Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. The HP franchise and all the canonical characters pertaining to it are properties of J.K Rowling and Warner Bros. The Characters related to the MCU aren't mine either.
[CHAPTER EIGHT]
Harry witnessed Wolverine get enraptured and give in to berserker rage. He'd watched the man cut a bloody path through the assembled mercenaries and soldiers.
He quickly escaped the mind of his latest puppet, unwilling to find out how being in a puppet's mind when they die would affect him.
His eyes snapped open and focused on the figure of Natex steadily pouring a chemical from a test tube into the cylinder of a syringe.
Did Sinister really think he could get so close that he'd be able to inject him with the hallucinogenic?
Harry shook his head and studied the man properly. His hands were steady, he didn't look panicked. In fact his countenance was that of someone assured that everything was going to go well—go his way.
Harry felt foolish for having not noticed his new Uncle's confidence before. He couldn't help but be wary. Having been inside the man's head Harry knew that Natex wasn't to be underestimated. After all that's why he (Harry) had been biding his time to have his revenge, but it seemed the rage and power that came with his White Hulk form had forced him to ignore the qualities that made Nile Hasse Natex Mr. Sinister.
His enlightenment did not go unnoticed by Natex. His eyes were on what he was doing, never straying from the syringe, yet he was somehow able to observe Harry at the same time without even sending him a fleeting glance.
"You can feel it now, can't you?" His Uncle Nile asked, calmly. "The foreboding sense that something is about to go wrong. I think that's Domino's powers at work. My theory is that your magic is beginning to enhance the powers you are duplicating. Oh, you small minded boy, if only you know the magnitude of what you possess. You are a cocktail of several wavelengths of the supernatural spectrum. Personally, I think you could go head to head with an Asgardian now and come out unscathed. Sadly, you limit yourself by not trying to understand your potential. Sad for you, beneficial for me. This makes you too weak to stop me."
"Nothing you have said indicates that you will be able to control me," Harry said with faux pompousness.
Sinister snickered. "So apparently your small mind isn't just limited to understanding your capabilities, you also lack the ability to read between the lines."
"Alright, I will spell it out to you as simply as I can," Sinister informed. He was done preparing the syringe but instead of applying it immediately he placed it in his pocket instead then brought a chair to the glass facing the chamber and sat down opposite Harry. The only thing separating them was the magically reinforced glass. "You see, for several days you have been using the combination of telepathy and Legilimency to steal Knowledge from my mind, mostly memories related to Project Titan and your dear mother..."
Unfettered shock appeared on Harry's face making Sinister to tsk. "Oh don't look so surprised. Yes it was a smart move, utilizing both mental arts coordinately. It might even be a contradiction of my belief that you do not recognize your maximum potential. But did you think I wouldn't notice you trespassing into my own mind regularly? I did notice and though my telepathy is too limited to fully block you out I'm not totally defenseless to psychical assaults. I was able to hide a lot from you and let you only have access to what I want you to know. Consider everything you took from my mind as a generous gift."
Harry couldn't believe this. He had been so stupid, so overconfident. Sinister was a telepath and it was pretty stupid to have assumed that a telepath would be unaware of a foreign presence in their mind. It was simple logic that all telepaths were gods in their mental realm. Harry had unknowingly fallen for one the biggest natural scams in the globe, the overwhelming confidence introduced by the pride of succeeding.
"You said nothing," Harry accused.
Natex chuckled. "I said nothing," he said, smirking. "I saw it as an opportunity to not only feed you limited information but to also reciprocate the psychical gesture. Each time you visited my mind, I familiarized myself with your psi signature... until I was able to replicate it and use it to bond with your psyche, thus establishing a permanent telepathic link with you granting me minimal access to your thoughts and memories."
Harry at that moment felt that it'd be wise to copy all the powers of each X-Men member currently on the island. With the way the conversation was going he knew that it might conclude in a showdown. Natex with a single conversation just sent the ratio of his threat level sky high and Harry didn't want to be embarrassingly tricked by the man again. This time he'd be prepared as much as he can.
"That's some serious BS, you are probably thinking now. After all, you had been able to notice Xavier's intrusion and had been able to act on it. It was quite a brutal method you used, I must say, I approve. Desisting the sidetrack, there is a huge difference from the telepathic link I've established with you and the usual conventional methods of accessing the mind. Think of it like the coloration of hair. There are two means by which a person's hair can attain color, there is of course the gene responsible for natural hair coloration and then there is dyeing. The latter can be observed and acted upon if you don't like the color being used for you in a hair salon, the former is subtle and gives you no choice in the matter; in fact a majority of our planet's population are not even aware or educated about the fact that it's a gene that determines their hair color. You can consider the psychical devices you are familiar with as dyeing and my telepathic link as the cilicious pigmentation gene."
