet with Dr. Octavius and get me this. It is a complete neural interface and override. It would normally place my higher brain functions ahead of any artificial intelligent machines. Olivia uses it to maintain control of her mechanical arms. However, I don't want the Symbiote to have even a chance of taking control, so I plan to completely override and dominate its personality."

Perenelle was starting to get an idea of what he was planning and it was ingenious. "You intend to destroy the consciousness already in place and use the neural interface to control and influence the development of the new personality that arises from the mental devastation."

"Yes. And from there I can direct it to feed on pretty much anything other than me. Heck, the nutrients I consume on a daily basis could do the job."

"But why do that in the first place? Why allow it any intelligence at all? And why use it? I'm sure there are other ways to enhance your abilities than allowing an alien intelligence to bond with you." The idea of all of this surely would have scared or horrified any other person, but Perenelle had seen and done much in her two plus millenia of life, and this was actually rather tame compared to some. She was just legitimately curious.

"There are a couple reasons. One, I have reason to believe that minus any intelligence at all the Symbiote will simply cease to be, and its use to me will thus end. I have others, seven to be exact, but to waste one of such a small pool seems the height of foolishness. Two, a second pair of eyes is always a good thing. Imagine If I should somehow lose consciousness in combat or be drugged, what happens then? The Symbiote could act through me via the armor to secure my safety and the deaths of my enemies. I just need to make sure it is completely loyal to me first and I know just the way. Finally, I chose to do this in the first place because these creatures have been documented performing a very amazing feat."

"What kind of feat?"

"Remember how I said I want my armor to be adaptable? Well, it turns out that Symbiotes can copy, absorb, and replicate anything they come into contact with for their own use including weapons and clothes."

Perenelle gasped with understanding, "Your armor could become anything you want!"

"Within reason. I don't believe it could summon enough mass to become a tank for example, but growing weapons, adapting and etching new rune schemes on the surface to my desires, and altering the design and function of the armor itself, yes those could be achieved. And with the neural link and the exoskeleton connectors those changes won't even need a verbal command. I'll think about what I want and it will be there. Also, I won't have to make an entirely new suit once I hit my growth spurt." He looked annoyedly down at his still four and a half foot height. "That should hopefully be coming soon."

"I must say, Harry, I am impressed." Penny rubbed the boy's back in appreciation of his efforts. "I can't even recall the last time I was surprised, but this is amazing, and if you can succeed in your creation then you will have officially made something entirely new to me. It honestly sounds perfect."

"It is now." Harry agreed. "Turns out these things naturally have a great weakness to fire and sound. I'm just glad I figured that out and drew up some runes to offset them before it became a real problem." The boy preened at her praise for a few more moments and then began moving things around to better positions on the table before summoning more environmental tanks from the nearby shelves. "Alright, first I need to dominate and shatter its mind, I have a good ritual for that, and then build a new one. After that I'll bond the new intelligence and imprint upon it before absorbing the other pieces."

Training Hall

Nicholas watched Illyana perform her sword scales with a wooden longsword easily and critiqued her footwork as she went. It was a bit awkward for her even after this long, but her natural grace and agility made up for it. Why was it awkward though? Especially with a teacher so grand as himself? Why, that would be because compared to her current height her sword was comically long. There was a reason for this though, and now that the girl's warmup was done it was time to let it be shown.

"Alright, put the stick back on the shelf and enter the ready position."

The blond quickly ran to do so before hopping (her form of skipping) back to the center of the room, placing her hand on her heart as she did. At her teacher's nod she took a deep breath, felt for the draw of her aura, and pulled her hand away. As she did, black metallic scales seemed to rise up from the back of her hand, up her arm, and over her shoulder while a blade of concentrated azure light exploded into existence in the palm of her hand. The reason now was plain to see as the new weapon was longer than her body was tall, and as she grew Nicholas knew from experience that that was not likely to change.

Illyana gave the weapon a few waves and cringed as its tip scored smoldering divots in the ground. She was still getting used to judging distances with the weapon that could apparently cut through anything, but that was what this exercise was for. Indeed, as Nicholas wheeled over the cart he'd asked the monks to fill earlier that morning she set her feet and clasped both hands on the hilt in a high guard to wait for him.

