Not My Magical World
Chapter 24
Harry floated high above Potter Manor, clouds spreading below him as sunlight bathed his skin. The air around him slowly wavered as sunlight warped, sinking into his flesh. His eyes snapped open, burning with a bright purple light.
His condition had worsened, the 1% he took from the Juru no longer sustained his abilities, so he was forced to float up here hours a day, absorbing sunlight directly.
'Harry,' Jani's voice sounded in his mind, 'could you meet Divine and me at the science Citadel, please?'
'Sure, anything wrong?'
'No, we've just found something, but it needs a powerful mind to open it.'
'I'll be there in a few minutes.'
–XX –
Releasing a breath, Harry let the warm shower water soothe the ache in his muscles. Shaking his head, water droplets splattered on the tile of the shower. Stepping out of the shower, purple vapor wafted off his body, drying it instantly. Stopping before the mirror, Harry stared at his face.
While his body looked as strong as ever, he could sense his physical capabilities were getting weaker as the energy in his body leaked out. The torc would keep his power contained, but it was only a temporary measure.
Clenching his hand into a fist, he strode out of the bathroom, and his dresser drawer opened with a flick.
A short sleeve white shirt, a plaid button-down, jeans, socks, and boxers flew into the air. Harry plucked each piece of clothing out of the air, slipping it on. Putting on a pair of tan boots, Harry stepped through an oval-shaped portal that appeared in front of him.
–XX –
Jani of Juru stood before a six-story stone circular building. Its arched windows reflected the light as its shadow was cast across the ground.
Jani raised her head as the purple portal opened, and Harry stepped through. She stared at him as the portal closed.
Harry stood 6'2" tall, with brown hair still wet from the shower and emerald eyes. She moved forward, taking in the lean muscles that stretched his pale skin taught. He wore a white T-shirt beneath a plaid shirt tucked into his jeans and pale brown boots.
Jani stopped before him, staring into his eyes, "You've changed."
Harry raised an eyebrow, "How so?"
"You look the same," her blue eyes paled slightly, "but the energy within your body is lower than normal, and you've stopped taking energy from our people."
Harry's eyes widened slightly before his face relaxed, "You know about that?"
Jani snorted, "Of course, we've known for a long time and were initially suspicious until my father looked at you; he saw your injuries."
"Not injury deformity."
"It's getting worse."
"I'm handling it."
Jani turned away, "No, you're not."
As Jani led the way into the science Citadel, Harry looked around; it'd been a while since he walked the island's streets.
Buildings in the Japanese style made of crystal sat on either side of the tower. More buildings stretched beyond the street, gleaming in the morning sun's light.
Harry stared at the crystal structures. It'd taken a long time for the Juru to re-create the crystal technology from krypton. Ironically, some of the blood was responsible for helping them succeed.
Speaking of the blood, a smile spread across Harry's lips as he watched the magical humans mingle with the mutants and mutant Kryptonians.
This was what he wanted, mutants of all species working together.
Passing into the tower, Harry entered a large circular room. Four arches lined the walls, stopping at a crystalline staircase that spiraled upward.
Moving toward the staircase, Harry peered into the arches, finding a variety of spaces, forests, libraries, two different labs, and another archway that led to the Lazarus chamber where the dead were resurrected.
Turning his attention to Jani, Harry took her in as they climbed the staircase.
She changed very little in the last couple of years. She stood 5'4" tall with a slender waist and prominent bust. Pale purple skin tightened, showing defined muscles as she climbed the stairs. She had grown out her black hair, and it was now fashioned into a braided ponytail that bounced against the back of her tight red shirt.
He caught her blue eyes watching him in the reflection of the railing as they climbed the stairs. "Do you like what you see?"
"Definitely."
Jani's eyes widened at his response, and she stumbled onto the landing.
Harry caught her as he crossed over the last step.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Jani replied, facing him, "I wasn't expecting you to be so forward."
Harry leaned forward, "Maybe, I'm tired of playing it safe. Maybe I want to grasp what life has to offer."
Jani raised an eyebrow, leaning forward, her breath tickling his lips. "Do you think I'm offering?"
"Are you?"
The clearing of a throat interrupted the two, and both turned to see Divine standing a few feet away, a slight smirk on her face.
Divine was 5'11" tall with short curly black hair that stopped just past her chin. She wore a black sleeveless shirt and jeans that matched nicely with her slightly tanned skin.
It was good to see that Juru's paleness from prolonged exposure to the Phantom zone was slowly fading. Hopefully, one day they will be able to forget the experience or at least put it behind them.
She moved forward on her feet, her bright blue eyes twinkling, "Am I interrupting something?"
"Not at all," Harry replied as he and Jani separated, "just a bit of flirting."
"Harry," Jani hissed a darker tinge of purple on her cheeks.
"What?" Harry shrugged, "she knows what she saw. If she tells someone, she will do it regardless."
Divine nodded in agreement with Harry's words.
Jani narrowed her eyes, "You could at least pretend you're not going to tell everyone."
Divine's smirk widened, "I could, but then you wouldn't sweat as much."