Sinister relaxed back into his chair and frowned in a look that expressed disappointment. He opened his mouth and continued with his evil monologue.
"The telepathic link is not flexible enough for me to control you but it's utile enough for me to use it for monitoring you. Insufficient in making me capable of interpreting your thoughts and memories, but adequate in letting me understand their general meaning. Taming you, my boy, will be very hard. But never worry as I possess the right set of skills to see to that."
"How? We both know you aren't more powerful than I am," Harry asked, snidely and folded his hand in arrogance. He wasn't really feeling arrogant but felt the need to put on a show so he could keep Natex talking and see if he could figure out what the man's plan was. Natex had before stated that he planned to use the hallucinogenic to control him, and he had implied that he'd use the ejection tube to gas Harry with the thing but the chemical was currently in a syringe which meant that Sinister had decided not to use the tube anymore. What Harry wanted to know was how the man planned on injecting him with that thing without getting squashed by his Hulkish hands.
"You are fishing for information," Natex surmised, proving that a telepathic link indeed existed between him and Harry. Harry immediately began using the telepathic powers of one of the X-Men he'd copied, Jean Grey, to start searching for that link. He was going to destroy it even if it ended up frying his brain.
Sinister brought out an odd double ring from his pocket. "This is the answer to your question. It's called a sling ring. Your mother ran into a sorcerer who could do magic but had no magic. She managed to use the Imperius Curse to control him and gain access to his mind. She took this ring and his knowledge from him before killing him. When your mother died I managed to break into her lab and... well, I took everything for myself. Her research notes are simply marvelous. It was from them I got the arithmancy formula for the modified Fidelius charm I used on this base and the invisibility ward. The greatest find though was this ring. It took me some time but I managed to get the hang of how it works. Wanna see?"
Without giving him the chance to respond. Sinister put on the ring then stretched out the hand he wore it on and moved the hand like one would when cutting a steering wheel, making a near perfect circular gesture. A few meters away from his hand a circular spatial tear appeared. The portal was the size of a disk and before Harry could get a good look at the other side, Natex brought out the syringe and threw it through the portal like a dart.
Perhaps if Harry had had Domino's powers activated then he'd have been able to manipulate the possibility of the needle finding a purchase right into the nape of his neck. The last thing he saw before Sinister closed the portal was the big needle embedded in the back of his neck.
It was not ordinary steel, else it wouldn't have pierced him, the needle would have broken. What was it?
He didn't get much time to think about it.
A foggy cloud fell upon his mind and his awareness and perception began to malfunction. It was like he was being affected by Vertigo's power. His vision swarmed and he started to see everything like they were made of light and shadows.
"With this hallucinogenic augmenting the telepathic link, I'll have full and total control of you, young Harry." Natex's voice sounded distant and somewhat muffled. Harry crashed to the floor from where he had been sitting facing the glass. His massive white bulk made a loud impact on the ground.
"It will take about eight seconds for the drug to kick in and when it does I will be able to fully use the established telepathic link as if it were an Imperius Curse," Natex continued explaining even as Harry groaned and rolled on the floor trying to use his telepathy and Legilimency to override Sinister's upsurging control of his mind. "Do you see what true power is now Harry? It is the power of foresight. The power of laying down multi layered plans for every predicted outcome. Befriending you made Project Titan easier but you weren't meant to be our friend forever. Friends are granted Independence and we need you as a weapon, a weapon fully under our control, my control. This was always the plan, though not exactly with this method. I had other ideas, brainwashing, the Imperious curse, and even a risky psyche modification method using Legilimency that I'd discovered in your mother's notes. None would have been sufficient as the method I just applied now. Thank you, Harry, for inspiring the idea by intruding on my mind."
As soon as Natex gave his gratitude Harry began to feel himself lose in the fight for his mind. Natex made things worse by actively attacking his mind through the telepathic link which Harry was now able to identify since it was being actively used without any subtleness. But he was unable to find where it was tethered to his psyche or when it linked back to Natex's mind. All he was aware of was the link's presence as it enhanced the work of the chemicals in his neurons.
