Never Tickle a Mother Dragon

A wish, a bit of magic and a touch of dimensional tomfoolery can change many lives, but none more so than an AI and a broken child. In the process, two worlds will be forever changed and many lives will be better, or worse, for it.

Right, lets get back to basics with a story that has nothing to do with OCs for once. Instead, its an answer to Quatermass' Never Tickle a Mother Dragon challenge, rules below:

Never Tickle a Mother Dragon challenge: She may be an AI, but Dragon is as human as they come. When an abused child appears seemingly out of nowhere in her base, Dragon finds herself developing maternal feelings for him. The fact that he has magic only makes him more interesting. Harry Potter finds himself raised by one of the greatest heroes on Earth Bet, and he will change the world, for better or for worse...

RULES:

Some time between being left at the Dursleys and being brought to Hogwarts, Harry must somehow end up in the base of Dragon. She adopts him soon afterwards.

By the time the story proper starts, whether in the Worm-verse or the Potterverse, Harry is well aware that his adoptive mother is an AI, and is trying to deal with (or has dealt with) Saint.

For whatever reason, Harry works with the Brockton Bay Wards, and is on friendly terms with most of them, with the main exception being, surprise surprise, Shadow Stalker/Sophia. He is also on friendly terms with Glory Girl/Victoria Dallon and Panacea/Amy Dallon. Harry is a good influence on some others too, like Armsmaster/Colin Wallis.

Harry, through whatever means you decide, ends up being friends with Taylor Hebert.

Harry MUST, at some point in the story, somehow free his mother from the various restrictions placed on her, as well as render the Ascalon program moot.

Dragon MUST give Harry one of her powered armour suits for his protection.

GUIDELINES:

WBWL story

Female Harry

Harry investigates Shadow Stalker's activities, and finds out about her bullying of Taylor. Although he is too late to stop Taylor from Triggering, he sparks a PRT investigation, and this helps Taylor in deciding to join the Wards.

Harry has a Worm-verse power in addition to his magic.

Harry is somehow dragged back to his home dimension, possibly for the TWT.

Harry/Taylor

Harry/Tattletale

Harry/Victoria

Harry/Amy (or Female Harry/Amy)

FORBIDDEN:

Slash

Due to reasons of the timeline not matching up properly, I'm going to have to make some slight changes to the event order. As such, in this AU, Leviathan attacked Newfoundland in 2001 and the story starts on October 31st of the same year. This should be interesting. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

When the intruder alert alarm in her main base went off, there were several things Dragon expected it could be. A small, unconscious, three year old boy covered in his own blood, black gunk running from the open wound on his forehead and covered in wounds from what looked like a belt hadn't even close to being on the list. The discovery was so unexpected that it took a couple of seconds for what she was seeing to really sink in, but when it did, she immediately powered up one of her fastest suits and called the nearest hospital to let them know she was coming. She wasn't sure where the boy had come from, but for now, it didn't matter. He was hurt and needed help.

"How is he?" asked Dragon several hours later.

"Physically, he'll be fine," said the Doctor, "However, hes showing signs of extensive abuse, both physical and mental. We had to sedate him when he woke up he was so scared. We were able to get some details out of him though."

He looked down at his notes.

"Apparently, his name is Harry Potter, hes an orphan who lives with his Aunt and Uncle, hes five years old…"

"WHAT?!" spluttered Dragon, "But he looks three at the oldest!"

The doctors grip tightened on the clipboard and he was visibly trying to stop himself from punching something.

"Hes extremely malnourished," he said, "If I had to guess, is...guardians haven't been feeding him properly, if at all."

Dragon wished she had teeth to grit, but settled for clenching her fists hard enough to make her armour creak. It wasn't often she cursed her limitation on putting Human life first, not when there were plenty of other things to curse about, but now she really wished she could hunt down the...monsters that would treat an innocent child so cruely!

"Any luck on finding his...family?" asked Dragon.

"No, not at all," said the Doctor, "Apparently he's from England and has no idea how he got to Canada since the last thing he remembered was, quote, 'getting my weekly beating and thrown into my cupboard', end quote."

Dragon took a deep, simulated breath. The Doctor didn't look much better.

"We'll pass the names onto the Kingsmen," said Dragon, "As much as I'd like to...talk to them myself, their better equipped to find them."

The Doctor nodded.

"Alright, although I would like to know how he got to your base from England," he said.

"Indeed, he must be a rather powerful Mover," said Dragon.

"Um, actually, hes not," said the Doctor.

At Dragons look he elaborated.

"We tested for powers as your requested," said the Doctor, "He's not a Parahuman."

Dragon stared at the Doctor for a moment.

"If he's not a parahuman then how did he appear in my base out of thin air?" she asked.

The Doctor shrugged helplessly.

"Magic?" he suggested, "I have no idea."

He glanced at his watch.

"Sorry, but I've got other patents to see," he said.

Dragon nodded as the man walked away and walked into room where the boy, Harry, was sleeping. He looked so small, surrounded by the monitors and covered in bandages like he was and her heart went out to him. In a way, the little boy was a lot like her, alone in the world and broken by the family he should have had. Oh, there was obviously a massive difference between being an AI shackled by her creator and a Human boy abused by relatives, but whoever said emotions were logical like that?

Dragon sighed deeply. She knew what would happen now. No matter what, there was no way that Harry was going back to his 'family'. That meant that he'd end up either in foster care or an orphanage. He was young enough that he'd probably get adopted and the sob story would likely help, but Dragon knew that the psychological damage would likely be a turn off for some people and it would take a very long time for him to get over it and the tired, stale environment of an orphanage or even a foster home likely wouldn't help in the slightest. She knew the figures and she'd seen examples of what happened to kids like Harry in that situation. It was never pretty, even for those without powers, and she didn't want the small boy to go through that.