"Now remember, Illyana, watch, time the swing, and then return to a ready position or guard. The goal is to eliminate the threat and 'not' damage the floor around you." Nicholas spoke easily.

"A-Alright." The horned girl chirped while narrowing her gaze and shuffling her shoulders slightly.

'Impatient, but I can work on that later' Nicholas thought as he yanked the tarp off the top of the cart to reveal a deep barrel filled with fresh fruits. Watermelons and apples predominantly. He liked having different sized projectiles to keep the child guessing. "Alright then, en guard!" And so went flying the fruit. When they were done with that they'd move on to sparring. And after that would be dance lessons. Penny had gotten him into that practice and it was something he replicated with all of his students. Nothing built balance and coordination quite like it. Perhaps river dancing would be a style that would suit the girl? It would be interesting to see how it would work with her hooves.

In The Mountains

"Is there a reason we're hiking through the snow and wind?" Laura asked testily as the Wolverine led her off into the unknown. The monastery had long since vanished in the ever changing landscape and the distance from her human was putting the mutant ill at ease. She didn't like being away from his side.

"The feral is inside you, kid." Logan answered gruffly through the thick scarf covering the lower half of his face. Just because his skin could heal from the frostbite didn't mean he enjoyed the experience. "You need to face your instincts head on and master them, otherwise when faced with stressful situations in the future they will rule you. Humans like to joke that there are two wolves in every man, but for us there actually is an animal inside, and it doesn't like being kept beneath the surface. It will fight you for control if you let it."

"So how do we do this?" Laura asked, just before a booming bark erupted in the distance. At once her claws were out and she was bent low, sniffing the air and turning left and right to try and find the source of the threat.

"That's how." Logan allowed his own claws to extend from the flesh surrounding his knuckles and started stomping off toward the noise. "I have laid a shitload of bait out here over the last few weeks and by now these mountains are no doubt crawling with bears. You and I are going to let the feral inside ourselves out to play, and over time you will learn to recognize it, feel it, and coexist with it."

"I-I do not want to kill bears though." Laura protested. Back in the facility she'd been allowed to raise and care for a little bear cub, but then she'd been forced to kill it after the poor thing had been given drugs and made to attack her. It was her maker's way of ensuring she formed no attachments.

"They are here now whether you like it or not. If you do not kill them then they will pose a constant threat to Harry."

In an instant Laura had crossed the distance to reach his side. "Show me the way."

The Alchemy Lab

Harry finished off the last of the runes needed for his array surrounding the glass display and nodded to himself. It was time. Placing his right hand upon the glass and palming the neural link with his left, he allowed his magical power to build within his body until the hollows of his eyes began to pulse with energy. Only then did he proclaim the word of power that made the runes flash and the Symbiote writhe in agony for ten seconds before it finally calmed back down.

When the light disappeared for good all that remained was a drooping pool of alien parasite, twitching only occasionally as he tapped the glass. "Perfect." Harry declared, "Now to introduce the bond. Penny, if you would?"

He handed the Celtic woman the link and she dutifully held it to his skin just over his neck and spine, staring on in interest as hair thin wisps of adamantium descended from the base and embedded themselves into his spinal cord. To his credit, Harry only barely flinched.

"Yikes, that sucked." Taking deep breaths to deal with the new addition to his anatomy, he added, "I can't risk another possible host being present. Can you give me the room?"

"Just call me if you need me. I'll give you five minutes and then I'm coming back in no matter what though. If things go wrong you might need help."

Rather touched by the kindness being shown to him by a woman that had quickly become like an honorary aunt to him, he said, "I'll be fine, but I appreciate your concern. I'm ready for this, I promise."

"Alright then." Perenelle gave the boy a final supportive smile and finally took her leave.