Harry despaired as he felt himself beginning to lose his will. A puppet duplicate of his mind was taking over the operation of his body and he was being pushed to the backseat, the deepest recess of his mind.
With a rumbling grunt Harry Potter was buried within his own mind and the beastly mind of White Hulk took over.
The White Hulk stood up and regarded Sinister who was calmly watching him. Seeing the blank expression on the beast's face, Sinister smirked darkly. "What is your name beast?"
"White Hulk at your service, Master. I'm ready to serve," White Hulk answered in a full tone.
"White Hulk? It was meant to be Titan. But as the original experiment was altered by Xavier's interruption... hmmm White Hulk will be sufficient," Sinister said after sending a thoughtful glance at White Hulk. "Do you have an inventory of your duplicated powers White Hulk."
"Affirmative, Master."
Sinister nodded, pleased. "Give me the names of those you robbed. Code names, specifically."
"Mr. Sinister, Doctor MacTaggert, The Security Team of Department K's Base Titan, the five Battle Mages of 'Magic is Might' Mercenary Group, and Domino. Following that were Malice, Arclight, Vertigo, Harpoon, Scalphunter, Riptide, Blockbuster, and Prism of Master's Marauders. Next were Storm, Wolverine, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Multiple Man, Shadowcat, Archangel, and Rogue of the X-Men." White Hulk hadn't even blinked as he gave the report. He stood in attention like a soldier.
Sinister had an amused thought that seeing a Hulk like this was probably Thunderbolt Ross' wet dream.
"Rogue's and Blockbuster's power are completely useless to you. Your durability surpasses Blockbuster and the Rankin formula made permanent isn't limited by drawbacks unlike Rogue's powers. Wolverine's regenerative factor will augment your Hulkish regeneration I believe. You might even be able to survive decapitation like Weapon IX a.k.a Deadpool, but we won't be testing that just yet," Sinister assured and stood up on his chair to start pacing contemplatively. "Hmmm, let's see what advantages your magic could give your mutant powers. With your metamorphmagus ability you could increase the size of your Hulk form. You could also use the magical morphing ability to switch from any of your solid forms, namely White Hulk and Harry, to Malice's incorporeal psychic form. You could combine this with Shadowcat's phasing ability and truly become a nightmare. You could imbue the optic blasts gained from Summers with magic to cause really destructive effects, like say annihilate a mountain. We are going to test out all these theories soon but first I want you to duplicate Albus Dumbledore's skills, intelligence, and abilities. That man has more affinities than a body has organs and he is one of the Wizarding World's greatest researchers. Too bad that you can't copy memories, for that you will need your Legilimency and Telepathy combo. I believe it's capable of even getting through Occlumency barriers if you use it with the right skill. This shouldn't be a problem for you now that you have Ms. Grey's more than impressive telepathic talents and are no longer limited to my inadequate equivalent."
When Natex finished talking White Hulk reported. "Skills, power, talents, intelligence, knowledge, and memories of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore fully assimilated, Master."
Sinister shook his head. "I still can't understand what madness drove that man to take on so many names. And if his titles are to be added." He shook his head and paused his pacing. "Anyway. I have several orders for you, White Hulk."
"Fully Attentive, Master," came the reply from the semi giant.
"First of all, are you capable of using all your powers at the same time? Give me an analogy."
"As easy as a wizard can use different spells of varying effects and schools of magic, Master."
"Good. You are to engage the X-Men and Magical teams outside of the base and in the process of the ensued battle you are to test the following theories: test to see if you are capable of combining Shadowcat's and Malice's powers, test and see if you are capable of using your metamorphmagus ability to increase your Hulk form's size, test and see if you are capable of apparating in your Hulk form, test and see if you can enhance your optic blast with magic and then attempt to obliterate half of this island, test and see if you are capable of using magic to augment your telekinesis for self-flight, and for the final test, which you are not to do if you are less than eighty percent sure of success—test and see if you are capable of surviving decapitation like Weapon IX by combining your duplicated Wolverine healing factor with your gamma ray induced totipotency."
Sinister had thought about it before giving that last order. He was certain that Harry would survive death of any kind due to both totipotent powers from Wolverine and his Hulk form. And in the nearly impossible instance that he didn't then Natex felt that he'd mastered all there is to know about Project Titan and could pull off a Titan 2.0 anytime.