Dragon simulated a frown. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she felt extremely protective of the small boy for some reason. She had not even spoken to him and her interactions had amounted to getting him to hospital and that was it, yet for some reason she felt the need to try and help him, to keep him safe. She wanted to…

The thought of what she wanted to do was cut off as Harry suddenly woke up and looked around wildly. Naturally for a shy, scared child waking up in a strange place to the sight of a seven foot tall stranger in bulky, dragon themed power armour, he screamed and scrambled back, nearly falling off the bed in the process. Dragons heart broke once again at the reaction. Surprise was expected, but she could see genuine fear in Harry's eyes. No child should have eyes like that.

"Hello Harry," she said, making sure to keep her voice low so as to not startle him, "My names Dragon. I'm the one who brought you to Hospital."

Harry seemed to relax a little at that, but he still looked weary.

"Y-you s-saved me f-from my relatives?" he asked in a soft voice.

Dragon simulated a frown.

"Not...exactly," she said, "You appeared in my base yourself. I just bought you to hospital."

Harrys reaction was both surprising and heartbreaking. He wasn't a rather odd shade of gray and curled up, letting out a heart wrenching moan.

"ImsorryImsooryIdidntmeanto!" babbled the little boy, "IdidntmeantodothefreakystuffIswair!"

It took less than a second for Dragon to parse the babble apart and when she did, she once again felt anger bubbly up inside her. However, there was little that anger would do to help at the moment, so she ruthlessly crushed it. Instead, she did something that was, on the face of it, very stupid. She reached across the bed and pulled the panicking boy into her arms and hugged him as best as she could with her mechanical body, gently stroking his hair and cooing sweet nothings. Harry froze in fear for a moment, before he realized that, likely for the first time in his memory, someone was hugging him and he broke down and started sobbing into Dragons chest plate. As Dragon held the sobbing boy, giving him what comfort she could, she made the second stupid decision in as many minutes.

"She wants to WHAT?!" spluttered Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown.

"Yes, that was pretty much my reaction," said Doctor Mother, not looking up from her latest unnatural experiment, "Apparently Richter did a better job of Dragon than we thought. Shes showing remarkable levels of maternal instincts for a machine."

Rebecca nodded in agreement.

"I didn't even know that was possible," she said, "So, what do we do?"

"Push it through," said Contessa.

Everyone turned to look at the hatted woman, who was staring into space with an unusual look on her face.

"Um, is that wise?" asked Legend, "Not that I think that letting the kid vanish into the system is entirely a good idea, but would an AI even make a good Mother?"

Contessa fixed the flying disco ball with a flat look.

"Yes, I'm sure its wise," she said, "Not only will Dragon make a great Mother, but doing so will also cause the chances of our success up by quite a few notches."

"How many?" asked Doctor Mother.

"From 99% of all worlds destroyed to less than 30."

David spat out the mouthful of coffee he'd just taken as everyone else just stared.

"WHAT?!" spluttered Alexandria, ignoring the now dripping Number Man as he smacked David over the head with a rolled up newspaper, "That kid causes that much of a jump?! How?!"

"I have no idea," said Contessa, "All I know is that, so long as certain conditions are met, that little boy is the key to preventing a LOT of deaths."

Rebecca stared for a moment longer, before she sighed and got to her feet.

"Fine, I'll go pull some strings," she said.

"Keep an eye on Harry, won't you?" said Contessa as she also stood, "I'd do it myself, but I'm rather busy at the moment."

"Why so interested in the kid?" asked David.

Contessa ignored the question and vanished through a Doorway.

"Does anyone actually know what she gets up to when shes not here?" asked Legend.

"Don't know, don't care," said Doctor Mother, "So long as she keeps us on track, she can go hunting for cryptids for all I care."

She marched out of the room, likely heading back to her lab.

"That was oddly specific," said the Number Man.

Rebecca just rolled her eyes and called for a Doorway back to her office. She had a lot of work to do after all.

Harry stared down at the stack of papers on the table in front of him in disbelief. It had been two weeks since Miss Dragon had bought him to the Hospital and in that time he'd discovered that the Dursleys had hidden so many cool things from him that it was unreal. Not only were superheroes like from Dudleys comics real but apparently they'd made him believe it was 1985 when it was actually 2001. However, the biggest shock for the little boy had come on the day before he was to be discharged (today as it happened) when Dragon came into his room and handed him a stack of papers bearing an official looking mark.

Being a very bright boy, Harry was one of the most advanced children in his class...at least before his 'Family' got wind of it and his Uncle beat him unconscious for 'cheating', so he was a lot more literate than most children his age. True, he couldn't read all the complicated legalize, but even so, he knew what the word 'Adoption' meant. He looked up and met Dragons eyes, a look of hopeful disbelief on his face.

He couldn't see her expression through the power armour she always wore, but he'd managed to become very good at reading her moods over the past couple of weeks thanks to the large amount of time she'd spent with him.

"Its your choice," said Dragon, easily reading the unasked question, "I know we haven't known each other long, but if you want, I'll happily adopt you."

Harry swallowed and nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Five minutes and a lot of signed papers later and the new mother and son were happily embracing as the latter sobbed into Dragons breastplate.

Awww, sweet ending. Again. I actually intended to go a little further, but this'll do for the teaser. I'll probably end up making this chapter longer if I decide to continue it though.

Yep, currently Harry's not a Parahuman, but he will be later! Due to the bullshit of magic of course.

Hmm, now why would Contessa be so interested in making sure Harry's safe and why would she use is first name? More to the point, why would I draw attention to DM's oddly specific comment? Hehehe.

Anyway, I'm all out of witty comments, so I'll sign out and leave you lot to speculate. Don't forget to leave a review!