Jani opened her mouth to retort, but Harry cut her off, "Jani said you needed my help."
The mirth vanished off Divine's face as if it had never been there, replaced by her usual serious expression, "yes," she nodded, "this way, please." Turning on her bare feet, she began walking away.
Divine led the way into another circular chamber. This chamber also had four arches lining the walls, a fifth arch set between the four separating them and leading into a much larger space.
As they moved toward it, Harry peered into the other for arches. The modern clothes of the blood and mutant blended with the skintight outfits of Juru as they moved in sync, working together on various projects.
Stopping before the large doorway, Harry gestured at the other arches, "What are they working on in there?"
"Some of them are working on creating greenhouse space in the tower to provide more food for the island, and others are working to combine blood, mutant, and Juru DNA to create a unified species."
Harry raised an eyebrow as they moved into the room, "You all want that?"
Divine moved toward a blocky chair with a headpiece that looked like a three-fingered claw resting on the back of it. "Yes, we each possess traits that would make the other stronger."
"The Juru have strong bodies and the ability to convert solar energy into magical power, the blood has an innate talent for manipulating magical energy and have somehow been able to use that magical energy to enhance their inborn abilities, and mutants have a variety of abilities that draw their power from an unknown energy source. They also seem immune to several diseases and resistant to radiation."
"With us all sharing unique mutations, we are eager to see what would happen if our traits come together."
"What about the Spark and Greenleaf," Harry asked, staring at a large circular tank in the center of the room that contained an obsidian-colored diamond.
Gold inlay filled the runes that spiraled across the obsidian surface.
"Juru and Spark have already begun to couple together. Some of the newer generations have been drawn together by an effort to create plant-based technology."
Harry moved forward, running his hands along the blocky marble chair, "As long as everyone is happy."
Sitting on the throne-like chair, Harry shifted uncomfortably, "Why stone?"
Divine moved behind the chair, picking up the headpiece; she set it on top of his head. "Stone contains the flow of magic better than our crystal technology. We are hoping to work with the Blood, and we will be able to create something similar to our crystal technology out of a magically conductive material."
Moving in front of him, she adjusted the fingers of the device to where the tips came together on his forehead.
"You still haven't told me what I need to do?"
"Just wait," moving around the chair, Divine waved her hand, and the crystal floor shifted as a dais rose. Stopping about 4 feet high, the top of the desk angled toward Divine, revealing a holographic keyboard.
Divine's fingers danced across the holographic projection.
One by one, the runes on the obsidian crystal began to light up.
"By studying certain magical formulas, we were able to make this machine that can scry for technology similar to Kryptonian technology. We have calibrated it to search for technology with the characteristics we're looking for that's been abandoned for a certain amount of time."
Harry's lips pressed together as he glanced at the ceiling, "Can it only search for technology?"
Divine shook her head, "No," she gestured to the tank, "by adjusting the runic sequence, it can search for anything."
Standing up, Harry began walking around the tank, pale purple power flooding into his Emerald eyes. To his sight, tendrils of letters and other mysterious symbols flowed from the air into the characters connected to the obsidian diamond.
Reaching out with his mind, Harry touched one of the streams. In a blink, a familiar library flashed in his mind.
"I'm impressed," he turned to Divine and Jani, "By working with the blood, the Juru have created a physical connection to the plane of knowledge."
Jani nodded, a proud smirk on her lips, "that's one of the reasons the science Citadel is studying away to join our DNA."
"They couldn't just do it the old-fashioned way?"
"That's what I said," Divine nodded, "but according to what the rest of the scientists told me. By developing a serum that changes each Juru, blood, and mutant into an optimized version of themselves with shared traits, our people hope to Dodge the pitfalls of reproduction. This will also make us more genetically compatible and help increase our population."
Harry moved back to the blocky marble chair and crossed one leg over the other, "I'm surprised people would want to change what they are even if the benefits are good."
Jani shook her head, "It won't change our people; the goal is to have it be like the super soldier formula humans use."
"I take it Andromeda is the one running the project."
Both women nodded.
"I'll talk about it with her later."
"Now again, what do you need me to do."
"When we first activated it," Divine started, "we programmed the machine to search for technology with similar characteristics to Kryptonian technology, but instead of finding something similar, we found an exact match."
"An exact match," Harry repeated.
Jani nodded, "I was plugged into the machine at the time, and I can confirm that there seems to be Kryptonian technology hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars."
Harry laced his fingers together, "Okay, you found Kryptonian technology; what do you need me for?"
"We need you to open a portal to Mars and help access the container where the technology is located."
"I understand the first part, but why do you need me to access the container?"
"That's the strange thing," Divine began typing on the holographic keyboard again, bringing up recordings of brain patterns.
"There is a neural lock on the container holding the Kryptonian technology, Jani," Divine gestured at the woman, "tried to open it with her brain patterns, but she couldn't, so we ran a scan of everyone on the island, and only yours was similar to the brain pattern needed."
Harry narrowed his eyes at the two women, "We will discuss you scanning everyone on the island's brain patterns without permission later," both women shared a look, "but right now, you have piqued my curiosity," he gestured at the tank, "so fire this thing up."