Sinister brought out a remote and pressed a button. This remote controlled a laser cannon that was currently locked in on the wardstone of the base. "There I have destroyed the wards so that they may soon be able to behold your destructiveness. You have received your orders White Hulk, now move out," Sinister ordered.
"By your command, Master," White Hulk droned then walked over to the glass and destroyed it with a wordless and wandless Avada Kedavra.
Sinister jumped back in shock as he saw the green spell shatter the glass. Who knew little Harry was capable of mustering the hatred to use such magic? He wondered where the hatred was sourced from: the Dursleys, White Hulk's rage, or Harry's hatred for him. It might even be a combination of all three.
His rumination was interrupted by the filter on the air ducts crashing down to the ground with a clang and from the ducts came several STRIKE Agents led by Brock Rumlow.
Natex sighed and ran his thumb over the sling ring. "You chose the worst time for your arrival," he told them.
"Sinister," Rumlow drawled, condescendingly. "You are to surrender now else I won't be blamed for any extreme measures employed to bring you in."
"The Americans you work for love preaching about liberty so tell me, what if I don't want to be brought in?" Sinister asked and quickly held up his hand before Rumlow could answer him. "I know, you will employ extreme measures. In that case don't blame me also for the extremity I will resort to in order to resist arrest. White Hulk, carry out your order, but first I think these men need to be educated some. After you are done with them, destroy this base in the most glorious manner possible to announce your presence. Make it nice, I'd like to put the fear of God into that Dumbledore."
And without further ado, Natex swivelled his wrist and made a portal appear beneath. He promptly fell into it before any of the STRIKE members could take a shot at him.
Once the portal closed White Hulk stepped out of the containment chamber properly and picked up a rectangular table that weighed more than 150kg. His order was to educate these men and in some third world countries educating was usually done with a cane. Brutal corporal punishment. Harry had even been through the experience at the hands of the Dursleys. White Hulk had no cane but felt that the table would be more than enough.
"Sir, how are we to proceed?" One of the Agents asked Rumlow.
"With grenade launchers," Rumlow stated coldly, exchanging his submachine gun for the semi-automatic grenade launcher that had been slung across his back.
"But sir, that's our mission objective," the agent said, pointing at the slowly approaching White Hulk.
"An objective that has clearly been compromised. We fight or we die," Rumlow said, testily.
"We fight and still we will die," another agent said. "Grenades aren't going to do jack to a Hulk. It'd be better if we retreat now and let the X-Men and Magicals handle him."
Rumlow looked to be contemplating the suggestion when the door crashed open. "Sinister, I went to check and could not find STRIKE anywhere on the base. Just to be safe though I will still blockade the..." Lestrange stopped once he noticed STRIkE in the room. Half of the team had their weapons pointed at him while the other half never took their eyes off the strutting White Hulk, who was taking a step every ten seconds.
Lestrange looked from the White Hulk to STRIkE. "Eh, I'd just leave you to it," he said and hightailed it out of the room.
An agent scoffed, White Hulk hefted the table, the agent made to speak, White Hulk brought the table crashing down, and the agent became a bloody paste on the ground.
"Fuck!! Launchers now," Rumlow ordered and began to fire his launcher. They had been distracted by Lestrange's entrance to not notice that while White Hulk hadn't reached them the table he held was long enough to get to them.
White Hulk lifted the table again and brought it down even as grenades started to explode on his body, resulting in no effect at all. Two more of STRIKE were flattened by the table before one got the idea to target the table with his launcher. He succeeded in destroying the table and then joined his teammates in trying to bring down this beast.
White Hulk grunted in disapproval at the destruction of the table. He decided to just use his hands now that he's lost his educational tool but stopped when he watched several grenades explode on him.
One of his orders was to destroy the base in a glorious way and another was to educate the ants with guns. No one said he couldn't do both at the same time.
Face still placid, White Hulk stretched out his right hand and tightened it into a fist. All the grenades being sent at him stopped mid air. STRIKE, though, lacking a better idea, continued firing. Soon eighty grenades hung mid air by the telekinetic power of the White Hulk.
The White Hulk stretched out his left hand and caused the grenades to explode with an incendio. He then augmented the explosion with the firestorm spell and backed it up with the tornadic force of a Flipendo Tria and then a few Bombarda Maxima.
He sent the whirlwind of explosive fire, bombarding force, and windstorm at the STRIKE team. They became ashes in less than a second. White Hulk controlled the firestorm to form a cyclone around him then boosted it with kinetic force by propelling it with his telekinesis.