Turning back to the tank, Harry gently removed his vest and shirt, folded them neatly on a nearby chair and stood bare chested before the braindead alien entity. He wasn't sure where or how it would enter into him but he figured more available surfaces could only help. Though now that he came to it, the young prince had to admit that he was a bit nervous. He was confident in his predictions of course, but who knew how this would change him later? There were no studies yet to show what long term Symbiosis did to the human body. As if drawn by his insecurities he felt Laura's mind questing for his own, and the moment he let her in his thoughts were filled with her own overwhelming belief in his ability. It was more than enough to get him over the final hurdles of his nerves.

Crossing the last bit of distance to the table he ripped off the tank lid, and driven only by survival instinct the Symbiote, now exposed to the air, launched itself at the first living thing it could find. It slammed into Harry's chest and over the course of several seconds of agonizing pain it seemed to… meld with his skin, driving itself ever deeper until its tendrils and body were working their way through his muscle and into his bloodstream. As soon as it began, it ended, and Harry found himself gasping for air on his knees. Nothing happened for a few seconds and he began to worry that it had all been for nothing, but then the link on the back of his neck grew suddenly warm and in the depths of his mind he heard a voice, quiet, shapeless, yet to reach full cognizance. {What… what am I?} It wanted to know.

Grinning with triumph, Harry answered, "You are my armor and your name is Faraday."

{Armor? Yours? Who are you?}

"I am your creator."

{My creator? My…Father?}

"Yes, I suppose I kind of am." It was a juvenile assumption but he'd take it.

{Then what is my purpose… father?}

"Your purpose is to always protect me. Through every experience, every battle, every interaction, you will be within me and always on alert. You are my creation, my guard, and my partner. From this moment on we are one."

{I… understand. To be one feels right.}

"Good." Harry, still a bit sore, shuffled over to the neighboring table where the rest of the materials were located and leveled his hands over them all. "If we take in these objects and machines we will be stronger still. Later I will show you some carvings that I call rune schemes and you will emulate them inside us. Do you understand?"

{I do.}

"Then make us stronger." The prince only had a moment to wonder how this would happen before twin black tendrils erupted from his palms and latched onto the slabs of vibranium and adamantium before slowly moving to encompass them.

{What should I do with these, father?}

"That's easy, Faraday. You are armor, so that is what we'll make of this. As for what it will look like, I have a few designs in my head that we can implement."

The Mountains

Coming back to her own mind, Laura focused back on her work cutting the fifth bear hide free from her latest kill. It had been one of Logan's first lessons out here, not to waste what they killed. Already she was thinking that the pelts would make good gifts for her human and the others once they had been treated and cleaned. She had some rather good ideas for the use of one herself in her regular outfit already.

"Alright, kid." Wolverine grunted as he hefted his own pelts on his back. "That's enough for today. Let's head back for now. Tomorrow we'll come back out for the wolves."

"Wolves?"

"You didn't think this was it, did you? No, you and I got a lot of time reserved in the cold so get used to dressing all warm like."

Together they made the slow trek back to the massive structure, and after passing off their burdens to a waiting group of monks, they met the Flamels and Illyana in the great hall. As Logan went off to 'find a drink' Laura inquired, "Why are you all out here?"

Illyana shrugged, "Harry said he wanted to show us something impressive and that we should wait here for him. Other than that, your guess is as good as ours."

Meanwhile Perenelle was rubbing her hands together gleefully. "Oh I know what it is and I can't wait to see the big reveal. You girls are going to love it." As she spoke, a portal opened beside them and Doctor Doom entered with his queen on his arm, a bald woman at his side, and a beautiful stranger with curly black hair walking breezily behind them all. At once Illyana ran to hug Valeria, but before anything else could happen another interruption occurred as the main door opened and the fantastic four entered. It was a surprise to no one that Valeria Richards charged through the throng and started chattering at once with her horned friend.

"Victor." Reed nodded to his scientific rival as their wives began chattering as well. "Who are your new friends?" He nodded to the women that had joined him.

In grand kingly fashion Victor gestured to each with his gauntlet to make introductions. "This is Yao, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. She has been instructing me in her style of magic. And this… is Cynthia Von Doom, my mother." All other conversations ceased as every eye in the room locked onto the proudly smiling woman.