Divine pressed a button, and the crystal began to spin. As it turned, Harry's mind was pulled elsewhere.
–XX –
Harry appeared in a star-filled void, the earth floating at his back.
Stars began to flow together, forming a pathway that led to the large red planet in the distance.
Floating down onto the pathway, Harry walked along, space blurring as he moved miles with each step. Within less than a minute, he had arrived at the red world.
Stepping onto the planet, his eyes locked on a distant storm. The pale red clouds spanned at least 100 miles, and lightning flashed. From where he stood, he could feel the rumbling of thunder and the boom of lightning striking through his feet.
'All right, I'm on Mars; where do I go now?'
Divine's voice echoed in his mind, 'I will show you the path we took last time.'
Red dirt shifted, sending dust into the sky as a path formed before Harry, leading deeper into the planet.
'How are you doing this? First the path in the stars, now this.'
'I'm not; you are, the machine is filtering data into your mind, and your subconscious is forming the path for others to follow.'
Harry began walking down the path, quickly disappearing beneath the ground. In his astral form, he needed no light, his footsteps made no sound, and he quickly lost track of time.
'I don't know how I feel about your machine influencing my subconscious.'
'You're creating the path as the machine feeds you the data.'
'Still, seems kind of invasive.'
'It's needed and quicker than giving you the information that could be interpreted wrong.'
Harry didn't like it but couldn't argue with the results, so he stayed silent.
'How deep is this thing because I just passed some melted rock?'
'Not much farther now,' Jani replied as the earthing path curved before him.
Rounding the corner, Harry came face-to-face with a wall of silver metal.' I think I'm here; I just found a wall of metal.'
'Good,' Divine said, her voice intense, 'project your thoughts toward the wall. Once your thoughts interact with the wall, a screen will appear to verify your brain pattern, and it should open.'
Harry stepped forward and placed his hand on the wall. Though he didn't need it and was in his astral form, touching the wall helped him focus. Closing his eyes, he pushed his intent to open the wall forward.
His hand pressed harder into the wall as he felt his psychic energy flow forward.
The wall rippled beneath his hand, and Harry opened his eyes.
A small rectangular screen appeared on the wall about eye level.
A wavelike pattern danced across the screen briefly before it flashed yellow.
'It just flashed yellow; what does that mean?'
'Give me a moment,' Divine said, her voice distant.
Harry stood there, staring at the yellowed screen, his brain patterns projected in wavy green lines.
Suddenly, Jani appeared beside him. Without saying a word, she stepped forward and placed her pale blue astral hand on the wall. After a moment, the screen turned green, and Jani turned to Harry.
"Divine looked back over the brain pattern it was searching for. Apparently, it was looking for both our brain patterns."
"How could whoever made this know about me? I get you; you were in the Phantom zone, but how could they know we would be in such a situation that we could use our brain patterns together."
The wall shifted again, forming a rectangular door-shaped opening.
"That's a good question; why don't we ask them?"
Together, they stepped through the doorway. For a moment, there was darkness.
They found themselves in a large room 60' x 40' when it faded. Silver shelves line the walls, holding crystals in a variety of shapes. However, what drew their attention was an intricate symbol etched onto the floor in the center of the room. It was inlaid with crystal that shone in the pale, sanitized light of the room.
Harry made to step around the symbol and investigate the shelves while Jani knelt to examine the character.
A force pushed Harry back, and Jani glanced up,
"I think this is a blood lock," she ran her finger along the crystal, her eyes a paler shade of blue as she examined it with her enhanced eyesight, "while the crystal is far more advanced than what we use on the island, I can see some similarities, and we need the correct blood for us to be able to access the room."
Moving back to Jani, Harry knelt beside her, his eyes flashing a pale purple as he reached out with his mind scanning the symbol.
Kryptonian technology was borderline magical. The crystal technology was built from the ground up, and how the facets of the crystal came together dictated its function. "Will it hurt us?"
Jani shook her head, her dark hair swaying, "Not as long as we have the right blood."
"Considering our minds unlocked the door, I assume we do."
Together they stood, each taking a spot on the opposite side of the symbol. As one, they stretch their hands forward, psychic energy weaving into blades. Locking eyes with each other, they pressed the knives against their palms.
"One," Jani said.
"Two," Harry continued.
"Three," They finished together, their blades biting into the skin. At that exact moment, Harry opened portals back to their physical bodies. Since the mind affected the body, their skin parted, and blood flowed from their palms and through the portal when their blades cut into their astral hands.
Crimson liquid flowed through the portal before their natural regeneration healed their wounds, and the portal closed.
The moment their blood touched the symbol, thin blue lines lit up in a pattern unknown to Harry.
They stepped back, shielding their eyes as a bright blue light shot from the symbol. When it dimmed, they watched it coalesce into a thin old man with a long white beard wearing white robes.
His white eyes glanced between them, not seeing them but knowing they were there. "Greetings, Harry Potter, Jani of Juru. Welcome to the ark of Krypton."