Suddenly he lashed out and released outwardly the fiery tornado with the dynamite bombarding force, using it to totally destroy the base with an exothermic explosion. There was a resulting deafening boom from the explosion and the walls and steel of the building blew apart. The whole base came tumbling down on White Hulk.
White Hulk growled in anger and sent a telekinetic blast at the blazing debris adding a Flipendo Tria to it. The aflamed boulders of steel and concrete that made up the debris were flung away from him at high-speed.
Standing alone in what was now only just the foundation of Base Titan, smoke billowing around him and hampering his vision, White Titan decided that it was finally time to proceed with his orders.
A leap brought him out of the basement levels that had housed the lab and he marched out of the base till he broke away from the coverage of the smoke. The first thing he noticed was that he was on a hill, the second was the assembled X-Men and Magicals standing by the docks, or at least what was left of them.
White Hulk prepared to approach when he heard a voice in his mind. It was so cold it sent chills down his spine.
"Haaarryyyy Pooottteeeer," the voice whispered, reminiscent of a snake. "You have been brought low by a mere muggle, proving that you were nothing special after all. I must thank this Siiinnniiisssstteerr. Him trapping you within your own mind has helped me swim up to the surface of your psyche."
"Oh, what wonderful powers you possess now, Harry Potter. And you may yet prove to be immortal. Hmmm, I think this body will make an awesome vessel for me. Yes, it will indeed serve."
"Who are you?" White Hulk asked the intruder.
"I'm he who took your beloved mother. I'm he who brought the magical world to its proverbial knees. I'm he who is and will always be the noble Heir of Slytherin. I'm your eternal nemesis Harry Potter, I Am Lord Voldemort."
White Hulk didn't know how to respond to that so he just stood there motionless. He was no longer really Harry so he could not muster up the hatred this body had once felt for the magical terrorist. He had standing orders, he decided, he'd carry them out and then figure out what to do about this Voldemort.
"Good thinking, White Hulk," came Sinister's voice from within his mind. "Proceed with your orders. I will deal with this pesky wizard."
And thus Harry's mind became a battlefield as Voldemort and Sinister clashed against each other in the astral plane. The psychical battle had an agonizing effect on White Hulk's mind. He bent back and let out a fearsome scream as his mind was being strafed with psionic blasts from the two combating opponents. His scar began to burn and glow inflamed red.
He wasn't provided even a bit of reprieve. In fact the fierceness of the battle increased as Sinister brought out all his tricks to avoid losing. He began to use the psychic link to syphon psychic energy from Harry and Voldemort too began to syphon Harry's magic to boost his Legilimency attacks.
Unable to take it anymore, and greatly needing an outlet, White Hulk decided to express his pain by obeying his master's orders. He looked down at the mutants and magicals, increased the tempo of his screams, and charged at them.
~Break~
A/N
Thank you everyone for the wait, that's another chapter done. On a side note, your enthusiasm and support mean the world to me. I'm honored to have you all by my side continuing Domina De Magique.
Shout-out to @Liliana Berin and @Obsidian Dreamweaver for their incredible artistic talents! If you're looking for commissioned art, I highly recommend checking out their bio to get the links to their work and support them.
So until next time.
Snippet:
"Mr. Potter, I need you to please calm down," she screamed down at him.
He replied to her with an optic blast. She dodged and he sent another one as a follow-up. She evaded that one too and soon he began to chase her across the sky with laser beams possessing the magnitude of ancient Roman columns.
As Storm moved about in the air to avoid the huge beams of laser, she began to gather wind around in a whirl. As White Hulk cancelled his previous laser beams to send another pair at her as she changed position, she used the brief pause to send the tornado she'd gathered at him.
White Hulk was in the middle of preparing another set of optic blasts and so wasn't quick enough to apparate from the tornado heading at him at bullet speed.
The stormy wind picked him up and chucked him into the sea. He plunged deep into the waters and became even more enraged as the water threatened to drown him. Uprighting himself, White Hulk clenched his muscles and leaped out of the water. Midair, he pumped magic into his eyes and let out a pair of magically enhanced laser beams from his eyes. They were extremely huge, with the dimensions of an airplane's hull. He didn't care where they hit. He just wanted to get these stupid tests over and done with so he could put an end to the battle raging in his mind.
Not looking to see the destruction he'd caused on the islands he used his telekinesis to stop himself from crashing back into the water. It was not enough though as he was still falling, just slowly.