"You succeeded then?" Reed questioned. At the answering nod he broke his usual manner and happily clapped the armored man on the shoulder pauldron. "I'm happy for you then. Does Harry know?"

"Not yet. I was going to tell him today, but then the summons came that he had completed his work and I decided to do so after his presentation. It seems he summoned you as well."

"Hardly. He invited Valeria and Susan thought this would make a nice family outing."

"And I was so right." Susan beamed as she and Queen Valeria joined them both. "This place is amazing, and little Valeria has missed her friends. But where is Harry?"

Her words acted almost as a signal because Laura shushed them all and made them turn to a nearby wall. A moment later it shattered and in floated a smiling Harry with his arms crossed over his chest. Shortly after his passing the wall fixed itself, and the crowd seemed impressed enough, but Victor made a mental note to talk to his boy about this later. He'd been informed by the monks about Harry's new power move, and while it held promise, the resulting damage of the entrance could easily injure the unaware. Displays of power were well and good, but only if done under true control. There were less destructive ways to go about what he was doing and they would be discussing them. Power without control was merely chaos.

Harry stared down at the gathered crowd and declared, "When I came here I had a dream to create a suit of armor that would grant me enough power to defend those I care about while also making me a symbol of hope for my people. Today I have finally done so." As he spoke, a black and white substance seemed to rise out of his visible skin, crawling from his hands and neck to cover his clothes and body in their entirety. When it was done, it appeared as if Harry's form was encapsulated in a suit of black and white mechanical armor that covered every inch of skin except for his face. The back and sides of his skull were similarly covered but his features and scars were plain to see by all.

Floating down until he was of a height with his father he offered, "You said I should wear my scars proudly, this way I can."

"I can respect that, but all the same it seems like you have left quite the target open there, son."

"Not really." He moved over to Valeria. "Hey Val, wanna punch me in the face?"

"Sure!" Having been trained by the Thing, it was safe to say that Valeria was more than a bit battle happy, so given the first opportunity she sent a super powered punch straight at her best friend's nose. Her fist impacted the space directly ahead of it and stopped. That was weird, shouldn't there have been a big boom or a crunch, or even a sign at all that there had been a connection?

Seeing the combined shock of the group, the prince explained. "The metal of my armor is composed of a unique blend of adamantium and vibranium. It is completely unbreakable and absorbs all kinetic force." He raised a palm toward the nearest wall and a moment later a visible wave of power shot out like a heat wave and shattered it completely. "I can also release it if enough is gathered at once. As for my face, well, I've made the design completely adaptable at will so it was a simple matter to make that part of the armor completely clear and unobstructive. I'm still armored, it just isn't visible."

Doom rubbed his chin in thought, "Intriguing, so that would mean you could create an entirely new set of armor in the future?"

"I've already designed three. The one here and two others." Harry agreed. "Even as adaptable as this set is, there is only so much space to engrave the runes I want. This will be my primary battle form, but the others will define my swordsmanship and pure magical output."

"This is amazing." Doom crossed the distance and clamped a hand onto his son's shoulder. "I am proud of what you have achieved here, Harry."

More than a bit wowed by the praise, the boy simply said, "T-Thanks, dad."

"Perhaps we should go outside then and take your creation through its paces?" Doom gestured to the gathered children, "I gather they would like to show off what they have learned as well." The affirmative chirps from the girls made the truth of that statement plain to see. "But first," The king led his son by the arm to the curly haired woman, "there is someone I'd like you to meet. Harry, this is Cynthia Von Doom, my mother and your grandmother."

As Harry stared on in open mouthed shock his armor retreated back into his body, causing him to drop about a foot to the floor. As he groaned with embarrassment and got back to his feet the chuckling witch knelt down in front of him and cupped his face gently. "Hello, Harry. I am so pleased to finally meet you."

Author's Note: There it is, the prologue is officially done. The next chapter will begin after a bit of a timeskip and it will take us to the events of the Avengers. It is time for the greater world to learn the power of Harry Von Doom.